Sales down because of Active Content?

[honestabe411]

I thought eBay was going to remove active content?

i just ran a scanner and have HUNDREDS of listings with active content. Also a little confused what it is. 

I have a link in my descriptions that take you to my store, I'm guessing that's active content?

is it not auto removed?

[tweetystwades]

I was also told the links were considered active content. I thought I had them all, but ran the scanner today and found 2. 1 was just a link to another item in my store and the other said posted by ebay mobile. I removed them, now the scanner shows clear.

Honestabe sold an item today with a link, so this doesn't make sense to me. Nothing works the way it's supposed to. I can follow the rules, but I need to know what they are.    

[wheredidiputthatremote]

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@shock_titan wrote:

Active content is java script or menus within the content, or other such scripts running for related products, videos, general fancy-ness of the listing. You also have to make all the changes yourself, Ebay will not autoremove the features in the listing, I believe they will just remove the listing (i could be wrong). 

Sales are down for everyone, its July, and Amazon has been doing an Amazing job of taking the market with Prime day and other incentives (5% rewards VISA card). 

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I understand it's Summer and July.  I'm down about 60% of where the past 6 years at this time of the year has been and have more inventory listed than ever.  I'm going to have to get down to the bottom of whether or not my listings contain active content.  I already went through 1500 of them a couple months ago.  Guess I'll have to do it again.

[honestabe411]

Well it seems listing with links ARE allowed. Because I'm still selling items with them in it. 

I've gone from about 10-20 sales a day to 1-5. Getting behind in bills and everything. I owe more than I have! I'd like to thank eBay for being sketchy 

[scribe.adept13]

That was what eBay said, but it's not entirely true. We've been chipping away at our >8k listings to bring them up to this standard (all the "active" links were to our own eBay store). Most of our sales lately are with listings which *still* have these links, however. So a person could deduce that those links, whether active "bad" or not, really don't mean anything unless you're eBay and trying to put the scare in folks.

Edit to add that our sales aren't down --- +but+ we are in a particular niche that isn't really affected much by such silliness as switching out links.  If the listings themselves are solid, it's all good.

[scribe.adept13]

I really thinks sales tanking this spring/summer has *far* more to do with the new search function and other things than it does any active links/inactive links. As a buyer *and* as a seller, I can barely find what I'm looking for half the time with the search --- and I've been at this for some 16 years!

~M

[shipscript]

@honestabe411

@scribe.adept13

@wheredidiputthatremote

@tweetystwades

@shock_titan

@nc-daydreamer

The sales slump is not related to Active Content (unless blocking active content causes your description to disappear).

There are too many posts guessing at Active Content, so I will summarize how the Active Content ban currently works:

LINKS

Last year, links were considered an "issue" created by the ban on Active Content.  This spring, eBay found a workaround to the links "issue", and told us that our links would work as long as they contained a "target" attribute in the code.

In the scanner screenshot, all those marked in yellow are missing the target attribute (not a huge issue, but something that may need addressing).

eBay added a link-fixing Description Checker tool in their newest listing form so that you could ask eBay to "help me fix it" during listing creation or revision.  The message appeared as part of an Active Content message, even though links are not considered Active Content by eBay.

Then just a month ago, eBay implemented a temporary workaround to even that problem. So, they no longer flag listings with link issues during listing creation or relist. However, we have been told that their workaround may only be temporary until the end of the year. Thus the scanner tool still marks them, just in case. 

Additionally, eBay now requires that links point only to eBay pages and not offsite. But they do have a list of video hosting sites that are exempt from that off-site links policy.  Thus, sellers are allowed to include links to YouTube videos (this exemption was necessary for hosting sites like YouTube that don't support the new <video> tags).

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-links.html

ACTIVE CONTENT

Active Content (not links) remaining within listings after the June deadline will simply fail to render or display.  The code still remains in listings and eBay will still send messages reminding sellers to remove that Active Content.

During listing creation, relist, or revision, those listings that still contain Active Content may be able to use eBay's built-in Description Checker to allow eBay to "help me fix it". That is the point at which eBay would actually remove Active Content. eBay won't strip it out without your permission. 

At some later date, listings that still contain Active Content will be blocked from relisting. This includes GTC listings.

BULK REMOVAL

So if you still have Active Content in your listings (rows flagged as orange or red by the bulk scanner), then you should address those at your convenience. There are various ways to repair those listings, either individually or in bulk, as described in this tutorial thread on the Active Content forum.

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Replacing-Active-Content/How-to-find-and-cope-with-Active-Content-tutor...

I will be happy to assist with sellers' Active Content questions on that forum.

[wheredidiputthatremote]

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@shipscript wrote:

@honestabe411

@scribe.adept13

@wheredidiputthatremote

@tweetystwades

@shock_titan

@nc-daydreamer

The sales slump is not related to Active Content (unless blocking active content causes your description to disappear).

There are too many posts guessing at Active Content, so I will summarize how the Active Content ban currently works:

LINKS

Last year, links were considered an "issue" created by the ban on Active Content.  This spring, eBay found a workaround to the links "issue", and told us that our links would work as long as they contained a "target" attribute in the code.

In the scanner screenshot, all those marked in yellow are missing the target attribute (not a huge issue, but something that may need addressing).

eBay added a link-fixing Description Checker tool in their newest listing form so that you could ask eBay to "help me fix it" during listing creation or revision.  The message appeared as part of an Active Content message, even though links are not considered Active Content by eBay.

Then just a month ago, eBay implemented a temporary workaround to even that problem. So, they no longer flag listings with link issues during listing creation or relist. However, we have been told that their workaround may only be temporary until the end of the year. Thus the scanner tool still marks them, just in case. 

Additionally, eBay now requires that links point only to eBay pages and not offsite. But they do have a list of video hosting sites that are exempt from that off-site links policy.  Thus, sellers are allowed to include links to YouTube videos (this exemption was necessary for hosting sites like YouTube that don't support the new <video> tags).

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-links.html

ACTIVE CONTENT

Active Content (not links) remaining within listings after the June deadline will simply fail to render or display.  The code still remains in listings and eBay will still send messages reminding sellers to remove that Active Content.

During listing creation, relist, or revision, those listings that still contain Active Content may be able to use eBay's built-in Description Checker to allow eBay to "help me fix it". That is the point at which eBay would actually remove Active Content. eBay won't strip it out without your permission. 

At some later date, listings that still contain Active Content will be blocked from relisting. This includes GTC listings.

BULK REMOVAL

So if you still have Active Content in your listings (rows flagged as orange or red by the bulk scanner), then you should address those at your convenience. There are various ways to repair those listings, either individually or in bulk, as described in this tutorial thread on the Active Content forum.

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Replacing-Active-Content/How-to-find-and-cope-with-Active-Content-tutor...

I will be happy to assist with sellers' Active Content questions on that forum.

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@shipscript since you're  so knowledgeable, how about if 90% of my listings aren't mobile friendly? Would that cause my sales to tank since 6-15? I use a 3rd party application to list (garage sale for Mac). 90% of my templates are not mobile friendly. Guess I'm facing the arduous task of editing them one by one and using the **bleep** mobile friendly checker. They need to come up with a bulk tool to check this.

[mr_lincoln]

@honestabe411 

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@honestabe411 wrote:

Says i have 841 listings out it 1,200 to repair. I feel this might be a reason for slow sales. 

 Jusr remove the links in my listings?

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Yes as far as I know.

[mr_lincoln]

@tweetystwades

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@tweetystwades wrote:

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@critter_mama_2007 wrote:
In May, I checked my listings and my store link came up as active content in all my listings. Removed all. Then ebay says all listings must be mobile friendly. Once again 2000 listings edited. Now stock photos provided by ebay will not upload. wash... rinse... repeat... It's getting old real fast..... I can't list anything new, I'm to busy editing old listings.

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I'm doing this now for the mobile friendly checker.  I guess there is no way to update them in bulk?

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I think Alan or Trinton posted that making listings Mobile Friendly was not a Bulk Editor function (meaning they do not have that functionality).  The Mobile checker is for one listing at a time from what I recall reading and there "may" have been issues with some users trying to check some of their listings.  I've never done anything fancy in my Description like colored fonts, colored backgrounds, etc.  Just simple text as provided with the default format and I try real hard not to make lengthy descriptions. 

[shipscript]

@wheredidiputthatremote

If your listings aren't mobile friendly, that won't necessarily kill sales. It really depends how far out of line they are.  I looked at a smattering of your listings and the only problem I saw was that the photos don't flex. 

In your case, this simple line of code would fix the problem and it is the same code eBay uses to fix the problem.  This code won't automatically make everyone's listings mobile friendly, but it should work for yours.

<style>img {max-width:100%; height:auto;}</style>

Then add this next line of code to the top of your listing to tell browsers you fixed the problem. This code does not automatically fix problems as it only tells the browser to not shrink the page to fit, since you are handling the shrinking in your styles above.

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">

You can fix all your listings in bulk using eBay's BEAR tool, as described on the Active Content forum I linked above.

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Replacing-Active-Content/How-to-find-and-cope-with-Active-Content-tutor...

To use BEAR on your listings, skip down to the "Open Active Selling Page" section and start there.

After marking the first 200 listings to revise, you would put this code in the "Find" box

<style type="text/css">

And then put this code in the "Replace" box

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<style>img {max-width:100%; height:auto;}</style>
<style type="text/css">

Notice that you are also putting back the code that you are finding.

Continue with the instructions to repair 200 items per pass and repeat until all your items are revised.

If you need assistance, please feel free to post a question on the Active Content forum.

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Replacing-Active-Content/bd-p/activecontent

[the_fancy_fox]

If you use or used Turbo Lister to create your listing, at the bottom of your listing(s) there is a link to TL. THAT was causing all of my errors. Rather ticked me off to have to remove something Ebay put on there.

I spent several hours revising my listings one at a time.

[shipscript]

@tweetystwades

If all of your listings are now plain text, you don't need to do anything at all to make them mobile friendly. If you have listings that are not plain text, then ask me on the Active Content forum, along with item numbers, and I will look for a way to make them mobile friendly in bulk.

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Replacing-Active-Content/bd-p/activecontent

@mr_lincoln

There isn't a bulk tool to test for mobile friendly, but eBay does have their BEAR tool to bulk edit listings and I have an online Bulk Editing tool that will revise all listings in one pass using eBay's File Exchange. So there are options available for fixing listings in bulk.

What I have found is that sellers who have a lot of listings to repair will usually be consistent in the listing template or style they use. Thus, we can look at a small sampling of listings to get a general idea what needs to be fixed and then address them in bulk.

[wheredidiputthatremote]

@shipscript thank you

[shipscript]

@the_fancy_fox

It's unfortunate you had to edit them one by one. Those are sort of a moot point because no one would click that credit link anyway. But since eBay is retiring TL,  sellers might want that out of their listings for aesthetics, if nothing else.

The bulk Active Content Editor actually has a filter to remove those in bulk, but I don't advise that unless there are too many to handle individually or through BEAR.

[mr_lincoln]

@shipscript  Awesome & thank you!