Dutch

Spectacularly Lethal Soldier
Over the years of my trading I have slowly changed my ways of advertising. When I first started trading people would get mad at you for advertising a 5 min trade offer, which is understandable. People also don't like others who advertisements take up the whole text chat. Here are some simple ways to keep your trades neat and concise:

Text Chat
  • Keep your advertisements short. While this may be an obvious one, it's surprising to see how many people who don't do this.
  • Use abbreviations when you can. This reduces possible errors in spelling and space taken up in chat.
  • Don't use fancy text. Later in this guide I'll give tips and information for posting advertisements on trading sites but as for general TF2 trading do not use any 'special' text. It almost always look really grainy in the chat and could make your ad hard to read.
  • Using the servers Donator to your advantage. I understand some people may not be able to afford donator but if you are able to acquire Donator perks it's very helpful to your ad. Most servers have Donator perks such as being able to change the color of your name and your text in chat. This will allow your text to stand out more and capture more attention.
An example of what you shouldn't do and should do is provided below:

Do not ~ Hello everyone! I am selling a strange specialized killstreak rocket launcher for 1 key and 18.33 refined metal. Send me a trade offer if you want it! (150 characters)

Do ~ S> Spec KS Rocket Launcher [1 key 18.33 Ref] (44 characters)

Notice how there is over a 100 character difference and I still got the point across. In my advertisement you don't need the brackets. It is mainly for organization purposes. I highly recommend them but it's entirely up to you.

Advertising on a trading site
Many of the tips I have already told you will be used in creating an ad for a trading site such as Bazaar.tf, Outpost.tf and Backpack.tf (These are the main sites I use)
  • You are allowed to use custom text. Even though you are allowed to use custom text on a post I still would check to make sure it is easy to read. Fancy Text Generator
  • Changing the color of the text isn't required but encouraged. As I said at the top of the guide you do not need to change your text. But if you want your text to stand out more it is encouraged. Some colors to avoid are Pink, Yellow, Lime and Cyan. Learning how to change the colors on a trading site is important as they don't have a simple color palette.
Most if not all trading sites require you to find the Hex color code. To simplify it, it is basically a specific numeric value for a specific color. This is what most sites will give you [color=#(hex)][/COLOR] . All this is, is simple BB code https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBCodeWhat is BB code? . Pulling apart that line of text will show exactly where you need to place the Hex of a color. First, evaluate the code. [color=#(hex)]. Where "hex" is located, you're going to need to put the number in there. Not in the parenthesis. You're going to delete those and the word 'hex'.[/COLOR]Google has provided a free color palette that provides the Hex of a number. Color Picker . Select your desired color. Next you will need to copy the hex. This is the box you should be looking at.

tRxnW5x.png


The text you need for the color is the top numeric value with the "# " in front of it. Highlight that whole line of text and copy it. You're halfway done! Now place the value (It's different for every color) in the color code where the (hex) was.
[color=[/B]#42f4c5][/COLOR]. For adding text just place the text in between the brackets like so [color=[/B]#42f4c5] Text goes here . I'll add some text to show what it should look like. [color=[/B]#42f4c5]Buying Hats. [/COLOR]When you apply this into a trading site like Bazaar.tf only the "Buying Hats" will show, not the code. [/COLOR]

  • Provide your trade link at the bottom of the page. Some sites have a button to send you a trade but it does not hurt to provide your link at the bottom. I'm not going to show how to find your steam trade offer link as you probably shouldn't be reading this if you don't know where it is. The BB code for a link is [url= INSERT LINK HERE ] TEXT [/url].

*There is a few COLOR tags that should not be there in the last 2 paragraphs. I have tried multiple times to get rid of them and can't seem to find the error. If you have any questions just leave a comment and I can try my best to help*
 

Sargent¥

Australian Skial God
Contributor
I like this guide but you got formatting errors left and right that need fixing. Don't mind Johnny, he's a hippie.
 

Dutch

Spectacularly Lethal Soldier
I like this guide but you got formatting errors left and right that need fixing. Don't mind Johnny, he's a hippie.
Yeah I took note of some of the errors at the bottom. I thought it was simple and easy enough for someone who doesn't know about this stuff. Thought the formatting was alright.