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I have to admit this is a rhetorical question. There is no question that the vast majority of items will sell better if they are shown in all their glory in the form of a picture or pictures.

There are exceptions of course, but in general I find a picture is worth a thousand words on eBay.

Having established the case, how do you get pictures onto your auctions?

Let's first of all consider how and where to get a picture of your item. There are three options:

a) Use a digital camera b) Use a scanned image c) Use a "library" photo

a) Use a digital camera If you have a digital camera, you can photograph your items for auction. You will know that pictures taken by your digital camera can be loaded onto your PC.

b) Use a scanned image If you have a scanner, or access to one, you can take an "old fashioned" photo of your item, and scan it into your computer. You may be able to scan the item itself if it is of a certain shape and size eg book, card etc.

c) Use a "library" photo If your item is a standard branded product you may be able to search the internet and find images of the product. If you find one that is appropriate, place your mouse pointer over the picture and right click. In most cases you will be able to "Save Picture As..", and thus save it on your PC. Be aware that copyright laws apply here, and you mustn't copy any pictures from the internet unless you have the rights or permission to do so. Having now got a picture of your item on your PC, whether by a digital camera, a scanner or a library shot, you can usually improve it by using photo-editing software. You probably already have this software if you have a digital camera or a scanner. If you don't have such software, you can find shareware or freeware versions at sites such as these:

http://www.freewarehome.com

http://freeware.intrastar.net

http://www.tucows.com

http://shareware.cnet.com

PaintShopPro is a popular option. It has just the right balance of "ease of use" versus clever features.

You need this type of software to achieve a couple of things. First, to get your picture into JPEG or GIF file format - these are the only two image formats accepted by eBay. Next, to make sure the file size of the image is less than 50Kb - anything larger will result in your image taking an unacceptable length of time to load onto your auction page.

Once you have your picture ready, and stored on your own PC, you can now include it in your eBay listings.

For many items a single picture is fine. If, however, you want to add further pictures to your auction listing, there are two options.

You can DIY multiple pictures onto your auction page by having your images hosted on the internet, somewhere. Your own ISP has probably given you an amount of free web space - you can use this to host pictures for your auctions. Wherever you store them, each picture has its own unique address (URL) and this is the reference you use in your auction description to access your images.

For ultimate flexibility, if you do have web space available to you, and you place some images in this space, you can show these photos anywhere on your auction page. You will need to know HTML coding to achieve this, but it is well worth the effort.

The other option is to use eBay's Picture Service. This is very easy to use, and lets you add multiple pictures to your auction page - for a price.

It's worth learning how to include images in your eBay auctions. It will repay you a thousand times!

About the author:

Brian McGregor is an eBay and internet entrepreneur. He recently created the 'eBay Master Class' for eBay sellers. For your free copy, please go to http://www.work winners.com/ebm-request.htm