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eBay HTML Code - Part 1

Filed Under How-To's, Sellers' Insights 




Ever wonder how some auction listings look so professional?

Most likely, the seller has picked up some HTML code. It’s not as hard as it looks (Believe me, I’m no rocket scientist!) and a little eBay HTML code goes a long way.

Here’s what we will cover:

  • Introduction to eBay HTML code
  • formatting your auction ad
  • Adding “bells and whistles”

Getting Started in eBay HTML code

HTML stands for Hyper-Text Markup Language. It is (for the most part) the primary language of the World Wide Wide. HTML commands are called tags.

Tags are surrounded by angle brackets,
< >, and are usually used in pairs. For example, the start tag, <B> instructs the computer to make text following it bold, while the end tag, </B> instructs the computer to stop making the text bold. In this particular example, the HTML command <B>Text Sample</B> would yield the following result:
Text Sample

Most HTML code tags are not case sensitive (although spelling does count!). Typing <CENTER>Sample Text</CENTER> or <Center>Sample Text</Center> or even <center>Sample Text</center> will yield the same result:

Sample Text

Syntax Continued

A quick note about nesting tags. If you use more than one tag, it is important for you to place the end tags (the tags with the slash: </B>) in the opposite order in which the start tags were typed (the ones without the slash: <B>). Confusing? Here’s an example that I hope will clarify this (If not, read on. We’ll bring up the topic again later.)

If we wanted to make text bold (<B></B>), underlined (<U>,</U>), and italic (<I></I>), we type something like this:

<B><U><I>Something Like This</I></U></B>
Yielding: Something Like This.
Note how the ending tags are in the opposite order of the start tags: <B><U><I> </I></U></B>.

Here’s a more complicated example:
<B><U>A More <I>Complicated</I>Example</U></B>.
Which yields: A More Complicated Example.

Click here to begin formatting your ad.

Looking for professional auction templates to help convert visitors to your listings to buyers?  When you’re ready to graduate from free auction templates to the ones that the professionals use, I highly recommend Listing Factory 2008.  You can choose from the dozens of included predesigned templates, or create your own template to use over and over again.  Listing Factory 2008 even includes a FREE 100mb image hosting account.  It’s the system that I use to quickly and easily create and post my auctions. What used to take me 30-40 minutes, I now accomplish in about five!  I recommend you download your free 30-day trial of Listing Factory 2008 today.

Related Posts:

  • eBay HTML Code Tutorial - Part 2
  • Add an Interactive Picture Gallery to your Listings
  • eBay Teams up with Yahoo! Mail to Fight Phishing
  • ListingTicker eBay Widget Improved
  • eBay Tools


    • Comments

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    7 Responses to “eBay HTML Code - Part 1”

    1. lisa on July 19th, 2006 9:43 am

      Do you know how I can take my website and use it as my ebay listing? thank you ,lisa

    2. denise on March 20th, 2007 11:19 pm

      I love all the information you have provided. It has been so helpful. Which is why I thought I would ask if you could help. I am wondering how I can create a ‘button’ in my listing that when clicked will take you to a specific ebay store catagory? (For example in a single glitter glue auction, I want to direct traffic to the glitter glue catagory in my ebay store, I want to generate a button that says ‘More Glitter Glue’ and so when it is clicked it takes them to that specific catagory in my ebay store.) Can you help? I do thank you for your time, as well as your wonderfully informative website. Dee

    3. Doug Feiring on March 21st, 2007 1:13 pm

      Do you know how I can take my website and use it as my ebay listing? thank you ,lisa

      Lisa,
      Checkout our new free tool to do just that: Click -> ListingTicker
      Doug

    4. Doug Feiring on March 21st, 2007 1:19 pm

      I am wondering how I can create a ‘button’ in my listing that when clicked will take you to a specific ebay store catagory?

      Dee,
      Here’s some code that will create a clickable button that will send your visitors to another web address.

      <form method="link" action="http://YOUR_EBAY_STORE_CATAGORY_URL.com/html">
      <input type="submit" value="More Glitter Glue"/>
      </form>

      Replace http://YOUR_EBAY_STORE_CATAGORY_URL.com/html with whatever shows up in the address field of your web browser when you visit the page you are interested in sending your visitors to.

      Replace More Glitter Glue with whatever you’d like the button to say.

      Here’s an example of the code at work where I used: action=”http://auctioninsights.auctionstealer.com”
      and value=”Free eBay Sniper”

      Good Luck!

    5. Dee on March 23rd, 2007 6:51 am

      Thank you so much. It worked great. I truly appreciate the time you took and your quickness to reply. I have raved about this site, and for truly great reasons, this is just another!! Thank you so much!!

    6. mark griffiths on July 14th, 2008 12:44 pm

      fab you ebay link button works a treat.

    7. Clark on February 2nd, 2009 11:21 pm

      Nice info. Thanks

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