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 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!

La Casa Mexicana.us is having a Bonanza!

We are getting ready for our first Bonanza! Some might say " What's a Bonanza?" Well, a Bonanza is a special sale and a limited-timed event that will be hosted on Bonanzle.com where customers receive special discounts during the Bonanza. This event will take place Sunday, March 8th, 2009 from 4:00 p.m.(PST) to 7:00 p.m.(PST). We are giving our customers 12% off the regular prices listed!

We will be offering exciting products such as hand-crafted Mexican Palm Baskets from the Toluca Region in the state of Puebla, Romero Gurman Dichroic Glass Jewelry, Gorky Gonzalez Pottery, and unique hand-made articles from local artisans from Veracruz, Mexico to name a few! Come join us for this Special and Limited-Timed Event! However, you do not have to wait for the Bonanza to start. Come by anytime and check us out at Bonanzle.com/LaCasaMexicana.us !