Also, might be worth amending the title of the auction to include the word 'painting' and 'portrait' as the words in the title aren't very 'searchable' if you see what I mean - if you had the keywords in the title you could end up getting entries from people looking to buy a pet portrait/painting and decide to have a shot at winning it. No point in adding those words in the subtitle as they aren't part of the search results.
It won't let me amend the title of the listing now an item has sold/ donation been made. I can only add text on the bottom. Today really isn't my day!
Re: the title of the auction, is it worth ending the listing early and starting again? Although the title fully explains what it is I don't think anyone would come across it by searching as it doesn't have the key words that they would search for. How about
Dog/Cat/Pet portrait - watercolour painting of your pet and then the subtitle could be
Win a portrait - £2 entry fee goes to animal rescue. This way people will search for 'pet portrait' etc and will come across your auction and may decide to have a go.
I would also list it in the correct section, if someone is searching for a pet portrait they won't be looking in Everything else>other. I don't mean to be critical but ebay is massive so you could get lots of entries from people who have no connection with you and just come across the auction
Re: the local paper, rather than an advert I meant tell them you are fundraising for a local pet rescue and would they be interested in doing a small article. You could also put an ad in the online freeads.
As Zoe says this is the longest month on record as most people got paid early and then have to make it last so hopefully after payday things will pick up. I've set a reminder in my phone
