A.L.O. is a term I coined (deliberately similar in style to S.E.O.) which stands for ‘Auction Listing Optimization'. It can be defined as ANYTHING you can do within the eBay environment that increases the number of buyers, or that prompts buyers to go directly to your website. Each month I discuss an A.L.O. technique that you can implement in your eBay business…

There's a famous British comedy series from the 70's that featured John Cleese (from Monty Python fame). It was called ‘Fawlty Towers' and Cleese played a cantankerous hotel owner in a sleepy little seaside town in England. On one occasion a guest approaches Cleese's wife to tell her that he'd had a very enjoyable stay. This was such an unusual occurrence that Cleese, who had been listening across the reception, muttered, “hmm, a satsified customer…we should have him stuffed.”

I love that scene, but in all honesty, you should be deadly serious about having happy customers, and that's the topic of this ALO technique.

Every eBay listing you create should use testimonials (comments from happy customers).

In the marketing world we use the term testimonials, but it's a jargon word that many people aren't familiar with so let's quickly define it: “a testimonial is a written statement of recommendation certifying to a person's conduct, or to the value of a service someone has provided.” Why are testimonials so important? What Others Say About You is 1000 Times More Influential Than What You Say About Yourself!

On eBay we have an advantage compared with most other e-commerce environments. We have testimonials built-in to the buying process – it's called feedback! Think about it. When someone gives you positive feedback, they're actually giving you a testimonial. So first and foremost, every listing you create should include sample feedback from previous transactions. Don't make people click away from your listing to view feedback, hand it to them on a plate right there while they're reading abour your item for sale. It's far more persuasive when done that way.

There are two ways to embed sample feedback in your listing. The first method is to use a tool such as Snagit screen capture software to grab a screenshot and save it as a graphic. Then insert the image into every listing.

The second way to do it is to use the following html code - simply paste it into your listing, making sure the editing option is set to view ‘html' (you can't add html to a document of text).

The code to enter is:



Where you see the small ‘n' in the code, replace that with the number of recent feedback ratings you want to show, and eBay will do the rest. The cool part about that is that the feedback will be continually kept up to date automatically.

What else can you do? Manually type up comments you've received from happy customers via email or letter, and include those in every listing too. Remember to put the persons name and location for increased credibility. (ask their permission first and don't give out personal info).

You can never have too many of these because they are far more powerful and carry more weight than anything you could say. When others say how good your products and service are, that provides a powerful motivation to buy.

A word of caution. NEVER use the word ‘testimonials' in front of your audience on eBay or anywhere else. It means nothing to the average buyer. In your listings, instead of using the word ‘testimonials', use the phrase, ‘What Our Customers Say…' or ‘I Couldn't Have Said it Better Myself'. Can you see how much better that is than ‘testimonials'?!

The next step on from that is to setup a telephone service where your customers can call in to leave you a testimonial by phone. Those messages are the ultimate credibility because it is far more persuasive to hear another person rave about you than to read their comments. The key lesson? Use testimonials.

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