Flea's Field is Swinging For the Fences!

When I opened Flea's Field at OnlineAuction.com, in December of 2009, I had no idea how much work two stores would entail. Eager to establish a sports collectibles and trading card store, I slowly began the process of listing the thousands of trading cards our family has collected over the years. I use the word slowly generously, as the holiday season, family commitments and school activities managed to bring my listing to a crawl. This summer, however, Flea's Field is swinging for the fences, as I dedicate more and more time to filling that store!

It starts with baseball trading cards. In my collection, you'll find 13 large volumes of baseball cards, all sorted alphabetically, by player name. Right now only 1 volume has been completely listed. There are over 500 card auctions live in my store, with current selections in the C's of the alphabet. I am doing it right, with proper SEO in mind, of course. That takes time. Titles and subtitles are carefully planned and repeated in my description. Photos are titled and tagged using Picasa. Research on current pricing is completed at Beckett. And every now and then I share an interesting card on either Facebook or Twitter.

How's your listing going? Just this past week I was helping a seller who is new to OLA. She wanted a few tips on creating auctions that are Search Engine Optimized, setting up a template and decorating her store. I am afraid she may have been a bit overwhelmed, but just stop to think about this for a moment and you'll see how logical, and how easy, it really is.

Start with a solid template. Include all the pertinent information that you will use in every listing. (Things like your store policies, payment methods accepted, shipping details, and return policies should be standard on every auction.) Set that template so that this information is after your description, but before the last paragraph of the description. Your last paragraph should contain your title again, (leave a space for it), and any links you want to share with your customers. How about a link back to your storefront for easy access? You may also choose to include a link to your blog, or a social networking address. Put all of that in the last section!

Now that your template is set, SEO for individual auctions can be simple if you remember these guidelines:

• 72 character maximum in your title
• 50 characters maximum in your subtitle, (Yes, you should use a keyword rich subtitle!)
• Repeat your title in the very first words of your description, and plug it back in at the end.
• Use a keyword rich, detail orientated description.
• Title and Tag any images.
• Share!

Are all of my auctions perfect? Of course not! (That's why I love the Sell Similar feature at OLA! Easy editing!) I am confidant though, that I have served them well upon creation, and that they have a greater chance of being seen, noticed and purchased.

All it takes is a little practice... a little repetition, and these steps will become second-nature to you!

So why not join me in taking time this summer to vamp up your listings, restock your stores, and get your name out into the world of social networking? Find me at Twitter or Facebook! And don't forget to stop by Flea's Field and see what's new!

Like this:
1998 Pacific Home Run Hitters #9 Vinny Castilla Baseball Trading Card

Online Merchants : The Power of Picasa

If you are an Online Merchant, one of your priorities is certainly focused upon placing your product advantageously in the various search engines. We've talked a lot about Search Engine Optimization, and ways to improve the titles, subtitles and descriptions of your products to appeal to the search engines. Another way to promote your product is through Image Optimization. Today's post is about harnessing The Power of Picasa.

We believe that Picasa will meet the demands of those sellers who do not wish to utilize outside photo hosting resources. Instead, these sellers may opt to download this Google program, and benefit from perks such as photo enhancement, resizing, titling, and tagging, right from the comfort of their own hard drive. Yes, Picasa offers a photo hosting service, entitled Web Albums, but we have found that it is not necessary to use the uploaded images in order to receive the full benefit of Picasa.

ou are invited to join us this Monday evening, April 5, 2010, for a Webinar about The Power of Picasa! You'll find us in the LIVE CHAT area of the Ola Team Blog, on Monday, at 8:00pm CST. We encourage anyone who is interested in using Picasa to download the program and try it out on your own. Then, visit with us Monday evening for a quick walk-through of the features and a group question and answer session. Mind you, no one is claiming to be Picasa experts... but we've been using Picasa for several weeks now, and are familiar enough with the features to assist those wishing to take their photos to the next level.

Discussing Photo Hosting and Image Optimization

Last week I was honored to be asked to co-host the Seller Buzz Radio Show with MetzyMom, because our regular co-host, Jan Bradshaw, is on assignment, and could not attend. While I missed Jan, I must say that being on the show with Metzy was quite a treat!

Previously, I had joined the Seller Buzz team as a correspondent of sorts. I've been working on a blog series about Photo Hosting and Image Optimization, which we had planned to debut on the site as it began to take shape. The timing was perfect... and we were able to use my blog series as part of the show!

If you missed last Thursday's episode, you can listen to the archived show by clicking this TalkShoe link. We talked about how there are numerous choices for sellers today, as far as hosting and optimizing images. (Did you know that according to Wikipedia there are 62 sites to Share Photos and 32 sites to Host Photos?) We stressed that each seller needs to research their options, read the Terms of Service, test the features, and choose which site meets their needs, as each choice may or may not be the right choice for you. What you expect from a service such as a photo hosting site may differ slightly from the expectations of your peers, and it may certainly depend upon what features are provided, or not provided, by your venue. In my research, I investigated the pros and cons of popular sites, like Photobucket, Flickr and Picasa for photo hosting, as well as the editing software offered at IrfanView. Last week's show covered both Photobucket and Flickr, while next week's show will include Picasa and Irfanview.

To summarize, I must first say that I normally like to look at both the good and the bad when critiquing a site. I like to join, use it and comment based upon experience. Flickr, however, has Terms of Service that state precisely what you can and cannot do, and it seems quite clear to me that using them for commercial purposes would be a violation of their terms. I did not test their image hosting. So I will caution any seller who chooses to disregard those terms... do so at your own risk. I will say though, that I think Flickr has most of the popular features that the other sites do, and users rave about how great their service is, so I would recommend it as a site for personal use.

Photobucket has long been my image hosting site. Obviously I am biased, but with good reason. You can upload your titled photos quickly and easily, add titles within the site for advanced album organization, add tags for photo optimization, and Photobucket hands you coded tags for use in websites, blogs, chat rooms and email. Making a slideshow is a breeze, as is loading and sharing video. Their editing software is as good as any other I have used, and they offer perks like glitter text, borders and watermarking. Users from OnlineAuction.com who are just starting out at Photobucket should know that you can pre-set your sizing when uploading, and size 320 x 240 is perfect for both the OLA auctions and the OLA chat room.

As a sneak peek into next week, I'll tell you that Picasa is fast becoming another favorite of mine. As a loyal Photobucket user, I balked at change, but thanks to our OLA programmer, I decided to give Picasa a try. Sure enough, Picasa does everything that Photobucket does, without needing to upload my photos to a hosting site! You can use the Picasa Web Albums, of course, but to use this great service, with the tags that are so important to image optimization, you only need to download the program to your desktop. I've been using this for several weeks now, and am familiar with the features, so please, stop by the radio show next Thursday, listen to our review, and look forward to an upcoming Webinar on how to use Picasa. (Stay tuned to the OLA chat forums for more info!)

Lastly, I know a lot of you are wondering... why was IrfanView included in this series? Well, simply put, IrfanView, while not a photo hosting site, has features that some of our OLA users may enjoy. (Ok, anyone can enjoy!) It is the resizing options that I like. They're simple. The program loads onto your desktop, you open a photo in the Irfanview editor, click on resize, and viola! More advanced users may benefit from the feature rich options, which include video and sound effects, as well as images. We'll talk about this next Thursday, too, so I hope to see you in the chat room at Seller Buzz during the show!

Until then, stop by Fleapirates Plunder and take a peek at some of the new items I've added!