Ok - I'll do a few Sparedollar basics that kind of threw me off last weekend.
1. IMAGE Tab. Upload images (left margin). I did just a few at a time because I have dial-up upload (satellite download). It may have been me or it may have been SD last weekend because they have been doing site improvements. Try to keep the names one word length and no special characters or symbols.
2. LISTER Tab. Create your listings. (left margin) There are tons of really nice looking templates in different styles, formats. You can review each one and back up and correct it. You can do HTML with the little click links next to the text boxes. You can also save that format with a name so you could have one where your defaults were media mail info and another where it was priority, etc. Your ads should now be waiting in your list ready to launch. You can schedule them, but my scheduling failed so I just went in at the appropriate time and checked all and launched them. Once your page refreshes after launching you will see all of your auction numbers, etc.
After that, I did the 'Manage Folders' on the left margin and created a folder for the ads I had already launched. Then I moved the launched ones to the folder so I didn't accidentally relaunch a duplicate auction.
3. GALLERY Tab. Once your auctions are launched, go into the Gallery tab and Add new items (left margin). It will show you all your auctions and you can select the ones to add to your gallery. If you have one of the templates with the mini-gallery at the bottom, all of the photos you select will be displayed. Otherwise, I think there is a gallery link in all of the auction templates.
4. COUNTER Tab. Once your auctions are launched, go into the Counter tab and Add new items (left margin). It will display the Hits, Bids, Listing Price & Time Left. I go in there and refresh it often to see how they are doing. There is a line to 'Click here to Update Ebay Item Status. In the last 20 minutes while I have been reading the new info here, I have gone from 167 to 171 in counter views. No new bids though!!!
5. TRACKER - I haven't added anything to this, but it appears to be a good way to manage those completed auctions where you can track paid, shipped, feedback etc.
There is a User forum that is very handy. I had to ask a lot of questions last weekend, because I was expecting items to add to counter & gallery automatically - I guess it makes sense that you choose which ones you want. I was just lost for a bit.
Benefits? $4.95 per month. Even if you have a listing with 20 photos in it, the entire add from sparedollar is treated as a 'photo' so you are paying for one. It explains my long aged question of why these people would pay for 6 photos on a $2 item!!!! They didn't!!!!
There is a referral program also, but I haven't figured out how it works - most of the images for referring that you can put in your auctions are for non-ebay auctions. So that loses me. There is a direct email insert you can use so I should put that in my winning notifications - maybe I could drum up one or two.
Never mind - here is the answer:
Originally posted by Blumonga
Are our referral links automatically added to Ebay auctions? I'm asking because the html available says that it is compliant with all auctions except Ebay. How do we get ebayers to use our referral links?
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Yes, if you use one of the SD templates, a referral link is automatically added to your auction listing. Those non-compliant referral buttons can be used in other places (your ME Page, in emails, etc.).