There is an amazing amount of new auction information and tools that come to our training facility everyday. We have one person that purchases products and evaluates their worthiness as to if we should get licensed and give to our students.

Sometimes we all get so involved with the latest and greatest traffic tool or product source I forget that some folks need to remember some of the basic tools and systems that were new once and are still good. Here’s a couple of standby free tools that everyone should have if they have a website.

The following is a basic toolbar, when you enter a web address a number will come up on the toolbar (that number is not always accurate but it is the number that the site is on the search engine directory). The smaller the number, the better. When you click that number you can do many things. Some I’ll talk about in the next article, but primarily you can check the traffic of that site. Our product evaluater uses that first before buying a new tool or service (if someone is selling you traffic and they have none, it’s a good idea to stay away from them).

Download the Alexa toolbar here
http://download.alexa.com

The next thing to help with your SEO (search engine optimization/ranking) is to check and see if your web designer (we do this constantly with the websites we build for our students) has got your META tags entered properly. There are lots of variables here and the robots change their perameters all the time. You can go to this site and it will run a free analysis. Then it will also let you regenerate the way it should be.
http://websitesubmit.hypermart.net/metataganalysis.htm

I’ll be posting regularly on our sites.Why am I writing about websites when we are an auction training company? Good question. We feel your website is your business hub. The auction sites like eBay, Yahoo and Overstock are income generators, but your site is the headquarters. You can also make income off Clickbank products, affiliate programs, newsletters, auctions and your own web site.

A quick tip. Whenever purchasing an item from eBay, fill out the feedback form and make sure you include your site URL. This is one more little thing that will drive somebody to your site.

First, its about margins. Then, its about traffic.
Well, one more thing. We all know about link exchanges (they help with getting you traffic and most importantaly they help your search engine ranking). There are many free systems you can install on your site. The one we use for our students is http://www.cplinks.com/cpdynalinks. We like it because it’s automated and your link partners can set up their link without you spending a lot of time.

Next, you need link partners. This site lets you select the categories you are looking for link partners in and it sends a request to all members inviting them to link with you. It’s a super tool and again, its free. Go to http://value-exchange.sitesell.com/

Hope that helps you out.

If you have questions or having any problems, we offer a no cost 15 minute consultation. Just call 800-827-0282.

Kirk Meyer
Auction trainer

www.freeauctioncourses.com

Kirk Meyer,head of auction education at http://www.freeauctioncourses.com, speaker at top internet summits.

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I get a lot of questions from people wanting to know how to add more pictures to their auction listings. Do you know that eBay charges for additional pictures? Yes, that’s right. Pay attention when you launch your next eBay listing. Only the first picture is for free. For any additional photos you will be paying $0.15 per photo. This does not sound much but you will be surprised how these figures add up: Imagine you add 3-4 photos per listing. This will end up to an additional $0.50 - just for hosting of your photos. Let’s say you have 3-5 listings a day at the end of the year you might have paid $400-600$ just for picture hosting. The fees can add up very quickly. Do you know that you can add as many pictures as you like - For Free and even without using eBay’s image hosting service? Well, you could use one of the so called “auction management” services. You pay a monthly fee and hosting of all your item photos is included. But do you know that these services are expensive too? Fees are ranging between $20 and$70 per month - depending on your selling volume. This easily adds up to $400-600 a year - maybe even more.

So, what can you do to avoid these additional costs? Of course, you can add only one picture per item, but guess what?? Right, the chance that your potential customer/bidder quickly moves to another listing is high. In fact, VERY high!! Because people like to see first what they are buying and do you think that one picture is enough? I don’t, because we live in highly visual worldpeople want to see the product or item they potentially want to purchase. Yes, the even would like to “touch” it - if they could. What about you? Do you take the product you want to buy in your hands and “touch” it? I bet you do. Imagine you are in a shop and want to buy a birthday present for a good friend. If one special gift catches your attention you take it from the shelf and you carefully look at the product, don’t you? You “touch” it and turn it around to get a “feel” for it. How can we add this “feeling” experience to our eBay auction listings? Yes, by adding a couple of good photos. Take pictures of your item from all sorts of different angles. The potential buyer will get a good “feel” for the item and it’s more likely that they place a bid. As mentioned above: You can add as many pictures as you like - For Free. How can you do it??? The answer is simple: Host your own pictures! Not sure how to do it? Here are some ideas:

1.It’s very likely that your Internet Service Provider offers you also free web space. I have used (and still use) the 10 MB web space my ISP gives me for free. Check the policy of your ISP - maybe an email to them is a first try.

2.Find a free or cheap web host - but be careful! Some of the free webs hosting companies do not allow that their service is being used just for data storage. Read their policy carefully before you sign up.

3.Search for some image hosting services. There are a couple of free image hosting companies out there allowing ‘hot linking” to eBay auctions.

4.In case you own a website you can make a special “ebay” directory for your auctions pictures.

Upload all your photos and item pictures BEFORE you design your auction listing and copy and paste the image URL into the source code of your auction description. http://www.auction-design-for-free.com has put all the important steps into one step-by-step guide.

Oops! Nearly forgot to mention another important point: the file size of your photos. Make sure that your 3 - 4 pictures of your item are NOT 1 MB big each. Can you imagine how patient your potential buyers/bidders are to wait until all pictures have loaded? That’s right! They are not very patient at all. If the pictures are not loading within 20 seconds your visitor leaves your site and moves on. There are maybe other listings offering the same - with pictures loading faster. So, make sure that the file size is in manageable range.

You’ll be amazed how more pictures will add more credibility to your selling practice and gives the potential buyer/bidder the feeling that they can almost “touch” your item.

Thomas Haselhorst is webmaster of http://www.auction-design-for-free.com
and
http://www.monster-ebook-sale.com

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You may be in the market for a new website. Perhaps you may be looking for a new logo or a database constructed for yourself or a small business. There are plenty of freelancers out there that are just itching to help you out. These freelancers canvas eBay-like environments and bid on your job. Of course there will be those who will bid relatively low, just trying to get the job, as well as at a relatively higher price. There are several good websites you can find these coders and at a substantially reduced price. You can save up to 75% without batting an eyelash.

Rent-a-coder or rentacoder.com is one of the best freelance sites on the web today. If you are a buyer looking for quality technical support, Rent-a-coder or RAC is a great place to start. You post an online auction by selecting the field that your project relates too and set a maximum bidder on your project. Upon approval from a reviewer, your auction is begun and will run the duration you set it too. Once you are notified that the auction begins, your mail inbox will start to receive emails from various professionals and gurus who are more than qualified to get the job done.

Like eBay, these professionals have a feedback rating that tells the world at large that they can meet deadlines and perform quality work. Your decision is based in two parts; one the rating that the coder has as well as the bid price. Should both of these meet your criteria, you can select the coder to begin the project for you. You will escrow funds for the coder via credit card or paypal and wait for the confirmation letter for the coder to begin work.

Once your contact information has been established, the coder will work until the job is completed to your liking. Once you approve, you can accept the job as 100% and your project is complete. If you are not happy you can have the coder continue to rework the project until you are satisfied. Once you are satisfied with the quality of work. You can exchange feedback with the coder. The coder’s feedback should commensurate with the quality and timeliness. You can expect a good reference to the coder will garnish a positive reference for yourself. People will want to work with buyers who can describe the project and let them get to work. There are over 80,000 coders on Rent-A-Coder today.

If you are a freelancer looking for work, this place is for you. You can earn up to 85% of the auction fee by doing simple to complex assignment for various businesses and people around the world. You can gain a positive reputation as well as steady repeat business by performing the work as efficiently and quickly as humanly possible. As you receive more feedback ratings your rank will shoot up higher depending on the point system. Rent-a-coder, provides a unique experience that does not cost the coder a dime to join. They will pay a percentage of the completed job at the end of the transaction. The coder can also be paid by Paypal or check every 15th and 30th of each month.

Another popular site which mirrors Rent-a-coder is E-Lance.com. E-lance provides a wide range of services in the market place today. However the only major difference between E-Lance and Rent-a-coder is that Rent-a-coder does not charge a quarterly service fee depending on your specialty.

The pro of joining Rent-a-coder is getting quality work done at rock bottom prices and the cons are some people cannot complete assignments awarded to them. You will need to ask as many questions possible when it comes to selecting the right coder. Their ability to get the job done is your primary concern!

About The Author

Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.sitetube.com. Visit his website for the latest on planning, building, promoting and maintaining websites.

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