posted on January 22, 2001 06:20:16 AM new
Is it just me or are these newbie sites way over doing it with the unreasonable amount of funky weird irrelevant categories??
Auxpal boasts 117,477 auctions in 894 categories! It looks on the boring side......maybe instead of green text featured listings show some pictures to liven it up a bit.
Dutchbid when you look at all the categories they have it is 9 pages of scrolling....Although they do have a notice up that they are reworking the categories. But how they have all their categories expanded by default looks horrendously ugly and unappealing. Dutchbid get a thumbs up for a great message board concept. The private message system is great once the site gets its full time regulars. Their 3 emails per auction item AND another 3 email round for each resubmit will drive me to the edge violently. They need to cut that crap NOW! I dont need an invoice for every free listing.......But a few of us have called them on it and they vowed to fix it.
Epier I can't judge since their main categories aren't an eysore and its compact as a first impression. and Epier gets bonus points for originality on the top right box with Epier VS Ebay size comparison tee hee the main page is a little busy though maybe have one testimonial and then a pop link if you want to see some more.
Auction Addict (currently down) Is an all out eyesore with funky navagation and plain ugliness
Pootah needs to rearange their main page. I do not like to nor should have to scroll a full page to see the main category list on the right. The table that the categories are in needs to be widened to accomodate the title of a category to fit on 1 line maybe 2 if its a long name. Some of their categories in that tight little space take 3 lines....unneccesary in my opinion. They get bonus points for the little welcome message for new members though........*waves* I see quite a few AW posters being welcomed in daily. The overall look is fresh and appealing, bonus points for that one.
Popula get major props for style. They don't try to make a frigging category for every damned thing on the planet. They have great content pages behind the auctions. Popula is operated by former fashion industry folks not clueless techies who want more categories than ebay. My only problem with popula is it takes too many clicks to get to the only link to list something. Popula has their own bulk listing software which is very user friendly and easy and glitch free.
Some of these eager new sites should step back for a second and think in terms of a buyer. What would you ever consider buying from a private citizen from an auction site. Ebay can get away with it because it has many millions of users. Some of these sites have categories for lawnmowers or heavy industrial equipment. I sure as hell will not bid on a used lawnmower from a guy 3,000 miles away and pay for them to ship it.
I support ALL NEW AUCTION SITES. In my heart I truely hope they become successful. I register at all of them and put up a few listings in each and everyone of them.
In summary categories with a lot of listings and bids should be emphaized.....funky weird categories of stuff I would never buy on an auction site should be dumped intil they have enough traffic to warrant categories for everything under the sun. And the main page look is extemely important. The first 30 second look will make a new bidder decide if they want to look deeper, then register to bid.
Add a little flavor to your love life with "Love Potions"
posted on January 22, 2001 06:35:12 PM new
Now that auctionaddict.com is back up and running.I went back to do a deeper study of their damographics.
All these other sites thathave the funky industrial equipment categories really should dump them.
Auctionaddict.dom suprisingly has a lot of subcategories with actual listings.
Since these sites have been up a few months they have had a chance to see how their aura had evolved.
Auction addict should think of actually emphasising this industrial end of their site and dump for example the wine category with 22 3rd level subcategories and a total of 5 listings.
Just because you are a public auction site doesnt mean you need to create a category for everything in the world. This would be a good time for auctionaddict to market to that industry which could in turn create for themselves a powerful niche hold for that industry.
B2B sites are failing right and left with their poor quality set ups and listing huge lots of close out cheap cosmetics right next to copper wiring right next to wholesale dental chairs right next to lumber.......no wonder they fail.
Add a little flavor to your love life with "Love Potions"
posted on January 24, 2001 11:34:53 AM new
Thanks, lovepotions, for your kind comments about Popula.
In response to your brilliant suggestion, we've changed our navigation and put a direct link to the Sell page from the Home page.
We couldn't come up with anything more original than a gavel graphic for this link. We're looking for other suggestions, go to http://vox.popula.com/postDetails.cfm?Post_ID=1932 to give us your new idea and if it's not equally lame we'll send you a T-shirt, or even a pair of boxer shorts, emblazoned with the infamous Popula logo.
Oliver
www.popula.com
("Where'd You Get That?"
[ edited by oliver2 on Jan 24, 2001 11:38 AM ]
posted on January 25, 2001 12:19:30 AM new
hello all,
Maria Bustillos of Popula here, mainly to thank lovepotions for calling us Starlets, a very flattering name which has boosted morale at Popula to giddy heights, we are all preening shamelessly.
Also, I'd like to add that everybody coming around on AuctionWatch and talking about Popula lately has had a measurably salutary effect on traffic!! A lot of people seem to read these boards.
As for the recent design changes at Popula, almost everybody here is some kind of ex-designer or painter, so doing the teeniest thing to the design gets the whole place shrieking and throwing things (nothing too heavy so far). I like the gavel, myself. Its chubbiness and bonhomie have won me over.
(What am I talking about?? Sorry)
In any case thank you all again, very much. We are all very keen to learn all we can from these discussions, and will appreciate any suggestions you can make.
[ edited by oliver2 on Jan 24, 2001 11:38 AM ]