Following the recent article on No Reserve Auctions:

On the other hand you could list an auction starting at $1 with a reserve of $20, and until a bid matches $20 or more, the item will not sell. In Thomas Multimedia’s auction platform, the reserve price is hidden from the buyer – in other words they have to stab in the dark until they find the starting price.

However once the reserve price is matched or exceeded, the current bid will stand at the reserve price. In other words, if Joe placed a bid of $100 on an item with a $50 reserve, his bid effectively would stand at $50, and provided no-one else bids, he would win the item for $50.

If however a second bidder entered the bidding, the system would automatically place a bid on Joe’s behalf all the way up to $100.

About 11.3 million Australians use the internet. Ninety per cent of them are aged 18 to 44 – that is, consumers in their prime.

According to the Australian Communications and Media Authority, the internet is now the most trusted media source in the country. Ninety-five per cent of small-medium companies use the internet.
source

Is your business maximizing its online presense through a website or web software that would allow you to work more efficiently?

Along with a host of tweaks to improve the accuracy of search results, TM Auctions search pages now suggest categories based on the entered keywords.

This is a great way to get buyers looking in the right section right off the bat. Click on the image below for an enlarged version.

“More than 13 million Australians have access to the internet, and online consumer sales are expected to grow by some 24 per cent annually with predictions of over $30 billion in 2011.”

This article quotes some research indicating that online shopping is set to grow exponentially over the next few years -  the indications for Australia at least are that age and location are proving no barrier to purchasing online – what a good time to start up your own e-commerce auction site!

This post in the first in a series of tips we will be publishing to give web auction site owners and auctioneers some pointers to making their auction site a success. Whether you use our web auction software TM Auctions or another web auction platform, the first hurdle is always engaging your buying audience.

No Reserve auctions, particularly $1 No Reserve auctions are a simple concept – the auction has a pre-determined minimum bid, and any bid matching or exceeding that minimum bid will result in a sale. So if you start an auction with a minimum bid of $1, and only one bid is placed, the item will sell for $1.

You might think this is a huge risk on the part of the seller, but its much more of a calculated risk. Obviously you should avoid listing something you think you would lose money on. So does that mean you should list junk items in the hope of gaining some feedback/reputation? No!

In fact the No Reserve $1 category should contain only quality items. Just take a look at the items listed in this $1 No Reserve category. Any day of the week, we can confidently say that the more expensive looking items will attract the most bids – whereas the cheap stuff is probably rotating without a single bid.

Not only do quality no reserve auctions receive the most bids and deliver the most profit to the seller, but they increase the site’s popularity. If you put on your buying hat, would you be comfortable bidding $1 or $100 on your very first bid? Buyers will often test the waters in no reserve, and quickly gain confidence with the system and with the sellers.

See also our article on Reserve Auctions.

If you have never picked up a hammer, would you build your own house?

Having worked in the web industry for the last 5 years or so,  I always get a laugh at the DIY website building crowd – that is, people who have no real experience or knowledge in web design, development and web marketing.

I don’t know about you but I would love to have a dollar for every time I have heard “my cousin John can build websites”.

Sure there are dozens of tools that are designed to empower non-technical people into being able to publish their own content – in fact that is the aim of my online auction software and other excellent systems like WordPress. So I don’t mean to create a barrier to entry that non-technical people cannot contribute and thrive online – just don’t try and build the system!

For those who think that they can produce something adequate based on their desktop publishing skills alone (such as Word, Powerpoint) – please consider that the web industry is easily as involved as any other profession, and only true experience can produce results.

In fact I would argue it is more involved that many professions, based on the rate of change, and the vast array of technologies to grasp.

Here is a simple test – if you don’t know the meaning of any term on this list, don’t build a professional website:

• HTML
• CSS
• standards compliance
• FTP
• SEO
• Server side code
• Client side code

Believe me, this is the tip of the iceberg – the list will double in size as soon as you want a functional website.

Give your business / idea a real shot at success by employing the services of a web professional.