Marketing your eBay listings - what more can we do?

Today I had planned something totally different to write about here but I just got an email that I just HAD to talk about. I started to respond to this person directly but decided that it may be a good topic to discuss openly so we would all benefit from it.
The question came in from an eBay seller who had been selling for about a year or so. They wanted help with marketing their eBay store.
Me too!
That seems to be constantly on my mind. Of course, I'm an eBay junkie so maybe it doesn't consume everyone else as much as it does me. All music on my ipod has been replaced with business podcasts. I've become obsessed.

This seller told me that these are the following things that they have done so far in their marketing:

• Website that links to my eBay store
• Craigs List Ads
• Submitted domain name to Yahoo, Google, MSN
• Google Base
• Links to my eBay store in auction listings
• Wrote a guide
• Read several books about eBay selling

and here are some of MY thoughts on these:

• links to eBay store - Great! just make sure that they all have the ?refid=store tag at the end so that you can get 75% off the FVF. or better yet, an affiliate link.
• Craigs List Ads - most of the time, this is not something I do, and for two reasons. One, most people on Craigslist are looking to buy locally and want to pay in cash to avoid internet scams and shipping charges. If I'm going to sell it locally for cash (which I would be happy to do.... Cash is King!) why would I bother with paying eBay fees? I list stuff for sale on Craigslist all the time, and although that same item may be listed on eBay at the same time, I don't usually link to it. The second reason is that most times if you do this too much the die-hard Craigslisters get very upset with you and consider you spam. Being considered Spam is bad.
• Submitted domain name to Yahoo, Google, MSN - yes this is good, having your listings SEO optimized will help more though.
• Google Base - I do this, however, I'm not sure if it helps or not. I figure, it is free and takes two seconds so why not. But, I can't tell if it is this or the SEO optimizing that is working.
• Links to my eBay store in auction listings - KEY. This is key! Every auction listing should link to your other auctions/store inventory. eBay shoppers are going to shop around, you want to keep them shopping around within your store. The thing I'd like to add about this one though is that the links need not be above the description or pictures of the item that is listed. Do not make them overwhelming or too prominent. Your main purpose for the eyes to be on that listing is to purchase that listing. "if not this one, how about this other one?" kinda thing.
• Wrote a guide - I did this and am ranked pretty high, but the one I wrote is for something that I don't even sell! Kinda pointless right? I think a guide can be helpful if there aren't alot of others on that subject, you are a good writer and it is highly specific to your niche. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother. If you notice on the guides there are items advertised on that page, you have no control over what items go there. They come up by an eBay algorithm of keywords so it could be your stuff, or it could be your competition. Ya never know.
• Read several books about eBay selling - yep. great thing to do. I read a bunch, reading one now and have several more I plan to read. However, choose wisely. If you are reading out of date material or things that are below the level you are already at, you will get very little from them. I would recommend reading other "outside of eBay" material too. I highly recommend Guerrilla Marketing and Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.

So, here are a couple of tips I'd like to add to this list:

1. Write a blog. Either an eBay blog or a regular one. If you sell the same items regularly and have a 'niche' per se, I recommend a regular one. If your items change regularly, an eBay blog. They are picked up by search engines and can lead folks to your stuff.
2. name your pictures. Search engines see hyphens as spaces so name your pictures something like "lucky-13-sinner-wrap-dress.jpg" (that would be what you would name your picture for a lucky 13 "sinner" wrap dress)
3. get involved in a group or participate in discussions in your niche (on eBay or off) and post relevant posts with your eBay store name as a signature. Be careful not to spam. This will establish you in your niche and you may learn some new stuff in the process. You can do this on blogs too!
4. SEO - I'm still learning here but I wrote a blog on it once before, so check that out
5. Promote your Charity listings on my site www.rockabillycharityauctions.com (see that... shamless self promotion!) it is free!
6. Join social networks. Myspace, facebook, twitter, etc. etc. Be kind, thoughtful and professional in your posts and bulletins so that you will be taken seriously.

Feel free to add any more suggestions.... comments are allowed :)