I asked ebay the same question. Here is their response back to me.
"Thank you for writing eBay in regard to preseting the visitor counters to automatically be on every listing.
I'm sorry it took us a while to get back to you.
I appreciate the opportunity in explaining this to you.
If you list the item through the "Sell Your Item (SYI)" form, then the visitor counter will automatically show up while listing the item,
however, as you've mentioned that you list the items through Auctiva, I'm sorry to inform you that we do not have access to that software,
hence, we do not have any information on how to preset it.
Though Auctiva is not authorized by eBay, many seller's use this tool to list their item. I request you to contact Auctiva in order to find a resolution. To reach Auctiva Customer Service, log into your account and send a secure email through the following Web page:
http://classic.auctiva.com/help/help.aspThank you for being a valuable member of the eBay community. Have a wonderful time shopping and selling on eBay!
Sincerely,
Steve P.
eBay Customer Support"
Has anyone done this before? If so, what is the Auctiva response?