The red coding is the standard HTML code. The blue text was generated from my store description, and is the title of the page itself on the Internet. The green text also comes from my store description, and displays as the description of the page. The purple text is generated from my custom store categories and keywords and is used to flag the page in searches.

How do you change your Meta tag content? First, let’s look at your meta tags to see what is there already. Start with your storefront. Go to the "Search Engine Keywords" page again, click "edit" for your storefront, then click on "preview" down at the bottom. You will see your meta content, minus all the HTML coding (which makes it much easier for non-geeks to read.) If yours is irrelevant to what you are selling, then re-do your store description and change your custom keywords.

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Your Store description is very important!!!

The description you write in this space is a major promotion tool for your store. Not only does it appear on your storefront as one of the first things people see, it’s also searchable by eBay, Google, and many other search engines. Plus, it appears with your store name when people do searches on the Stores homepage. Therefore, you want the content to contain as many keywords as possible that describe your line of merchandise. My store description currently reads:

"We sell cruelty-free chicken and goose feathers from our hobby farm in Pine County, Minnesota, plus milkweed, columbine, and other wildflower seeds, anti-war and peace items, and reincarnation consultations with Rabbi Yonassan Gershom, author of "Beyond the Ashes" and owner of The Happy Rooster."

This paragraph contains at least a dozen important keywords related to my business: cruelty-free, feathers, rooster, milkweed, seeds, columbine, wildflower, farm, Minnesota, anti-war, peace, reincarnation, plus my best-known book title and my name. (Google it sometime – I’m famous!) These keywords help pinpoint my specialties and identify me to the search engines.

You should do the same in your description. Store owners who leave this space blank, or use it for non-keyword-oriented content (such as their personal biographies), are missing out on an important promotional tool.

In the spring of 2007, when I added "Milkweed" and "Columbine seeds" to my description, my sales of those items increased within days – probably because the search engines were flagging my store description at a time when gardeners were looking for these species. Because seeds are seasonal, when the gardening season is over, I’ll change the description to focus on other types of items. You should do the same. As your inventory changes, so should your store description. Keep it up-to-date for better sales.

(Excerpted from "The Happy Rooster's Guide to eBay Store Success", copyright 2007 by Yonassan Gershom.  All right reserved. )

Buy the entire 50+-page ebook (blue cover) in my store for only $1.99 and fine-tune YOUR store for better sales!  Or, if don't have a store, get the "Selling Tips Success" ebook (green cover.) Both are on the homepage of my store.)  Or get the COMBO (purple cover) with both books and save a dollar!

Moneyback guarantee if you don't learn something new!

Monday  I got rained out of my usual flea market, and I had plants to sell, so I decided to go to the flea market at the 4th of July celebration.  There are several small towns in the area who combine for one parade, festival, and fireworks.   What was to lose?  Flea market tables were free.

In addition to plants I took along a lot of other stuff, including those Mardi Gras peace beads  I had listed in my store, and a lot of peace/anti-war  buttons.  I wasn't sure how they would sell on the 4th, but they not only sold, I sold out!    I made about $150 yesterday -- pretty good for a last-minute sale.    Then I came home, logged in, and discovered I'd sold 11 digital photo downloads plus some seeds.  Not a bad day at all!

My table was next to a family selling exotic breeds of chickens.  (In farm country this is legal.)   How could I sit there ALL DAY next to those lovely birds and not buy one?  So I got this beautiful silver-blue Silkie chick.  S/he (don't know the sex yet) is not dyed -- that's the natural color.  I named the chick  "Freebird" because I got him/her on the 4th of July.

This chick is about the same age as Frieda's chicks, and both are Silkies, so I was hoping Frieda would accept Freebird into her family -- but no go.   So right now Freebird is in a cage next to their pen in the hope they will get to know each other through the wire and make friends.  (I've often used this method to introduce a new chicken into a flock.  I know it's ironic for a chicken named Freebird to end up in a cage, but hopefully it is only temporary -- and it's for the chick's own protection.  I don't need to worry about artificial heat - -the chick is old enough to keep warm OK, especially with heat wave we are having.) 

Chayah is scheduled to be spayed on July 25 -- the vet felt she needs to put on some weight first, she's pretty thin after nursing 7 kitties.  (She still lets Bugsy nurse sometimes, but he's only one now.)   She adapted to them being gone OK -- probably because they went one at a time over a couple weeks, rather than all at once.  It's me who has empty nest syndrome!