what listing looks better and easier to see what you need to

[brandeentertainment]

just looking for opinions..

321076334977 with all ebay's info and have more info is my description

 221140097395 Removed most of ebay's info and cut out some of my description

[pjcdn2005]

That's a good suggestion Rob. I have read on some forums that the extra html that comes with some templates such as the ones on auctiva do not "read" well mobile phones. I have no idea if that is true but I'm curious if anyone has an opinion on that.

I realize that our listings can be checked on mobile at http://m.ebay.com/ but I doubt that it is accurate for all types of phones.

Also, I have always set up my listings so that you can see my store categories and store header...I wonder if that too is considered "bad" for mobile users?

[robshelp]

Hi pjcdn2005,

We discussed accommodations for mobile devise users quite thoroughly in this thread on the USA Photos and HTML board:

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/topic/Photos-Html/Do-Most-Mobile/5100126127

One of the conclusions was that m.ebay.com isn't a valid testing tool. Most mobile device users will be taken to mobileweb.ebay.com which is quite different from m.ebay.com.

Another conclusion is we just need to do our best to keep the content from extending out too wide.  A template at 940 pixels wide is a good compromise between mobile and computer viewing.

eBay does not display an eBay Store's Listing Frame to mobile users so no harm in having it present (for computer users to see).  Would be a good idea, in fact, to include a search box in the item description for mobile device (smart phone) users who don't see the listing frame.

[pjcdn2005]

Thanks for the info and link Rob, I will read that thread.

I didn't realize that you could actually put a search box within the description. How would I find out how to do that?

Can mobile users click on a link within a description? For example if I have a link to my store, will they be able to access it?

I will read that thread before I ask any more questions. 🙂

[pocomocomputing]

pj,

How a listing behaves on a mobile device depends on the abilities of the mobile device and if they allow a browser to be used.

I have access to an Apple iPad. It is really no different than an desktop computer.It has the Apple Safari browser which makes a listing appear the same as a desktop. Links work. Apple does not support Adobe flash so flash based tools such as the Auctiva showcase are blank.

I also have access to an Apple iPhone and it also has the Apple Safari browser. Works exactly the same as the iPad but it is a smaller display.

If the mobile device is an older device that doe not use a browser, then it might have more issues if the m.ebay.com mobile site is used which strips out a lot of HTML formatting and that can jumble the text left.

Most mobile shoppers seem to be using a smartphone or smart mobile device that allows full browser experience with little limitations.

I will check the look of your listings on the iPad and iPhone later and report back.

[pocomocomputing]

I checked out your listing 271156375889 on the iPhone. All looks okay. While the listings looks okay in portrait mode on the iPhone, to be able to read the test, I have to rotate the phone and switch to landscape mode to read the text. This is a normal for all eBay browsing.

I was taken to the mobileweb.ebay.com site. I browsed you eBay photos, enlarged them, all okay. (The wood grain background makes the item hard to see details but that is not a mobile issue.)

The Sellathon counter at the bottom of the listing description does not work because it is flash based so it displays a message saying flash is not installed. Makes the listing look broken.  If you do not use the Sellathon counter, then turn it off in your Auctiva setting. Unless you subscribe to the Sellathon reporting to analyze your listing traffic, it is useless to have it in there.

When using the iPhone, the landscape mode does not allow for many text lines to be seen because the display has only a few lines to be seen. For example, if I set the description title at the top of the browser page, I only can see down to Details... There is a lot of blank lines because you double blank lines in front and behind the Based in California text. In other parts of the listing you have double blank lines between sections. You might want to consider to not to double blank lines as it makes white space dominate the iPhone small screen. So it seems you should keep line spacing tighter but not too tight to lose the effect of the spacing on larger displays. There is about 15 lines of text on the smaller screen for your font size when it is all the same size.

Your link works fine. The shipping section image looks fine. (Has a blank line above which combine with the spacing of the Shipping image makes a lot of white space.)

So I would say that the only improvements to a better browser look on the iPhone would be to get rid of the Sellathon counter and not have double spaced blanks lines separating sections.

So I would assume on most smartphones other than the Apple iPhone, your listing would appear the same.

Somewhere there is a link to simulate the screen size of a smaller display and how a listing looks like. I do not have the link. Rob may have it.

[pocomocomputing]

On the Apple iPad, all looks exactly like a desktop computer. The Apple Safari browser is used. Your ebay store catagories are there. The only issue is with the Sellathon counter displays that flash is not installed.

Of course, now that I noticed the extra blank lines in the iPhone, the spacing looks larger than needed on the iPad and on my desktop.

[robshelp]

Somewhere there is a link to simulate the screen size of a smaller display and how a listing looks like. I do not have the link. Rob may have it.

I am not aware of such a place, but included with the Web Developer extension for FireFox is a toolbar with a window Resize tool.  Among the selections for Resize is "View Responsive Layouts".  Responsive is the term currently being used to describe layouts that adapt to the width of the viewport of the device being used.  To a very large degree the techniques to accomplish are the same as they've always been.  Just substitute window for viewport.

Regarding putting a search box into an item description.  shipscript has a tool to help with that here:

http://isdntek.com/tagbot/ebaysearch.htm

[brandeentertainment]

Poco

Removed everything from Auctiva and closed my Auctiva account but my ebay listings still have all the crap ...

should I expect a 12-24 hr delay before it take affect or do I still have to revise listings

[brandeentertainment]

No matter what i do the sellathon counter won't go away .. I removed from Auctiva and closed my account...

I removed the counter option on ebay which is not even in anyway related to Sellathon counter but did it anyways...

It won't go away ... Just want it to leave me alone LOL

[robshelp]

Turning off the automatic addition of features to item descriptions does not remove the features from the already added to item descriptions.  It is necessary to revise the item descriptions to remove them.

[pjcdn2005]

Poco, Thanks so much for the tips. I will work on that white space issue and turn off the sellathon counter. You mentioned the shipping section...I would actually like to take out the "Shipping" icon but it comes with the Auctiva template and I don't see any html that will let me change or delete it.

I have an older Blackberry and I find it cumbersome to use on ebay but one of these days I'll have to upgrade and see how everything looks.

[pjcdn2005]

Thanks Rob for the search box link and for all of the other info. It's great to see you on this forum. 🙂

[pocomocomputing]

pj, re Auctiva shipping section in your listing. An Auctiva listing is made of building blocks called profiles. You can also have a Master Profile that groups different profile.

You still have the Shipping block in a profile somewhere being included in your listings.  You do not have to delete it from the block, you just need to turn include off in your listings.

I still have a free Auctiva account and I can check things. I did use Auctiva 4 years ago and learned how it works. It is an incredibly powerful well designed system.

You need to use Auctiva to revise and existing listing and look down the right side at the top of each section. You will see a load profile there.  Go down to the Shipping section and it should show a profile in use. Try to unselect it.

If it stays, it could be loaded at the top in the Master Profile. A master profile is a set of normal profile.

If you can turn it off, then the revise will reload the listing into ebay and it should be gone.

By the way, first turn off the Sellathon counter in your Auctiva settings so it does not get reloaded.

When you do a revise from Auctiva, it rebuilds the listing description and replaces it all in the listing. So the shipping section should be dropped and the Sellathon counter also.

Remember, you cannot change some things in an eBay listing if there have been sales. That rule applies to Auctiva also.

Perhaps create a test listing first and see if it works to revise it after to understand how to do this. It should be incredibly easy to do once you know how

Now I have not used Auctiva in a long time and my test account is limited in what I can see and do.

[pocomocomputing]

Also, profiles are built up from building blocks called Seller Details. Seller Details is the smallest block.

[brandeentertainment]

Figured it out had to erase everything under HTML as I could not erase everything in standard format...

Thanks everyone for all the advice and links etc.

[pocomocomputing]

Poco

Removed everything from Auctiva and closed my Auctiva account but my ebay listings still have all the crap ...

should I expect a 12-24 hr delay before it take affect or do I still have to revise listings

No easy way to remove the Sellathon code. It is too big for the eBay bulk editor find and replace limit of 1,000 character. So manual revise and redo all of the listings to your new format?

[pocomocomputing]

No easy way to remove the Sellathon code. It is too big for the eBay bulk editor find and replace limit of 1,000 character. So manual revise and redo all of the listings one at a time to your new format.

[pocomocomputing]

Figured it out had to erase everything under HTML as I could not erase everything in standard format...

Thanks everyone for all the advice and links etc.

Yes, you have to be in HTML view to see all of the HTML code. So hard to explain online in words. No interaction in real time with you. No way to know what you are doing. Something that would take five seconds to show in person takes longer in words.

[pocomocomputing]

I am not aware of such a place, but included with the Web Developer extension for FireFox is a toolbar with a window Resize tool.  Among the selections for Resize is "View Responsive Layouts".  Responsive is the term currently being used to describe layouts that adapt to the width of the viewport of the device being used.  To a very large degree the techniques to accomplish are the same as they've always been.  Just substitute window for viewport.

Regarding putting a search box into an item description.  shipscript has a tool to help with that here:

http://isdntek.com/tagbot/ebaysearch.htm

Possibly that extension for FireFox was what I was thinking about. I read a lot and sometimes memories are vague on things I did not actually try out.

[pjcdn2005]

Hi Poco, I do realize how the profiles work. 🙂

The icon that I am speaking from comes from seller details. I could turn it off but then I would also have to manually copy and paste that information on to each listing. I used to do that but found that often I would forget or it would get erased so doing it this way was easier. I would think though that there would be a way to delete just the shipping icon and keep the other details in there. I haven't figured it out though. I suppose I could ask Auctiva if it was possible but thought that I would try and figure it out first.

Last night I actually found where I could see the html for the template and details and I tried deleting the icon but there didn't seem to be a way to save it so it reverted back to normal.

As far as sellathon....I had turned it off in my Auctiva preferences. But I found out that when a listing ends, I still have to go to that particular listing in Auctiva and turn off the counter within that listing itself. Otherwise, the counter is still there when I relist.