How To Use A WYSIWYG HTML Editor To Make Stunning Ebay Auction Listings.

by Thomas Haselhorst

What kind of browser are you using for online surfing? Explorer, Netscape, Firefox, Opera?? Sure, all are good programs but I want to talk about an excellent program called Netscape. If you use Netscape, do you know that you also get an amazing WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) web design program called Netscape Composer for free? Basically you don’t need expensive HTML editors anymore. The list of commercially available HTML editors software is endless – and the price tags are enormous. Most people don’t want to spend a lot of money to get started with their eBay business. Fair enough, since the goal is to make money and not to spend money. So it makes perfect sense to use a program to design auction listings which is available for free. And such a program is Netscape Composer. It has the same professional features like FrontPage or any other similar program. To design stunning and professional looking eBay auction sites with Netscape Composer you need to download Netscape first. If you start up the program, select File->New Composer Page and basically you can start immediately to design your auction listings. You can make you letters in any colour, bold, italics, use background colours (or even images) etc. The options are endless. You can save this file on your local hard drive as html file. I used to have one file for every listing I generate. The best thing is that once you have got a nice and professional looking eBay auction listing, you can use it for ever. Just open your last listing in Netscape Composer and edit according to your new item. Amazingly, this takes only a couple of minutes. But how do you transfer your listing saved as a html file on your local hard drive to eBay? The answer is simple. Once you have logged in into your eBay account and selected your category and starting price you have to type in your “item description”. Did you see that eBay allows HTML format? Have a look when you launch your next listing. That’s the time where you go back to your new listing you just have created with Netscape Composer. Down the bottom of your Netscape Composer page you’ll see a button called: SOURCE - the source code of your listing. Click on that and highlight and copy the entire text. Select then the eBay site and paste this text into the “Item description box”. Make sure that all links are working and that all photos are uploaded to the internet. When you have finalised your listing you will be surprised. A stunning and professional looking “DIY-listing”. You can always use “ready-to-go” auction templates and edit these according to your item. You’ll see that with an professional auction design you can easily attract more buyers and get higher bids. It’s worth the effort. Keep in mind that professional web design software is highly expensive and does the same job. Alternatively, you can choose from a huge variety of third party auction services doing the job for you. But hey, there are incredibly expensive too. Don’t you think that the eBay fees are high enough and you can easily do it yourself without spending any additional dollars. It’s really simple! About the Author Thomas Haselhorst is webmaster of http://www.auction-design-for-free

Professional Buyer's Use of Reverse Auctions

by Doug Luthringer

Some professional buyers are still wondering why they should take advantage of reverse auction technology. It is true that some items are not good to reverse auction, but some are very good opportunities for reverse auction. This article will give a brief look into the top five buyer rewards for using reverse auctions and how the buyer and their company can be more successful. First and foremost, reverse auctions are used to get the best available market price at the time of the bid. In many instances, a reverse auction will result in a lower price paid than traditional sealed bids or negotiations. While savings are sometimes difficult to accurately measure, and while some costs are "hidden" (supplier change costs, set up charges, etc), companies employing this technology in properly conducted reverse auctions are experiencing often 10% or more real cost savings. Whether you use the last actual price paid or bid price reduction, you can accurately track, report and post the results to all interested parties within minutes after the event is complete. This leads us into the next buyer reward which is process improvement. It is true that it may take more time to put together a reverse auction bid, but this preparation brings about a disciplined, thorough, and fair bid process and ultimately better supplier selection decisions. Reverse auctions require special care be taken to write accurate specifications and evaluate the true historical spend information which enable you to better forecast your demand to potential vendors. This process discipline will improve your productivity for future competitive bids because you will have quick access to the information in the future. Reverse auctions reduce the negotiation time from weeks to minutes. The cycle time is shortened which, in turn, will reduce costs and improve efficiency for both buyer and seller. In addition, you will be able to easily duplicate the bid package if you would like to run similar reverse auction events in the future. Another reward for buyers is bid transparency. Reverse auctions can be used as a transparent reporting tool for all bids accepted. This works especially well in the public sector where every penny is tracked and monitored. Online bidding systems can usually save all data for quick report generation at the click of a mouse. If needed, the live event can be viewed in real time by any interested parties from any internet connection or on a viewing screen in a conference room. Most reverse auction systems are web-based, allowing interested parties to log into the system and watch the event live from their desktops. The next buyer reward is increased organizational competitiveness. When you reduce costs and improve productivity, you make your company more competitive and therefore more able to attract and retain customers who seek price reductions. Streamlining your procurement process through online competitive bidding methods, such as reverse auctions and eRFX, will benefit your organization and your career. When you can show measurable results and easily report those results to management, both you and the organization will benefit. The last buyer reward for using reverse auctions that we will talk about today is extending your reach to new potential suppliers. When you use online reverse auctions, you can post the bid opportunity on your website which will attract more suppliers to compete for your business. You still must pre-qualify the suppliers, but the increased number of suppliers will increase the competition for your purchase, driving down bid prices. You can easily include more bidders via the streamlined e-procurement process. If you wish to open up your purchase to more can be difficult to identify new suppliers to create a competitive environment for a reverse auction. By posting your events online in a public format, more suppliers will be able to find you. Finally, you should treat reverse auctions as one tool in your procurement toolbox. Most organizations that currently do competitive bidding will be able to see the value of the reverse auction process and to recognize how it fits into their organization. And those organizations are saving time and money by doing them right. So don't miss the opportunity to connect and contract quickly with your suppliers by using reverse auctions. About the author: Doug Luthringer is a Client Development Manager at eDynaQuote (http://www.eDynaQuote.com) with over two years of strategy, implementation and training experience in online reverse auctions and over six years with online forward auctions such as eBay. Doug has also been invited to be a guest speaker to talk about how to properly use reverse auctions to small and medium size business, as well as university students.

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