AW Daily - Tips & Tactics - During the Auction: Monitoring Your Auctions

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If you're like most sellers, then you probably like to keep a close eye on your current auctions. After all, part of the fun of auctioning online is sitting back and watching people bid on your auctions. But what's the best way to monitor your merchandise? Here are several suggestions.

High-Performance Browsing
Though this probably won't be news to some of you, even low-powered PCs can run multiple Internet browsers simultaneously. If you have several auctions going on at once, open up two or more browsers on your desktop to monitor individual sales. If you are using Microsoft's Internet Explorer, just select New and Window under File. If you prefer Netscape's Communicator, select File and New Navigator Window.

One, Two, Three…
Counters let you track how many people have visited your auction pages. Why use counters? Well, although they don't tell you how many bids your item receives, they do allow you to gage the success of your auctions and see which ones draw the most traffic and interest. Maybe you tried a different auction title that works wonders--or perhaps it falls flat and your visitor number takes a nosedive. Counters are available right here at Vendio. By using our counter service, you can also access the counter history to get a daily breakdown of page views.

You've Got Mail
As a service perk, most auction sites will send you emails when a bid has been placed on one of your auctions. Daily status email updates also include information on whether or not a bid has been submitted. Yahoo Auctions offers a more high-tech option. It will notify you of bids via its online instant messaging service, Yahoo Messenger. If you prefer being contacted by pager or cell phone, there's eBay and SkyTel's eBay a-go-go service. Another email-related matter to consider: while an auction is in progress, bidders might contact you by email, which gives you a heads up on a potential upcoming bid.

Get Personal
Although sellers can check on the status of their auctions by accessing their seller list or the auction page itself, a personal page (My eBay, My CityAuction, Yahoo Auctions' My Auctions, etc.) is a better option when it comes to tracking your auctions. Personal pages offer an efficient way to keep informed about your current sales and the bidding activity of your auctions. But beware: it's easy for sellers to become "refresholics" as they monitor these pages and continually hit the refresh button on their browsers, especially during the closing minutes of an auction when last-minute sniping can take place.

If you really want to be on top of things, don't just bookmark your personal page--make it your browser's default home page. That way, whenever you launch your browser your personal page will come up immediately. And if you're surfing the Web (perhaps getting the latest news headlines or checking on the performance of your favorite stock), you can always click on the home button to see if there's been any action on your auctions since you last checked.

Starting an Auction Business