Auction Information

Four Reasons Why You Should NEVER Use Animations In Your eBay Auctions


Inexperienced auction sellers, or those lacking in confidence, often want to make their auction listings more dramatic and exciting. They dread the possibility that buyers will be bored by their auction and turn away with indifference.

Therefore, they reason, they will spice up their auctions with some "animations" - graphics that blink, change colors, spin, travel around the web page.

Or the seller may be a tech person who loves toys and is proud of his ability to create unusual effects.

Regardless of their reasons, animated elements on an auction page are almost never a good idea for the following four reasons:

1. Rather than attracting attention to the merchandise in your auction, your potential customer may watch a spinning ball or follow Santa and his reindeer through the sky. We want the customer's total attention on that all-important question: "Do I want to buy this widget or not?" Distractions are not good for your wallet.

2. Animations can make the load time of your auction listing much longer. I have been using DSL four years and have forgotten (happily!) how horrible it is to use dialup. However, for many places on this planet, high-speed connections simply are not available. For these folks, loading your page might take forever, and you can be sure they won't wait. Experts tell us that the average user spends only 7 seconds at a webpage before departing for greener pastures. If your sales page is still loading, no sale for you.

3. It takes time for you to figure out how and whether to use animations. This is time that would be better spent on writing more exciting and dynamic copy - copy that will turn a prospective customer into a real buyer. A smart business person will treat time as her most precious commodity and spend it on what is most likely to bring a sale.

4. Many of these animations are just downright annoying. I personally do not enjoy looking at screens that are twirling, whirling and blinking. Two particularly irritating animations are an inescapable message that follows up and down the left side of the page, regardless of where I'm looking, and "trails" that follow my mouse.

A huge majority of people feel the same, apparently. Sellers need to make it as easy as possible for people to buy, rather than throwing obstacles in the way.

Are there any occasions when animated pictures are of any value in an auction listing? Possibly. For example, if you are selling to graphic designers then animated elements might be appropriate. As always, testing, testing, testing is the only way to truly know.

But for the rest of us folks - forget the glitter and focus on your merchandise. That's what makes us buy.

Learn how to sell on eBay with 16 hours of online instruction taught by a 10 year eBay veteran. Own an eBay business instead of an eBay hobby.

  


MORE RESOURCES:

Art Daily

Bumper auctions fetch half-billion dollars at Sotheby's
AFP - Jul 3, 2008
LONDON (AFP) — A bumper set of auctions of impressionist, modern and contemporary art by Sotheby's fetched upwards of 250 million pounds (315 million euros, ...
Dead Artists Breathe Life Into Auctions Wall Street Journal
Oil profits help art market defy gravity CNNMoney.com
Inside Art London Swings as a Dynamo for Selling Art New York Times
Bloomberg - International Herald Tribune
all 270 news articles


Spears auctions clothes for charity
Digital Spy, UK - 15 hours ago
Also included in the Rock & Roll Pop Art Auction are the costumes from her 'Drives Me Crazy' and 'Oops, I Did It Again' videos and a Santa dress she wore in ...


Calgary Herald

Electric Garage grows beyond web to live auctions
Calgary Herald,  Canada - 21 hours ago
The car is among the offerings at the Stampede Collector Car Auction July 11 and 12 at Ranchman's. "Initially we were an online auction company, ...


ABC News

Inspired by Celeb Do-Gooders, Bloch Auctions His Clothes on eBay ...
ABC News - 15 hours ago
July Fourth is a reminder of our forefathers, whose great minds and independent thinking helped build the nation we have today. ...


DEL MAR: North County ag groups dominate livestock auctions
North County Times, CA - 3 hours ago
(Photo by John Raifsnider- For The North County Times) DEL MAR ---- All eight Grand Champion awards from the Junior Livestock Auction held Friday at the San ...


Antiques and the Arts Online

RUDD- VERMONT COUNTRY AUCTIONS Saturday, July 5, 2008 10 AM Ben ...
Antiques and the Arts Online, CT - 59 minutes ago
Annual July 4th Weekend Outstanding Estate Antique Auction We have collected the best from the Dorothy White Estate~Hudson Falls, ...


Antiques and the Arts Online

Canton Barn Auctions
Antiques and the Arts Online, CT - 59 minutes ago
View color photos at www.cantonbarn.com NEXT AUCTION: July 12, 7:30 PM Details in Antiques & The Arts Weekly. Home Baked Pies * Refreshments * Parking Front ...


Numismatic News

Gold coins will top Bowers and Merena Auctions Baltimore Rarities Sale
Numismatic News - 38 minutes ago
“Bowers and Merena just returned from a very successful June auction in Baltimore where we realized over $6.2 million, and there was already a lot of talk ...


New property auction laws fall on Victoria
ABC Online, Australia - 5 hours ago
New laws governing the auction of properties come into effect in Victoria today, meaning that auctioneers will no longer be able to accept late bids after ...
New auction laws take effect in Victoria Business Spectator
all 2 news articles


BBC News

Fed makes no changes to TAF auctions for July
MarketWatch - Jul 1, 2008
By Greg Robb WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The Federal Reserve made no changes to its schedule or credit to be auctioned under its Term Auction Facility in ...
Fed auctions $75 billion to ease credit stresses KRGV
Fed loans $75bn more to aid banks BBC News
AP NewsAlert The Associated Press
The Canadian Press - MarketWatch
all 106 news articles

auctions - Google News

Article List | Index | Site Map
All logos, trademarks and articles on this site are property and copyright of their respective owner(s).
The comments are property of their posters, all the rest is Copyright © 2006 CanadaSEEK.com - All Rights Reserved.