This may sound like a dumb question, but I must ask anyway. I was wondering how people put backgrounds on their auctions on Ebay. I looked for some clue on there and cannot find anything. can anyone tell me how you do it? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
posted on November 2, 2000 09:43:38 AM new
Heather,
Instead of backgrounds, why not use some of AuctionWatch's or other site's templates? I think there's some nice one's out there. GoTo even has seasonal ones.
posted on November 2, 2000 09:44:49 AM new
If you use a backgound, I suggest a solid, non-obtrusive color. Fancy pictures, watermarks, etc. can be pretty distracting (and irritating).
Do you know any basic HTML? If not, check out this site (which I have no affiliation with whatsoever):
posted on November 2, 2000 10:11:39 AM new
Guess I'm in the minority (isn't the first time either) because I use a light background which is coordinated w/the items I sell. So far, haven't had any complaints.
But don't use music..ugh.
Look at the link given for html & it's very easy to do.
posted on November 2, 2000 10:13:24 AM new
PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEE don't use backrounds !! Remember, the vast majority of folks use a slow telephone connection and slower processors [ we don't all have cable and 750 mhz chips]. The HTML directives and the bells and whistles take time to load and activate. Music is even worse.
Some sellers seem not to pay any attention to the colors they use and the text is almost impossible see. When I see all the colors, jumping beans, frogs, mouse tails, and other distractions, the term "desperate" comes to mind.
I just move on when either music or some overblown HTML set up comes on the screen.
posted on November 2, 2000 10:28:52 AM new
There's actually two ways to do it.. and one will work better than the other.
The first way is to add a background to the entire page. To do this, you would add a body tag at the beginning of your auction listing:
< body background="http://completeURLofyourimagehere" >
This needs to be the first thing that you put, before you start any thing else. The drawback with doing it this way, is that older browsers only recognize 1 body tag.. and that would be ebay's because it comes first. This would mean, that Netscape 3.x would not be able to see your background, so therefore you'd have to be sure to put text that was not light colored.. otherwise it won't be read against ebay's white default background color (worse case senario using this method is some browsers will *stop* reading your auction page therefore you won't get to have those viewers possibly bid upon your item).
The second way of doing it, is with tables. You would create a table to put your auction listing in.. and then put a background w/in the table.
all of that would be without the space after and before the < > signs.
This is the prefered way if you're going to add a background.. because it can't 'screw' up the viewers browser.. therefore no potential loss of bids. But there is still a warning when doing this.. be sure you add a bgcolor to the table. Once again, some older browsers can not see table backgrounds, and if you put one up.. and then choose a text color that would match/blend in with Ebay's default "white" .. then the text will be lost. By putting in a bgcolor it will offset that.
Hope that helps in answering your question. Many here have offered some sound advice as far as the why you should or shouldn't do it.. but it's ultimately up to you.
Rosie
[ edited by rosiebud on Nov 2, 2000 10:29 AM ]
posted on November 2, 2000 10:31:07 AM new
Reamond,
I don't have a cable connection nor a 750 chip, but I can get mine to load quite nicely w/my background (which I've checked from a variety of different computer just to make sure it loads reasonably fast).
Perhaps it's because I don't use a lot of cutesy icons & dancing bears but just having a simple background isn't always the reason for a slow loading auction.
posted on November 2, 2000 06:41:15 PM new
Scenic or patterned backgrounds are definetly out IMO.
You are much better off having a simple table with a few cells that you can put a solid colored background in.
If you do use tables, then remember that what viewers need is contrast between text and background; e.g. black text on a lightly colored back or vicea-versa.
Always best to specify Arial font. That increases the readability.
posted on November 2, 2000 11:23:00 PM new
As a buyer, I LOVE auctions that have animated mice, obnoxious backgrounds, and take 15 minutes to load. I have a slow modem too, but I'm patient. Most other buyers aren't. Those auctions often close with only one bid- mine. My best bargain purchases on Ebay have been from sellers with "busy" auctions.
Even I draw the line at music, because it usually makes my poor little computer crash.
posted on November 2, 2000 11:51:32 PM new
If you want to use backgrounds, go ahead. Here is the code. It works in both Internet Explorer and Netscape:
Replace the BRICKS01.JPG in both occurances above with your URL. You can also use the background attibute within a table.
If you want to use a very dark background, put it in a table. Giving the entire page a dark background makes it hard to see where to place a bid.
eBay places all your code within a BLOCKQUOTE element which means your text is indented. This screws up the display of wider tables. (The tables don't center on the page properly.) To break out of eBay's indentation and create centered tables, break out of the BLOCKQUOTE by putting this at the beginning of your code:
</blockquote>
Then at the end, put this:
<blockquote>
Now the tables will center correctly in your ebay ad.
Adding music is easy:
<embed src="mymidifile.mid">
This code works in newer versions of IExplore and Netscape. That's all there is to it!
Here's one of my ads that has a nice table with black background and white text. YES IT HAS MUSIC TOO!! (This ad has been very successful for me.)
posted on November 3, 2000 03:29:14 AM new
gratefuldad, I didn't like the music but I do like the light gray background. Some backgrounds I have seen enhance the auction. Makes it kind of pleasant to be waiting. They do take longer to load though.
posted on November 3, 2000 10:05:37 AM new
I use a pawprint--what else? It's light and is a tile print. It is white with light gray print, so the wait for it to load is minimal. I began using this background before I had a cable modem. At that time, I experimented with many different backgrounds and sizes of backgrounds (LARGE pictures will take a long time to load!) until I found one that I liked.
posted on November 3, 2000 11:47:01 AM new
I just read an interesting book called How to Create Killer Web Sites
by David Siegal. It's his opinion that backgrounds do more damage to web pages than almost anything else.
The only good background is a solid or nearly solid color.
Gift wrap makes bad stationery.
According to Siegal, "Wallpaper is nice, but reading the handwriting on the wall can cause damage to the retina."
posted on November 3, 2000 04:09:50 PM new
May I make some suggestions?
1) "Background music makes my old browser crash." Get a new computer.
2) "Background images take too long to load." Get a faster connection.
Hey, people. This is the World Wide Web. Don't ask the whole world to wait because you're too cheap to buy a decent computer or cable modem.
3) "Background images make the text hard to read." Get some new glasses, grandpa!
Throught history artists have encountered dim-witted critics with no more talent than to poo-poo the work of others. Thank goodness artists do what THEY want, not what critics (who are never satisfied) want.
If anything other than black text on a white background upsets you, please stick to newspaper classifieds.
posted on November 3, 2000 04:34:34 PM new
twinsoft
You must be joking?
If your goal is to sell on Ebay, you don't want to eliminate all
sellers who have a slow connection or a small computer.
Neither do you want to limit your business to only those individuals
with 20/20 vision.
Actually, my remark about reading writing on wallpaper referred to
very intense backgrounds in which the print blends in with the
background pattern. It's just not good design.
posted on November 3, 2000 05:00:53 PM new...buy a decent computer or cable modem.
Okay, so I buy the latest and greatest computer. What do I do with a cable modem? No cable out this way, although I do get all 4 channels on my TV if I fool around enough with the antenna. DSL? Not available. ISDN? I don't know. I never got past the webpage with the pricing. Internet access at a cost that is more than my truck payment (and 1/4 of my rent) is a little steep.
Some people do depend on dail-up access (and 56K isn't always a guarantee, either).
No worrys, though. For every seller out there looking down their nose at buyers like me, there's sure to be another who is more than happy to take the time to design attractive and accomodating listings, and take my money.
posted on November 3, 2000 05:27:43 PM new
I'm not looking down my nose at anybody. On the other hand, don't expect the Internet to come to a screeching halt because you've decided to keep your old 286 one more year.
I don't have the latest computer (in fact it's an old cheapie) or a fast connection. But I don't moan about it either when software developers come out with newer versions that have higher system requirements. Welcome to the 21st century.
Perhaps businesses (or advertisers on eBay) should take into consideration users with slow connections or older browsers. The way I see it, that's sacrificing page content for the sake of the weakest link in the chain. Users with high-speed connections can easily view pages with 1 Mb content or more, and streaming video/audio, etc. Dial-up connections are becoming obsolete (for good reason).
At any rate, we're talking about a graphic that is 5 - 10 Kb and takes about a second to load even on a 33.3 modem. The same goes for background music. This is not about connection speed, it's about one person (or persons) criticizing another for making an attempt at artistic expression.
posted on November 3, 2000 07:30:12 PM new
In your original post, you called some people...
"too cheap to buy a decent computer or cable modem"
and
"dim-witted critics with no more talent than to poo-poo the work of others"
Among your suggestions were these...
"Get some new glasses, grandpa!"
"...please stick to newspaper classifieds."
I'm sorry if I misunderstood your comments. They don't sound to me as though they were offered to be helpful, but I guess I must have misjudged them.
I understand that technology continues to advance, as you noted...
Users with high-speed connections can easily view pages with 1 Mb content or more, and streaming video/audio, etc.
I guess my point is that just because you can do something doesn't necessarily mean that you should do it. How many items are there listed on eBay that require anything more than competently composed images and a well-written description? Do you really need streaming audio/video to sell beanie babies?
posted on November 3, 2000 08:28:13 PM new
Mr. PH, I am perfectly aware of what I posted. There is no need to rewrite my entire message. To answer your comment, no my post wasn't intended to be helpful to the many people who put down the idea of page backgrounds and music.
Since your reading skills are so good, I don't have to mention that the original poster did not ask "should I use a web page background?" but "how do I add a background?" No one answered the question, but instead offered reasons why backgrounds are BAD.
It doesn't take a genious to figure out that large graphics take longer to load, or that brightly-colored pages can make reading text difficult. Give the poster some credit for having a brain.
This is not some newspaper classified. This is the World Wide Web. Streaming audio and video, VRML, graphics, etc. Why try to force another person to write an ad that belongs in the County's Penny Shopper? Why stifle another person's creativity because YOU (general you) refuse to upgrade from Internet Explorer 3.0?
Regarding your last comment, "just because you can do it, should you?" I can only ask another question: Should the opinions of a few outspoken technophobes really determine web artistry?
I was online a couple of days ago and I found a great resource for web graphics. It appeared to be courseware for some eastern university, with hundreds of links to sites discussing web graphics. A really excellent resource. Ironic that at the bottom of the page, the author stressed the importance of placing no more than 3Kb of graphics on any web page. Reason: slow page loading. I'm sure you know that ANY web page has an average of 100Kb of graphics or more. Three Kb is almost nothing, maybe a 50x50 pixel JPG file. More like a single small icon. Can you imagine the absurdity of taking a university class in web graphics, then being instructed to create a web page with only 3Kb of graphics?
Bottom line: Experts (and presumed experts) know nothing. Critics opinions are worth less than nothing.
posted on November 4, 2000 06:02:34 AM new
Twinsoft
You state,"If anything other than black text on a white background upsets you, please stick to newspaper classifieds."
Some of the world's greatest art and photography is black and white.
Color and sound can sometimes be a distraction. Not everything
black and white looks like the newspaper classified or the "County's Penny Shopper."
posted on November 4, 2000 08:58:08 AM new
From my experience, backgrounds and animation do not equate to less bids. I have done it both ways and found no difference in the percentage of items that got bids, the percentage of items that got single bids or the percentage of items that got multiple bids. The final prices doen't seem to be affected either.
HELEN...black text on white background isn't exactly the same thing as a piece of art done in shades of black and white, nor is it the same as a black and white photo. But black text on a white background is very similar to a newspaper ad...boring.
Well, that's your opinion...not mine.
When I am looking for an item, I am impressed
by the sellers ability to describe the item
accurately....not by music and background
color.
posted on November 4, 2000 12:57:39 PM new
Don't know about the rest of you but on e-Bay, I am interested in the article not the packaging and the faster I can get through the page with the least amount of distraction , the better I like it. While some of the pages with animals galloping across are fun to view , I can get so absorbed watching them, the listing commands little of my attention. As for the suggestion that everyone upgrade their equipment, I view this as shortsighted. Isn't the idea to reach as many possible bidders as possible not a select minority.
buyhigh
posted on November 4, 2000 03:44:51 PM new
I have a very fast computer and auctions load fast for me with or without the bells and whistles. Mostly I pay Absolutely NO attention to the graphics unless they are offensive to me. If you asked me if the last item I bid on had a background I couldn't tell you.
As far as music goes usually it clashes horribly with what I am playing on our sound system.
