One of the features of eBay is that with so many members, 193 million at 31st March 2006, there will always be buyers interested in what you have to sell no matter what the item is.

It will be very difficult not to find an eBay category which perfectly reflects your item.

Sadly, I once counted the number of categories on eBay. To give you some idea of the numbers, there are around 2,000 computing categories and 1,350 clothing categories. The point is, there will almost always be category which is exactly appropriate for your item.

Is it important to find the right category when you're listing an item?

When you consider that around 30% of buyers select a category to browse through when looking to buy or bid on something of interest, getting in the right category is worth the effort. Also, if you're listed in the wrong category, or in an inappropriate category, you're going to miss these browsers.

Plus, don't forget listing items in the wrong category is against the rules. eBay will remove auctions that are wrongly categorised and reserve the right to cancel the membership of persistent offenders.

The good news is that there's no reason why you should ever wind up with your item in the wrong category.

eBay's category suggestion tools which you see when you list an item are particularly useful. With the category search facility, all you need to do is type in a few keywords related to your item, and eBay comes back with suggested categories together with a percentage of the number of items which match your keywords. If you use one of these categories, you will be fine.

Incidentally, one tip is to list your item in the lowest level of category possible. This is because items listed in a sub-category are also included in every category above. For example, if you're listing a wedding dress which is size 14, place it in Clothes-Wedding-Wedding Dresses-Size 14.

If someone searches for a size 14 wedding dress, your item will appear in the search return list along with the other size 14 wedding dresses. This is the best place to be, as there is the least competition. If someone searches on wedding dress without specifying a size, your item will appear in the search return list along with other wedding dresses of any size. So your dress will be up against more competition on this search.

There will be occasions when you might want to place your item into more than one category, which you can do for an additional fee. But please make sure this is really worthwhile. If your item is a genuine fit into one category, this is the one to go for. If it is a marginal fit for a second category, it may be a waste of your fee in using the second category.

It's definitely worth taking time to determine the best category for your item.

Let's say you're in the UK, and you have a set of golf clubs to auction. You see there are 8,000 sets of golf cubs currently for sale on eBay. But your clubs are left handed. Do you think you'll have better success placing your golf clubs in the left handed golf clubs category?

It's an absolute certainty!