Ebay Templates Layouts
From LoveToKnow Web-Design
Using eBay templates layouts will increase the likelihood that your product will attract customers and result in a sale. It's a simple matter of people appreciating a clear and well-designed page over a standard form. But where can you find eBay templates layouts that will work for your goods without paying an arm and a leg?
Templates for Free and a Bit More
Like many things on the web, it's pretty easy to locate free ebay templates – but another maxim is also true – anything free is worth what you pay for it. For example, if you use the Template-o-matic, it's very easy.
- Select a color scheme – purple, yellow, blue, etc.
- Give your template a title ("My Great Store")
- Come up with a clever subtitle ("Best Values on the Web")
- Put in the URLs for up to three images (you need to already have these uploaded to an image site such as Flickr or Picasa)
- Put in a description of the goods you are selling. The Template-o-matic has a WYSIWYG editing form here, but provides no guidelines as to how to format your description. People often make mistakes such as all-caps or using many different fonts, thinking it will draw attention, but in reality flaunting the rules of typographic design just makes things harder to read.
- Decide whether to include a link to your other ebay auctions (pretty much a no-brainer, since the more links you have the more likely you are to sell things).
Once you do all of these steps, you can click on "View Template" – and what you get is basically the information you entered, in very basic HTML format and with no real benefit beyond what you would get from simply using eBay's own forms. You do, however, get a frame in the color style you specified – which is something, but really not much.
There are other sites, such as CG Web Solutions, that offer similar services (this particular one has more styles of templates and also offers image hosting and resizing, though most of the other steps are the same as listed above). With a little bit of effort, you can learn enough to make your eBay store much more effective.
Designing Your Own eBay Templates Layouts
Somewhere between learning how to use Dreamweaver for coding HTML and just buying a professional template lies the world of Free Form Builder. Designed as a free tool, this can seem a bit daunting at first – but there are many places where you can click on "tutorials", and you can see the variety of templates available simply by going to the Template Viewer. Selecting a template (for example, Template 36 has a Beatles theme) and clicking the SHOW link will give you a view not only of the background of the template, but also the various areas that need to be filled out and how they are laid out on the page.
Just like before, you have to have the information ready:
- Item Title
- Item Description (often more than one)
- Item images (again, more than one is often more effective when selling)
- Return Policy
- Payment and Shipping
- Your own logo (if available).
The Free Form Builder site recommends that you "learn by playing" and provides an easy preview button so that you can quickly see what kinds of changes you've made to your template. Even better, it offers options for saving the template for later use, which means you can give your eBay products a coherent theme that will help bring customers back.
Going to the Professionals
eBay has actually certified some designers to work specifically on creating layouts for sellers. The Ideas Woman is an example of an award-winning designer who can completely brand and create a theme for your eBay auctions. Her site provides many examples of her work, and if you're more into selling than designing, this may be the way to get your auction site going more quickly.
Learn More
This page has been accessed 910 times. This page was last modified 04:50, 17 June 2009.
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