by: Jordan Williams

Your auction is up and running. You’ve got bidders seeing your auction and looking things over. Now you just need to push them over the edge. This article will cover various ways to increase your bids from prospective buyers.

First off, make sure that your display picture is of the highest quality. You might have the best written description in the world, but if your picture doesn’t mirror your description that will turn bidders off. Use a digital camera if possible. Create a clean, unobtrusive picture. Take care in the background and lighting of the picture and you should be all set.

Adding an About Me page is a great way to increase your response as well. If your bidders have some personal information about you and your business this goes along way to establishing that trusting relationship between you and your customers. You can also post a few special offers on this page for people who take the time to look at it. Also, ask visitors to sign up for your mailing list as well.

Sign up at Square Trade, and display their logo on your auctions. This shows potential bidders that you are committed to resolving any disputes that might arise. Power Sellers always carry this logo on their auctions, and you should too. It makes you look much more professional.

Clearly spell out your terms and conditions making it very visible. Give details of things like shipping times and prices, the refund policy and anything else you want to make your buyers aware of. This also helps create trust between you and your customers. Plus having it all spelled out clearly, helps if any dispute issues arise as well.

Display your good feedback on your auction so that visitors don’t have to go looking for it. You can simply cut and paste the text, or create a screenshot image of your feedback. If you have a 100% feedback rating, be sure to make a mention of that as well.

If you have room on your auction title, use NR (No Reserve) at the end of your title. Bidders like auctions that have no reserve, so having this on your title allows bidders to see that your auction has no reserve without actually having to click on your auction link.

Make sure you auction highlights the benefits of your product and not just the features. You want to tell your visitors why your product is good for THEM. You can have all the features in the world, but without describing the benefits of those features many bidders will pass on by.

In order to reach those last few buyers that you might miss otherwise, accept various unusual payment methods like checks or money orders. Many other sellers don’t take these forms of payment, but the fact that you do may bring you that extra sale.

Upgrade your auction. Buying upgrades helps get you listed higher in the list of items. This can help a lot if your product is in a crowded category. You might just find out that it’s worth the money.