How to Make a Hand Picked List That's Home Page Quality on Bonanzle

Making Hand Picked Lists on Bonanzle is one of the many features of the site that makes it a unique and fun place to sell and buy! It's pretty simple to make a basic hand picked list, and if your hand pick list is good it may make the Bonanzle home page. Sellers especially like for their hand picked list to make the home page since at the top right of the list credit is given to the seller with a link to their booth! That means more popularity and more booth views which could equal more sales. And what seller doesn't want that!? Hand picked lists are also great for sellers to promote other sellers on Bonanzle.

How to Make a Hand Picked List - The Basics

In order to make a hand picked list you must first become a member of Bonanzle. It's free to join! After that, click "Hand picked" under the "items of interest" tab in the "my bonanzle" section. Then click on the green tab "Create a new list". This will take you to a page where you can name your hand picked list. After you have named your hand picked list you are ready to search for items to put in the list. At the bottom of any item description there is an "actions" tab that will allow you to add the item to your hand picked list. You may find the complete instructions on how to make a hand picked list on Bonanzle. Included on the Bonanzle page of how to make a hand picked list is a section called "How do the home page HPLs get chosen?". The below excerpt was taken directly from the Bonanzle website:

"How do the home page HPLs get chosen?

There are three factors we consider in choosing lists for the home page. Here are the three factors, with the rough weight we give each:

• All item pictures in list are crisp and interesting - 60%. Putting blurry, dark, discolored, overcropped, or uninteresting pictures on the home page is something we avoid. Most all lists that end up on the home page are comprised of items with good pictures.
• Interesting or relevant theme - 30%. Lists that are applicable to upcoming holidays or national events have a leg up on general lists. Lists that are organized into a clear and interesting theme (e.g., "Prom," "Owls," "Helicopters") are more likely to get chosen than those that don't.
• Catchy title - 10%. We're suckers for a list with a catchy title. Like the list someone created called "Change we can believe in" that was made up of collector's nickels and dimes for sale. Hah!"

So, Bonanzle blatantly stated that there are three factors they consider when choosing which hand picked list make the home page; 1) crisp and interesting pictures, 2) interesting or relevant theme, and 3) catch title. I would like to add a few more important criteria for making a hand picked list that is home page quality that Bonanzle doesn't mention. I have made a handful of hand picked list and have had success in making the home page several times.

Additional Factors for Making a Home Page Quality Hand Picked List

1) Choose a good variety of sellers to include in the hand picked list. For example, if you are making a list about angels and come across a seller with the absolute best assortment of angels just choose 2 to 3 angels from that seller and move on. The more seller variety, the more attractive and interesting the hand picked list.

2) Images with white backgrounds make excellent choices for hand picked lists. White back grounds make the product pop! And that's exactly what Bonanzle wants its home page to do, pop visitors right in the eye and make them say "WOW!" Look at the two pictures below. (I took them from my booth so that I wouldn't criticize anyone besides myself.) The first one would be much more likely to make the home page because of the crisp white background that make the item pop! The second item is by the same artist as the first, but my photography skills were lacking that day.

3) Color themes are extremely popular for home page hand picked lists. Color schemes just seem to be more eye appealing and therefore, have more potential to make the home page.

4) A good picture isn't everything. A great item description is also very important to consider when choosing items for your hand picked list. The items in the lists that make the home page are just one click away from being viewed by anyone that lands on the Bonanzle home page. I'm sure that Bonanzle wants to put on it's prettiest face for anyone shopping from the home page. Therefore, a hand picked list that contains items with lousy descriptions isn't home page quality.

5) Hand picked lists with themes that feature real time events are also popular home pagers. For example, when Michael Jackson passed away, a hand picked list featuring him quickly appeared on the home page.

6) Item descriptions that haven't been changed to reflect selling on Bonanzle. There are lots of sellers from other venues that bring their items to Bonanzle in mass. You may find words and phrases such as "auctivia, bid now, thanks for bidding, eBay, visit my store (Bonanzle has booths, not stores), etc." In addition, these descriptions generally have very messy HTML (if it's not words and not making sense to you, it's probably the code that isn't suppose to show up) and are extremely long.

7) Don't just stop at 20 items! The more items you have in your hand picked list, the more items the home page list maker has to choose from. Now don't get too crazy! In addition, if the items start selling your list won't be automatically booted from the home page for lack of items. I believe a good safe number of items to pick for a hand picked list is between 25 to 28.

Ok, so if you have followed all of the above guidelines and still haven't made the home page, don't get upset! New hand picked lists are made every hour by many different Bonanzlers. Therefore, competition is fierce. So your hand picked list may be just as good as the ones that make the homepage, but there just isn't room for everyone. Just keep making good, quality hand picked lists, and sooner or later, your hand picked list will make the Bonanzle home page. Good luck and let me know when one of your lists make it!

You may check out my hand picked list on my profile page in Bonanzle, La Casa Mexicana. I don't make lists all of the time, but I currently have three, one of which made the home page. You may also check out my booth, La Casa Mexicana, for great items to put in your hand picked lists. Everything in my booth is handmade in Mexico and is very colorful!