In an online market where millions of sellers compete for sales, you have to be different in order to succeed.  When you use a Web-based  platform to sell—like eBay or Kijiji—your item listing page looks almost identical to millions of other listings.  One way you can stand out from the competition is to invest in tools to enhance your online listings.

Pixetell is a tool that online sellers may overlook. We say this because Pixetell is actually SaaS communication and collaboration software and not a typical tool that a seller would look for.  The platform offers many features for desktop collaboration, but it’s also an affordable tool that you can use just to create voice and video ads to post with an online listing.

As you create the visual display in the Pixetell software, you can add a voice narrative to describe the item and highlight its features. When you put your voice behind a product, you can humanize the nature of online selling and inspire trust in your prospective buyers by offering more than just a static picture and text descriptions.

Gather Your Assets and Make a Video

To get started, you need to register on the Pixetell Web site. Pixetell is available free for 21 days, so you can try the service before paying the $9 for a subscription. You will also want to gather listing assets— item images, videos, and the description you will use in the listing. You will need a PC microphone to add your own voice narrative to the Pixetell you create.

Pixetell lets online sellers quickly create a video by capturing product images and recording a descriptive narrative as they scroll through the images. (Click for larger image).

After you install the software, along the top edge of your desktop you’ll see the Pixetell control panel. What Pixetell does is actually capture your screen movement and your voice recording. For online listings you can do something easy, like cycle through product shots in an image viewer and talk about the features shown in each image.

In using Pixetell to create a video, we saved three images of a 1932 Ford Hotrod convertible in a directory on our computer. We opened the first image in the Microsoft Media Player, and clicked Screen from the Pixetell console. When prompted to select a recoding area, we clicked the Media Player window to activate.  You can capture any programs and files on your computer—you don’t have to use Media Player.

The window you select to capture is enclosed by a dark blue border, which you can drag to adjust the size. For example, you would want to drag your window size to record just the image being displayed in Windows Media Player, and not the entire Media Player window itself. As you record, the blue border will turn red so you can tell when you are in live record mode.

When you’re happy with the recording area size, look for the round Pixetell control bar to the left of the recording area. Click Record to start creating your video. You also will use this control to adjust the sound recording, switch to a webcam while creating the video, mute the mic as needed, stop recording or undo your last action.

As you record, you can move your mouse over the images to highlight details of the product as you talk. This appears in the video as a small moving blue circle that looks like a presentation pointer.

Once you have created a Pixetell for your listing, you select Save, and you can then Share the video via e-mail, or you can copy the provided link and send that out to interested buyers.  You can also share the ad by creating a hyperlink in your online listing and link directly to the video from the item description page.

When interested buyers view your Pixetell, it automatically loads in a browser window with a prompt for them to turn on their speakers and click play. Those viewing a Pixetell video do not need to download any software.

The Verdict: Extremely Easy to Use

We used Pixetell to create a video to include with an online listing for a 1932 Ford Hotrod. Pixetell is so easy to use that we literally installed it and then created a Pixetell in less than three minutes (you can view our Pixetell demo ad here).  It truly is a simple point-click-talk interface that anyone can use. If we can create a basic video in just a couple minutes, it’s easy to imagine what a seller could do in five or ten minutes with a proper scripted narrative—something we didn’t use but sellers creating a real ad will want to prepare before recording.

Sellers with tens of thousands of products obviously wouldn’t create a Pixetell for every item they list; however, they may have a few unique products that are worth creating a Pixetell video. Pixetell would be a worthwhile investment for anyone selling higher-value and unique items, like vehicles or antiques and collectibles. It would also be an excellent tool for real estate or event ticket agents who list online.

Pricing and Availability

A basic Pixetell account with screen, Web cam and voice card recording capabilities and up to 600MB of storage is priced at $9 per month. You can upgrade to a Pro account, which offers additional features such as conversation support, security enhancements, and 1200MB of storage for $19 per month.

Vangie Beal is a veteran online seller and frequent contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com. She is also managing editor of Webopedia.com. You can tweet with her online @AuroraGG.