For those of you who would like to learn how to post images (pictures) in your listings, on your ME page or on the eBay Discussion Boards and Groups, this is for you.
If you have a little experience, you can refer to the How To Post Images - Quick Notes. If you need a little more assistance, then refer to the section below.
Take your time and learn a little at a time, because once you understand all this, you will be able to create more professional listings and ME pages, and hopefully increase your sales. And yes, you will be able to post images on the eBay Discussion Boards too! Have Fun and Good Luck!- The first thing you will need is to have a place to put your images (pictures) for online use; this is called an 'image host site'. Don't forget, you most likely have space available on your own ISP (Internet Service Provider) so check with them first. Otherwise, a few online image hosting sites are:
Auctionpix US (a free image host for eBay, a good one)
Auctionpix UK (a free image host for eBay, a good one)
Boomspeed (good, but down sometimes)
Deadzoom (a free image host for eBay, a good one)
Photobucket (the most popular on eBay, very user friendly)
Ranchoweb (minimal fee and user friendly)
SpareDollar (pay also)
TinyPic Hosting (free and user friendly)
- You need to find the images you are looking for. Browse for image websites (there are tons of them out there). Check around for clip art or animated images sites. Here are some Backgrounds, More Backgrounds, Mix'n Match Backgrounds, Buttons, Logo's and Buttons or Photo's. If you want to just quickly search for a specific image, try Google Image Search. Also check out the eBay Discussion Boards; look for threads that say Gifs, Images or Snaggables; these are usually threads where people post images for everyone to use. If you see an image someone has posted elsewhere, be sure to ask that person for permission to copy (snag) it. Once you find the images you need, you then save those images to your hard drive.
- To save an image to your harddrive, you put your cursor on the image and then right click and choose Save As, giving it the filename you want and placing it in a folder you want to put it in. These image files (usually .jpg or .gif files) are what you will upload to where you are hosting your images online.
- Direct Linking, also known as hot linking, is an absolute no-no. If you copy the URL of an image from someone else and post it directly (rather than saving the image to your own hard drive and uploading it to your own image hosting site) your are direct linking. By doing this, your are using that person's bandwidth, and if done too often can cause their site to exceed their limit and be taken down temporarily or crash.
- A few sites to practice posting your images online
Auction Supplies - has an eBay Dedicated Practice Board!
Auctionpix
e-pixs
Ranchoweb Practice Board
The HTML Laboratory
- A few sites with Tools and Generators
eBayer shipscript - has free tools/programs for better auctions
Birddogs Garage - has several generators: 3D Text, Button and Template Generators, Watermarker (for images) and Store logo's
ISDN*tek - Desktop and Online web and auction tools
If you are new to this, please DO NOT try to learn it all at once. Take your time, it can be very overwhelming. |
