You are using categories provided by the site. That is why you get the drop downs. That may be why your categories that you try to enter don’t take. Maybe someone with a better knowledge of the site will have a real answer to that.

If you want custom categories for your booth only you will need to create them on the advanced options page. Type in the names you want and then make sure to select automatic or manual, then save the page.

I use automatic and add the exact category name at the bottom of the description of each listing. If you are adding more categories to the description, space them apart at least 2 spaces but I find that 4 or 5 spaces is better because if the spaces disappear it is easier to spot the missing spaces.

Some people use manual but I have never messed with it.

There are some cautions that I have found. Never duplicate category names and never use the word other. Even another or mother or any attachment to the word other unless the word is totally enclosed inside, like motherly. Otherwise it will end up in the “Other” category too. That is an automatic thing that can pick words out of the description.

I had a category named Washer and another named Dishwasher. All the dishwasher parts were showing in Washer category. I had to change the category name to dishwashers. See how the word washer is encased?

You can see my categories and open some of the listings and see the category names at the bottom.

Every body talks about the attributes being hidden. I haven’t figured out how they hide them yet. Mine are at the bottom of the listings.

If I missed the point completely—- OOPS

You can type in at the bottom of your description Google Attributes. Like, [[ product_[URL removed] patch ]], without the spaces before and after the double brackets. It won’t be visible in your listing but Google will pick up on it.

And if you have alot of items to do that way with the same attribute to add, you can easily do more than one in the Batch Editor.

I make my own categories, which you can do as well, by clicking on the ‘sell’ button at the top of your page, then the ‘advanced’ tab, scroll down to categories toward the bottom of the page and there you can make a list of the categories that best fit your items :)

Contact me if you need any help.

Thank you so much for your help. This website thing is new to me. We usually sell our stuff at our local farmers markets so this is a whole new game for me.