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Author: Laura_Brito, Contributing Editor
| YOUR AUCTION TEMPLATE
The way your auction looks is just as important as your pictures. It needs to look clean and professional. I build mine using Seller's Assistant Pro. This is an auction management product that is owned by Ebay. It allows you to manage items descriptions, pictures, customer info, notes and emails in it. I built a template in my Seller's Assistant Program that was plain-jane, white background, and black text. The picture I include is a Collage of my items. The auction management program (Seller's Assistant Pro) automatically inserts the pictures and description for me. It will list the items when I tell it to even if I choose to go on vacation! It is also nice to have all my items and item numbers on my own computer in case I lose my internet connection. I can still look up items and ship and I can work on listings without being connected. If you list only a few items, you can use the following method. When posting my Art Beads on Just Beads Auction Site , I open Frontpage, and open my template that I have already built. I move my pictures to my web site using an ftp program or Frontpage to drag and drop them into my picture directory, then take each picture and insert it into my template. I type in my description or cut and paste it from my database. Once I am happy with it, I view the html source code; then, copy and paste it into the description area on the auction listing. This way my branding stays the same from auction to auction. My template contains the essential information about my auctions. I keep it bright, informative and really positive. I want viewers to enjoy their time at my auction! Most likely this will result in a bid! Below is the text I include in most of my auctions. Mya Art Glass consists of Laura and Israel Brito. We are two Eclectic Artists that have been creating Glass Art Treasures for the past 7 Years. We work together and collaborate in our Tucson, Arizona, Studio which is connected to the Saquaro National Monument which we draw much of our inspiration from. Together we take long hikes, walks and ride our mountain bikes in the Preserve. We both are full time Artists. We prefer to take Paypal but also accept checks and money orders. If you have any questions, please feel free to email laura@beadful.com with your questions. We also have an ebay store where we sell many other unique items & MANY MORE BORO BEADS Beadaholic. Our Daughter LLuvia is Blue_Rain_Glass & our daughter-in-law is Mya Silver. We work primarily in Borosilicate glass, which has a magical quality about it. All of our beads are annealed properly. Almost always our pictures are taken under full spectrum lighting to show the true colors. All beads pictured are included (silver, vermeil, glass, or otherwise). We show a couple of views of the same bead in the picture. I ship twice a week or more. Shipping is 2.75 for regular mail, $1.30 for up to $50.00 worth of insurance, and $2.20 for up to $100.00. Priority mail is $3.85. My address is Laura Brito, 8502 W Moses Dr. Tucson, AZ 85735 ---------------------------- Short and sweet, nothing to long and boring, but it tells the customer all they need to know. It is not to wordy or excessive either. All my pictures have the same text in them, Mya Art Glass. It helps the auctions look uniform. I do not use animations in my listings; some people still have slow connections and they won't wait for everything to load up to view the listing. Also, music is a BIG NO NO!! Please do not put music in your listings. Often, I will be listening to music on my system while browsing, then I will open an auction with music and listening to both at the same time is awful. Besides that, it is an invasion on the customer's ears. You don't want to annoy them! The Keep it Simple (KISS) saying comes to mind here.... |
| CONSISTENT LISTING
It is important to list items regularly. I try to list auctions weekly. Viewers will lose track of you if you start and stop listing, so it is important to always have listings up, even just a couple. You will eventually generate a following of buyers and viewers who bookmark your User ID in their Favorites. When emailing your buyers, tell them how to BookMark your auctions! or remind them to add your user name to their Favorites. |
| SHIPPING
For shipping there are many online postage programs. The most economical one that I have found is Clickstamp ($4.99 monthly fee). This program creates labels for my packages with the postage included. I can weigh my item, put in that weight and the program will tell me how much my postage is. I purchase it with my credit card (PayPal, which gives me money back on my purchase so postage cost me less overall). I insert the address and print the label. You have to ship the day you print the postage or at the very least, the next day. The draw backs are: If you insured the item you still have to go to the Post Office to get your receipt stamped. Plus, if your printer malfunctions, you could possibly lose postage. In order to get a postage refund, you have to send in proof and if it didn't print out anything, there is no proof. I have lost money only once ($20.34 cents). I decided that since I insure my boxes and have to go to the post office, it didn't make sense for me to do the extra work. There are other online postage services. You will need to decide if the positives outweigh the negatives with each one. UPS is another option. They will pick up at your door, but again that has a separate price. So you have to figure out what is more important to you, to save money or time. Paypal has integrated UPS into their payment system and if you use this option, they will be notified of shipping date and tracking numbers. |
| PACKAGING
Your packaging is very important. You want your item to arrive safely and in excellent condition. If not properly packaged, the insurance won't pay for the item if it is damaged. If I am shipping a framed painting with glass, I double or triple box my items. I put foam over the glass as well, or some other cushion; even newspaper works well. I recycle most of my packaging material. Save everything from packages that you can reuse - packaging materials are expensive. For free boxes, contact grocery stores or other small stores that receive packages each day. You may have to visit early in the mornings before they crush their boxes, but most will be glad to give them to you. We picked up boxes on a weekly basis for many years, but now I purchase my boxes. For small items like my Glass beads, I buy 4x4x4" boxes which cost about $18.00 per 100. Boxes can be purchased online, but you might save money in shipping by finding a local source. I also prefer boxes to padded envelopes because this gives your art a much higher level of protection. Padded envelopes actually cost more than my little boxes do. So it makes sense for me to use the boxes. The only drawback I have found with boxes this size is that legally with the post office they are not large enough if you want to insure them for $100.00 or more. You have to be able to fit your label, postage, return address and insurance sticker on the top side and nowhere else. I have been told this a few times but they still accept my boxes. |
| MARKETING FROM INSIDE THE BOX
Something many do not consider is marketing more of your work inside the package! It is a good idea to produce a simple flyer about yourself and your art and insert one into each box you ship. You need to be thoughtful when you create this. Tell your customers about new work you are doing, if you do commissioned or custom work, your website updates and website address, your contact information online, and your phone number if you don't mind talking to customers. (I have a few customers who like to talk to me on the phone. They really do not have anything to ask me, but they feel a connection with my work. I appreciate them very much and do not mind spending time with them. Often it results in another sale later in the day or week). Even just putting chit chat in your flyer will make them remember you. The purpose of the flyer is to keep you and your art in their minds. I also include a business card. If they are like me, they will keep the card on their desk or in a handy place where it can be seen and used conveniently. Having this info at their fingertips promotes your sales again. Things I include on my business card are my business name, my name, my phone number, ebay ID, email address and web site address. Today I would also include my Justbeads, Yahoo and Amazon IDs too. If you do not have business cards, you can get free cards at Vista Print You only pay shipping ($5.25) for 250 full color cards. For more money you can get even nicer cards from them; Postcards, Letterheads, Envelopes and other items. They have great service and my family has been very happy with the results. They plug their product by putting a tiny little logo on the back of the cards or you can pay a small fee to not have the logo on your cards. Another option for business cards is businesses like Kinkos or Staples. I recently had some cards made at Kinkos and their prices were very reasonable. I designed the card on my computer at home, took the file to Kinkos and had them print and cut them out of cardstock. Since we had three different business cards made at the same time, we collectively only had one cutting fee. Usually this is done in 24 hours. |
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