April 17th, 2007 by Skip McGrath

eBay now promoting the use of video in auctions

eBay sellers have been talking about this for the last year or so. Some have even integrated video into their auctions already. Now eBay has an active policy on the subject.

As of today, you are allowed to include a link to a video clip about your auction from right on your auction listing page. This is the first time eBay has allowed sellers to put a link in the auction. I think the reasoning for this is that video is becoming more and more popular, and embedded video eats bandwidth which costs them money.

So, if you currently embed video in your auctions, you better change it to links or you might find your auctions being cancelled.

If you haven’t tried this before, you should! I’ve been using Seller Voice for a number of years, and this allows me to include a voice clip in my auctions. My sales jumped as soon as I started doing this. Imagine how much more video will do?

All you need is a video camera, a tripod, and an account with one of the five approved video hosting sites (eBay does not offer video hosting…but I bet that’s coming). The five approved sites are:

• YouTube
• Google
• MySpace
• Microsoft
• AOL

From a buyer’s point of view the limited choices of host is good because these are sites that are well established and actively work to prevent viruses being attached to video clips.

Using video clips is a great way to showcase an item without having to use a ridiculous number of photographs. You can show a 360 view, zoom in, show scale, and really personalize yourself as their seller. In a away, you are showcasing yourself as much as the item. A video also shows that you really have the item in hand and your appearance and demenor will go a long way to the first impression your buyer gets.

If you choose to be in the video, be enthusiastic about the item, but not over-the-top. Try to keep it professional, but stay away from boring!

See Also

• The Complete eBay Marketing System
  Everything you need to know to be a successful seller, written by a Gold Level PowerSeller