11 Tips for Photographing Items for Online Stores or eBay

The idea behind using images in your web store or eBay listings is to attract the eyes of potential buyers. With that goal in mind, you should try to create the best-looking images possible, no matter what kind of technology you’re using to capture them.

Point-and-shoot may be okay for a group shot at a historical monument, but illustrating your item for sale is a whole different idea. Whether you’re using a smartphone or a digital camera to capture your the images of your item, there are some basic photographic guidelines can give you better results:

Do take the picture of your item in filtered daylight, whenever possible. That way, the camera can catch all possible details and color. If you can’t take your images during the day, use a set of true-color lights.

• Do avoid getting yourself in the photo by shooting your pictures from an angle (see photo). If you see your reflection in the item, move and try again.

• Do forget about fancy backgrounds; they distract viewers from your item. Put small items on a neutral-colored, nonreflective towel or cloth; put larger items in front of a neutral-colored wall or curtain. You’ll crop out almost all the background when you prepare the picture before uploading the image to eBay.

• Do avoid getting yourself in the photo by shooting your pictures from an angle. If you see your reflection in the item, move and try again .For an embarassing see below.

• Do use extra lighting. You can do this with your camera’s flash mode or (even better) with extra photo lighting. Use extra lighting, even when you’re taking the picture outside. The extra lighting acts as fill light — it adds more light to the item, filling in some of the shadowed spots.

• Do us a photo tent or a Cloud Dome (or their new Nimbus Dome for use with smartphones) when shooting pictures of jewelery or collectible merchandise. These devices diffuse the light and allow the details and proper colors to shine.

• Do remember that eBay requires the images must be at least 500 pixels on the longest side. Adjust your camera so you get the largest representaion of your item.

• Do take several acceptable versions of your image. You can choose the best ones later for your listing.

• Do take a close-up or two of detailed areas in macro mode that you want buyers to see (in addition to wide shots of the entire item) if your item relies on detail.

• Do make sure that the items are clean. Cellophane on boxes can get nasty-looking, clothing can get linty, and all merchandise can get dirt smudges. Not only will your items photograph better if they’re clean, they’ll sell better, too.

• Do make sure that you focus the camera; nothing is worse than a blurry picture. If your camera is a fixed-focus model (it can’t be adjusted), get only as close as the manufacturer recommends. Automatic-focus cameras measure the distance and change the lens setting as needed. But just because a camera has an autofocus feature doesn’t mean that pictures automatically come out crisp and clear.

The Reader is My Customer: Social Media Commerce For Dummies

by Marsha Collier

To many people, it's not news when I come out with a new book, I write books for a living; I don't write books to get speaking engagements. What most people don't realize is that writing and researching is my passion. Readers can go on the web and get "common knowledge" anywhere. My secret sauce is the pressure I put on myself to delve deeper. There will be no mention of a hot new tool unless I personally have tried it - and have checked out the company who provides the service. Nor will I tout expensive solutions, I know small business needs to run a tight ship. Money is time - and time is money.

The reader is my customer. In over a decade of writing on e-commerce and customer service, I feel a strong responsibility about what I write. I don't want to steer anyone in the wrong direction. When you read one of my books for small business (whether the book is directed at beginners or advanced readers), know you are getting honest and well-thought out advice. My books reflect hundreds of hours into investigation into the tools, strategies and ideas in each book. I try to update my books to a new edition every 18 months, so the information is always fresh.

I especially enjoy, over the years, getting emails from my readers. I put my email address in all of my books - even back in the 90s when people thought I was nuts for doing so. Readers keep me apprised of their successes and failures.

Below is the first review of the book that appeared on Amazon (I'd like to thank "Dad of Divas" whoever he is). I hope you'll give my latest book a look. I think it might clear up some social media misconceptions for you. You will find it here.

Thank you to everyone who has read my books. If you've never read one, I think this book might be a great place to start. (Here is the press release from my publisher - I've never thought of myself as a "blockbuster)!

Wiley Announces Latest Book by Bestselling Author Marsha Collier - Social Media Commerce For Dummies®

Blockbuster author Marsha Collier empowers brand owners to capture customers, sales and revenue using social media

Social Media Commerce For Dummies

Indianapolis, IN (PRWEB) December 13, 2012
Today, the world’s bestselling reference series, For Dummies® announces Social Media Commerce For Dummies (Wiley, 978-1-118-29793-3, November 2012) to help brands and small businesses understand why social media is important to their bottom line and how to adapt their online presence to include social commerce.
The undisputed expert on eBay and a recognized authority on social media marketing, author Marsha Collier delivers another one-of-a-kind For Dummies guide that introduces readers to social media commerce and explains how to use social media to provide better customer service, generate sales online and build a customer base. Social Media Commerce For Dummies helps readers determine where the best market reach opportunities exist, which sites to integrate with, and more.
"Social media enables small business -- even professionals -- the opportunity to compete on a level playing field with big brands. After much research, I've found the strategies in this book will change the marketing game as we know it,” said Collier.
Social Media Commerce For Dummies is now available for purchase online and at retailers nationwide in both print and all e-book formats. For a full list of retailers, visit http://www.dummies.com/buy/9781118297933. Additionally, the Cheat Sheet on Dummies.com includes helpful hints for social media commerce including useful Facebook keyboard shortcuts, Marsha’s Social Media Commerce Toolkit and more. For additional information about this book and related For Dummies products, visit http://www.dummies.com.
About the Author
Marsha Collier (Los Angeles, CA) is the world's bestselling author on eBay topics. Her books combine for over a million copies in print. Leading titles include eBay For Dummies, Starting an eBay Business For Dummies, and eBay Business All-in-One For Dummies. She has recently branched into social media topics, authoring Facebook & Twitter For Seniors For Dummies and The Ultimate Online Customer Service Guide. Marsha is also an in-demand speaker and trainer who appears at over 50 events per year.
About For Dummies®
After 20 years, more than 250 million copies printed, and millions of e-books downloaded, For Dummies is the world’s bestselling reference series, well known for enriching people’s lives by making knowledge accessible in a fun and easy way. Loyal customers around the globe agree that For Dummies is “more than a publishing phenomenon … [it is] a sign of the times,” [The New York Times]. With more than 1,800 active topics covering everything from health to history, music to math, sports to self-help, technology to travel, For Dummies is dedicated to Making Everything Easier. The For Dummies brand presence continues to expand wherever there is a need to know, including e-books, mobile apps, e-learning courses, a corporate custom publishing program, a robust consumer website and a licensed product line that includes consumer electronics, culinary, crafts, video, software, musical instrument packs, home improvement, automotive, game and more. For more information, visit Dummies.com. For Dummies is a branded imprint of Wiley.

via prweb.com

Networking Your Small Business Target Audience in Social Media

Social networking demands the attention of today’s small businesses... right along with online reviews and customer feedback. But, with time at a premium, where should you go to reach your customers and maximize your social media efforts? Articles all over the web tout one site over another, claiming this one is best or that one will draw your customers’ attention. What’s more, there always seems to be another emerging social media platform around the corner. Is it any wonder that small businesses get confused about where to focus their time?

Even before you make your initial foray into social media, defining objectives should be your first step (hint: stating that you want to increase sales is too general). Return on investment (ROI) will be different for each business depending on your goals. Drawing shoppers to eBay, a Facebook store or your website may each take on a slightly different tack.

Before you start utilizing a social media channel, you also need to understand and know your customers. You find them where they spend time on the Web and reach them with content appropriate for the various platforms. Keep in mind that social media channels are designed for “social networking,” not broadcasting – you must interact with fans and followers. Pepper your promotions not more than one in six of your posts on a particular platform.

Here’s a quick overview of the top social media communities you might want to be part of with your business:

• Facebook. Facebook is personal. Here you need to reach customers on a personal level. Sharing information or facts that relate to your business and to customers’ everyday lives will bring you more likes and shares. Graphics and photographs are very appealing to this audience.
• YouTube. YouTube for ecommerce is all about demonstrating your products. If you have a product that would benefit from demonstration, by all means make a short video. Embed or link to that video on your other social media channels.
• Twitter. The short message service that has taken the world by storm is a great way to build your online community. But to be relevant and build trust on Twitter, you need to spend time online meaningfully contributing to the conversation, not just posting links to your website or to items for sale. Respond to questions and re-tweet comments or facts of interest. Your goal is to sell to a community, not to become a spammer.
• Google+. If you deal in technology and deal internationally, Google+ may be ripe to help you find new customers. The site slants highly to men and the bulk of the participants on the site are in technical fields. The number one occupation on the site is Student, and only 32% of users are in the United States. All that said, it is a perfect platform to interact with those who appreciate technology. Engage with long-form posts and video content. Take advantage of Hangouts to build your reputation as an expert in your category.
• Pinterest. The jury is out as to whether Pinterest is truly monetizing for the small business. Post selected items (by no means every item you sell) and be sure the links are updated to direct to the actual item for sale in your online store.

How Pinning on Pinterest Can Benefit Your Business Bottom Line

If you haven’t created a Pinterest account for your online store, it might be time to jump on the bandwagon.

Shopify, a service that provides ecommerce capabilites to 25,000 online stores, assessed whether Pinterest posts were actually leading to sales. The results were surprising and impressive: Pinterest is the 3rd largest referral source to ecommerce sites, behind Facebook and Twitter.

However, customers referred by Pinterest spend an average of $80 per order— that’s twice as much as Facebook users typically spend.

If that’s not enough to get you to sign up, click through to see even more Pinterest statistics. 

Infographic courtesy of Shopify.   

via thinkingforward.tumblr.com

 

Social Commerce: The Next Big E-Commerce Revolution is Starting Now!

People have been asking what I've been working on. While I continue to tackle customer service as a continuation of my Online Customer Service Guide, I continue to explore (and write about) eBay, new venues and ways to promote e-commerce. My next book will be Social Media Commerce For Dummies. the infographic below gives you an idea as to the future of e-commerce. I promise not to let my readers down!

via argylesocial.com

 

Want to Sell or Build a Brand? Here's What Works Best on Pinterest

The private Beta of Pinerly launched about a week ago and they shared some really interesting things they gleaned from analyzing their campaigns.To join the Pinerly beta to improve your views, click here.

When breaking down a single pin, each pin has: an image, a source, a description, an associated board, category for the board, and a time when it was posted. We posted many campaigns over the past week to see what works and doesn't and noticed that our most effective campaigns had some similar traits. The list below outlines each of these in detail:

(1)  Compelling image: A beautiful image just won’t cut it. You’ll need a beautiful image that either elicits value, touches a human emotion, follows a trend, or relates to one of the following basic human needs: makes them happier, richer, healthier, or gets them *cough* =). We noticed that the most “compelling” images are simple (often white background), understandable, and relate to trends or the current season (for example, one of our pins connecting to the recent “hunger games” craze received 196 click-throughs to the final blog!). As humans, we relate the easy understandability of an image to the ease of understanding the overall topic being covered. So it's no surprise that even on Pinterest, simplicity always wins.

(2)  Call-to-action description: After an intriguing image, the user viewing your content refers to the description. We posted similar images, varying the descriptions, and noticed that a call-to-action description received about 80% more clicks than the user's average pins. This means just adding a simple phrase like: “You must see how this is done” or “You should see how well this is …” or “Tutorial on how to …” or “19 ways to …”.

(3)  Post at the right times: One of our Pinterest tips states that the best hours to pin are from 8PM-1AM EST (notice that the hunger games post was done @12AM EST) – and the numbers prove this to be correct. Interestingly, it seems that pins pinned between 2PM to 4PM EST get a lot of hits as well!

(4)  Post to popular boards: This one is obvious, the boards with the most followers have a larger reach and in turn provide a larger potential for re-pins, likes, and click-throughs.

(5)  Trending topics: Lastly, our pins referring to a trending topic (our example of “Hunger Games” above or “Easter”) were extremely popular – receiving 196 click-throughs, 28 re-pins, and 17 likes. This adds to the importance of trending topics and allows you to stay-ahead and ensure that you are constantly staying relevant.

(6)  Feed back to your social networks: Twitter and Facebook are still very powerful tools and this is where your descriptions could add a lot of additional value. Using hashtags in your descriptions allows you to immediately “tag” your content on Twitter (particularly when you are posting around trending topics). We're still playing around with the effects of having hashtags in descriptions so there are no final conclusions here yet.

We’ve put together the infographic below to break down some of these stats into % value:

On a final note, no matter what kind of content you are posting, always always remember your audience. They are mostly well-educated females that are spending time looking for great new content and things to discover.

via not99.posterous.com