The key to a good ad for Craigs List or Ebay is to give the viewer a good logical reason why they should buy your product.
Good reasons might include:
* Best Price. Other people may be selling similar products, but you have the best price. This is most important for products that are mass produced. For example, if two people are selling the same book, in the same condition, I'm going to buy the one that is cheaper pretty much every time.
* Best Product. Other people may be selling similar products, but yours is the best. For example, if you are selling pizza, others may have a cheaper slice, but yours might be the best.
* Best Value. Sometimes there is a good compromise between price and quality. Your product is inexpensive, and while it may not be the cheapest, it's a better product and the overall value is excellent.
* Special product: Is your item one that isn't available elsewhere? For example, if you have wool from the Aran Islands, it may not be interchangeable with other wool from other places. This is a reason to buy yours in preference to anything else out there.
* Seller reputation. On Amazon and Ebay, sellers are rated by people who have bought things from them in the past. A five star or 100% satisfaction rating will allow people to buy from you with confidence. This translates into faster sales and better prices. It is very very important to protect your seller rating.
* Clarity and accuracy of pictures . You should have clear pictures of the thing you are selling, with no excuses for bad or fuzzy or far away pictures. We want to see what you are selling.
* Accurate and relevant information about the product. For example, if we are selling a car, we want the year, model, miles, color, and condition. Do not subsitute claims like "great deal" or "low miles". Be specific. More oten
* General honesty. It is important to both appear honest, and to actually be honest, in your descriptions. This gives credibility. Admit flaws in your products. Better to let them know now instead of complain later, returning the product and giving you bad feedback.
* Keep your ad short and to the point and put your most important information at the top, to make sure they see the stuff that is important. If something crucial is buried in a page of dense text nobody will read it.
Things to avoid
* Resist any temptation to lie or exagggerate. Some people feel that anything is fair in the spirit of salesmanship, however, if you are planning to stay in business for long, your lies and exaggerations will come back to haunt you in the form of returns and bad feedback.
* Avoid saying things that make you seem like a sleazy sales person. Don't put things like *****WOW******* or *** LAST CHANCE TODAY*** or *** GOING OUT OF BUSINESS **** because nobody cares. You lose credibility and it looks dumb.
* Avoid repetition. This is just a rule of good English writing but it applies to ads too. Say what you have to say, once, and be done If you find a piece of text that repeats in two places, remove one. Be rigorous about this.
* Proofread and make sure there are no spelling or grammar errors.
* Leaving out crucial information like price or mileage (on a car) is a mistake. Just put it in the ad and deal with it. I personally won't anwer an ad that has incomplete information. I assume there's something they're hiding. If less people are interested you get a worse price. For example, a car that is advertised with "low miles" is virtually always a bomb. If it had 32,000 miles and was in perfect condtion, they'd say so.
Photographs
* Make sure you have good photographs. If you don't have photos it will be very hard to get anyone to look at your ad.
* If appropriate, you will often want to have one "full" shot and several closeups showing detail. This seems obvious but it's surprising how often you will see only a partial picture, or only closeups, or only a full shot with no closeups. If there is a back side to the item make sure to show that.
* If the item has a surface that shows age (car, guitar, furniture etc.) make sure that at least one photograph shows this clearly. Light reflected off a surface will often show the surface best in its reflection. Our goal is a set of pictures that show what you would look at if the object were right in front of you and you were checking it out carefully. Don't leave anything to imagination or guesswork.
* Include detail photos of any flaws, scratches, etc. Sure, flaws reduce the price, but honesty and credibility win some of that back. It's the best policy. The buyer will see your item in the end, and they have the right to return it, so might as well be up front about flaws.
* Make sure your photos are clear and well lit. If they aren't, take the time to go back and take new photos. Use a camera, not a cell phone. Don't use flash pictures or pictures that are lit with bright sky or sun behind the subject. Don't use photos that are out of focus.