Using eBay’s Hot Categories Report as a Marketing Tool

Every on-line marketer is aware of the importance of keywords and keyword research is the subject of endless posts (add one more, I suppose). Services such as Wordtracker & Overture’s Keyword Selector Tool are well-known and useful but there is a back-door, if you will, to keyword popularity on eBay in the form of “eBay’s Hot Categories Report” in a PDF download.

The Hot Category Report is published monthy and covers supply and demand across 34 major categories and then by sub-category.

Definition of degrees of “Hotness”:
“Super Hot” – at least a 35 percentage point spread between bid growth rate and listing growth rate. For instance, month-over-month bid growth for the L4 Category may be 50%, while month-over-month listing growth for the L4 Category may be 10%. Because the percentage point spread (40 percentage points) is greater than 35%, this category is deemed “Super Hot.”
“Very Hot” - a percentage point spread between 15% and 35%. For instance, month-over-month bid growth for the L4 Category may be 10%, while listing growth may be -10%. Thus, this category is deemed as “Very Hot.”
“Hot” - remaining hot L4s with spreads up to 15%.

Each category is analyzed and reported per the criteria above (e.g. Desktop PC Components —->Video Cards for Desktop PC——->Leadtek).

What you have then is a supply and demand snapshot, by category and keyword, from the worlds largest marketplace. Also, there is a pricing function to the data insofar as “bid growth rate” is a factor. Would that it was all reported in more detail but then we’re talking eBay here so be glad you’ve got what you’ve got.
Not a be-all and end-all and certainly not a substitute for keyword tools but nevertheless a very interesting adjunct to your current research and an excellent free source to mine for ideas.

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