Another "shock and awe" chapter in making my eBay auctions better has just started its beta phase. After discovering a great website for making audio files and RSS feeds, I am now offering audio descriptions of my eBay auctions and RSS feeds for people to keep up with my latest offerings. You may have heard of this concept by another name - podcasting.
Whenever I discover a new website, I start to evaluate its "eBay potential," and when I found Odeo, I realised I had a winner on my hands. Odeo has the ability to offer your eBay customers many useful advantages which may result in better end prices for your auctions. Plus it is absolutely free of charge!
Many people who surf eBay may have problems with their eyesight. Wouldn't they instead appreciate an audio description of your item, instead of struggling to read your auction text? So with a few of my auctions last week, I inserted a link to a short MP3 file which was a recording of me reading the auction description. I also described the picture, the condition of the item and my preferred payment methods. All the customer had to do was click on the MP3 link and listen to my voice using their default audio player.
As well as catering to visually-impaired customers, you are also adding a human voice to your auctions, which could make buyers more inclined to trust you more.
In each future recording, I am planning to add my own jingle and catchy tune as well as promote my other auctions. Consider it your own personal eBay radio station (move over Griff!). Why not start podcasting your own eBay broadcasts and publicize them on your eBay "About Me" page?
You can set up folders on Odeo called "channels" and you can get the RSS feed for each channel. So you can place all your audio descriptions inside a channel and publicize the RSS feed. People can then subscribe to your RSS feed and be automatically notified when you have posted a new audio file. You could insert an RSS or XML logo inside your auction or "me" page and encourage people to subscribe to your feed. Using Odeo, customers can also download your audio files to their iPod so they can listen to your descriptions while on the move.
I have set up a special Odeo channel and RSS feed with one of my audio descriptions so you can get an idea of what I am talking about. Podcasting and Odeo gives eBay sellers the ability to move beyond the basic text versions of auctions and add some personality.
Here's what Odeo says about posting audio to outside websites:
"The Odeo service makes it possible to post images and audio hosted on Odeo to outside websites. This use is accepted (and even encouraged!). However, pages on other websites which display audio and images hosted on Odeo.com must provide a link back to Odeo from each channel or show to its channel or show page on Odeo."
Odeo.com
http://odeo.com
My Odeo Channel page
http://odeo.com/channel/45842/view
My Camelot Auctions RSS feed from Odeo
http://odeo.com/channel/45842/rss.xml
