How to Write a Winning Soldster Ad

By Elizabeth Warren

You are using Soldster instead of eBay because you want to sell your stuff quickly and easily, sell all your items at once, and not pay any fees or commissions. Writing an effective Soldster listing is the key to getting your item(s) sold. A seller needs a listing that will accomplish the goals of letting buyers know exactly what the item is.



Tips & Warnings

  1. Do not put contact information in your ad, anywhere at all, except in the fields that ask for it. Doing so will get your ad removed from Soldster.
  2. Spell it right. Nothing is worse than seeing postings that look as if they were written by a 6 year old.
  3. Do not put the words LQQK or C@@L in your ad. People often put these in the title, simply because they see other sellers doing it for their listings and think it will call attention to them. But, these words simply take away space that could be used by effective keywords.
  4. Do NOT USE ALL UPPERCASE LETTERS IN YOUR AD, and do not use all lowercase letters either.


Writing A Headline

Nobody will look at your item listing if they cannot find it. The first thing you have to do is write a good headline. The basics are:

  1. Be as descriptive as you can
  2. Lead with Brand Name first, then other specifics. Many people just type "Women's Jeans 8" and the Brand name first will set it apart from the other titles. Also, I like to CAPS the brand name, "GAP Women's Denim Jeans Size 8 NWT"
  3. Don't spam keywords that are similar to your item, and don't use "L@@K," this is a waste of precious space, and nobody searches for "L@@K."


Item Specifics

Think of the Who, What, When, Where and How of your item. Make sure you provide all item specifics.



Item Condition

Be honest. Point out the good, the bad, and the ugly. If the item smells like cigarette smoke, say so. Describe flaws carefully because 99% of all problems arise from a careless or missing description of condition. The price an item is worth is usually directly related to its condition or grade. Buyers will ask lots of questions about condition if you fail to include it, so you might as well do it now rather than later.

Item Description

This is probably the most important part! It is important to write as detaileda description as you possibly can. Try to imagine what buyers might ask you, and answer them ahead of time! This will save you a lot of time in not having to answer questions, and also make you look more trustworthy. Add as much information to your Soldster description as you can, this is the internet, there is no space limitation!

When selling pants I provide something like this:

  • Brand: Gap
  • Style: Boot Cut Jeans
  • Material: Denim/100%Cotton
  • Color: Dark Indigo
  • Size: 8
  • Waist: "32
  • Inseam: "30
  • Rise: "8
  • Condition: New With Tags

Actually, this is the basic format I provide on my clothing descriptions as well. Whatever you sell though, you should note anything any of the tags say, things like Model Numbers and such, as well as the dimensions. Describe it to the best of your ability.

After you have all of your specific information about the product it is helpful to sell your item a little more. Don't hype it up too much, but it is a good idea to write your description as if you are talking to your buyer in an informal way.

Also, as a seller, it is your goal to not only sell the item that you are currently writing the description for, but to sell all of your items. If they are similar, there is a good chance one buyer would want to buy something else from you.



Adding Photographs

It is true, a picture is worth a thousand words. You have written a detailed description, and that is great, but if you want to really get a buyer’s attention, you MUST upload a photo or two. Again, I cannot overstate, a picture is worth a thousand words, and listings with photos garner considerably more interest than those without. Photos enhance your description like nothing else you can do. And uploading photos to your Soldster listing is really simple.



Payment Instructions

How do you prefer to be paid? The more payment options you offer, the more buyers you will get. But don't get too wild, requiring a buyer to mail cash is sketchy, and against Soldster policy.



Shipping

How quickly will your ship to your buyer? Will you pay the shipping cost or do you want the buyer to pay the cost of shipping? If you can provide this information up front, it will help your buyer.