The Penny Auction

In this post on how to run your own penny auctions , we will look at site and front page design / product placement for this. As your penny auction website is new, you will obviously run into problems of users thinking about wether or not to trust your website / service. After all, you could have terrible customer support, and a very strict set of terms and conditions that whilst legal may not be all that ethical when it comes to the customers experience. Therefore, you need to make the visitor feel as comfortable as possible; youu will need to use tactics and think strategically about this. As such, you need to quickly explain to the potential bidder what the whole penny auction system is about, whilst also making sure it looks as serious and above board as possible. As such, it may be an idea to tone the use of really bright colours and exploding or tacky graphics on your penny auction website. Instead, perhaps go with a clean, sophisticated contemporary look. Afterall, this is a place where you want users to spend money and then return again again even if they don’t win any of the products that they bid on. Start thinking high-end credit cards, sports car manufactureres, 5 star hotels,, that kind of idea.

However, you still want to let the penny auctions visiters know that the clock is ticking and time may be running out on any of the great items that they see. So you need to highlight, on the front page the items , their current price (which is obviosuly cheap / great) and how there are only a few seconds left on the countdown timer on the penny auction. But this must be done in a ’soft’ way, perhaps, rather than large garish bid now signs. However, this is just one opinion on the tactics you can use when creating your penny auction own site, so they should be modified depending on how you feel and wether you are targetting a specific demographic and how much capital you can use when investing in the site and creating different designs / themes.

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written by admin \\ tags: design, penny auction, run your own, tactics

Run your own Penny Auctions: Part 2

In this second of a series of posts about how to setup and run your own penny auction, we will be examining the potential for gaining free marketing and driving traffic to your website.

Social networking is the latest buzz in the Web 2.0 world nowadays and looks set to stay around for some time to come; it is a great idea to capitalize on this. Many Penny Auctions already do, so you’ll have to as well. If you have a lot of ‘friends’ on Facebook or Myspace, why not create a group telling them about the new website you have set up? Perhaps offer them cheaper bid prices if they are among the first X number of people to register with your website. This brings us onto another point to consider when setting up a Penny Auctions website. The critical profit mass. That is the number of people you need to be ready and waiting when you activate the site. After all, if there is only one person that knows about your offer and is waiting, they could potentially win all the prizes for hardly any bids purchased. If this cycle continued, you would probably run out of start up capital very quickly. The solution? Create a buzz.

Run your own Penny Auction: Creating a Buzz

Letting people know about your venture is vital before you launch. The main methods for doing this can be divided into two categories, online and offline marketing. We will be looking at the latter method in another post. When considering online marketing, you also need to choose between traditional ad driven marketing and the newer concept of ‘viral’ marketing. The former will often produce more solid, predictable results at a price. Whilst the latter, is basically free but will usually either fail or become very successful. (99% are probably of minimal affect). Stay tuned for the next Penny Auction post where we look at viral marketing in greater depth and study its implications when thinking about running your own Penny Auctions.

written by admin \\ tags: advertising, marketing, penny auction, penny auctions, run your own, social networking, viral

Penny Auctions have generated a great deal of interest in the last year, and with this many people have been asking about how to create and run a Penny Auction website. It’s time to develop to stop being the bidder and start being the auctioneer!

In this blog, we will aim to help you devise a Penny Auctions strategy, a tactical look at what you need to setup your own version.

Run your own penny auction: Money!

Before starting any kind of business venture, it is always sensible to consider the risk and reward involved. Creating a website such as this is no different; in short, it takes money to make money. Whilst the internet has given a platform for penniless college guys to make millions, these people remain in the minority. To run your own penny auction will require initial setup money, and the amount you have available may well determine how successful you will be.

The first thing to consider is the level of competition you will face in the online marketplace. In the UK, there are roughly 5 or so ‘main’ penny auction websites. Of which the largest two are the biggest by far. These companies have significant ad budgets that are probably much higher than yours. The reason for this large advertising budget is simply to attract new customers. Which = more money = more ad budget = more customers etc etc. Another thing to consider is why would people leave their current penny auction website, where they may have developed a specific strategy / invested time to come to yours. Assume for the minute that the items being bid on are the same (usually the latest must have technical products. eg Nintendo Wii’s and Plasma TV’s) what does the website that you run have that is special? The simple answer? Lower priced bids.

The real answer? The simple answer is not the way to go! As a startup you will need a higher profit margin, and lowering the prices of the bids whilst retaining the same number + level of products as your competitors is a problem. Therefore, levels of growth will be limited unless you have substantial initial investment for advertising and the ability to operate on lower bid prices that are of good value to the end user. Stay tuned for the next post about how to run your own penny auction website where types of free marketing will be examined and we will try to develop a good strategy to use.

written by admin \\ tags: advertising, create, penny auction, run your own, start, strategy