Here are some tips to help you make your selling on eBay efficient and effective.

Listing your item

• Make sure the item is legal and allowed. If you're unsure check eBay's policies on prohibited, questionable and infringing items

• Take pictures of your item in a well-lit area. Clear images are more appealing to buyers looking for fine detail. Evenly distributed artificial or natural light is better than a camera's flash for most items.

• Choose the most specific and appropriate category. This will help buyers find your item. Use the Suggested Categories feature to have eBay suggest categories for you. For an additional fee, you can list your item in a second category to increase your item's visibility.

• Prepare the listing title and description carefully. What would you want to know about the item? What are its most appealing characteristics? What words might buyers use to search for your item? Keep the item close by in case you need to add information to your description. (see Writing a Good Title and Description).

• Compose your description beforehand and paste it into the Sell Your Item form to save time. Be clear and complete, but use short sentences that are easy to read. Including specific details about the item, such as dimensions, postage and payment etc. may help reduce the number of questions you receive about your item from buyers. Using Advanced Selling Tools will also save you time creating and managing your listings.

• Plan your pricing strategy. Look at similar completed eBay listings using the completed listings search. You can also go to other online sites that sell similar items and ask friends to help determine what the item is worth. This will help you set your starting price or your Buy It Now price. Also, decide whether you would like to set a reserve price

Communicating with buyers

• Ensure that you attract the ideal buyer for your item by selecting buyer requirements and buyer management tools including the blocking buyers feature.

• Learn about your buyer by checking the bidder's or buyer's Feedback Profile, including Feedback comments from other sellers (see Knowing Your Buyer.)

• Be sure that your contact information and email address are correct and up-to-date. Check your personal information to make sure it is correct. Also, check that any "spam" blocking software you have installed does not prevent a buyer from communicating with you.

• Plan for alternate computer access. If you have computer or connection problems, or need to be away from your computer, you can access your eBay account using any computer with Internet access. For example, you can monitor your items through the "My eBay" page using the computer at your friend's house or your local library (See Managing Selling with My eBay).

Expand your selling options

• Explore listing upgrade features to distinguish, promote and enhance your listing. Listing upgrades include bolding your title, adding photos, and ranking your items at the top of the listings page (see Selecting Listing Upgrades).

• Manage your Market. eBay is a global community and you will need to decide where you want to sell your item and if you want to add buyer requirements to your listing. Learn more about the benefits and processes of Selling Internationally.

• Offer PayPal as a payment method. eBay recommends offering PayPal as a fast, easy and secure way to accept credit card or bank account payments on eBay. To keep eBay a safe place for both buyers and sellers, sellers who register after 17th January, 2007 are required to offer either PayPal or a merchant account credit card as an accepted payment method. You can sign up for PayPal before you list your first item for sale, or when you list your first item

• Use Selling Tools to list more items and automate seller tasks. If you want an easy way to manage your growing eBay business, or just need to list a lot of items at once, check out eBay's Advanced Selling Tools.