Trade forum posting tips

[Aeris 3,750]

I'm not sure exactly where to put this thread, but the Town Square seems as good a place as any.

I've noticed when browsing the trade section on the forum that a lot of people put their items for sale up as images, same with the auctions. I've missed a lot of ads when using the search function because of this since images won't show up in text searches. There are other things to think about as well when making threads more visible, which saves me time so I can be lazy \0/ Yay?


Some general pointers to make your posts easier to find in searches

• Take the time to post the info about the items in text in your post. A picture of them might be good as a quick overview, but it won't show up in a forum search
• Choose a descriptive "Topic Title". Compare "Selling stuff" with "Selling carpentry, bs and more"
• Make use of the "Topic Tags" that appear under the "Topic Title". Carefully choose the 10 words that you think people are likely to use when looking for the item you're selling. Separate different words with a comma
• Put the most important tag first in the list for a good overview when browsing the threads in the forum since all might not fit on the line
• Double-check your spelling. If you write "pcikaxe" instead of "pickaxe" your thread won't show up in a search for "pickaxe"
• Try to avoid making a combined "Want to buy" and "Want to sell" thread since that can only go in either the WTB section or the WTS section and it's possible to use search words in specific parts of the forum. If I search for an item for sale in the WTS section but you put it in a combined thread in the WTB section my forum specific search won't find it

Edited May 3, 2014 by Aeris

[Leroy 315]

oveall good tips. Mod should relocate and sticky it in the trade forums

[silakka 2,360]

I personally never use search, I just look at every single thread 8)

That's how you make your golds

 

Best way is just to see what others do, then 'copy' them and edit it to your own style.

The more info your thread has the better, never can have too much ( well, if too much is too much, use

)

Edited May 3, 2014 by silakka

[Shrimpiie 3,665]

That is exactly how I go about it too, looking at every thread. It would certainly be easier yes, with the tips that Aeris mentioned.

 

One thing that I would like to mention, that really makes my life easier, is mentioning somehow in the thread title itself, that an auction, sell, or buy is over. A lot of people do this and I am grateful as it makes it easy to determine what to lock up, but there are a lot who don't, so I have to manually go through all the newest threads per day to see if the new post on a thread says "close".

 

It isn't as bad for auctions as it is for WTS/WTB, as with auctions, I lock them up two weeks after it ends, as by that time everything having to do with it is well concluded.

[Druidnature 1,118]

General good tips that more players need to see.

And don't forget when you no longer need the thread; IE items sold/bought/auction is over to put a [Close] in your title

One other "tip" is like to mention, some people delete there entire post. Sometimes that's fine, other times not. - depending on what sold/bought people could use your thread to find out what something sold for to help them find the price at a later time. And ontop of this, in case someone is weary of buying from you they could check what you've sold before.

As I said though, depends on the situtation, in some cases it's fine to close them, but other times it's be wonderful if people didn't delete the entire post so nobody knows what the items sold for, or any other info.