Asking for help with HTML links

[altitune]

Hi.

I would be very grateful if someone with knowledge could show me how to make clickable links with the new eBay rules.

For 20 years I have been active on eBay, mostly selling vinyl records. After half a year of in-activeness I started making listings again but soon found that the rules for HTML in listings have been changed. I have been writing much of the listings in simple HTML, often in Turbolister, but must now alter what to write.

Since I sell internationally on eBay Ireland (I live in Sweden) my customers are very keen to get exact details not only of the vinyl records I put out but also about postage, packing, paying and other details. To not make the listings too long and complicated I have put in links with the (a href ... ) attribute as trigger on to how I pack, audio samples from the record, legal information and postages from Postnord Sweden, and info about the eBay Protection Program and -Currency Converter.

Right now I have only been able to put in the link addresses and hope that the potential buyers understand on how to open them. The links I use are these:

Listen here <span style="color: blue;"><strong>https://altitune.se/06/col.mp3</strong></span> to audio from that part of the record.

See <span style="color: blue;"><strong>https://altitune.se/Packing.html</strong></span> for details regarding packing and shipping.

see the second bullet in <span style="color: blue;"><strong>https://www.postnord.se/en/contact-us/file-a-complaint/checklist </strong></span>

see "Stamped Mail" in <span style="color: blue;"><strong>https://www.postnord.se/en/sending/prices-and-terms/postage-rates/postage-rates-for-international-le... </strong></span>

And two links that actually are clickable but looks strange to me:

see the eBay Currency converter at <br><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://pages.ebay.com/services/buyandsell/currencyconverter.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://pages.ebay.com/services/buyandsell/currencyconverter.html</a></span>. </strong>

see <br><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://pages.ebay.ie/help/buy/protection-programs.html " target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://pages.ebay.ie/help/buy/protection-programs.html </a></span>. </strong>

Any help and advises will be much appreciated.

Altitune, Stockholm, Sweden

[slippinjimmy]

Bottom line.......

Links to outside websites are NOT allowed so those first ones should not even be tried. It doesn't matter if they are clickable or not, NOT allowed.

Originally on eBay they were allowed, then allowed with some restrictions, then with many restrictions and currently basically forbidden except for a for situations.

As far as the links that are "strange", those link to eBay pages so they are ok policy wise. I am a hack at html but I notice that they contain both http and https references. As far as I know ANY links must be https.

I'll see if I can draw in an expert...

 @shipscript 

[inhawaii]

<a href="www.whateveryouwant.com">What you want the link to read.</a>

[altitune]

I changed the two links to eBay pages to https in both instances, but the listing died.

[altitune]

Do you have any suggestion on how I could enclose this info in the listing?

[altitune]

The eBay Links policy

Links that direct customers to a site other than eBay are not allowed, except when linking to:

• Information on delivery services.

• Product videos, e.g. reviews, product demonstrations or installation.

• Other legally required information.

The links to Postnord I see as "Information on delivery services" and "Other legally required information".

The link to the audio sample I see as a "Product video", without the video.

The link to my packing I see as "Information on delivery service".

How can I make eBay agree on this?

[shipscript · Accepted solution]

@altitune 

Links that direct customers to a site other than eBay are not allowed, except when linking to:

• Information on delivery services.

• Product videos, e.g. reviews, product demonstrations or installation.

• Other legally required information.

- eBay provides a list of delivery services to which links are allowed.

- eBay also provides a list of video services to which links are allowed.

- Legally required information is limited to specific categories, and only those categories will allow such links.

I was not able to locate the relevant pages on the Ireland site, so I'll refer you to the US help page to get a general idea:

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-policies/links-policy?id=4248

None of the above exceptions give permission to link your own web page to supply this information. However, you could use your own web page to host video or audio files that you embed in your listing using HTML5 codes. See the bottom of this page for HTML formats for MP3 and MP4 files:

https://www.isdntek.com/tagbot/YouTubeConverter.htm

eBay is currently just stripping out the links that violate eBay's links policy, so you may see something like "link removed by eBay" or you may find that your link won't click because eBay has removed the underlying code.

On a side note:

Links that include target="_blank" do not need to be "https" because they open outside of eBay's description in a "blank" window or tab. Only content that is embedded within the description, like an HTML5 video, would need to be "https".

[bimm_corp]

I tried using this recently. I sell comic books and wanted to add a link in my listings that would go to the issue contents page on Grand Comics Database. I could put the link in the draft, but when posting the listing, the link would disappear. Apparently eBay's listing software purges any external links.

[altitune]

Thank you for the reply, it clarifies a lot even if I don't sing of joy for the extra trouble it will cause me.

Could you point me to instructions, or more preferably to examples, on how to make embedded links to You Tube that comply with the new eBay link rules.

[inhawaii]

Check out my listing for "gunther kite ferry".

It has a link to youtube.

[shipscript]

@altitune 

The easiest way to add sound or video to your listing is to create a video with your camera or smartphone.
Upload your videos to YouTube:

• Create a free YouTube account if you don't already have one.
• Create a YouTube "channel" if you don't already have one.
• Upload your video to YouTube.

YouTube will then give you a Share Link or Embed Code.

Paste that code into this Code Converter tool to make it compatible with eBay.
http://www.isdntek.com/tagbot/YouTubeConverter.htm

Copy the code from the converter tool and paste it into the description that you write. eBay's Description editor has a RichText toolbar for editing text, but, instead, you must use the HTML tab or HTML link on the text editor and paste your code into the HTML view. Then, when you switch back to the RichText editor, you will see the placeholder for the video.

Be careful using YouTube for audio clips of content that is copyrighted by the music industry, as YouTube has a takedown policy (sorry, I don't know the limits or details of that policy).

[altitune]

Hi inhawaii,

Could you explain how you make the clickable link in your listing.

Shipscript's advice with the code converter works perfectly, but it results in a rather large thumbnail in the listing. This is good for the sound clips I want in the listing but I also want to add some text information as slide shows, without thumbnails and only with a clickable link as the one you have.

[shipscript]

@altitune 

Is the slide show to be hosted on YouTube?  We are not allowed to add clickable links in listings unless they lead to an eBay page or to an approved video host like YouTube. 

To add a textual link to a YouTube video, instead of the YouTube placeholder image, copy the displayed link for the YouTube video (the link that asks if using mobile). That link is nice and short. Use it in this code:

<a href="https://URL_here" target="_blank">Click this link</a>

The link code must be added to the HTML view of eBay's description editor.

[altitune]

Thanks! (I thought that a href was banned code).

[shipscript]

@altitune 

The "href" ("Hypertext REFerence", or link) is not banned, but the destination URL is controlled. The destination must be an eBay page or approved external page.