Now that eBay has changed its rules, there’s a lot of fierce competition out there for auction templates. How do you choose what works for you?

First, choose a provider that has templates that match the types of products you’re selling. There’s no sense in using a baby-pink template with little yellow duckies on it if you’re selling mountain climbing equipment. In all cases, your template should be professional-looking and not overpower your item pictures or description.

Next, take a look at a provider’s service offering. What do they give you besides templates? You want a company that gives you selling reports, image hosting (hopefully free!) and marketing tools to promote your listings. It’s best to choose a provider that’s been in the business for a while and has an excellent customer service track record.

Below are my top picks for auction template providers that meet my criteria for templates with a “wow” factor as well as numerous powerful sales tools:

1) Auctiva. This one’s been in business for over a decade and provides affordable solutions for eBay sellers. In addition to over 1700 great templates, you get listing software with a free scheduling tool, free image hosting with the option to watermark your pictures, your own online store complete with a free scrolling gallery, seller reports, and a whole lot more. Auctiva has also partnered with Sellathon (not my favorite solution but still a good one), a  research tool that can help you figure out what’s hot on eBay and when and how to sell it for top dollar.

2) GarageSale. Exclusively for Mac users, GarageSale offers awesome templates combined with great tools. One of my faves is the ability to showcase your images where and how you want. You can have the pictures ordered neatly along one side, use small thumbnails that enlarge as someone mouses over them, and much more. GarageSale also has free scheduling and image hosting and integrates with YouTube and more. It’s a downloadable product that requires no monthly fee – only a one-time purchase price of $34.99. If you have an Apple machine, this one is my top pick!

3) Inkfrog. Inkfrog is reasonably priced and super easy to use. On top of some nice looking templates, they offer super cheap shipping insurance, support for multiple eBay user IDs, bulk listing (list a lot of items at pre-scheduled intervals), sales and inventory management, and more. They also give users a free e-commerce store (after you’ve committed to their $9.95 monthly fee), which can’t be said of most other template providers.

Whatever you choose, make sure it’s got item-appropriate templates, good tools, and reliable customer support. As long as you do your homework, you’ll end up with a solid tool that works wonders for your business.

If you are using already one of these services, I would very much like to hear about your personal experiences with your chosen provider.

Thank you for your interest and comment!

Svenja