How to Create a Custom eBay Store 2011

How to Create a Custom eBay Store
By Ashley H Pearson



I wrote this guide a while ago on eBay, and it helped me to become a Top 1000 Reviewer in the world, so enjoy!

I'm sure a lot of you have seen those great eBay stores, with custom designs, and thought, how the hell did they do that? I bet you've done a search for it, and only found a bunch of sites of people trying to get hundreds of £££ from you in return for a design. Are you one of those people who can design a store, but don't know how to do the code? Well this guide is for you! I am going to supply you with step by step information on how to create your very own custom store design.

If you find this guide helpful, please be sure to leave a comment!

Firstly, you will need an eBay store active, in which you have full access to. You will also need some kind of server where you can host a.CSS file in which eBay can load for the colours. If you do not have webspace, please feel free to email me at ash.pearson1@gmail.com or send me a message on eBay, and I will supply you with some free webspace to host your.CSS file and images if you so wish.



Now lets start with Setting up your eBay store from the start. If you have already done this, please scroll down to our custom design section and read on from there to begin your custom designing.

(Copy and paste the link into your browser in a new tab or window)

Now, once your eBay store is all set up, with the "Quick Store Setup" option, we will begin to Manage our store. You can do this by logging into your eBay summary, scrolling down and clicking "Manage my Store" on the left navigation bar.

Now you will find yourself on the page in which you will edit your store, and add features. The first thing you will want to do is add some categories to your store. You are allowed to create up to 300 different store categories for your new eBay store, so don't worry about making too many. You can add as many categories and sub categories as you want. You can create categories by clicking "Store Caegories" on the left navigation.

You can now click the Add Category button and create your category, giving it an appropriate name. You can create 5 categories at a time.
Once you have made your 5 categories, you can add more or click a particular category link to access that category and create sub-categories inside it. This is used on my own store.

Example: Servants of the Betrayer
Loot Cards
Epic Cards
Rare Cards
Uncommon Cards
Hunt for Illidan
Loot Cards
Epic Cards
etc etc.

Once you have created all your categories, you can move onto the next step. Don't worry if you can't think of a particular one. You can always come back later and add/remove categories.
DISPLAY SETTINGS

You are now going to want to edit your Display Settings.

The Display Settings allow you to Add a title to your Store, view your Store URL, or change it, make changes to your Store Logo, and Add/Edit your Store Description.

Store Name: Give your Store a good name which includes what you sell. Such As World of Warcraft TCG - loot cards, spectral tiger etc.
Store Logo: Choose a logo from your PC, enter a URL, or choose a basic eBay one for your store. Size must be 310×90 pixels.
Store Description: Don't put something like "Welcome to our store, enjoy your visit". Be abrupt, explain what you sell and use keywords for what items you sell as this will help with your Search Engine Placement on sites like Google, Yahoo and loads more. This could bring you potential customers to all of your items on a huge scale if the right keywords are mentioned.
THEME AND DISPLAY

The Theme and Display section allows you to edit your store theme, edit Left Navigation Bar settings, and make changes to the Store Header Display. It also allows you to change the way items are listed on your storefront.

Store Theme: Choose a theme from eBay. If you are planning on customising a theme for later, and creating a custom theme, this section doesn't really matter. Just choose something that looks nice, and matches the colours of your items in some way.
Left Nav Bar Settings: Choose to show your Search Box, Choose which categories to show, and Choose to show Store Pages and Buyer Display options.
Store Header Display: Turn the Store Page Header on. (Turn this off if you are going to create a custom store. We will be making our own), and choose which type of eBay header displays. You can only change this with a premium store.
Item Display: Choose whether to show your items on your store as a list, or in a Gallery View. I recommend gallery view, as it looks like an online store, and looks nicer.
PROMOTION BOXES

Promotion Boxes allow you to place small pieces of information on your store in different places. These could include a small piece of information about items on Sale, or a great postage offer you currently have going. You can also use Promotion Boxes to create slideshows of items which you are currently selling, and create Countdown Timers for items which are ending soonest. The Options are all pretty self explanatory.
CUSTOM PAGES (THIS IS THE START OF THE CUSTOM DESIGN!)

When you create your store, you will end up with a nice looking storefront, with nice colours. But then when you see other peoples shops, and they have created a fully self designed store, with header display, flash and loads more, you really wish you could do it. There are thousands of you out there who can design the store you want, but don't know how to embed it into eBay. Well this is how you do it my friends.

Now all sections will assume you have HTML code ready, including images, your design, and a.CSS FILE. If you do not have a CSS file, please scroll down to that section and read about that, because it is required to create a decent storefront.

Now, we will start with the Header.

Once you have your Header image uploaded to your file server, or a site such as Photobucket, Imageshack, or Tinypic, and have your HTML code ready, go to Manage My Store > Display Settings > Theme and Display > Store Header Display. Click the "Change" link.

Click "Yes, include additional information in the header" Radio button, and then enter your HTML code. Save the changes.

Now you will notice that you have 2 Headers Displaying. Your custom header, and the normal eBay header. You need to disable the normal eBay header so that only your custom one is displayed. This can be done by following these steps:

* Go to Display Settings
* Go to Theme and Display
* Go to Store Theme
* Click "Change to another theme"
* Go to Easily Customizable themes, and select the "Custom Header only" theme.
* Choose your colours.
* Save settings.

This header will now appear on all store pages, including your About Me Page.
MAIN PART - ITEM LIST (CUSTOM)

We are now going to edit the Body area. This will allow you to create your main storefront, fully customized and designed.
Follow these steps carefully.

* Click "Custom Pages" on the Left Navigation
* Click "Create New Page"
* On the next page, select "Text Section"
* Name the page. (Same as Shop Title recommended, as this will become your main page)
* You will now need to enter your HTML for the page. Remember, this guide assumes you already have the designs and code ready.

Now at this point, im sure a few people are having some problems. So here are some tips and information to help you out.

You will need to add your designs carefully. I am using CSS for my store, and therefore I will guide you in that way.
SEARCH BAR

You will want to add your search bar to your custom page, so people can search your items. This can be done by entering the following code in your custom page, and editing the text which is Bold to your own store information. Also remove the space between the opening and closing signs. (Its to prevent the code executing in this guide and displaying a search bar).

Next up, you will want to make the page load the CSS from an external file. This is because eBay does not allow you to host a CSS file, and it needs to be loaded elsewhere. This can be done with the following code.

Not sure what CSS File to add, or what to include in your CSS file? Well a quick Google search will help, as there are many sites willing to offer this information.

You will now want to add other pieces of code, which allows certain things to be displayed. Here are some useful exclusive eBay codes.

{eBayUserID}
This Displays your User ID, feedback, and links to your Me page.

{eBayFeedback}
Displays your Feedback

{eBayStoresItemList DISPLAY="n"}
Display your items. Replace N with 0 for List view, and 1 for Gallery View.

{eBayStoresItemList TABLEWIDTH="n"}
replace N with a value 10-100 to choose your store width. Recommended 60-100.
NAVIGATION BAR(SIDEBAR)

Next up is the Navigation Bar. This is done by creating a Promotion Box, and then removing the original Sidebar.

Follow these steps to create your navigation bar:

* Go to "Promotion Boxes"
* Click "Create New Promotion Box"
* Choose Communicate to your Buyers.
* On the next page, choose "Left Navigation - Upper"
* Enter your code, making sure to align the navigation bar correctly with your header and body areas.
* Make sure you do Text Links instead of images, so that Search Engines have more keywords to play with.
* Click Save.

Now, you will want to delete the other default navigation, to stop both navigation bars displaying on your store. This can be done by following these steps:

* Go to Store Design
* Go to Display Settings
* Go to Theme and Display
* Click Left Navigation Boxes
* Click the "Change" link.
* Uncheck all the components, and save.

You can now create additional pages, such as an FAQ following these steps, and choosing FAQ instead of Text area.

Remember, to make your new custom page your Storefront main page, go to Custom Pages, and on the drop down menu, select which one you want to display as your Homepage

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6191294