Re: Hey Sellers

If you set up your link enclosed in HTML tags your buyers will only see "Check my other auctions" and will link to your auction list when they click on it! This can go anywhere in your auction description. Still a lot of typing, but it doesn't look goofy on your auction.

For example: Check my other auctions!

General format: What you want to display on your page

Peggy

Except this is a text newsgroup - sending HTML messages is frowned upon, and if the message is plain text format (as yours is - thank you), you just see the code.

This:

Sooz, I'm here and I'm not a professional anything. This is whole new arena for me. Worked retail but that was banking and I didn't have to do very much cross selling because I was a operations manager. This is a whole new arena for me. In other words, I'm flying by the seat of my pants!

I have just enough computer savvy (ahem, right!) to know that pictures load slowly, so I used software that compacts the files for websites but because I have DSL, I can't tell if my auction loads quickly or not. Would someone with dial-up like to test that for me?

Because I'm new at this I appreciate constructive criticism. You'll find I'm a quick and eager student, so you won't have hit me in the head with a 2X4 to get my attention first. ;=)

-- Margie

Danged cut and paste slob! See, told you I'm getting old and repeating myself....getting older by the second.

-- Margie

You want pet peeves? MUSIC on a seller's website! It takes for-effing-ever to download; it's almost always *way* too loud; and half the time it's something I wouldn't listen to if you paid me. Nothing more likely to make me take my business elsewhere FAST.

Celine

Oh, man, this is a pet peeve of mine. I sit and wait while some stupid backdrop loads slowly into place. Don't sellers know this is a waste? And a blunder?>>>

and stupid MUSIC --- I hate music on advertisements -- if I want to listen to music I'll turn on the damn stereo!!!!! Cheryl of DRAGON BEADS Flameworked beads and glass

This is what I like to see -- a list of the seller's auctions, with gallery pics. I can choose the items I want to look at -- maybe I'm only interested in beads today, or only interested in finished products. I can go your About Me page if I'm interested in learning more about you (BTW, you might consider fading your background a bit. parts of it were hard to read for me) but I don't have to wade through that to find out what kind of pretties you have for sale. Excellent.

One thing you might do: Double check for typos. I found one on every page because you used TurboLister:

LY A THREE DAY AUCTION SINCE THESE ITEMS ARE HEADING--Z-- OVER TO BYZANTIUM BEADS IN COLUMBUS OHIO AT THE END OF THIS WEEK!

that --Z-- doesn't need to be there!

Jewitch

backdrop loads slowly into place. Don't sellers know this is a waste? And a blunder?<

While this is on the table, I'd really like to know, from anyone willing to share, how my auctions are loading. I know my website is slow, cuz of the all the pix (one of these days I'm going to turn them all into faster .gif images, honest!). When I was trying to design my auctions I wanted something that would contrast the plain white background and be a "signature" of sorts just with the colors, without being TOO different.

I'm also curious what the consensus is on picture sizing. I'm struggling with this a lot more with my digicam than I was with my scanner. My pix have grown considerably and I'm thinking that seeing more detail is nice, but worrying that getting much smaller beads will be disappointing or even seen as misleading. I DO specify the exact measurements for every focal bead in every auction but some folks don't read the descriptions.

Thoughts, please?

-- KarenK Desert Dreamer Designs

download; it's almost always *way* too loud; and half the time it's something I wouldn't listen to if you paid me. Nothing more likely to make me take my business elsewhere FAST. <

Ack, me too! Bad MIDI music makes me run away fast!!! (And in case anyone is wondering, there's no such thing as "good" MIDI music. )

-- KarenK Desert Dreamer Designs

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from "Karen_AZ" :

]Thanks vicki!!!! I'm taking notes for my re-do sometime this fall.

in that case, for everyone, not just you . . .

2 - keep your pages at a MAX of 800 pixels wide. not everyone has a large monitor, and even when they do, they may have their screen size set differently. 800 is the "default" between the old 600 wide screens and the 1200s. or make it "self-adjusting". remember - how it wraps on YOUR screen/monitor may not be how it wraps on mine.

4 - save the "java", "flash" and other special effects for other pages

- NOT a retail site. and that includes getting rid of the popups and ads that load from other advertisers.

we've worked on Books 'n' Bytes for five years now, trying to make it as easily accessible as possible to the largest number of readers. these "points" come from that experience.

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

easily accessible as possible to the largest number of readers. these "points" come from that experience.<

And I agree wholeheartedly with each of them!

Carol in SLC New jewelry:

I think you should keep the pictures the size they are - for clarity. What I've done in the past is to state "beads shown at 2x actual size" or "scale:

You could reduce the size of your individual pictures a lot, without sacrificing much quality, by adjusting the JPEG compression. I reduced one of your pics from 14k to 2k by setting the compression at 50%. I used an inexpensive graphics editor, Paint Shop Pro. The picture is being sent to you by email.

• TL *

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from "Tante Lina" :

]I used an ]inexpensive graphics editor, Paint Shop Pro.

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from "Tante Lina" :

]I think you should keep the pictures the size they are - for clarity. What ]I've done in the past is to state "beads shown at 2x actual size" or "scale: ]250%".

that's tricky, isn't it? why not just use a coin or a measuring tape in the picture? i'm never sure, when it says that, if what i'm seeing on my screen is right or not.

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

I dislike background music so much, I keep my sound turned off, in case I accidentally run into some.

• TL *

Guess I was thinking of Photoshop when I said that... :^)

• TL *

Yeah, measuring tape would be a good addition. A coin would double the dimensions of most of those pics. I was assuming she didn't want to create new images from scratch - my suggestion was more for the purpose of covering her butt. :^) I guess a caption to each pic stating the bead's actual size would be the no-brainer way to do that.

Lynn

When there was only a written measurement in a caption I have often have a mistaken idea about how large the beads I was buying were in reality. Sometimes I can even look at a ruler before ordering them and *think* I know what they will look like, but turn out disappointed when they get here, especially if I ordered them for some particular purpose.

Now, I have never outwardly blamed a seller for my stupidity, but unconsciously I may well have become more negative towards the seller after I got a bunch of stuff that was something different then what I had imagined it to be.

I find that the auctions with coins in the pictures have the best chance of getting all the way through to me.

marisa2

Yeah, measuring tape would be a good addition. A coin would double the dimensions of most of those pics. I was assuming she didn't want to create new images from scratch - my suggestion was more for the purpose of covering her butt. :^) I guess a caption to each pic stating the bead's actual size would be the no-brainer way to do that.

Lynn

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from Marisa E Exter :

]I find that the auctions with coins in the pictures have the best chance of ]getting all the way through to me.

yes. i hate to think of her having to redo all those pictures, but the coins do tend to make the point about size.

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)