AUCTION TIP: Make the Most of Your eBay "About Me" Page

By Chuck Smith
Posted Friday, December 24, 2004

One of the most important, and least-utilized, features on eBay is the "About Me" page. With your About Me page, you can promote yourself as a seller, promote all of your auctions, and show off your eBay Feedback ratings. This provides credibility for your auction business, and also gives you an opportunity to express your unique personality.

To create your About Me page, log into eBay and go to the "my eBay" tab at the top of the page. Once there, select the "about me" tab. This will bring you to the About Me creation page. Simply click on the "create and edit your page" button to get started.

eBay offers three different pre-packaged layouts for you to choose. Once you've selected your template, you will be presented with a form. All three templates will ask you to complete the same information.

Before you start to fill in the form, you should think about what you want to accomplish with your eBay business. For the purpose of this article, I'm going to pretend I am in the antique tin toy business. With this example, I'm letting my personality shine through to help build a following with tin toy collectors.

Page Title: Chuck's Antique Tin Toys

Welcome Heading: The Finest Tin Toys on eBay!

Welcome Text: Hi, my name is Chuck Smith, and I LOVE TIN TOYS! I've been collecting antique tin toys for over 10 years, and discovered eBay was a great place to find more toys for my collection about three years ago. The problem was I was buying so many, I was running out of money. But my loss is your gain. I decided to use eBay to finance my hobby and I'm offering antique tin toys (at least the ones I don't HAVE to have for my collection) on eBay.

Another Paragraph Heading: In my auctions, you will be given detailed descriptions of every item I sell. You'll see the exact condition, including complete descriptions of any flaws. I will also give you as much information about the toy, including manufacturer, history, and provenance as I can provide. I want you to feel comfortable when buying from me. On this page, you can see my Feedback and also the other Items I have for sale. I hope you'll enjoy my auctions, and I look forward to doing business with you in the near future! Good luck!

Picture: You can add a picture of yourself holding a toy. To get a picture on eBay, you will need to either have a Web site where you can post files already, or you can use one of the many picture hosting services available on the Internet.

Feedback: As you buy and sell items on eBay, you will want to have your Feedback listed on your About Me page. Here you'll select the number of Feedback listings to show on your page (I use the last 10), and eBay fills in your feedback automatically. Feedback is eBay's way of letting other users know how you conduct yourself on their site. If you're an excellent buyer and seller, people will send you positive Feedback that is positive. Do something wrong and you'll get negative Feedback. Make sure you run your business in an above-board manner!

Items For Sale: This is similar to Feedback in that you select the number of Items For Sale to show, and eBay fills this information in automatically. This is a great way to show potential bidders all of the items you have up for auction.

Favorite Links: Here, you can link to your own Web site (I highly recommend you get your own Web site), or provide some of your favorite links. Perhaps there's a Web site out there that offers information and estimated values for antique tin toys. Go ahead and link to it -- your potential customers will appreciate the resource.

Favorite Items: If you have some favorite items you've purchased or seen on your eBay travels, then go ahead and list them. I prefer not to send people to other eBay sellers, so be careful.

That's it. Just hit the submit button and eBay automatically generates your About Me page. You now have a wonderful new marketing tool that will help promote your auctions and let potential bidders know what kind of seller you are.

PLEASE NOTE: You can also edit the page in HTML, but you want to be sure you know what you're doing before trying this. Click here if you'd like to check out my About Me page (http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/auctioncashflow/)

About the Author
Chuck Smith is the creator of the Auction Rookie web site. This site is dedicated to helping people start and run a successful online auction business. Visit his site to get a free report on "How to Get Started Selling on eBay."
(http://www.auctionrookie.com) or mailto:csmith@auctionrookie.com