Auctiva is a great service, and the best news is that it’s free. However, there are a few things you need to know to use it effectively.
Auctiva offers free image hosting services, free listing templates and free scheduling. Before you get started using Auctiva to list your eBay auctions, however, you’ll need to edit your photographs so that they are no longer than 600 pixels on the longest dimension. You can read my Paint Shop Pro Tutorial to find out how. Also, be sure to name your images appropriately so you can find them easily when you go to create your listings.
It’s best to create folders before you upload your images to Auctiva. This will make it easier to find your image when you create your listing. You can name your folders according to what they contain, and also color-code your folders.
Click on the Images tab to begin your upload. I prefer to use the Drag and Drop uploader. This uploader works only with Internet Explorer, and allows you to upload your photos in bulk. Select the items you want to upload individually, or upload an entire folder all at once. You are limited to 100 images, and there is a limit to the file sizes you can upload. So all images will need to reduced to .jpg format and resized before you upload them, or Auctiva will reject your upload.
When you have uploaded your pictures, click on the Listings tab. There are a wide variety of free templates available, and I recommend that you use them liberally. You can create a listing from a Master Profile, or create a similar listing from another listing you created on Auctiva. To create a Master Profile, you can either import your closed listings by clicking Closed at the top of the page, then clicking Import Listings. The imported listings will be visible on your Saved Listings page. Once you have imported your listings, they can be used as a template. Select one or more listings and click, Create Profiles. Click Master on the far right, then at the bottom of the page click Create. You can then access your Master Profiles from the Listings page.
You can also create Master Profiles manually by clicking the Profiles tab. Under Create New Profiles, click Master. Then choose your Detail Profile, Marketing Profile, Shipping Profile and Checkout Profile from the drop-down list. If you have no profiles in your Master Profiles list, you can click on Seller Details, Item Details, Marketing, Shipping and Checkout to enter the information manually.
If you create a listing from a Master Profile you don’t have to fill in all the details such as category ID, shipping details, refund information and checkout information. However, if you use a Master Profile to create a new listing, you should be sure that the Master Profile listing is for the same type of merchandise with the same basic weight and shipping services as the new item you are selling. Check the listing carefully to make sure it is correct before saving or scheduling it.
Since Auctiva offers free scheduling services, you don’t have to upload your listing right away or pay a fee to schedule, as you do with the Sell Your Item form or Turbo Lister. The only downside that I’ve seen is that a couple of options are not available with the online Auctive listing form, including store categories and the tax table. If you need these options and choose to use the Auctiva online listing form, you must simply edit your listing after upload. I haven’t found any way around the problem.
Auctiva also offers offline, downloadable listing tools. They include Auctiva Mr. Poster, Auctiva Poster, and Auctiva Pro Pass. Mr. Poster is free, Poster is $9.95 per month, and Pro Pass is $19.95 per month, or $15.95 per month for a full year.
Mr. Lister is a very plain vanilla program which doesn’t do much. It doesn’t have any of the Auctiva templates incorporated into it. It permits you to upload in batches, but there really isn’t anything it does that eBay’s freeTurbo Lister program doesn’t do better. Since it isn’t provided by eBay, it isn’t necessarily up on all the changes going on there. One problem is that it isn’t set up for store categories, and it’s difficult to figure out how to include them in the program. However, I’ve found that Turbo Lister has gotten buggier and buggier as time has passed because of all the times they’ve subjected it to unnecessary re-engineering. So you may want to give Mr. Poster a try if Turbo Lister just stops functioning altogether.
Auctiva Poster is more versatile, and allows you to upload listings to eBay, Yahoo! auctions, Amazon.com auctions or zShops, and also offers a wide array of themes and layouts to use in your listings. If you use two or more of these sales sites, then Auctiva Poster is probably a good program for you. You should probably be making a lot of money and have a lot of traffic on these sites, however, or it won’t justify the expense. If you’re only on eBay, you’re better off with Turbo Lister, which allows you to put your own template into the software in the form of HTML, and save that listing as a template.
Auctiva eBud is a tracking tool that allows you to track your sales and active auctions. If you have an eBay store, you don’t need these tools, because Selling Manager and Sales Reports Plus come with your store. So unless you sell exclusively at auction and don’t have a store, I wouldn’t pay good money for this tool.
Overall, despite some problems with the online listing tool, I find Auctiva to be an excellent service. I strongly recommend that you use it as a free tool to increase your eBay sales.
