I don't know if any of you have come across this tool yet but I found it a short while back and have been using it in conjunction with my BANS experiment, which is still ongoing, to determine product popularity during my site build.

What is Watch Count?

WhatchCount.com is basically a website which has been built from the eBay API primarily to show you the watch counts of the most popular items on eBay. Each eBay item which is currently for sale will have a watch count which, as the name suggests, is the number of people currently watching a particular item, this number can range from anywhere between 1 and a limitless number.

In addition to this, WatchCount.com, in most cases, gives you the number of times a particular item has sold previously on eBay giving you an idea of whether a particular item is a consistent seller. For example you may be considered an additional product page on one of your websites but there would be no point adding it if the particular item you want to promote never sells on eBay.

What can you use Watch Count for?

As many eBay sellers will tell you, the watch count of an item on eBay is an informative indicator which can be used to evaluate market demand. Of course, just because someone is watching an item on eBay doesn't necessarily mean they will follow through and purchase it but it does mean that there is interest in that particular item in the first place. Usually you can deduce that there is at least some intention to buy there by the individuals watching the item; the higher the watch count of the item the better. Coupled with this, as mentioned above, you can see the quantity of that particular item previously sold on eBay which gives you an idea of whether the high watch count exists with a high number of sales.

This tool is primarily useful if you are selling directly on eBay because it will enable you to compare two particular items side by side with different watch counts and analyse the possible reasons for differences in watch count. However, this tool is still very useful for affiliate marketers who are looking into promoting a product through the eBay Partner Network, since finding out the popularity of a product on eBay is just as important as finding the right keywords to promote it in the search engines.

Why not just use eBay Pulse?

I know some of you will be asking this question and yes eBay Pulse does allow you look at what's popular on eBay at that time but what eBay Pulse doesn't allow you to do and WatchCount.com does is:

• Allows you to search for popular items by entered keyword: So if you had a niche site about Eureka Vacuums then you could enter 'Eureka Vacuum' as a search phrase and you will be presented with the most popular items with that term in their title, along with Watch Counts and previous sales.

• Allows you to search for popular items using negative searching and multiple terms: In other words you can enter -keyword to display all items without that keyword in the title as well as using multiple search terms with (keyword1, keyword2) for a more specific search

• Allows you to view the number of people watching an item

• Allows you to see the amount of previous sales for that particular item: This information is only available through the 'Advanced Search' option on eBay.

How to Search on Watch Count

There are two main ways of searching on this site, the first is to use the basic search and the second is to use the advanced search. The basic search allows you to search for popular items by keyword and/or category and the advanced search allows you to do both of the aforementioned as well as include/exclude multiple eBay category numbers and choose the number of items to return (up to a maximum of 100). The images below show the basic search option and the advanced search option.

How to determine if an item is popular or not

There are many ways to determine what is a popular item and you will probably find your own way of working but in general if you look at the screen shot below you will see the main things to look for:

• A high watch count: When an item has longer left and a high watch count these are generally very popular items
• A high number of previous sales
• A high enough sale price to earn you a good commission

As you can see, the above item is a rather popular one on eBay, some external validation (i.e. with keyword research) may prove that this item is a popular one and as a result I would create a product page/review page about it using appropriately researched keywords.

This is not the only way to determine whether you should promote a product or not but it is just one of the ways which will help you validate the popularity of a product/market. Use this sensibly in conjunction with additional methods and if can prove quite useful. Visit WatchCount.com today!

Similar Posts Which May Be Of Interest:

• Using Google Insights For Niche/Market Research?
• Have You Ever Built A One Product Website?
• Finding Profitable Keywords & Niche Markets: Micro Niche Finder Review
• Is Your Keyword Research Tool Doing ALL The Work?
• Selecting the Right Product to Promote