In this episode, we’re going to cover the basics of Internet bidding including the different types of Internet bidding, or online bidding, and the different kinds of providers.

There are three main types of Internet bidding. Some Internet bidding providers allow some but not all of the types of auctions. I’ll cover some of the basics here, with future articles and podcasts building on these topics by discussing the combinations of the types of Internet bidding as well as going deeper into the benefits of certain types of auctions and providers.

Let’s begin by discussing the three main types of Internet bidding which are Internet only, pre-auction only Internet bidding, and real-time Internet bidding.

First, let’s address Internet only bidding. When the items sell based solely on the bids from the Internet, it’s an Internet only auction. Internet only auctions may have a bid caller and they may have a crowd, but when software is calculating the time remaining and the current and final bid prices, it’s an Internet only auction. Internet only bidding is sometimes referred to as an eBay-style or static auction, but those are horrific terms for it. Modern Internet only auctions have staggered endings and automatic extensions, more closely simulating a live auction. These modifications move the game so far away from eBay rules that there isn’t a legitimate comparison. The term static implies nothing changes. It’s very definition means fixed or motionless and the auction industry is doing itself an enormous disservice by using the word static to refer to this very active and exciting method of bidding. This method drastically lowers overhead, as well as provides a viable means of selling small groups of assets in multiple locations.

Second in our types of bidding is pre-auction bidding. Pre-auction bidding is the method of accepting Internet bids up to a point slightly before the auction begins to end and representing the Internet bids as absentee bids against the live crowd. This method offers the advantage of increased speed of the event as the auctioneer can see everyone who can possibly bid and doesn’t have to wait for an Internet bidder he can’t see. When the live crowd is done bidding he can sell the item and move on. It offers the convenience for buyers to place bids without having to attend the event or sit in front of a computer.

Finally, real-time bidding is probably the most common type of Internet bidding currently. The process involves an audio or perhaps video stream so that buyers can view the auction as it happens on their computers. They can place bids during the auction based on the audio and the display of the current bid price on their computers. This method has the advantage of allowing bids right up until the second the item closes, but forces users to wait in front of their computers until the items in which they’re interested sell. Many buyers no longer have that time available, or, when first seeing the auction, plan to sit in front of their computers during the event but forget by the time the auction starts to end.

Now let’s move on to the two classes of Internet bidding providers which are portal site solutions and integrated solutions.

When Internet bidding is offered but that bidding occurs on the website of a third party, that third party is a portal. That is, auctions from many auction firms are listed and the bidding is handled all within that site. This method offers the benefit of cross-promotion, where the customers driven to the site by one auctioneer may see the assets listed by another. The downside is that it makes brand-building very difficult and makes buyer retention next to impossible. This kind of solution is good for an auctioneer who needs results quickly. Examples of this kind of provider include Bidspotter, Proxibid, AuctionFLEX and NAA Live.

The concept of an integrated Internet bidding solution is less well-known in the industry. An integrated solution em[...]

You’re listening to the AuctioneerTech Auction Podcast for the week of 29 September 2008.

AuctioneerTech – Technology, auctions and auctioneers – auction tech for the auction industry

Hello and welcome to the fifth episode of the AuctioneerTech Auction Podcast, my name is Aaron Traffas. In this episode, we’re going to cover the PDF. I’m going to try to explain how to properly use PDFs on the Internet as well as give a couple of faster, easier alternatives to Adobe’s bloated Reader product and discuss some tools to create PDFs without having to use Adobe’s obscenely expensive Acrobat product.

The Portable Document Format or PDF is a file format created by Adobe in 1993. As of July 1, 2008, it’s a certified standard by the International Standards Organization, or ISO, which means that the format is open and published so that anyone can create it or use it.

The advantage that PDF has over other file formats is that it’s a good way to represent printed material exactly as the designer intended it. This advantage makes it good to use for contracts and brochures where the user doesn’t need to change the content and is willing to jump through some extra hoops to view the content in a layout that approximates the printed page. It’s a great format for designers to send to printers because it ensures that the content is displayed exactly as the designer intended.

The disadvantage that PDF has is on the Internet. The Internet isn’t a format that is supposed to resemble the printed page. Because the PDF format – for good reason – isn’t supported directly by any browser, the user must use a browser plug-in to view the content, souring the browsing experience. For this reason, the use of PDFs on websites should be limited to an optional content delivery mechanism.

An example of a very bad use of PDF is for a website selling real estate. The designer used PDF to send the property information document to the printer. The PDF is uploaded to the website and a link is placed on a sparse page that says “download property information document” for information about this property. This practice breaks the first rule of accessible website design, which is don’t force the user to use a plug-in or add-on to view content. Most browsers with the plug-in installed open the page in a new tab, breaking another first rule of web design which is don’t open new tabs or windows. Search engines index PDFs, but if you click on a search result that is a PDF you’ll be taken straight to the PDF which lacks a navigational system for the user to get to your main website.

An example of a proper use of PDF is for the same website to have every piece of information within the property document delivered as valid XHTML and CSS, which is the current best practice for building web pages. That site would then have an optional download for users who want to physically print the information about the property. In this case, the user can browse the property information at browser speeds rather than having to wait for and be confused by the loading of a plug-in. Even the example property contracts should be first delivered as a web page and then made available as PDF for users who want that method as an option.

The very best use of PDF is to not use it at all, instead delivering the content by XHTML and the layout by two different style sheets, one CSS for the screen and one for print, so that the website looks one way on the screen but when the website is printed it looks like the property information document. This is a more advanced website design technique that I’ll try to cover later.

To summarize, PDF has its uses. Just remember that as a content delivery system on the Internet it does fall.

Now that we’ve admitted that there are legitimate uses for PDF on the web, if, after analyzing the situation, PDF seems like the right tool for the job, here are some ways to make its use more painless and less expensive.

Adobe has two products relat[...]

phpList provides a robust and free solution to bulk email management.

AuctioneerTech » Podcast Feed - Technology, auctions and auctioneers - auction tech for the auction industry

You’re listening to the AuctioneerTech Auction Podcast for the week of 15 September 2008. AuctioneerTech – Technology, auctions and auctioneers – auction tech for the auction industry.

Hello and welcome to the third episode of the AuctioneerTech Auction Podcast, tech roundup one. We’re going to cover some of the previous two weeks’ stories from auctioneertech.com. We’ll talk about Google Chrome, OpenOffice 3, Secunia, new products from Apple and finish by trying to explain what Twitter is and how to use it.

There’s been a lot of activity over the last two weeks in the industry regarding Google’s release of it’s entry into the new browser wars, Google Chrome. You may remember the last browser wars of the late 1990s with websites claiming to be best viewed in one web browser or another. A browser is simply a program that you use to browse web pages. Perhaps you remember the annoying Netscape Now! Buttons. Microsoft won the browser war, pushing the now defunct Netscape Navigator out of the way with its Internet Explorer product. With Netscape out of the way, Microsoft has ruled the web for many years. There are many other browsers like Epiphany, Opera, Galleon and Konquerer, but recently Mozilla’s Firefox browser has been taking market share away from Microsoft, and Apple released its Safari browser on Windows in 2007 and captured some of its fans who had been relegated to the Windows platform for one reason or another. Google’s entry into the new war was unexpected, but in retrospect not very surprising.

Chrome has a new Javascript engine called V8 so it’s fast, and it’s running on Webkit so it’s pretty. I’ve been playing with it for the last two weeks,and I like how it puts the tabs in line with the minimize / maximize / close buttons at the very top – I’ve wanted this in a browser for years. They have a long way to go to enable other features, but it’s blazing fast and minimalistic, which are two big pluses in my book.  It puts Firefox to shame in the coolness category, and while it has a ways to catch up when it comes to community and available plugins, it’s still faster and sexier and what I’ll be using until Microsoft puts Internet Explorer 8 on the ground.

My recent experiences with Chrome are common, but there are auctioneers and other users who claim that Chrome is slow. While I haven’t noticed this with a new instance of Chrome, when I load several tabs I have noticed that it seems to use a fair amount of memory. Some users have noted that Chrome is slow rendering PDFs and running Java.

Speaking of Java, my friend and fellow auctioneer Don Hamit pointed out to me at the KAA auctioneer contest on Wednesday that Chrome doesn’t work with the recently-funded real-time Internet bidding platform Proxibid. I was able to get the Proxibid Bidder App to run in Chrome on XP and Vista. Here’s how to get it, and other Java applications, to run on Chrome.

First of all, Java is a browser add-on that functions as a virtual machine. It’s a way for programmers to write code for an interpreted environment which in turn can be installed on multiple devices, operating systems and browsers. Rather than writing specific code for IE on Windows and then starting from scratch to write code on Safari on Mac, a programmer can choose to write an application in Java and have it run in the Java environment on both platforms.

As of the recording of this podcast, Chrome doesn’t work yet with any current version of Java. In order to get Java applications to run on Chrome, you have to download a pre-release, or beta, version of Java called Java SE 6 update 10 release candidate. There’s a link to this update on auctioneertech.com.

Once you’ve downloaded and installed it, the only other difference between Chrome and other browsers I’ve used is that Chrome treats the Java .jnlp file as a download rather than something that can be automatically executed. That only means that you hav[...]

You’re listening to the AuctioneerTech Auction Podcast for the week of 8 September 2008.

AuctioneerTech – Technology, auctions and auctioneers – auction tech for the auction industry

Hello and welcome to the first episode of what I hope will be many podcasts covering technology, auctions, auctioneers and the auction industry. My name is Aaron Traffas and in this first episode I’ll talk a little about the plans for this podcast, it’s purpose, some of the challenges and how I’ll handle them, and end with a little about me. Since this first episode is really about setting the ground rules, I won’t be offended if you want to skip ahead to the meat of episode two, a primer on advertising for Internet only auctions.

It is my goal to spend five or ten minutes each week covering the top stories on auctioneertech.com. I’m going to do my best to try to relate what’s happening today in the worlds of gadgets and software to the worlds of gavels and box lots. I’ll review new services and software, tell you how to use some of the newest gadgets, provide tips on how to build more accessible and usable websites, and discuss marketing theory with regard to all the new venues that the Internet provides us as auctioneers. I have many friends and acquaintances in the auction industry and I eventually would like to ask many of them to join me to discuss some of the things that they do and the products and services that they use, since I don’t have the opportunity to use all of the offerings and products available in a real auction situation.

There are many challenges relating auctioneers to technology. The auction profession is a grand, time-honored profession with many of the greatest auctioneers having never used a computer until very recently. Even those auctioneers who recently began using the Internet may have difficulties relating the new benefits it provides to the profession that has continued to serve them well for decades.

On the other end of the spectrum, many of the new members of the profession have grown up using computers and already have a solid understanding of technology but may be looking simply for better ways to use that technology to help them be better auctioneers.

I’ll try to accommodate all auctioneers on this podcast. The wide range of experiences gives me license to cover just about anything, and indeed I’ll be covering some fairly low-hanging fruit at times because I don’t feel solid about talking about using a product that I haven’t explained in full. However, there will also be episodes where we’ll get into some higher level theory and techniques. As on auctioneertech.com, when I introduce a new term, I’ll try to throw out a quick definition or explanation and perhaps include a reference for more information in the show notes or at the end of the podcast.

I’m not actively soliciting advertising or sponsors for this podcast. While it seems initially that it will be a significant undertaking in both time and effort, unless it becomes wildly popular I don’t anticipate any out-of-pocket expenses for hardware or bandwidth. I will say that any sponsors I may accept will not be auction vendors. I want there to be no question of impropriety regarding the genuineness of my opinions regarding the topics that we’ll cover here.

I’m a strong believer in the National Auctioneers Association. While this podcast will cover current events and include some how-to episodes, it is not a replacement for the Auction Technology Specialist designation. If you want a solid understanding of how to generate leads, market assets, conduct auctions and build your customer community using modern techniques, from coursework written by many of today’s leading auctioneers in the field of auction technology, I strongly encourage you to enroll in the Auction Technology Specialist course offered by the NAA. You can find out more ab[...]

You’re listening to the AuctioneerTech Auction Podcast for the week of 8 September 2008.

AuctioneerTech – Technology, auctions and auctioneers – auction tech for the auction industry

Hello and welcome to the second episode of the AuctioneerTech Auction Podcast, a primer for advertising Internet only auctions. My name is Aaron Traffas.

I received a question a couple of weeks ago from a friend and fellow auctioneer who was looking at the possibility of conducting some Internet only auctions. He asked me about places where he might advertise such an event. I realized that many auctioneers who have no experience with Internet only auctions may not feel comfortable building an advertising campaign. Many times, the advertising strategy for an Internet only auction should be the same as a campaign for an auction with pre-auction Internet bidding or simply a live auction with no Internet participation.

The biggest misconception about Internet only auctions is that an item will sell to someone other than the person to whom it would have sold had you used a live auction. It very well may, but if you move completely from a local advertising campaign to a completely Internet-based advertising campaign, you’re bound to see a big drop in participation. Using the Internet to take bids doesn’t mean that the item will sell to Guam or to Kansas. The Internet is simply an easier way for customers to participate in the auction process than the act of driving and spending time at a live auction, time that customers many times no longer have.

If the assets you’re selling are of general use, then they’re more likely to sell to someone across the street than across the state because of the lower cost in transportation or shipping. If a car is worth $1000 and someone from another state has to spend $200 in time and fuel to come get it, he’ll only spend $800 at the auction. Someone across the street can bid the true $1000 because there’s not really any cost associated with item acquisition. Because it’s logical for the local buyers to spend more, it makes more sense to spend more effort reaching them. Unless you’re selling niche items, make sure you have your local and existing possible buyer base covered before you expand your reach to include farther away customers.

The key is to supplement your existing, local campaign with additional advertising. If your current customers find out about your auctions through paper – brochures and newspaper ads – then you shouldn’t quit using those mediums all together. While it may be an arguably good idea to migrate away from paper ads and postcards in general, doing so only because of an Internet auction will only mean that your existing customers won’t participate.

The first place to advertise your auction and the items in it is on your website. Whatever Internet bidding platform you select, be sure that the auction and all relative information is posted on your website first. This strategy ensures that you simply have to place lead-generation ads in newspapers and other old-media venues with a link to your website rather than an item-level listing which takes up more space and costs more money. In a future episode, we’ll look at the different kinds of Internet bidding providers and the difference between a branded solution that keeps the bidding catalog within your site and a portal solution where you direct the customers to another website that allows the bidding on your items.

Once the users come to your website, do your best to capture their information before pushing them off to your Internet bidding provider. Get their email address. The bigger your email list, the less important other means of advertising become and the less you’ll have to spend on traditional media.

Internet auction calendars are probably the best initial place to post your items. The new NAA auction calendar supports item-level listings, so when you’ve cataloged your auction for Internet bi[...]