Silencing the Bells and Whistles

Any audio or video solution you add to your eBay listing should be optional for the customer and be provided in a streaming mode if at all possible. That is, any time you include audio or video in a listing, give your potential customers the option of not listening or viewing. Customers can view your listings in many different ways -- and places -- which raises the possibility that audio or video would be an unwelcome intrusion. (Think: Employees browsing your store from their offices during lunch hour, or a mother whose children are napping, may want to keep things quiet.)

So as you're evaluating a product that supplies any multimedia content, check the product specifications to make sure your viewers can easily turn off the multimedia elements supplied by the product. If you can't tell whether the product has this capability, ask the product's provider this essential question when evaluating their service and deciding whether to add it to your arsenal of eBay selling tools.

It's possible that some of your customers might have their computers' sound turned off (for any number of reasons), so be sure that any information you include as either a sound or video clip is also included in the text of your listing.