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Tips for a Successful Auction
How to Sell Your Auction
A large part of having a successful auction is how you set it up. The
layout, content, and general look and feel of the auction can catch the
eye and draw potential buyers to pay attention and spend the extra time
it takes to decide, "Hey, I think I'd like to bid on this!" Here are
some basic do's and don'ts to consider when setting up your auction:
DO...
- Give your auction a good descriptive name
- Use a catchy title that makes people want to look
- If you are a well-known seller, include your name (Neat Item by
Seller)
- Start bidding low, and set a reserve
- This encourages people to bid, but also ensures that you do
not have to sell the piece at a price you are not comfortable
with. Lower prices promote competition, which can drive the price
higher than if you start the auction at a higher minimum
price.
- Having a bid on the auction, even a low one, can increase
traffic to your auction. Casual viewers will see your auction in
the listings and want to look to see, because they know someone else
thought it was worth bidding on.
- Give the auction time to sell
- Buyers need time to access the site and see your auction.
Some people visit the site only once a week, so 7-12 days is a good amount of
time to make sure casual browsers find your auction.
- Our site is set up so that search engines can index auction
pages. This may take 5-7 days, so if your auction is up for at
least that long, people may be able to find your auction by just web
searching.
- More time gives bidders the chance to compete for your auction,
which can drive the price up.
- Write a great description
- Include important selling points, like the media and/or
paper used, size, payment and shipping details, ladder options,
etc.
- Promote your websites. If you
have other websites where your work can be seen, feel free to link to them at
the bottom of your auction description. This helps promote yourself, as well
as demonstrate the quality of your work.
- Use HTML to jazz up the look. You can use simple tables,
colors, and other very basic features to make the description
interesting and eye-catching. You can also use HTML to include
additional images in your auction! Just make sure to select
"HTML" under the description field, so your auction shows
correctly. (If you don't know how to use HTML, there are a
million great tutorials on the web for free. It's worth checking
out!)
- Set your auction up for the Art Show and Hot Items
- These additional listings give your auction more visibility
and make it stand out to the casual visitor. Hot Items are
especially important because they give your auction a spot on the
front page of the website, and result in more visits to the
auction!
- PROMOTE, PROMOTE, PROMOTE!
- Link to your auction or auction listings page on any
journal, community, mailing list, etc. that you think will have
interested people on it. The more you promote your auctions, the
more people may look and/or bid.
- If you post your image to a gallery like DeviantArt, Flickr, or any other
site, wait to post until after the auction is up, then include a
link to the auction in the image description. Studies have shown
that more people click through image description links than journal
links.
- If you have your own website that people regularly visit, use the
My Auction Herald to keep a live listing on your website, so you
don't have to make an update every time you list an auction.
DON'T...
- Use all caps on your auction name, or make the name too long
- These are garish and can actually make people NOT want to look
at your auction.
- Start the bidding too high
- High prices deter people from bidding. If you feel your work
is worth a certain price, try setting a reserve instead. If your
auction doesn't make it to reserve, you may be able to negotiate
with the high bidder for a price you can both agree on.
- List the auction for too long or too short
- Short auction times do not give casual bidders time to stumble
upon your auction. (Exception: if you are a well-known seller who
highly promotes their auctions and regularly gets mass views within a
short time frame)
- Long auction times may deter people from bidding at the beginning of
the auction, and by the time the auction is nearing the end, people
may have forgotten about it.
- Write a bad description (or none at all)
- Don't cram everything into a long unreadable paragraph, but
don't give too little information either. Try to use good spelling
and grammar, and separate your description into paragraphs.
- If you use HTML, make sure you close all your tags correctly so
your auction doesn't turn out as a jumbled mess. Use the preview
page to double-check and make sure it looks the way it should.
- Keep auto-relisting an auction that isn't selling
- If your auction has not sold after two or three times, take a
look at the auction and try to ask yourself why it isn't selling. Is
it over-priced? Am I not promoting it enough, or in the right
places? Is the piece something that people would actually want to
buy?
- Try something different. Change the price, promote it more
actively, group it in a multi-piece auction with similar pieces, and
see if you get more views and/or bids.
- Look at it as a buyer. Maybe the piece isn't selling because it
doesn't appeal to the buyers who visit the site. It could be that
the piece is not the right fit, or not high enough quality, or simply not
"in" right now. No matter how low the price is, if people don't like
the piece, it will not sell. Set it aside for a while, wait until
you think the market is right, and try again later if you still feel
the piece is sales-worthy.
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