How to Build an Auction Web Page

Hundreds of entrepreneurs are hoping to follow in the footsteps of eBay, the highly successful auction website. Since its conception in 1995, eBay has grown to have a net worth of more than $45 billion. Building an auction website that is considered to be successful on a national level is possible. However, if you think it will be an easy ride, you are in for a rude awakening. Building a successful auction website will take a substantial amount of time, effort and start-up funds.

Instructions

1. Understand that this is a costly business venture. Just because your business is based on the Internet doesn't mean that your startup costs will be nonexistent. The necessary tools for building an auction website are: a domain name, a Web host, email accounts, a Web designer, a copywriter and auctioning software. While it is true that these tools are costly, they are necessary to build a successful auction website. The costs incurred directly speak of the quality of your auction website.

2. Hire qualified freelancers. Hiring a full-time staff to build your auction website is costly and unnecessary. Putting together a team of qualified freelancers will save you money and time. Put ads on websites like Craigslist to find qualified freelance web designers and copywriters to build your website. When hiring freelancers, always make it a point to give a highly detailed description of the final product you desire.

3. Set your fees. To make money from your auction website, you must charge a listing fee and a broker fee to your sellers. Emulate eBay when setting your fees, because many of your sellers will also be sellers from eBay. A good fee schedule is 20 cents as a listing fee and 2 percent of the item's final sale price as a broker fee. To give you a better idea of the earning potential as a startup auction website, here's an example: If 20,000 items are listed in a day, you earn $4,000 from the 20-cent listing fee alone.

4. Give your market a reason to trust you. The main problem with building an auction website is that no one knows your name. The public has no reason to trust you with its credit card information. To make this business venture successful, you must make your auction website as trustworthy and secure as possible. Make people comfortable with entering their credit card information by becoming PayPal verified, McAfee secured and Cyber Trust secured. Seeing that you are verified by the top names in Web security will reassure your market that you are a legitimate auction website.

5. Advertise. Your auction website will be lifeless without employing the proper advertising methods. If your marketing budget is ample enough to hire a marketing or PR firm, you are in a beneficial situation. Marketing companies will advertise your auction website on a national level and will nearly instantly drive tons of traffic to your website. If you have a minimal marketing budget, it's still possible to effectively market your services, but it will take a lot of time and effort. Place ads on popular websites and blogs, hire a small-scale online PR company to market your website through search engine optimization and email marketing. You can also cold call small retail stores who may be interested in supplementing their revenue online.

Tips & Warnings

• Take your time. Your auction website isn't likely to become an overnight success. The design and technical aspects alone may take up to 3 months to complete and your advertising efforts will take time to be effective. Allow yourself a year to get through the start-up process.