Active Content

[jt-libra]

After many hours of individually revising all my listings to remove active content and ensure that the link to my store worked, I decided to run the Bulk Scanner again.  It showed about 75% of those listings still have active content.

I spot-checked a lot of them on my desktop, tablet and phone and they look fine and the link to my store works, so I'm not going to do any further work on them.

Anyone else find the same thing?

[ricarmic]

When I am "relisting" old listings it is giving me heck for my:
-turbolister "advertising" junk it puts in at the bottom (which is fine, I stopped using turbolister a long time ago)
-links to my ebay store (which I stopped including a while ago)

When I run the application, it says I don't have any active content.

So I'm not worrying, my "new and improved" item descriptions are simply text so my greatest risk is the "old" listings, and I suspect all that will happen is the links etc wont work anymore....but I've been surprised before!!!

[vintagenorth]

I've added the target phrase to my store links and if I go to revise eBay still says I have active content. If I check for active content using shipscript's checker it says they are fine, no active content. I'm not worrying about it, my listings are all text, no fancy stuff, they're good.

[jt-libra]

---

@vintagenorth wrote:

I've added the target phrase to my store links and if I go to revise eBay still says I have active content. If I check for active content using shipscript's checker it says they are fine, no active content. I'm not worrying about it, my listings are all text, no fancy stuff, they're good.

---

That's what I did too.  I did use the scanner that shipscript linked to but, still, most of them turned up yellow.  Both you and ricarmic said that you got "warning" messages when you relisted/revised.  I didn't get a message with revisions I did today or with "sell similar" so I presume all is well.  I'm so tired of working with these listings; they're going to have to be good as is.  After all, sales can't get any worse

[reallynicestamps]

-links to my ebay store (which I stopped including a while ago)

This annoys me.

EBay can put third party advertising all over listings taking customers away from the site, but we can't encourage them to visit our Stores.

And today I noticed my carefully described listings are suddenly "see more descriptions' on dotCOM.

[jt-libra]

---

@reallynicestamps wrote:

-links to my ebay store (which I stopped including a while ago)

This annoys me.

EBay can put third party advertising all over listings taking customers away from the site, but we can't encourage them to visit our Stores.

And today I noticed my carefully described listings are suddenly "see more descriptions' on dotCOM.

---

Very good point! 

[vintagenorth]

---

@reallynicestamps wrote:

And today I noticed my carefully described listings are suddenly "see more descriptions' on dotCOM.

---

I have that "see more descriptions" on dot.com and I also have "see details" on .ca Same thing, just worded differently. So now we are back to that click here to see a description that didn't work when eBay tried it last year and strangely my sales came to a halt as of yesterday on both my stores. I wonder why? (add sarcasm here)

[jt-libra]

---

@vintagenorth wrote:

---

@reallynicestamps wrote:

And today I noticed my carefully described listings are suddenly "see more descriptions' on dotCOM.

---

I have that "see more descriptions" on dot.com and I also have "see details" on .ca Same thing, just worded differently. So now we are back to that click here to see a description that didn't work when eBay tried it last year and strangely my sales came to a halt as of yesterday on both my stores. I wonder why? (add sarcasm here)

---

I noticed that when I was checking my listings today but because I seldom look at my items on the phone and because I've never bought anything on eBay from my phone, I thought it had always been like that.  I would find it very cumbersome to use my cell phone to shop on eBay.  I like to see as much information as I can in the first screen, particularly when I'm doing comparison shopping.  To click on Product Details and then on Item Description is so time consuming.  But I guess it's the norm for people who have never used anything but their phone to shop .... and everything else!  I guess I'm a dinosaur.  I prefer my desktop/laptop or, in a pinch, my iPad.

[pjcdn2005]

---

@reallynicestamps wrote:

-links to my ebay store (which I stopped including a while ago)

This annoys me.

EBay can put third party advertising all over listings taking customers away from the site, but we can't encourage them to visit our Stores.

And today I noticed my carefully described listings are suddenly "see more descriptions' on dotCOM.

---

You can add a link to your store or other listings but it has to be set up a certain way. 

Do you see your description now?  On your listings and on vintage's listings I see the full description without having to click on a separate link.  If you still see it with the link, then they must be doing another test and are not showing all users the same thing.

[thestuffofchris]

I think it's a test. I've gone to various .COM listings of different users on these boards and didn't see it.

I remember last time this came up on the boards I saw it on some listings but not others, so the tests must be limited and sporadic, both in terms of which sellers they are testing it on and which buyers see it.

[femmefan1946]

Something else to draw attention to on the Weekly Chat.

[femmefan1946]

I just took a look at a rather old listing on my iPhone -- possibly the first time I've looked at eBay there. I notice that my decision to change around my listings was wise. I now have the edition information first and the longer description is found when following an arrow to the right.

On sewing patterns the edited description seems pretty random. Some are missing measurements (important!) and some kept them.

[jt-libra]

A little off topic -- but, yesterday, when I was checking my listings on my iPhone and my iPad to see if they were free of active content, I noticed that on my iPad, my listings looked the same as on my desktop but on the iPhone 6, when I clicked on the description, the text was really small -- much smaller than the text on the first screen.  You have to really expand the window to be able to read it.  Maybe it's different on a 7.

Is there some rule of thumb as to what size font you should use with your descriptions?  Right now, I primarily use Verdana 10 Bold and, to me, the text is a perfect size on my desktop or iPad.  Has anyone seen statistics as to what percentage of eBay shoppers use their mobile vs a laptop or iPad?  I imagine it's quite high.

[thestuffofchris]

I remember hearing a statistic from another user that no longer frequents the boards, but who would go to the eBay events and talk to higher-ups and those in the know, that something like two-thirds of all eBay listings are "touched" by a mobile device in some way.

I've always preferred to use 12 or 14 point Arial in my listings. I think having a larger font size is a bit easier on the eyes, and looks better on mobile. Then again, I don't always wear my glasses when I should so I tend to do my listings to be able to be seen by my eyes sans glasses.

[jt-libra]

---

@thestuffofchris wrote:

I remember hearing a statistic from another user that no longer frequents the boards, but who would go to the eBay events and talk to higher-ups and those in the know, that something like two-thirds of all eBay listings are "touched" by a mobile device in some way.

I've always preferred to use 12 or 14 point Arial in my listings. I think having a larger font size is a bit easier on the eyes, and looks better on mobile. Then again, I don't always wear my glasses when I should so I tend to do my listings to be able to be seen by my eyes sans glasses.

---

Something just occurred to me -- duh!!  I have my zoom set to 125% and always have so, of course, a 10 Font looks quite large.  I think I'll start switching to a 12 at first and see how that looks on a mobile.  Mind you, Verdana is a little larger than Arial so I'll see what a 12 looks like.

That two-thirds figure is probably a pretty close estimate, so I guess I should start catering more to mobile users.  But, as I've mentioned previously, I'm a dinosaur!