Are Your Photos eBay Legal?

The deadline is approaching for all eBay photos to meet the new guidelines set forth in the Spring 2013 update. July 1 is the deadline for all photos to be updated to meet the new standards. Just a friendly reminder:

All photos must be a minimum of 500 pixels on one side.

Photos cannot have borders.

Photos may not contain any seller-added text, watermarks, or artwork.

When you list a used item outside of books, movies, music, and video games, you cannot use the eBay catalog stock photo in the primary photo position. You must upload your own photo. 

All listings must have at least one photo.

If you are a "Last Minute Larry," and still have some photos to fix to meet the new standards, here are a few free tools and tips to help in the process:

ISDNTEK Tool - enter your seller name in the box on the top left and this free tool will tell you which photos need repair. Don't panic, this tool pulls up all of your listings. Just pay attention to the number next to "Listings to repair."

PicResize.com - upload photos and specify custom size to resize your picture so that it is at least 500 pixels on one side.

So get those photos fixed! According to eBay.com, "Pictures that violate these requirements will be blocked from listing or will be subject to removal from the site after listing. Sellers who repeatedly violate the picture quality requirements may be subject to further administrative action, including selling restrictions and possible search demotion."

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Reader Question - Why Screen Shots and Not Actual Listings?

I received this message from JPC about how example items are presented on my blog:

"What bothers me about how you present these items on your blog, is that you just do screen shots, so you can't follow links to see the actual item, or to see the seller's other items. You are showing them and not allowing readers to actually find them, which could potentially have led to more sales." Great question!

There are several reasons why I use screen shots. First, eBay items are only archived for 45 days. Once the link becomes older than 45 days, it will be a dead link and won't work. Screen shots will be on the post forever. So, for readers who don't find the post until after 45 days, they can still see how the listing looked and not just get a dead link.

Secondly, having several screen shots in a row more convenient for reading and comparing than clicking back and from from the blog post to eBay several times.

Also, from a blogging perspective, a screen shot increases SEO. An effective strategy for Search Engine Optimization is the naming of images to include relevant keywords. These key words create an ALT tag for the image, which can be seen by search engines, and increases your SEO.

You can use this strategy on your eBay listings, too. When you take photos of your eBay items and upload them to your computer for editing, name the photo the same as the keywords of your item, rather than just IMG00009 like it comes out of the camera. So, not only can Google find your item by its title, Google can see the ALT tag and find it by the image, too! Furthermore, your listings' images will eventually show up on Google Images and may lead more buyers to your eBay store or listing.

For more tips about eBay selling, come join my Facebook Group where we have over 2,000 sellers networking and sharing positive energy.

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