posted on April 18, 2001 06:05:52 PM
I read about this on another thread today.
This is the address of a place that will tell you how long your auction takes a bidder to load and many other interesting tidbits~
http://watson.addy.com
Once you get there, you just cut and paste the address for one of your auctions ~ you will be surprised at the HTML errors and the load time. It is making me rethink Auctiva. I would like to hear the results from some users of the Auction Watch Software.
Edited cuz I can!
[ edited by katzname on Apr 18, 2001 06:06 PM ]
[ edited by katzname on Apr 18, 2001 09:20 PM ]
posted on April 18, 2001 09:37:35 PM
Very interesting, thanks katz!
Mine are taking about 20-25 seconds at 56k, or 4 seconds at T1.
Geez it really picked the HTML apart, but most of these comments referred to eBay's code and not mine. None were serious anyway. I test my auctions in both IE and NN, always wonder about WebTV and AOL, but they bid so they must be seeing them.
posted on April 19, 2001 08:05:20 PM
If you want to check HTML for each of your auction descriptions (quickly!!), download a free version of Validator.
Takes just seconds and works for both IE and Netscape. (I used to really mess up my ads for Netscape users, but no more.)
Many of the HTML programs will give you an estimate of download time. I'm now using Front Page for all of my ads, because it's so easy to edit the pictures right inside the ad. Download estimate is built in.
What causes ads to load slowly? (IMHO)
Big picture files
Backgrounds
Sounds
Animate gifs
Clutter, clutter, clutter
I thought you were refering to on-line services that offer templates, sorry.
I use Netscape Composer to design auction templates. After it is saved, I use a word processor to open it, make some adjustments, and then it's then ready for use.
posted on April 19, 2001 09:42:59 PMMtownI was ~ esp Auction Watch ~ I went with Auctiva and my auctions are taking twice as long to load as when I used Auction Watch ~ wondered if other people found the same to be true
posted on April 19, 2001 10:42:18 PM
I resisted using FrontPage for over a year after I bought it, partly because I was doing just fine, thank you, with my little free "HotDog" program, but once I got the first couple of ads done with it, I couldn't go back. It has its quirks (don't all MS products!), but being able to scan a photo right into the ad, resize it etc., etc., right there without adjusting the HTML manually is wonderful.
So many of the hosted or canned programs seems to foster large jpeg files, heavily laden backgrounds and cutsie add-ons that slow down auction loading. So many times, as a buyer, I've turned away from a promising ad because I'm not willing to wait for it to load.
posted on April 20, 2001 05:45:00 AM
If you happen to use FrontPage to create your auctions, FrontPage has this feature built in - I didn't realize that till I told my husband about the link mentioned above and he said, "don’t' you know FrontPage has that built in." I use FrontPage, but hadn't realized it has this feature built in. (At least it does in the big version).
posted on April 20, 2001 05:46:48 AM
Well, yeah but if you are willing to market to AOL users you know that they have at least a credit card or bank account which will allow them use use paypal or billpoint...
posted on April 20, 2001 07:04:55 AM
Re: AOL users, some of my auctions have 5-10 pics, and according to this site can take anywhere from 30-50 seconds to load on a 56K modem.
Lots of AOL bidders on my auctions, so much for that theory.
