My new website (rauction.com.au) - Please help me test it
- Thread starter ianvestor
- Start date
ok Placed some bids..
Site looks nice
Easy to bid
Not sure without reading everything but I think what would turn me off is waiting for results. I've never been known for patience (with this sort of thing).
Once it's up and running, my guess is, things will be turning over daily and the excitment factor will kick in, is that correct? ... Otherwise I see the wait as a draw back, people want results ... especially addicted people!!
Site looks nice
Easy to bid
Not sure without reading everything but I think what would turn me off is waiting for results. I've never been known for patience (with this sort of thing).
Once it's up and running, my guess is, things will be turning over daily and the excitment factor will kick in, is that correct? ... Otherwise I see the wait as a draw back, people want results ... especially addicted people!!
ok Placed some bids..
Site looks nice
Easy to bid
Not sure without reading everything but I think what would turn me off is waiting for results. I've never been known for patience (with this sort of thing).
Once it's up and running, my guess is, things will be turning over daily and the excitment factor will kick in, is that correct? ... Otherwise I see the wait as a draw back, people want results ... especially addicted people!!
Hi Novar, yes people want fast results which is where 'time-limited' auctions will come into play. They will be based on a pre-determined deadline, regardless of the number of bids placed. I just have to weigh up the risk of the product cost vs how many bids I think will come in during the auction period. That is on the agenda for the next step anyway.
For now I'd suggest sticking to auctions with low remaining bid numbers, until things heat up a bit
Thanks to everyone for being so helpful, I have already made lots of improvements to the site since yesterday on your suggestions.
Doing something through facebook and emailcash might be an idea too... that is fairly inexpensive and bound to get a few people in. looks good i have just started placing some bids...
Emailcash run their own reverse auctions so they might not allow it but thanks for the idea. And Facebook could be good too.
Ian,
Great site, nicely designed and a good concept. However,I think advertising is really your key to making this successful, it doesnt matter how good your product is, if you dont advertise no one will know about it.
Affilliate schemes do work well, but what I suggest is you look at a number of different strategies and hit them all pretty hard, such as SEO, link exchages/purchases, and even some press releases.
You might want to even get a few online retailers involved that may want to donate some items to list for free kickbacks in advertising.
I also suggest you also purchase advertising, Google Adwords can work well if properly selected and keywords chosen well, however Auction may be an expensive keyword given eBay's dominance in the market.
You should also try and look into some innovative ways of advertising, social networks like facebook are great, possibly get a facebook/iphone application developed, hook up with some online communities, i.e; if you are selling an iphone.. post the item on iphone forum.
You could even do email listings everyweek on what items you now have listed and the average price they are selling for (if your site permits)
Spend your time now focussing on the advertising, or team up with someone that can help you out.
Advertising will make or break your site!
Hope that helps
Great site, nicely designed and a good concept. However,I think advertising is really your key to making this successful, it doesnt matter how good your product is, if you dont advertise no one will know about it.
Affilliate schemes do work well, but what I suggest is you look at a number of different strategies and hit them all pretty hard, such as SEO, link exchages/purchases, and even some press releases.
You might want to even get a few online retailers involved that may want to donate some items to list for free kickbacks in advertising.
I also suggest you also purchase advertising, Google Adwords can work well if properly selected and keywords chosen well, however Auction may be an expensive keyword given eBay's dominance in the market.
You should also try and look into some innovative ways of advertising, social networks like facebook are great, possibly get a facebook/iphone application developed, hook up with some online communities, i.e; if you are selling an iphone.. post the item on iphone forum.
You could even do email listings everyweek on what items you now have listed and the average price they are selling for (if your site permits)
Spend your time now focussing on the advertising, or team up with someone that can help you out.
Advertising will make or break your site!
Hope that helps
No, it would round to the nearest whole cent. Otherwise it would turn into a competition between who could enter the most zeros. Eg $0.00000000000000000000000001 vs $0.00000000000000000000000000000001
Haha you've caught me, I need to do a bit of work on that, but I figured I had a bit of time up my sleeve
I will work something out shortly. Thanks heaps for the suggestion.No, it would round to the nearest whole cent. Otherwise it would turn into a competition between who could enter the most zeros. Eg $0.00000000000000000000000001 vs $0.00000000000000000000000000000001
Haha you've caught me, I need to do a bit of work on that, but I figured I had a bit of time up my sleeve
Hi, ian nice site design and layout as for advertising why not do a PR article
and submit to places like stumble upon digg etc this should get you listed
in google quite quickly just have the article with the main keyword in the title
enough people find it on digg etc and you get to the front page you'll get alot of users
good luck
Had a bit of a chance to test it this arvo and must say I'm very impressed with the clean layout, easy to understand bidding process, etc.
Couple of thoughts:
It might be handy to have your bid history on the front page (the page all items are displayed on) if possible or even just some notification that you have bid on the item previously, may not be hugely important now, but when the site is loaded up with more items it would be a lot easier, especially if multiple lots of the same item are offered.
The items that have a rectangular appearance detract somewhat from the smooth feel to the site. For the cash perhaps a wad of notes with white background would work well, for the rauction credits perhaps you could print the coupon and take a photo of it on an angle to detract from the rectangular look.
I purchased some credit via CC/Pay Pal ($10) and notice you don't have an automated crediting system (assuming that the site is live and this is ok to do). Might pay to put somewhere on the FAQ/Purchase credit screen that the funds will need to be verified before credited to account. I also wondered whether PayPal let's you know somehow what user is that purchased the credit...ie would it match up my clicks from the site with the payment if I was paying with someone elses card?
May seem silly, but I didn't immediately notice the purchase credit at the top of the screen near my user name, found it under your account -> purchase credit, may pay to light up this feature somehow, perhaps move the purchase credit to the main menu line or even light up the words purchase credit where they are in the bright green (same as the 'r' from rauction).
Something like this could really take off on facebook if you created a group for people to forward around to friends (I would be happy to do this if created). The title of the site is quite catchy and lends itself to some catch phrases that would stand out on facebook. 'Rock on with Rauction', etc.
In regards to the successful bidder question on the FAQ, will the customer who won receive some sort of email. As it reads (at the moment) you would have to be watching the site and contact rauction within 14 days or you forfeit?
To be honest the 'I love rauction!' phrase in the contact us section of the site is a bit much. I reckon a drop down list or more generic subject line would be better. If I had something go wrong with the site and saw I love rauction in the subject line I reckon I would get pretty pissed off
Edit - Also on contact us page, probably not a good idea to have the fields editable, if I knew someones username, email and real name I could use this to forge contact from that user (maybe you don't think it's an issue, but seems something that I would lock down).
Few suggestions, will get back on and test some more when my $10 purchased credit comes through
Sorry for poor grammar, long day, if anything is not clear let me know. Cheers
Couple of thoughts:
It might be handy to have your bid history on the front page (the page all items are displayed on) if possible or even just some notification that you have bid on the item previously, may not be hugely important now, but when the site is loaded up with more items it would be a lot easier, especially if multiple lots of the same item are offered.
The items that have a rectangular appearance detract somewhat from the smooth feel to the site. For the cash perhaps a wad of notes with white background would work well, for the rauction credits perhaps you could print the coupon and take a photo of it on an angle to detract from the rectangular look.
I purchased some credit via CC/Pay Pal ($10) and notice you don't have an automated crediting system (assuming that the site is live and this is ok to do). Might pay to put somewhere on the FAQ/Purchase credit screen that the funds will need to be verified before credited to account. I also wondered whether PayPal let's you know somehow what user is that purchased the credit...ie would it match up my clicks from the site with the payment if I was paying with someone elses card?
May seem silly, but I didn't immediately notice the purchase credit at the top of the screen near my user name, found it under your account -> purchase credit, may pay to light up this feature somehow, perhaps move the purchase credit to the main menu line or even light up the words purchase credit where they are in the bright green (same as the 'r' from rauction).
Something like this could really take off on facebook if you created a group for people to forward around to friends (I would be happy to do this if created). The title of the site is quite catchy and lends itself to some catch phrases that would stand out on facebook. 'Rock on with Rauction', etc.
In regards to the successful bidder question on the FAQ, will the customer who won receive some sort of email. As it reads (at the moment) you would have to be watching the site and contact rauction within 14 days or you forfeit?
To be honest the 'I love rauction!' phrase in the contact us section of the site is a bit much. I reckon a drop down list or more generic subject line would be better. If I had something go wrong with the site and saw I love rauction in the subject line I reckon I would get pretty pissed off
Edit - Also on contact us page, probably not a good idea to have the fields editable, if I knew someones username, email and real name I could use this to forge contact from that user (maybe you don't think it's an issue, but seems something that I would lock down).
Few suggestions, will get back on and test some more when my $10 purchased credit comes through
Sorry for poor grammar, long day, if anything is not clear let me know. Cheers
Hi hobo-jo, PayPal crediting is supposed to be instant and automatic, so there is a bug there... you did the first real paypal deposit. I've credited your account manually and have all the info I need to debug the auto-crediting script for next time.
Thanks for all your suggestions, I am reviewing them seriously and making a list.
With regard to the contact page, I agree about the subject annoying people if they already have a complaint. And if a user is logged in, I can see what username they are logged in as regardless of what they type as their username. So I could actually see if they changed it. The contact form is the same script as when you're not logged in, so non-members also send from the same form, that's why it's all editable I guess.
To anyone that's offered a suggestion that hasn't been implemented yet, don't worry I'm noting everything and will pretty much spend the weekend just working on this site (I'm kinda glued to my currency trading charts during the week at the moment!).
Lots of appreciation,
Ian
Whoops, turns out the update I had made to the deposit page to make this happen, simply hadn't been uploaded yet.
I should get myself a job at CBA
Hello
Don't you have to pay a license fee for your reverse auction site? I believe there is a US and possibly and AUS patent for this idea.
Best case - The simple fix could be a license fee to be paid.
Worst case - You could be infringing on someone's intellectual property and they chase you and the equity from your IP's.
Can you limit liability of your business and protect your assets?
Might be an idea to check IP Australia and see if someone has the foreign patent rights.
Aaron
Don't you have to pay a license fee for your reverse auction site? I believe there is a US and possibly and AUS patent for this idea.
Best case - The simple fix could be a license fee to be paid.
Worst case - You could be infringing on someone's intellectual property and they chase you and the equity from your IP's.
Can you limit liability of your business and protect your assets?
Might be an idea to check IP Australia and see if someone has the foreign patent rights.
Aaron
Just read the last line
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