Best practices for eBay sellers was the focus of the first session I attended at this year's eBay Live in "The Big Easy." The room was more packed than Bourbon Street on Mardi Gras (OK, let's not go that far, but all the seats seemed to be filled).

Todd Lutwak of eBay Seller Development and Craig Zimmer of MobilePC, both veterans of last year's eBay Live, were presenting. MobilePC is a titanium powerseller, and the crowd hummed with admiration when Zimmer said the company did over a half million dollars in sales in the last month.

The key bullet points of the session were that sellers need to:

• understand the eBay marketplace
• experiment, measure, repeat,
• attract buyers to your listings
• build great listings
• sell effectively & safely

One of the points Lutwak and Zimmer made again and again were that sellers should quickly take advantage of new features as they're offered, to get an advantage over other sellers and maximize their sales. For example, Zimmer said MobilePC used the Keywords by eBay (eBay's pay-per-clickthrough banner advertising program) feature soon after it debuted, for a set of 30 computer listings. Zimmer said Keywords by eBay is especially effective if you're selling a lot of one type of item.

Among the other new or recent features Lutwak mentioned were the item subtitle - he urged sellers take advantage of all 55 characters of the title; Item Specifics (Zimmer's MobilePC was among the first seller in his category to use that feature, giving him an edge over competitors); and stores traffic reporting. Some of the new features can give your buyers various points of entry. Speaking of which, Lutwak also suggested that sellers vary their titles in different auctions – this can attract buyers searching on different words. It can also help you determine which titles are most effective.

It was interesting to me to see what features Lutwak, an eBay employee, liked best. Lutwak is a fan of saying “I’m a fan of…” …as in, “I’m a fan of the Gallery feature.” He’s also a fan of item subtitles (though at $.50 a pop, I think sellers need to make sure it makes sense for their profit margin…and Zimmer echoed that thought of cost/benefit analysis), clear store descriptions that mention the specific items sold in that store, rather than just saying something vague like “We’re a family-owned business”; emphasizing the value of an item (e.g. your price vs. retail price); and clearly stating the cost of shipping. (Zimmer is not a fan of shipping calculators).

As a good example of a listing with best practices, Lutwak showed a listing of clothing sellers Gotham City Online, with clearly labeled specifics such as brand, size, style, etc., and the original photo with a watermark of the GCO brand overlaid on the pic, which means someone can’t try to copy and use the photo as their own.

They also talked about eBay marketplace research, such as completed item searches, and the Andale research services. Zimmer mentioned that MobilePC uses completed item data to set their own prices…for example, they might take an average selling price based on the data for a certain kind of computer and then use that to price an item to make a profit. (I’m a fan of completed item searches, myself).

Other helpful information comes to sellers via things like the Seller NewsFlash, and their new “PowerUp,” which is a communication to sellers…the middle section is actually customized for each individual seller.

In the last part of the presentation, they discussed shipping and feedback. Lutwak said something I didn’t know: that many sellers on eBay don’t (or don’t always) provide feedback to buyers, so that some buyers may actually look to buy from sellers who state that they do provide feedback. He suggested sellers actually state that in their listing.

And Zimmer emphasized that it’s important to state how fast you ship, since many buyers are very sensitive to when they receive an item (gosh, don’t I know it!). MobilePC uses UPS, so the buyers get automated tracking numbers sent. Lutwak mentioned eBay's shipping center (http://www.ebay.com/shippingcenter).

All in all, the session had solid tips, and you got the sense the presenters practice what they preach. The strange thing was that just before the end of the session, a loud buzzing sound went off near the ceiling, and nobody knew quite what it was. (Is there a voodoo doctor in the house?) But here in Nawlins, we’re trying to take everything in stride, and Lutwak suggested people take their questions outside.

On to the next event. (It’s hot ‘n’ humid here..did I mention I’m a fan of fans?)