Sangat Pedas

10 tips for buying and selling online

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This post gives you 10 tips on how to successfully sell on Tokobagus, or any other classified site for that matter. Follow these tips and post your experience in the comments here and help me improve this post.

1. An effective title is half the work

The title of your ad is the first that people see and most search engines give high value to the title of a webpage. Your title should be clear to read and contain the important keywords for your ad and preferably some synonyms as well. So, when selling a Nokia N97:

Good: “Dijual HP Nokia N97 baru dan murah di Jakarta”

Bad: “Disini Bisa Anda Dapatkan Berbagai Hp Nokia”

Bad: “HP dijual”

Additions that tell something about the state of the item help but try to put them in the end of the title since you want to put the emphasis on the most important keywords.

This strategy works for both human visitors as well as search engines (search engine algorithms basically try to think as a human) because a visitor can quickly see primary product info and search engines find the valuable keywords in the title (which is still an important part of you SEO score). The addition of “.. baru dan murah di Jakarta” also serves two purposes, it gives a visitor more instant additional info about the state of the product and it’s location. Also it increases your SEO position chances on more specific queries like “N97 mural Jakarta” since the competition on “Nokia N97″ is so stiff that changes for a top 10 position are much smaller.

2. Write a great ad description

Most people posting ads just write one or two lines to describe the product simply because they think it’s enough. Well, you can never tell enough about your product and yourself. If the N97 you want to sell has some scratches on it, tell it! You could also tell when and where you bought the product and why you’re selling it, this will make you and your ad more lively and gain trust. Explain in detail how the transaction will take place, so shipping and payment methods and how buyers can be sure they get what they pay for. Also you could paste some product specifications but limit it to the key specifications.

Also you can do some research on other successful similar ads and see what other information they included, maybe you find information about your product that you didn’t think of. “Better a better copy than a bad original”.

If you’ve posted more than one ad you might consider adding the text “Also check my other ads” in the bottom of the ad description, changes of people actually doing that will increase a many fold.

3. Pricing your product

How much can you ask for the product you want to sell?

-  A good guideline is what others ask for a similar product. Do research! Try to find ads of exactly the same product or if you can’t find them look for similar products but take into account the brand, quality, state of the item, age, popularity etc etc.

- Maybe it sounds weird but on average it’s not good practice to offer a product too cheap, people could think it’s too good to be true. If you have a niche product you could even considering over-pricing it a little bit since there are probably not so much similar products for sale so basically your ad contributes to setting the market value of the product.

- Another reason to slightly over-price your item is that you build in some room for negotiation, people love to bargain and when they start bargaining they already show buying intention and being able to give them a lower price might just be enough for a sale.

- Also think about what you would be willing to pay for a similar product and be honest to yourself and then add about 10-20% to the price for negotiation.

- If you have no idea what to ask for an item because it’s a unique collectible or for instance a painting you made yourself then just put the price on “nego”. Still make sure you have thought of a minimum price. People are likely to call or mail you about the price and if you can’t give a clear answer it will come across insecure and you’re also likely to ask less than you actually want to.

- Don’t let your judgement be clouded by any emotional value the product might have for you and try to get that compensated in the price, a buyer is not interested in emotional stuff.

4. Pictures

It’s a cliche but true: “a picture will tell more than a thousand words”. So make sure you add a lot of quality pictures to your ad that show the product from different and all relevant angles. If your product is damaged also let that clearly show in the pictures. Also make sure you use pictures of the actual item you own and DON’T use pictures available on the Internet, people want to see the actual product.

5. Choose the right category

Sometimes items can fit into several categories so it’s important to choose the best one. Consider where buyers will look for your item. Posting in an irrelevant category will probably cause your add to be placed in an appropriate category by support or in the worst case being deleted.

6. Bring extra attention to your ad

Tokobagus offers all kinds of cheap promotional services that can bring a lot more potential buyers to your ad in a short time, from gallery exposure to a distinctive background color of you ad in listing. Study them and do some testing to find out which service best fits your product. A good strategy is also to see how much certain services are used. If for instance the gallery service in you category isn’t used a lot then this would be a great option because your ad will probably remain on the first page of the gallery for a long time.

7. Promote your ad to your target group

Promoting your ads isn’t necessary but it will of course increase your chances of selling your item quickly and for a good price. Methods to promote your item:

- Post it regularly on Twitter, Facebook and/or other social media platforms, Tokobagus already offers easy sharing to Facebook and Twitter;

- Use forums. If you have a PS3 for sale then post a message on gamers forums;

- Send an email to your friends with a short description and a link to the ad page;

8. Do what you say!

If you’ve agreed on a price with a buyer and promised to sell him the product then do so, even if 5 minutes later you get a higher bid. Online selling is all about reputation and it’s proven to be bad practice to cancel a deal simply because you can make a little more money on one item. Doing this will definitely cost you potential buyers in the future.

9. Become verified member

Ecommerce is all about trust and reputation, becoming a verified member will significantly improve your reputation and trust. Potential buyers are then sure that you’re not an anonymous person and that if something goes wrong they can track your information through Tokobagus. It just takes one minute and it’s free so no reason to not do it.

10. Etiquette

This is as self-evident as it is important and makes trading a lot more fun for everyone.

- Always be polite and friendly;

- Send an email if you have received the money and shipped the goods;

- If you find parts of your item later like extra keys give the courtesy of telling that to the buyer and sending it to him free of charge;

- Always answer mails or comments from people requesting information;

- Let people who bid on your item know when your product is sold and thank them for their interest;

I hope this post will help people selling more on Tokobagus. Don’t be shy to post your comments and ideas whatever they may be.