A guide for an auction-page design.

How should an auction page look. Here are a few ideas and methods I have used.
Firstly look at others auction design and decide your likes and dislikes. Some are over complicated with fancy graphics whilst others are just a few words plus a photo.

The potential bidder should be able to read the description quickly and easily with no distractions. Couple this with good photos and you will have their attention.

This is an auction example, ready to insert into an eBay listing.

This design has been done using an HTML auction template and uses clickable thumbnails for the auction photographs. Using templates produces a good looking auction and also reduces the time taken to make an auction listing.

Auction Title.

When a search on ebay is performed the title is the main area that is searched. Only 55 characters are allowed in the title so it does need to be well planned. Use words that a searcher may look for in relation to the item, this may include spelling variations or even common spelling mistakes. Also search ebay for similar items to find successful search keywords.

Text.

The description should be first in the layout and be easy to read, use paragraphs and spaces to break the text into small readable chunks. Describe the item accurately including any defects. There should also be a bit of "sizzle" in the description to give it a personal touch and also to make it stand out.

Photographs.

A photograph is vital for a good Ebay auction listing. One free photo may be added to the auction listing using the Ebay picture service. This is uploaded directly from the PC to ebay, where it is stored. Ebay restrict the photographs size to have a width of about 400 pixels. For best results the photo should be resized to this width (using a photo editor) prior to up loading.
Photos may also be hosted by a free external image hoster and then used in the auction listing. See the images page for more detailed photography tips.

Main auction picture.

Ebay allow for one main picture which is free so use it! Using an external image hoster for the auction photo means having control over it size. However it will need to fit the web page and the file size kept small to reduce download time, use a photo editor to achieve this. Upload it to the image hosting service and when configuring the eBay auction listing use the direct image link provided.

The screenshot below shows Ebay's box for adding the main and gallery photographs with the self-hosting option selected. This is the area to add the url/address, as provided by the external image hoster, for the main auction picture and the gallery picture. Using an external image hoster for the gallery picture may incur an Ebay charge.

Gallery picture.

The listings or gallery picture is small and square, for maximum impact select a small square area from your auction picture. Upload it to the image hosting service and use the direct image link provided when configuring the eBay auction listing.

Once the auction listing has been uploaded to Ebay they will resize and compress the gallery photo to fit the gallery thumbnail size and then store the photo on their server. Ebay uses a variety of sizes for the gallery picture and will process this image even when the uploaded photo is of thumbnail size.

What size should you make your gallery picture? Well, Ebay recommends that the picture should be at least 600 pixels on its longest side with a jpeg quality (compression) of about 90, this is resized by ebay. If selecting a portion of the main picture as the thumbnail then this is a little on the large size. The important point is to design it for maxim affect and not to be too concerned about the actual size.

However, over large sizes may effect the Ebay resizing process and cause a delay of several hours in the appearance of the gallery picture in the listing. If this happens try a smaller size.

Designing with HTML.

HTML is the mark-up language that a web browser reads to produce a web page. There is an option in Ebay's listing form to use HTML to produce an auction listing. The advantages of using HTML are to produce a well presented listing and also to speed up the listing process. HTML can be used to define the the layout and embed the photographs in the listing when an external image hoster is used.

To access the HTML insertion area in Ebay's selling first select Advanced Sell and then continue to the description area.

The listing can be made with an HTML editor such as the free HTML-kit editor. The code can then be copied and pasted into the Ebay HTML area, as shown below. Note; click the "Save Draft" button immediately after pasting.

It is also possible to switch to the description area's standard box to write the description. However there may be conflicts with some HTML templates when using the Enter-key to start a new line as this may also repeat the HTML tags.

Background images and colours.

The background of an auction listing can be set to a specific colour or have an image tiled across it. Use this to enhance the auction listing and make it stand out. HTML code is used to configure the background colour/image. The background image needs to be hosted by a free external image hoster such as Photobucket .

An example of a background image is shown on the left. The background image should be either a jpg or gif file of small file size and also be easy to read the text against. A good source for background images is www.grsites.com .