8 Ways to Optimize Your Bonanzle Listing

Here are a few things to make sure you are doing in order to optimize your Bonanzle listing and get more sales!

• 1. VERY descriptive titles! Fill that title line up till you can't fill it any more describing the item. Don't let unused title realestate go to waste. It's way too valuable. 

An example of a title that could use a little work: "Bass Red Shoes Size 4 NWT"

So, how can the title be improved?
First, the title should state who the shoes are for; boys, girls, toddler girls, women, etc. Second, the type of shoe should be stated; clogs, heels, maryjane, etc. And lastly, if there is space add the European or American size equivalent.

An example of a title that is well constructed: "Christian Louboutin YOYO 85 Peep Toe RED shoes 39 US 9"

So, why is this title well-constructed?
In addition to the designer name, the title contains the name of the shoe, YOYO 85. Also, we know what type of shoe it is; it's a peep toe. The title includes both the European and American sizes.

How could it be improved?
Bonanzle give you 60 characters including spaces for your title. Your goal is to use all 60! This title used 55 which is good but they could add something short such as NIB, NWT, New, EUR to indicate that 39 is the European size, etc. In addition, there was recently big news that Google will not index all capitalized titles. Therefore, the word "RED" should be written as "Red". Ditto for YOYO.

• 2. Attributes. Fill those babies out! You can fill out attributes for multiple items in batch edit. Attributes help give item specifics to your product. This will help buyers find exactly what they are looking for faster.
  
• 3. CLEAR pictures on clutter-free backgrounds. White backgrounds work best. Also, taking pictures in natural ligh instead of artificial lighting improves image quality greatly. 

A couple of DON'TS:

• Don't take pictures on the bare floor. If you must take pictures on the floor, place an ironed, white sheet as your background or use a large white poster.
• Don't try too hard. This is especially true of women. Only include in the picture the item that is for sale. Props such as beautiful greenery, flowers, or dollies are not necessary.

A Couple of Tips:

• Take more than one picture. Take lots of pictures from different angles and be sure to get a nice bottom shot if you are selling an numbered item or an item with a signature. You can upload up to 4 pictures in Bonanzle and add more to your item description if need to. Be sure to add the picture that you want to show up in the search results first. Also, make sure that the pictures are appropriately cropped and not over-cropped as many Bonanzle photos are (this is due to the horrible photo cropping tool on Bonanzle).
  
• Take pictures on a bent poster. Note that I said "bent" not "folded". What you want to do is set half of the poster on a horizontal surface (i.e. floor) and lean the other half on a vertical surface (i.e. wall). You may tape the poster to the top of the vertical surface if need be. Once in place set your item on the poster (of course, on the part of the poster that is on the horizontal surface). Next, take the picture from the side of the item with the poster in the background. The bent poster will give the illusion of no background and it will make your product pop.
  
• Take pictures in natural light. If you have a sun room, perfect. Alter it to become your new photo studio. If you don't have a sunroom, get outside and start shooting. Be sure to take pictures in the shade or on cloudy or overcast days. The clouds diffuse the light which prevents shadows from showing up in the images. However, waiting on clouds or finding a decent area in the shade can be tricky and time-consuming. Therefore, you should create your own lightbox.
  
• Take pictures without flash. In natural light, the flash will automatically shut off on many cameras. However, if you are inside you may need to turn it off manually. Flashes create an undesireable glare making it hard to view the item.
  
• Take pictures in Macro mode (usually the flower symbol) if you need a close up. For small items such as jewelry, you almost always need to take the picture in macro mode. This mode helps the camera focus at very close distances to the item and will result in a clear, not blurry image. You may also use macro mode to take close-up shots of larger items to show detail or flaws in the item. If you specialize in small items and your camera doesn't have macro mode, you should seriously invest in purchasing one that does. If you can't afford one now though, your option is to take the picture farther away and then crop down to the item in your photo editing software (or in bonanzle if you like their cropping feature). The image will lose pixels like this but at least it won't be blurry.
  

• 4. Clutter-free descriptions. Keep your listing simple; A nice big h1 title, followed by a list of characteristics, and then followed by a short description if you must is all  that you need. If you have stuff like auctiva or eBay words floating around your auction and html showing you probably just imported your listings from another site. That's not a problem, but you need to get rid of the clutter. Examples, "visit my store", "thanks for bidding", "sponsored by auctiva".
• 5. Categorize items. Some booths have a couple of hundred of items and no categories. I leave in a minute because I don't want to go through page after page just to see if I might want something. So if you are selling books, jewelry, and toys, separate these out into three categories. You can add categories in the "Advanced" option under the "Sell" button. After that, you can easily categorize all of your items in the batch edit area.
• 6. Make sure your items are priced reasonalby. What is the competition selling for? The key to this is that you don't want to sell cheaper. This will start a price slash and then nobody will make a profit. Every seller will be trying to undercut the other seller which drives prices down. Instead, just check out the other sellers' selling price and mark your item accordingly, a little higher a little lower, but still in the same ballpark. 
• 7. Promote your items. If you aren´t promoting your items in the Bonanzle forums, Twitter, Facebook, etc. you are missing out on sales. Not only that but you are missing out on business buddies. Maybe you don't want buddies, but you need them. Let me give you an example. I always get more clicks on tweets when they are about someone else's product or sale rather than my own. Why would this be? People trust you more when you share information that's not about yourself. Tooting your own horn can only last so long.
• 8. Cross link booths. If you have more than one booth, place at the bottom of each item description something like "Visit my other Bonanzle Booth, NAME GOES HERE, to find great deals on NAME OF WHAT YOU SPECIALIZE IN GOES HERE". You can add this to the bottom of every listing in the batch edit area. Be careful though. Messing up this can be a pain (I've already suffered through it). So, do a practice run on one or two items first. Then apply the edit to all items.
  

That's all I can think of for now. Let me know if I missed one (or two). And good luck on selling on Bonzanzle.

How Did We Do in 2009?

At the beginning of 2009 we set some goals for La Casa Mexicana. It's been a busy year and our second one in business. Below is the list of goals that were set for this year and also my commentary on how well or poorly we met those goals.

GOALS FOR 2009!

1) INCREASE SELECTION AND INVENTORY - From artists in which we already carry, we will be getting in more ROMERO GURMAN JEWELRY and GORKY GONZALEZ POTTERY. In addition, we will soon carry MAYAN HAMMOCKS, SERVIN POTTERY, HUICHOL BEAD ART, and MEXICAN PEWTER.

What Actually Happened:
a) We increased our selection of Romero Gurman Jewelry and Gorky Gonzalez Pottery in addition to increasing our selection of Talavera (which was not one of the goals).
b) We now carry a good selection of Mayan Hammocks and Servin Stoneware Pottery.
c) We decided against buying Huichol Bead Art and are still debating purchasing Mexican Pewter. The Huichol Bead Art is absolutely admireable, however, it's extremely pricey due to many many hours of work that is put in to each piece. Basically, it's out of our budget right now.
d) As for the Mexican Pewter, the debate is still out on whether or not we can compete with other online companies that specialize in just Mexican Pewter. At La Casa Mexicana our goal is to offer you a great selection of several different areas of Mexican art and not just specialize in one. Therefore, pewter may be out of our reach for now as well.

2) BLOG MORE FREQUENTLY - We want to better inform you in 2009 with what's going on, changes that we make, cool deals, and interesting information that we come across!

What Actually Happened:
We have published 20 blog posts for the year of 2009 so far compared to only 5 in 2008. We did blog more frequently, but still not at the rate we would like. A blog every two weeks would be ideal for La Casa Mexicana to keep everyone up-to-date on new products and sales.

3) HAVE MORE SALES - We thought you would like this one! You can expect major holiday sales and sales just for the heck of it! We have big plans for an incredible Easter sale coming up!

What Actually Happened:
More sales did happen, but what happened to that incredible Easter sale? It wasn't as incredible as we had imagined. But what is working well are introductory prices! Each new shipment of items that we get in, we put on introductory pricing for a limited time. Introductory pricing of that certain shipment generally lasts until we get a new shipment in.

4) KEEP SHIPPING COSTS LOW - In an effort to keep shipping costs as low as possible, we use recycled newspapers, boxes, bubble wrap, and peanuts! We will continue to source more recyled materials in 2009 which keeps shipping costs low and is environmentally friendly.

What Actually Happened:
This in fact did happen! We have contacted local brick-and-mortar stores and requested that they give us their used shipping materials instead of sending them off to be recycled again. We consider it saving you money and saving the environment by using the materials again before they are sent off to be recycled.

5) WRITE MORE FREE SPANISH GRAMMAR LESSONS - Our FREE SPANISH LESSONS are great for anyone studying or just trying to learn a thing or two about the Spanish language. Lessons to be up soon include: Tú Commands, Usted Commands, Double Negatives, Tener + que and Hay + que, and Present Progressive.

What Actually Happened:
To put things bluntly, MAN! Do I need to get started on these NOW! I haven't done any of them! (Writing this on my to-do list)

6) IMPROVE THE FREE MEXICAN RECIPES - Many of our FREE MEXICAN RECIPES lack descriptive pictures which are wonderful when learning a new dish. We will have pictures up for all of the existing Mexican recipes up this year!

What Actually Happened:
Maybe the word "all" was a little too optimistic. We have added some pictures to the recipes but overall, we have a lot left to do.