September 29th, 2006 by Skip McGrath

Get free publicity from eBay and you could win up to $2500!

While many sellers may think they don’t have time to write a review or guide, consider this – if it is good, it may make it to these search pages for relevant products. This is free publicity.

Here is an actual example of how a seller is using Reviews and Guides to build his business:

ebay PowerSeller BuyTommy sells Tommy Bahama items. There are a lot of fakes on eBay and this hurts his business and credibility. He wrote a guide titled Fake Tommy Bahama which informs buyers how to spot a fake Tommy Bahama item, and how to confirm that the ones they have purchased are genuine.

Since he wrote the guide in October 2005, it has been viewed 17728 times. On the right side of the guide page, eBay lists his user information, a link to his store, and two relevant items his has listed at auction at this time.

Not only does he have buyers exposed directly to his items and store, but his credibility is increased because of the nature of the guide he wrote. As a buyer, I am more likely to purchase a designer item from a seller who tells me how to spot a fake. It is logical that that same seller would not be selling fakes, particularly one with over 10,000 feedback at 99.9% positive.

eBay ranks reviews and guides based on the votes received from readers. Once you have 100 “helpfulness” votes from readers, you get a pencil and paper icon next to your username. Once you reach the top 10,000 it will say “top 10,000 reviewer” next to that icon. The rank breaks are:

Top 1 – given to only one person, who has the most positive votes.

Top 25

Top 100

Top 1000

Top 5000

Top 10,000

Incidently, BuyTommy’s review is a Top 1000.

There are a few rules that you must adhere to:

• No links allowed to outside sites selling anything.
• No links to subscribe to newsletters/mailing lists hosted outside of eBay.
• No links to specific items listed (eBay will do this for you and keep them current).
• No identical reviews/guides listed in different categories.
• No advertising credits for assistance writing the guide, or product specifics unless that is the topic of the review/guide. (For example, writing about MP3 players in general would not permit the use of the Apple logo, but if your review/guide is specifically about the different types of iPods and their accessories, then you could use the company logo.)

eBay’s policy guidelines cover Reviews and Guides quite thoroughly.

You can search for and/or write a review/guide here.

The reviews and guide page has a section promoting various guides. It also has a section for newly listed guides, so you may get some publicity quite early on. Also, eBay promotes reviews and guides on the search results pages too. It’s all free publicity!

Win $100-$2500 for your review or guide

And at the moment eBay is running a contest for eBay gift certificates. There are two periods left of the contest- The current one ends on October 3rd, and the final period is from October 4th to 17th. Reviews, Guides and Blogposts will be reviewed on the following criteria:

Activity (how many people read it):  20%

Thoroughness:  20%

Originality:  20%

Aesthetic Appeal (formatting, etc.):  10%

Knowledge of Content:  10%

Consistency of Content:  10%

Frequency of Posting:  10%

The prizes (in eBay Gift Certificates) for each 2 week period the contest runs are:

You can find out more about the contest here. And the rules here.

See Also

• 99 tips for eBay Buyers and Sellers
  99 things every buyer and seller should know to be successful on eBay
• Subscribe to The eBay Seller’s News
  The oldest and largest FREE newsletter for auction sellers