Question
Hi all, Does anyone know how to get multiple pics on one ebay auction page? I noticed ebay only allows 6 pictures but I need to have about 10 - 12 on a page. I downloaded Irfanview but am totally lost about how to use it. There is alot to learn about that program and right now I don't have alot of time to figure it out, plus I don't know how to go from Irfanview to an ebay page.
If someone could walk me through the mess I sure would appreciate it!
Thanks in advance
Answer
Tames: I will try to help you out until someone more knowledgeable comes along.
First off - 10 or 12 images may turn away a lot of buyers who are on dial up or a slow internet connection. Images take a long time to load, so be careful in your use of them.
If you must use that many, try to make sure they are under 20K in size. Read the instructions in Irfanview on how to crop, resize and compress your images - that will give you the basics you need for eBay pictures.
If you know how to crop an image but not how to compress it to make it under 20K here is a link to a free online .jpg cruncher that will do the job for you. If you have 10 pictures per listing, be warned that this will be a slow process.
If you decide to use the cruncher, when the image is optimized to the size you want, follow the instructions for saving it - usually just a right click of your mouse that will give you a 'save as' option. Save as just means select a name for the image, a folder on your hard drive where you want to store your eBay pictures, and a file extension - in this case the extension will be .jpg
Here's the link to the .jpg cruncher:
http://www.creatingonline.com/image_editing/
You will find everything you need there to help you make good internet pictures.
Do you know how to upload images to your server using ftp? If not, I would suggest the use of a free image hosting service such as Image Cave.
http://www.imagecave.com
They have an optimization feature built in that will help 'optimize' your images for faster loading, so it would probably eliminate the need for the cruncher mentioned above. But you need to do what you can at your end as well, which means at least crop and resize the image before you upload it to Image Cave or whatever host you choose to store your images.
Do you know any html? The code for adding an image in the Description box of your eBay listing is:
(img src="http://usera.imagecave.com/yourimagecaveusername/yourpicturename.jpg") Or use the name of your chosen image host instead of the usera.imagecave.com name.
You must use the < symbol at the left end of the url, and the > symbol at the right end. No spaces, and use the quotation marks and equal sign, and correct spacing between img src as shown above. NOTE: I have to use the () symbol here because this board uses ubb code, not html, and it won't take the < and > symbols in an url.
One nice feature about Image Cave is that it automatically generates the URL, UBB CODE, EZ CODE and THUMBNAIL CODE, so you just have to highlight the url of the image you want, click edit, then copy, then in your description in your eBay listing click the mouse where you want to place the url for the image, then click edit, then paste where you want the image to appear. They add the pointy brackets for you, so you just have to copy and paste the location of your image into your description.
Image Cave automatically provides the url of your image when you upload your pictures, so it's pretty straightforward. It's shown right beside the picture.
It is a good idea to use a (br) (again with pointy brackets at each end) to add a break or space after each image if the pictures are large. You can use 2 (br)(br) side by side to make two spaces between pictures if you like. That will cause your pictures to load one on top of the other, with two spaces between them, which makes for better viewing.
If you want to put pictures side by side, then just place the urls one after the other. If you want to add extra spaces between the side-by-side images, the code is: which you have to repeat for each additional space you want to make.
So your description in the listing on eBay will look something like this:
- - - - - - - - - - - >
Here's it is folks. Sure is a nice one. Bid fast, bid high. (br) (br)
Picture One: (img src"=http://http://usera.imagecave.com/yourimagecaveusername/first picture.jpg") (br)(br)
Picture Two: (img src"=http://http://usera.imagecave.com/yourimagecaveusername/second picture.jpg") (br)(br)
Picture Three: (img src"=http://http://usera.imagecave.com/yourimagecaveusername/third picture.jpg") (br)(br)
etc.
That is for images one on top of the other. For side by side images it will look like this:
(img src"=http://http://usera.imagecave.com/yourimagecaveusername/first picture.jpg") (img src"=http://http://usera.imagecave.com/yourimagecaveusername/second picture.jpg")
Unless your pictures are quite small, its a good idea to place only two in one row, as eBay will automatically force the third image to the next line if it doesn't fit in the space allowed in the description box.
- - - - - - - >
And that's all there is too it!
Hope this helps. eBay also has a good tutorial on adding images to your listings. Here is the link:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/photo_tutorial.html
There's lots to learn, but well worth the time spent doing so. Good Products + Good Pictures + Good titles and descriptions usually mean good sales.
Good Luck!
Answer
I don't know how to go from Irfanview to an eBay page.
You can't. Irfanview simply allows you to manipulate what an image looks like.
To have images show up on your eBay page, you have to upload them to a web space somewhere. Then you need to place html coding in your auction description which points to where the image is stored on the web space.
I pay for web space and I use a special program to upload images from my computer to my web space. I believe that there are some companies which provide free space and they may also provide some easy way by which you can upload your images to the web space they provide.
Answer
Hi Irene: Looks like we were posting about the same time.
Good point about Irfanview.
Tames: In Irfanview you need to click file, then open, then click the picture you want to import into Irfanview.
Once the picture is loaded, click the mouse where you want the top left of the image to start then hold the mouse button down and drag the box around the part of the image you want to use. If you make a mistake, just click away from the box, then start over. Click and drag the mouse to select the part of the image you want to keep, then click edit, then crop. (The crop feature is located, usually under edit I'm on the Mac right now and don't have Irfanview open, so I' winging it)
To resize the image, click edit, resize, or image, resize, then select the size you want. It will show the current size of the image - just make it smaller if necessary.
Once you have the image the size you want, click file, save as, (give the image a name) and save the image in your eBay folder.
When you use eBay's picture service, to upload an image you have to know the image name and where you stored it on your computer. They only host 6 images per listing for you. After that you have to find another place to store your images online. It's the same thing when you host your own images, either on your own server or on a separate host such as Image Cave.
To get the picture into your eBay listing, you have to type the url as described in my post above. Just make sure you upload the images to a server first, though.
Answer
Great! thanks so much for you help Shanne and Irene. Shanne, thank you for taking the time to type all that. I just might give Image Cave a try. I often wonder about free image hosting, glitches many people complain about. Shanne, is image cave pretty dependable for a free service?
I did find a pretty good article with screen shots about resizing,cropping, optimizing pictures in Irfanview. This article I found is in EAPH.com http://www.eaph.com/iDriveHelp/CropCutawayCompress.htm
In EAPH it recommended that after optimization the size of the jpg's be no more than 50 kb. So it is my understanding Shanne that if I use a program like Image Cave that automatically optimizes the images, that I don't need to optimize in Irfanview? If I don't need to optimize then how do I close out and save the image without optimizing?
Thanks a bunch you two for your information, While I have my morning coffee I will play around with Irfanview and check out Image Cave.
Answer
If you run quite a few auctions you're better off using a listing service that automatically puts your photos in the auction without all the time wasted copying and pasting your photo URL's.
I've been selling on Ebay for 5 years and have never used their lister.
Answer
Doowhopper: Can you elaborate on the "listing service that automatically puts images in your auction?" What service are you referring to? Just curious.
Tames: I find Image Cave to be exceptionally reliable and user friendly. If you go over the allotted storage space for images on a free account you have to pay for their services. However, they do show you in your account how much space you have used and how much is left.
Even though they have a built-in optimizer, it's still a good idea to crop, resize and crunch your own images. You can select not to use the optimizer feature if you get your images the way you want them before you upload them.
Have fun playing around with them. Keep in mind if you open an account with them you must access it at least once a month or they will remove the account for inactivity and you will loose the images you have stored there. All you have to do to keep your account active there is to login to it at least once every 30 days.
Answer
Shanne: Thanks so much for the answers. I may be back to holler for more help as I work on this, I hope you will be available I have never done anything like this before so its a new adventure for me.
Doowhopper: Yes, please do share the information on listing services, we'd like to hear about it. Also, thank you very much for your input.
Answer
okay, I'm hollering I want to create a clickable gallery (thumbnails). I noticed that creatingonline offers a clickable gallery, once I create it, how do I go about doing this as an ebay auction page?
I also need help with irfanview in creating this clickable gallery. Do I stll need to resize my images in irfanview or will creatingonline do this for me? If I do still need to resize, what size should I safely make these images. Once I resized/resampled my one image, I got the final size as 338 x 400 x 24 BPP. Is that small enough or do I still need to make it smaller?
I sure would appreciate this help, Thanks
Answer
I use Inkfrog and you just upload your pictures,pick the ones you want and they send them automatically to their lister..you can put up to 12 of them in one auction..if you want more than 12 you can copy and paste the rest in just like above..I've never used over 12 photos in an auction.
Any listing service I've ever used put your photos in your auction for you on their lister page.