Overview
This week Liz and Doug talk about recent news including eBay reports, Poshmark Campaigns, Depop shipping label increases, and more!
The Seller Community Podcast from List Perfectly is the #1 resource for the seller community across all platforms and hub for information on growing your business with List Perfectly. Find out more at listperfectly.com/podcast, leave a message or ask a question at anchor.fm/sellercommunitypodcast, or email us at podcast@listperfectly.com.
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Links
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Episode Links
Poshmark Community Fund
listranksell.com
ISDNtek Tools for eBay
eBay Traffic Reports Facebook Thread
Transcript
Liz:
And we’re live. Just kidding. We’re not live. You’re supposed to laugh at my jokes Doug.
Doug:
Here, let me help. <laugh sound effect>
Doug:
A lot going on.
Liz:
Oh my gosh. So first I was super excited, and I gasped because I have never heard that applause before. Oh my gosh. You guys, Doug updated his soundboard. I’ve never heard the laughing before.
Doug:
We’ve used that before. Haven’t we?
Liz:
No.
Doug:
Huh? All right. Well, there you go. <laugh sound effect> There’s that one obnoxious guy. The super loud dude. Sir, you’ve had too much to drink. We need you to move.
Liz:
Oh my gosh. Okay. So that one makes me giggle. I don’t know that I can get through this episode.
Doug:
Oh, that’s good to know. I’ll use that all the time. Well, Liz, I have a little card now, so they’re labeled.
Liz:
Oh, wow.
Doug:
We have music. Laugh. Claps. Wa wa wa. Ba-dump. Mystery. Crickets. And magic. Magic’s also the LP sound. Clara’s favorite. And Patrick’s intro theme. When he comes with the golden tickets.
Liz:
We’re gonna have to have him back actually.
Doug:
Yeah. He’s about due.
Liz:
Well, I don’t know. Clara and Amanda, last week, gave us some amazing List Perfectly insight. So, maybe Patrick will have to take a seat for a couple of weeks.
Doug:
Well, that’s probably true. That was a big bang. That was a good episode with some, some review, some previews of the future. And we love exclusives.
Liz:
For those that don’t know, I’ve been using List Perfectly for years. And, of course, we have this podcast with List Perfectly. So, I do sometimes get to test a couple things, you know, they’ll be like, “Liz, can you test this out?” Because they know I sell. And they’re like, “Just use this and give us your feedback.” Before it even goes to beta like Amanda talked about last week. And some of the things that she announced, I was like, oh my gosh, like I heard it for the first time.
Doug:
So, the kinda hinted at, kind of previewed. One of the things we talked about was video.
Liz:
That was a surprise to me.
Doug:
Yeah. Clara hinted that LP would support video soon. That’s the way things are going. That’s the way things are going in content. And it’s interesting because eBay took away video a couple years ago <affirmative> and now it’s coming back.
Liz:
Yeah. Users are starting to see that little button like “add video”. So yeah. I know some of the other platforms that are sometimes a little more social do support video. So why not? I’m so glad to hear that. I, as a seller, my entire selling career, I’m like, I am never gonna use video. It takes too much time. I can’t do it. Blah, blah, blah. Right?
Doug:
Liz says this and then she’ll knock out an awesome like TikTok with like filters and spinning things and talking lips and music and dogs and babies and a dance off and a trending sound.
Liz:
Yeah. I don’t know <laugh> but, with me using, I mean, it’s just so easy now with phones, right? It’s like no extra effort.
Doug:
Well, I wouldn’t say no extra effort. Depends on who you are.
Liz:
Yeah, it does take effort, but nothing like even what I was doing six years ago. Like I have my phone in my hand. Let me just show you what I’ve got. Um, let me show you the detail of this item that I’m selling. So yeah. I mean, I can totally see how that would be helpful. I may adopt it when it comes out List Perfectly.
Doug:
Liz with her selling videos. Now I know this is gonna be a shock Liz, but I was one of those kids that filmed movies when I was growing up. Our own, like my friend and I, Philip, would do our own little things and yeah, we had the giant VHS camera and you’d set it up, you know, on a tripod or we may not even have had a tripod.
Liz:
You had it up on your shoulder.
Doug:
Yeah, that’s right. You edit it with the two VCRs, all that back and forth. We didn’t have your fancy phones. It wasn’t easy to edit. It was a hassle, Liz.
Liz:
I know. So let me guess you probably filmed yourself. Hmm. Skateboarding. No, no? What?
Doug:
No, it’s worse.
Liz:
I’m not gonna ask you then. <laugh> I’m just getting…with that.
Doug:
We did. Well, we didn’t do, you’d think we’d do comedy videos. We did like serious stuff. One we did was, um, it was a, basically a Star Trek knock off. So, like a sci-fi movie, and it’s one of those where you’re filming it you don’t realize, you think it’s so cool and it’s like, okay, you stand there and then I’ll stop it and start it, and it looks like you disappeared. And so, we filmed this movie, and it was very serious, and we made his parents watch it when they got home, and it was like an hour and a half or something. Oh, my goodness.
Liz:
On the VHS?
Doug:
On the VHS, Liz.
Liz:
On the VHS. Yep.
Doug:
If we had YouTube, then I’d be a star. I’d be an influencer.
Liz:
Oh, my goodness gracious. But the video was a very exciting release that List Perfectly talked about last week among a lot of other things.
Doug:
Well, you give the big announcement. Let me give you your sound effect. What’s the big one that is more than hinted at that’s coming?
Liz:
Ladies and gentlemen, List Perfectly has announced Auto Delist is coming.
Doug:
I know it’s crazy, please. Everyone, please calm down. It’s coming soon. It’s gonna be another game changer. It’s gonna be awesome. And I think it’s gonna change the way people use List Perfectly. I like to use the catalog. I learned it from you. OK. But <laugh> I mean, for people who don’t like to use the catalog they’ll have this option.
Liz:
So yeah, what you’re hinting at. So, I think a lot of sellers are like, okay, I have my items in the catalog. So, now they can auto delist because currently you go in and it’s like you have to tell List Perfectly it sold. And then it’ll open up the tabs to delist it for you. So that you can verify that your item was removed.
Doug:
I double check anyway, which may be a waste of my time, but I like to double check anyway. So even if something auto delisted for me, I’d go check just to make sure, cuz you never know.
Liz:
Well, you know what? Some people are just comfortable, especially if it’s something new and out of habit too, because for the last two years we’ve been double checking. So, but here’s the thing, I am so confident in List Perfectly. I won’t double check. I can tell you that much right now.
Doug:
Before we get started Liz, I have a special…stop the show Liz, I have a special, special seller shoutout.
Liz:
Uh oh! Who are we shouting out today, Doug?
Doug:
So, our friend Vikki Eagan. She reads and loves the transcripts, Liz.
Liz:
Yes, she does!
Doug:
So exciting to me.
Liz:
She has told me that all the time. She’s like, “Liz, I love you and Doug, but it distracts me to listen to a podcast she’s like, but I do read the transcripts.”
Doug:
So, those are also the show notes that we talk about. So, besides the fact that you can go there, you can get all the links. It’s a transcript of the episode. But what’s interesting is, is you can read that. Some people like to read and scan and it’s very conversational. I mean, we literally go through line by line and make sure, you know, it looks good. But the other thing is, is if you’re a note taker, that would be a great spot just to go to and you know, take out what you need and put it towards your, into your notes. But anyway, shout out to Vikki, thank you for liking the transcripts. And you know, a lot of it is for search engine optimization and traffic, Liz, but I love that people are using the transcripts.
Liz:
This is what I love for transcripts. And this was a little thing that, I mean, I know how to search web pages and documents, but I never thought about it for podcasts, but you taught me this, just do a search of the transcript. Like there are so many times I go back to the Dave Snyder episodes, and I will command F or if you’re a PC user, um, what is it? Control F? Yeah. And you can find and if there was something that we talked about, you can just type in that keyword, and it’ll show you and it’ll bump it down. So, like maybe Doug, if you wanted to know, if a podcast was talking about you, you could just search your name in the transcripts.
Doug:
You know where I did that?
Liz:
See if we talked about you.
Doug:
The ‘eBay for Business’ podcast. You usually tell me, oh, they mentioned you this week. <laugh> That was another Doug.
Liz:
<laugh> That was another Doug. Um, but yeah, so Doug, great job doing those transcripts. Your hard work does not go unnoticed.
Doug:
Oh, thank you, Liz. That’s very sweet.
Liz:
And for anyone out there wondering I’m Liz.
Doug:
And I’m Doug.
Liz:
Welcome to Season Two, Episode Six of The Seller Community Podcast from List Perfectly.
Doug:
So, Liz, this week we’ve got news. We actually have more news. So, should I spill the beans?
Liz:
Yes, please Doug. Spill the beans to our listeners.
Doug:
All right. So, here’s the deal. And we did announce this last week in the List Perfectly group, but we wanted to tell you here as well. And for you readers now, cuz we know some people read, we had switched over to two episodes a week and it’s a lot of work to bring all that to you.
Liz:
It’s a lot of work you guys.
Doug:
<laugh>. So, here’s what we’re gonna do. We are gonna move back to one episode a week because List Perfectly is working on amazing stuff. And there’s some really cool stuff coming that we have to help focus on, but we are still gonna do more of the news, more Liz and Doug. And we might sprinkle in some more recent suggestions. You never know. So, you’ll still get all the interviews. We’ve got some great stuff planned, and you’ll still get a lot of the news, but we’re just not gonna do the two a week.
Liz:
Right. But I think that’s okay.
Doug:
I think it’s okay. Leaves you wanting more.
Liz:
Here’s the thing, Doug. We saw an opportunity. We wanted to try something new, and we did, and it is going great. But we both have full-time jobs <laugh> and it took up a lot more time than we thought it would. So yeah. Um, so we love you, but Liz’s gotta list and Liz’s gotta sell <laugh> and Liz’s gotta take pictures.
Doug:
And again, the good news out of this is List Perfectly is working on some really big stuff that is gonna be coming.
Liz:
So, I said, I have a full-time job doing this stuff. Doug, you are working at List Perfectly. So, I’m just going to assume that you are working in some really cool big projects.
Doug:
Yeah. I’m very excited. We’ve got some really cool stuff coming. You’re gonna really dig. To use seventies parlance. Eh?
Liz:
So, eh? So, can you tell me what any of that stuff is? Come on. I know you wanna spill the beans. Tell us more.
Doug:
You know I do, but I think I’m gonna wait.
Liz:
HUH! What?
Doug:
I know that’s a shocker. It’s a shocker. Liz is like, wait, what? You wanna say something?
Liz:
Yeah. I know how much you love to tell all the secrets to all of our listeners. So, this has gotta be something pretty good. I am gonna ask you every week what you’re working on until you tell me.
Doug:
You can ask, you won’t break me down. You won’t break me down.
Liz:
Eh. We’ll see about that.
Doug:
I would say it’s coming. It’s coming soonish. So, there you go.
Liz:
Well then, I’ll ask you next week. Yeah. Speaking of next week.
Doug:
Yes.
Liz:
We have an amazing guest, which you’ll have to wait and see.
Doug:
That’s right. We’re not telling you anything anymore. <laugh>
Liz:
Apparently, Doug is like, no, we keep all the secrets on this podcast now.
Doug:
So, we’ve got the news. Liz, should we get into it?
Liz:
Let’s get into it, Doug.
Doug:
All right. Welcome to the news. Liz, I’m gonna start with some eBay news. So, you just did another Becoming eBay Summit, right?
Liz:
I did last week. eBay, surprisingly, they ask me to come back every now and again to be a guest at the eBay Summit. And this is a summit that eBay has for their newer hires. I think you’re familiar with it.
Doug:
This is true.
Liz:
How long is the Becoming eBay Summit?
Doug:
Well, when I did it, I think it was two days, maybe three days. I don’t know how they’re doing it now. I think they do it on site now. When I did it, we were in downtown San Jose. It’s remote now. But when I did it, we were ensconced away in a hotel and it was almost like a big conference and it was two or three days of workshops, meetings, presentations. Really cool and really like a deep dive into eBay, almost like an eBay Open for eBay employees.
Liz:
Yeah, so like you said, they do it remote now it’s probably a two day, one or two day summit. And for 30 minutes, <laugh> maybe a little bit longer than 30 minutes. The new eBay employees get to listen to eBay sellers, and I was fortunate enough to be one of them with a panel of two other sellers. And we really, we just get to share just a quick snippet of ourselves, what we share. And a couple of the questions are pre-done like employees have asked the interviewer, and they’ll share it around and then live chat. So, they’re able to get into the live chat and ask questions live, which I think is really cool. Um, so we get to interact and we get a lot of questions. A lot of like keeping up with chat is like, ooh, like I can’t like, I’m trying to predict like what I might get asked. And I’m like, ooh, please. I don’t wanna answer that one. <laugh> Don’t put me on the spot. Um, but it’s really fun and really enlightening. And most of all, I think it is super cool that eBay involves sellers in this process.
Doug:
Yeah, I think so too. And part of that is a lot of eBay employees don’t ever meet sellers. Don’t ever get to interact with sellers in any way. And for some of ’em, this is the only time they’ll actually see sellers. Yeah. Sellers and buyers. But frankly, in my opinion, mostly sellers is why they’re there. That’s why eBay’s there. Why? Because eBays a place for people to sell and buy. Maybe ‘and buy’ is in parentheses <laugh>. But no, it’s a great opportunity to see sellers. And it’s like when I started eBay, I was on the electronics team and I worked with big sellers like corporates, corporate sellers, big gigantic electronic sellers, and had no interaction with actual, um, small, medium business sellers or even large, you know, larger individual sellers, I guess you’d say. You know, Becoming eBay Summit comes up. I gotta tell my Lego story.
Liz:
Well, wait a minute. We’re not talking about VERO. Were you VERO’d for Lego?
Doug:
Yes. I was VERO’d for Lego, but not that Lego story. My other Lego story.
Liz:
So, you didn’t learn your lesson. OK.
Doug:
This was before the VERO Lego story.
Liz:
Let’s back up. Currently, Doug has some eBay slash Lego stories. Like a bunch of ’em. Tell us about this Lego story.
Doug:
This is eBay Lego story number one. Uh, at Becoming eBay. So, all the employees are there, and they used to do a workshop where you would sell an item <affirmative> and I thought that was a brilliant idea, cuz I hadn’t sold anything until then. And, <affirmative> yeah. I’ve told you this before. It was the whole process was super intimidating to me, super intimidating to a lot of employees, but it was kind of like, you need to see what our sellers experience. So basically, what happens is they get everybody into a room. It’s a workshop. So, at the time you needed to have a PayPal account and obviously you needed to have an eBay account. So, if you didn’t have those, you would set ’em up. And they had us use our mobile cuz they were really pushing mobile then. And you know, <affirmative> the app and all that. So, some people didn’t have either. I had, I think, I think I had both. So, I, you know, you go in there, you set those up.
Liz:
Was this like 35 years ago?
Doug:
What’s that?
Liz:
What people didn’t have cell phones back in 1882 when you started at eBay?
Doug:
Yes. This was 1995 Liz. We had to send a check. We had to take a picture, run down to the CVS, and scan it. No, just kidding. We listed via our smartphones, and I assume hopefully everybody had one, they handed out little Lego packets. So, like a little like four or five piece Lego packet. So, which would be like maybe five bucks. I don’t know, maybe less. So, they handed those out to everybody, and you were to list this and then pick a charity to donate the funds to, and I picked some animal charity. <Affirmative> So I listed my Lego, and everybody listed their Legos. I got some help from the moderator. Some help from people at my table. I was scared that the Lego would sell cuz then I’d have to ship it. So <laugh> and then I posted about it in the eBay community cuz I was on the community team then and I got teased about my shipping and how I’d set that up. So, I took care of that. Thank you. Thank you, eBay community. But it was funny cuz some people’s Legos sold just like that during the meeting and mine sold in a couple weeks and I shipped it out and you know what, Liz, I survived.
Liz:
You survived. Took so long cause you didn’t fill out your item specifics probably.
Doug:
Probably. That was before item specifics.
Liz:
Did you have a rich SEO title?
New Speaker:
I don’t know. I put Lego.
Liz:
I’m just kidding.
Doug:
And it was actually Lego. So, no VERO violation.
Liz:
That is one thing that a seller will always tell the employees, sell some things, understand your customers, understand us. So, I mean, and these are employees from across the board. It’s not like it’s departmentalized. Right? So, it’s across the board departments at eBay. So, you’re not just talking to people that are doing customer service. You’re not just talking to new employees that are doing product development. It’s across the board.
Doug:
Yeah. I mean, there will be programmers in there. There’ll be SEO people in there. And it just happened that I was on the seller engagement team. So, I would be engaging with sellers, but I totally agree. Everybody should sell because you need to know what the customers experiencing. And then when you speak to them, <affirmative> they will actually give you more respect cuz they know you’re selling. And I think eBay used to require their employees them to sell and they encourage it, but they don’t require it now.
Liz:
So yeah. So that was really fun last week, and I enjoyed being invited and I hope I get to go back.
Doug:
Now. Did Jamie Iannone personally introduce you?
Liz:
No, but he texted me to tell me good luck.
Doug:
All right.
Liz:
I’m just kidding Doug. He does not know who I am.
Doug:
He just calls.
Liz:
He just calls and texts. No, no, no. Ah, one day I wish.
Doug:
All right Liz. So, let’s move on to another shortly titled platform, Depop. What do we have? Oh Liz. You gotta take this one cuz you know I gave you all the price increase stuff.
Liz:
Oh my gosh. Why do I have to get the wamp… Wait, what’s the button called? The wamp wamp?
Doug:
Wa wa wa. What do we have, Liz, from Depop?
Liz:
Sellers. We should have seen this coming. Okay. Bear with me. Not that big of an increase, but the Depop platform will be increasing prices for 2022. They say, <sad sound effect> but they say the good news is that the new prices are only incrementally higher than the old ones and nothing else changes. So, you can still ship easily from the app. They did give the breakdown on their shipping page, and we can put a link in the show notes. So, first class shipping is going to go up 30 cents. The under two pound rate will go up 75 cents. And the under 10 pound rate will go up 75 cents also. But Doug, I haven’t heard anything from Poshmark. I haven’t heard anything from Facebook Marketplace. I haven’t heard anything from Tradesy. I haven’t heard anything from the other marketplaces, like Mercari, that I sell on for their rate increase, if they will be doing anything. So Depop is the first one, besides the typical like buy your own labels. But that makes me think about Poshmark. Right? So yeah, this is a bummer. We all know shipping increases are going to happen. But Poshmark, it’s been a couple years since they’ve raised their rates and the last time, they did it, it was a big uproar. Well, that’s kind of scary <laugh> but right now, I mean it’s $7 and 45 cents. Anything under five pounds.
Doug:
Hmm. Interesting.
Liz:
Or five pounds and under. Yeah.
Doug:
So, you’re thinking they’re gonna raise their prices?
Liz:
I don’t know how much longer they can sustain a contract with USPS at those rates. Could I be wrong? I sure as heck hope so.
Doug:
Well, you heard it here ladies and gentlemen. Liz has predicted.
Liz:
No, don’t say that people are gonna like drive by my house and throw stuff at my yard. I don’t know. <sad sound effect> But no, it does make me think. So, when I do this thinking, when they announce changes like this, I’m just not surprised. I don’t get in an uproar. I don’t like, yeah. It stinks. Who wants to pay more money? Right?
Doug:
I mean, they’re still giving you a platform to safely sell stuff. These things are gonna happen. It’s part of the business. So, anything else about Depop popping their prices?
Liz:
I’m gonna <clapping> the one person clap. You don’t need a button. I will clap. That was a good one Doug.
Doug:
<laugh> Thank you.
Liz:
#DougJokes instead of dad jokes. Does that work?
Doug:
Well? They’re pretty much the same, so.
Liz:
Okay. Okay. Um, no but that’s it, but that does lead into Poshmark.
Doug:
There you go. Cuz, you called them out. So, Liz predicts, Poshmark prices going up. That’s the clickbait headline.
Liz:
Now my account’s gonna get banned, you watch, <laugh> for no reason. Um, no, but the good thing is we’ve talked about it often. The Poshmark Heart and Hustle grants. We’ve talked about these grants. They do it on a quarterly basis. They are open right now. poshmark.com/communityfund. Of course, Doug will put it in the transcripts show notes.
Doug:
That’s right. For Vikki.
Liz:
For readers. For Vikki. If you wanna know where it’s at Vikki <laugh>, they haven’t announced a deadline. I could’ve overlooked it. But as of right now, I don’t see it. So, make sure you go check that out. It lays out everything that you need to do in order to win a grant from Poshmark.
Doug:
And we love stuff like this because it’s the platform reinvesting into the community. They’re encouraging you. They’re giving you funds, grants to grow your business. And obviously Poshmark hopes that you grow your business on Poshmark.
Liz:
Yes <laugh> absolutely. And yeah, you get to choose whether you wanna pick, uh, to win a $500 grant or a $5,000 grant. So, go through and see which one you would like to apply for and get it done. I’ve seen a couple of them go up on Instagram because one of the entries needs to be a video posted to social media about your Heart and Hustle in the Poshmark community. Video. Poshmark is the social commerce site and they’ve already said that they’re social. However, Poshmark, come on, man. Come on. Poshmark. Really? Come on. Really Poshmark?
Doug:
Really Poshmark?
Liz:
Really, really, we haven’t even gotten into the Liz rants yet and we’re already like five hours into this podcast.
Doug:
Exactly. We should with like the Oscars.
Liz:
<laugh> No, it’s really not that big of a deal. You guys, what was it like two weeks ago? Did I start ranting about Poshmark or something? Daily deals?
Doug:
I dunno, we were talking about this. That’s when no, we were like really, really?
Liz:
Really, really. So again, we have another really, so I got paid out for my daily deals that I was waiting on. Thank you, Poshmark. I appreciate it. Again. Like I said, you know, that was something I was gonna list anyways. It was easy. If I didn’t get paid, I wasn’t gonna get mad, whatever.
Doug:
Where’s my $2?
Liz:
Oh no, you don’t get $2, Doug. This is what they did. And I got that reference. Can you believe it? I, Liz got a movie reference. So Poshmark came back. Sellers are happy. They’re like, oh I see posts in Instagram, TikTok. You know, “I got my money from Poshmark. Hooray.” And then I swear it wasn’t like an hour later that I started seeing the posts and I had to go to my Poshmark campaigns to verify this. Doug wants his $2? Sorry, Doug. Poshmark’s gonna give you $1. List a Patagonia item, get $1. So, sellers are like, seriously, we went from like 20 bucks and five bucks to $1. There were a lot of jokes about it. You know, the people that I follow on Instagram, there was some fun jokes about it, memes and poking fun. But really at the end of the day, they don’t have to give us anything. We’re gonna list anyways. It’s gonna cost them more than a dollar to process that payment.
Doug:
Yeah, exactly.
Liz:
Come on.
Doug:
But Poshmark, we love you still.
Liz:
I know, I know. I know. Yeah. Ah, that was my little Poshmark thing for the day.
Doug:
And you got paid.
Liz:
I got paid.
Doug:
Did you get, did you get your extra dollar for Patagonia?
Liz:
I didn’t list any Patagonia stuff. I know. You know, it’s really weird because Colorado, we have a lot of outdoor wear and Patagonia and I find it here. I actually do not have one Patagonia item in my entire inventory. So that was Poshmark. I want to move on to eBay. So, Dave Snyder, List Rank Sell, one of our most listened to guests, eBay, SEO expert. So, in one of posts on LinkedIn, shared a really great tip. He shares a lot of great tips, but this one stuck out. I mean, I feel like I should just come on air and read his blog.
Doug:
Yes. So as a reminder, Dave Snyder’s our friend of List Rank Sell and he’s an eBay SEO expert and he emphasizes that. But a lot of the tips he gives can be applicable to multiple platforms, but he is an eBay SEO expert, and he goes deep, and we’ve done a few episodes with him. Um, you know, go back if you haven’t heard him, especially if you’re an eBay seller. So just a reminder, if you don’t know who our friend Dave Snyder is.
Liz:
He says over 50% of his eBay SEO clients start with some form of policy non-compliance. A negative search ranking factor on eBay. So, there is a tool, it’s called ISDN Tech. And they have been providing free compliance tools for eBay sellers for years.
Doug:
Couple quick things. So that percentage doesn’t surprise me because <affirmative> anybody can start listing there’s. I mean, there’s no real barrier to you listing and everybody will tell you, eBay is not easy to get started on. It’s not easy to learn. It’s not easy to list on. And you know, they have some, they have some educational tools and they’re not really pushed though. So doesn’t surprise me that you get a ton of non-compliant listings.
Liz:
Let’s say you have a link, like let’s just say I’m ColoradoReWorn, right. Or I have a site outside of eBay. So, a lot of sellers come on and they’re like, find me at, isellsilverpens.com. Okay. Well, that’s an active link that will take you off the eBay site. And that’s against eBay policy. Yeah. eBay won’t always catch them. eBay won’t always notify you. And they can just, again, as Dave says, it’s a negative search ranking factor. This goes for, um, active content in your listing. And you may not know. So, I’ll tell you where I, this is my experience. Well, I have two experiences with ISDNTech, and we will put the link to this. They have been around for so long and they offer more than eBay stuff. They’re like some high level stuff too. Hmm. So, you’ll have to go check it out. Quite a few years back. eBay had the whole picture palooza where eBay accidentally lost some pictures, but not on all of your listings and not all of your pictures.
Doug:
Just some here and there.
Liz:
So just some here and there, which left sellers at that time, I think I had 1200 listings up in the air. They were just poof gone. So, this is when I learned about ISDN Tech and their scans on there can scan your listings for how many pictures it has, and you can sort it. So, you know, we were running scans and sorting. So, I could see all of my listings that only had one picture. So, I could go in and correct them. But this does a lot more. Like Dave said, it also has a scanning tool for active content and links. So, you can go in and put your store name and it’ll tell you every single listing that’s not compliant. And it’ll tell you exactly what’s wrong. It’ll highlight the line that’s wrong. So active content, let’s say, let’s say you’re a seller that happens to copy and paste descriptions from websites.
Doug:
Is this seller’s name Liz?
Liz:
I’m not gonna call out Liz or Theresa. <laugh> No, but I do know it’s very prevalent in the community, right? Especially amongst new with tags. You copy paste. Well, sometimes those have active content in them that may not be easily visible or it’s something that you overlook and that can suppress your listings. Or as Dave says, it’s a negative search ranking factor. So, there’s a quick tool. Seriously, it takes a couple minutes. You put in your eBay store ID and run it. The compliance tools. You can also bulk edit all of your descriptions. Let’s say you had a line in there that you wanna take out or a line that you wanna add in. You can bulk edit all of your listing descriptions from there. And there’s a little bit more that’s in there, but I thought that was a great tip that can help all sellers. I mean, all of his information is great, but that one really stuck out that I think could help a lot of sellers. So, here’s the thing I use List Perfectly. So, I’m not worried about active content in my listings because I start it on List Perfectly. And I don’t put links in my listings.
Doug:
So, you’re on a roll, Liz. I don’t wanna stop you. As is referenced, was referenced and has been brought up since the livecast. There’s a demand for Liz rants, #LizRant. Do you need like a sound effect or theme song, or do you need like a cool, what, how do you wanna lead into this? You can get up on your soap box.
Liz:
What happens when you get your own hashtag?
Doug:
You get your own soapbox.
Liz:
I don’t understand how this works. Does hair and makeup show up? What, what happens?
Doug:
Yeah. There’s a knock at your door. That’s why the dog’s barking.
Liz:
Liz rant. Yeah. So, I’m on a roll, Doug.
Doug:
Yes. Liz rant.
Liz:
Liz rant. I’m gonna Liz rant on our buddy Griff. Okay. Oh, I’m gonna take it back.
Doug:
Careful what you start.
Liz:
I’m not gonna take it back. I am gonna take that back. It’s not a rant against Griff. Okay. Griff is amazing. I was on the eBay for Business podcast Facebook page. Across well, I was on Facebook, and it came across my feed. Griff posted, talking about, did you ever check to see if your fixed price listings show up in Google shopping? If yes, and you should regularly, and they show up great. If they are not showing up, there are reasons why. We’ll talk about them in the next episode. So, this episode is already released. This opened up the door. I think I’m commenting right now. I am commenting right now. So, I was super excited to see this. And I’m like, you know what? I’m not happy with this. I’m gonna write Griff message in this group. Doug, take it away in your best Liz voice.
Doug:
Nice. Can’t wait to tune in to hear more about it. Is there a way or something in the works will give sellers a more detailed look into external site views? Griff. I know you remember, years back when this info was provided to us, we could tell where our items were being viewed. It would be so helpful as a seller to see where our external traffic is coming from. So, we could concentrate our efforts on self-promotion on platforms that are working for us. Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Google, etcetera. Thanks Griff!
Liz:
With an exclamation mark.
Doug:
Yeah. With an exclamation mark.
Liz:
So, years back, eBay sellers, you remember we had traffic reports that told us exactly where our external site views who are coming from. So, it would give us a percentage that we’re getting views from Facebook, from Pinterest, from Google, from Bing, right? <affirmative> So we could kind of see where they were coming from since then. Social media has exploded, not just me, but there are a lot of sellers that have been asking for detailed traffic reports. What they have now is they’ll just tell us what percentage or how many external site views came that day. Any chance I get when the subject comes up, I’m a little bit passionate about it cuz I wanna know.
Doug:
I’ve seen this brought up before, by long term sellers. You guys used to get the info and here’s an SEO tip. The more links you have pointing to your listing, the better your SEO ranking is, and that’s gonna help you get seen and sell. But wouldn’t it be nice Liz to know where you’re getting the most traffic from? What’s working the best for you.
Liz:
Well, look, this was important to me when I only had a Facebook page. Right? Like I wanted to see where this was coming from. Now, if I’m advertising on Pinterest, if I’m advertising on LinkedIn, if I’m advertising on, you know, Instagram, Facebook page, anywhere. I wanna know where my views are coming from because if I’m taking an hour a day focusing on Instagram. And then I also take an hour a day and focus on Facebook. And all of my eBay views are coming from Facebook. Why am I posting on Instagram? This is important information. And it’s more crucial to have now more than ever. eBay, are you listening to me? We need these.
Doug:
Oh, you sound…so is this…
Liz:
That’s more like Liz whines. OK.
Doug:
No, you don’t.
Liz:
That was sad.
Doug:
Is this a really eBay or a really Griff or both?
Liz:
No, it’s eBay.
Doug:
Really eBay?
Liz:
Really eBay? But it’s okay. Doug, Griff responded to me.
Doug:
Oh, he realized who he was talking to <laugh>
Liz:
He’s like, “Yes. I believe that’s in the works. Not sure when though.” That was safe. Griff. I’m calling you out. That was safe. Really Griff? That was my response. Seriously. <laugh> I can’t wait.
Doug:
Nice. Calling the Griffster out. And then did the conversation stop?
Liz:
Oh no, it kept on going, but it just got boring, and I got no more information from him. Griff is just delivering the news. Poor Griff.
Doug:
There are no plans. I don’t know that there are plans to bring it back. Or last time it came, it was like, there were no plan to bring it back. Last time it came up.
Liz:
So, let’s dump #LizRants and bring in #eBaytrafficreports.
Doug:
Yeah, exactly.
Liz:
I’m not gonna give up on this one. Anyways. Is that true? I have no idea but thank you Griff for giving me some hope.
Doug:
Thank you, Griff. Liz, we covered List Perfectly. We covered eBay. We covered Lego. We covered Depop, Poshmark. Some SEO.
Liz:
And eBay again.
Doug:
Anything else?
Liz:
Doug, I feel like I should ask you that because I’m out of breath. Doug, is there anything you would like to add?
Doug:
That Liz rant exhausted you. I enjoyed getting you wound up though. That was fun.
Liz:
Can you guys hear the tone in my voice when I get wound up?
Doug:
Like the pitch goes up a little bit. <laugh> Really Griff? I mean we’re a year in. Hopefully people know you by now, but Liz will call you out. It’s true.
Liz:
Sometimes. Yeah.
Doug:
In a nice way. In a nurturing way.
Liz:
In a nice way. So, and that’s why I have a hard time with Liz rants because I don’t really rant. I’m just gonna say it. Like is that a rant, I really don’t know what a rant is.
Doug:
It’s what the people want. Liz.
Liz:
Okay. It’s a tirade. So, a rant, it’s a tirade. Speak or shout at length in a wild impassioned way.
Doug:
There you go.
Liz:
Or a spell of ranting, a tirade. Okay. Maybe I do rant. Whatever.
Doug:
You don’t go on and on.
Liz:
I feel like I do Doug. I’m so glad our listeners stuck around for that, but I hope you learn something, and I hope, I’m not saying fired up, but I hope you’re as passionate about some of these things that I am because honestly this affects our business. Am I gonna spend hours and hours chasing this down until I get an answer? No, but will I speak up every single chance I get? Absolutely.
Doug:
# Liz lecture.
Liz:
<laugh> Oh yeah. By the way, do you have anything to add Doug? I cut you off.
Doug:
No, that was good. I enjoyed it. I learned a lot. I enjoyed Liz rant number one.
Liz:
And two and three. Are you gonna go play with ISDN Tech now on all of your listings to make sure that they’re compliant?
Doug:
I will go take a look.
Liz:
Yeah. There you go. Thank you, Dave.
Doug:
Yes. Thanks Dave. Shout out to Dave Snyder and we’ll include all these links in the show notes. All right, Liz, I guess that’s all the news that fits this week.
Liz:
Thank you for joining us on The Seller Community Podcast news edition from List Perfectly. You can find us at listperfectly.com/podcast. Leave a message or ask a question at anchor.fm/sellercommunitypodcast. You can email us at podcast@listperfectly.com. You can post a question in the List Perfectly Facebook group at facebook.com/group/listperfectly. Use the hashtag #sellercommunitypodcast and mention Liz or Doug.
Doug:
You can listen to us anywhere you listen to podcasts and be sure to subscribe. Tell your friends, and if you’re on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, we’d love for you to leave us a review. Also, please follow us on Instagram and TikTok. Liz is @ColoradoReworn. I am @Snoop.Dougie and of course @ListPerfectly, and you can always use our promo code “podcast”, PODCAST for 30% off your first month of List Perfectly or upgrading your plan. We will see you next time.