To increase the perceived value of what you are offering on eBay, so your customers get better value by buying from you rather than your competitors, add FREE BONUSES. If two people are selling exactly the same item on eBay and one is offering a free bonus, who would you buy from?

For maximum impact, the bonus must be linked to your product, or at least be relevant to your niche, so that it will be of interest to your customers. There’s no point offering a free bonus that is not of interest to your customers as this won’t be an incentive for them to buy from you.

The free bonus should have a high perceived value for the customer but cost you little or nothing to provide. Information products make ideal free bonuses.

An information product is anything that gives the consumer information – usually teaching them how to do something.

An information product can be PHYSICAL (such as a CD, DVD, paper newsletter, book), DIGITAL (such as an ebook, audio or video on the web, blog, membership site, RSS feed, podcast) or INTANGIBLE (such as a seminar, teleseminar, coaching, mentoring, consulting).

If you do a Google Search on “your niche + ebook + resell rights” you may be able to find a low cost, ready-made information product that you can give away FREE with your item. You can then add “+ FREE Bonus” to your listing title, or as a sub-title, so people are more likely to click on your listing rather than your competitors.

But its quite easy to make your own information product. You can write an ebook about some aspect of your product – perhaps how to use it – and copy this on to a CD to send with your product. Or, better still, video yourself using the product and copy the video to a DVD to send with the product.

If you have any testimonials from existing customers, add them to your listing. To get testimonials – ASK! Ask your customers to send you an email stating how much they like your product or your service. Offer them an incentive to send you their testimonials, such as a FREE information product.

Some people show their feedback in their listing. Although displaying your feedback in your listing makes a strong visual point, it can be a very long and tedious list. It might be better to suggest that they check out your 100% positive feedback by clicking on the “See detailed feedback” link at the top right of your listing, or by going to your About Me page where you can have your feedback listed.

You can also differentiate from your competitors by offering better terms and conditions. Many sellers don’t pay much attention to their terms and conditions. This is a mistake. Good payment/shipping/guarantee/return terms can give the visitor to your listing sufficient confidence to place a bid. You can make better terms and conditions your Unique Selling Proposition that differentiates your business from your competitors.

Keep your terms and conditions simple, clear, easy to understand and fair. Too many “ifs and buts” will scare potential customers away.

Martyn Boaden

This post is based on an extract taken from The Lazy Way To Wealth On eBay