Create my own auction template

How many auction items should I showcase? How many catalogs should I print? If you have the money, one per person is better. Finding a print vendor The best way to get your auction catalog printed is to find a print sponsor.

What sort of binding should I use? Recent Popular Categories. Tweets by WinspireMe. Ian serves as the Editor-in-Chief for Winspire News, creating and managing blog content, newsletters, eBooks and other resources for Nonprofit fundraising professionals.

Related Posts. Lou Prisco. Best Practices: Postponing your Fundraising Event With the postponement of a gala event, much work needs to be accomplished in a short period of time and approached with flexibility and care. Latest Posts. Once you have decided what type of auction website you want to build, you need to make sure you have certain things ready.

Having these in place beforehand will allow you to start live auctions on your site right away. Now that you have the above materials in place, you can start on the rest of the steps to create an auction website. Doing these things in the order they are given will give you the easiest road toward getting your auction site up and running.

The first thing you want to do is find the domain name that you want for your site. Remember, your domain name is what will represent the site and what most people may recognize in search results. Try searching for the exact domain name you want.

If that particular domain name is already taken, then try different variations of the wording. You can also use a different domain name extension as there are many of these available. Once you have your domain name bought and in place, it is time to find web hosting.

You will come across a lot of choices, some good, some not. However, keep in mind you want a reputable web hosting company that will give you a great price and provide you everything you need to easily build the auction site of your dreams.

Now that your domain name is purchased and you have found a solid web host, it is time to choose the CMS you want to use to create your auction website. There are some different auction website builders available, but I recommend using WordPress to build your site. There are a few reasons behind this. WordPress is an open source CMS. This means that anyone can contribute to it and you will never be short on resources and tutorials to help you through the building process. Furthermore, WordPress is very user-friendly and very scalable.

This means you will be able to build a large website and continue to grow with no problems. WordPress is also very secure. Sure, you will want to take certain steps to further secure your website, but the platform itself is very solid. Finally, WordPress installation is quick and easy. You can install it manually , or use the one-click installation process provided by your web host. Either way, you will have the CMS installed quickly and easily and be able to start building and designing in no time.

WordPress offers tons of amazing themes that you can build around and use to create an auction website. That being said, here are some recommendations for you to look at. Adifier is a WordPress theme that is built specifically for auction websites. The theme is loaded with functionality and built-in tools. Perhaps one of the nicest things about it is that it comes with 14 pre-built templates that you can use to set up an auction style website.

FreeForm employs use of new windows opened using Javascript as a part of its functioning so you may need to turn off pop-up blocking while using FreeForm. To be able to display your own graphics and photos within the body of eBay auction item descriptions and pages requires the use of a web host for storage of those images.

That requirement is completely unavoidable no matter what service you use yet is somewhat masked with less flexible ones. FreeForm can be using in conjunction with almost any web host including free image hosting services to enable the display of as many photos as desired, in any sequence, size, or position within the body of eBay item descriptions.

By doing so you completely eliminate the need to pay any eBay Picture Services add-ons when listing items. For best results use an image hosting service with which you retain full control over photo size and quality.

With membership you gain a point and click interface from within FreeForm to choose photos and graphics stored there no copy and paste required for URLs , unlimited saving capability in FreeForm, and you may create and publish web pages directly from FreeForm into your EAPH web space where you may create your own web site including use of your own domain name. Do yourself a favor and give your eBay efforts their best chance to succeed by taking advantage of the tools provided with EAPH along with the power to create effective presentations using FreeForm.

Reliability you can count on - there have been over a billion picture views on eBay delivered by EAPH. You may use your own graphics, logos, and backgrounds One great advantage of FreeForm's independence from any listing or template service is not being limited to the selection of graphics or template layouts available with any particular such service. While FreeForm does include libraries of public domain background wallpapers, a library of email link images, and Starter Templates , there is absolutely no need to feel restricted to using only what you find in FreeForm.

Admittedly, most of us are not capable of creating professional appearing graphics, but the Internet is full of sites that offer them either freely or with credit given to the artist. With FreeForm you are empowered to use whatever you find that works best for you.

In fact, a common practice is to use FreeForm in conjunction with eBay's Turbo Lister to store listings in Turbo Lister for posting on eBay at a later time. If it is your practice to create listings throughout the week then post them all on one day, that's a good way to go. As far as FreeForm is concerned the process is exactly the same.

You may use FreeForm to create web pages. To create web pages for use elsewhere it is required that the page you create in FreeForm be downloaded to your computer, then uploaded to your web host. A tool for accomplishing the download is included in FreeForm's Preview Page menu. From large corporations to businesses just getting started, we offer a complete auction website solution. With AuctionWorx: Events Edition you can run multiple scheduled auction events on the same website.

Focus bidding activity with tools to organize lots into ordered groups with staggered ending times. Build a marketplace of buyers and sellers with AuctionWorx Enterprise - enable businesses to connect and service your own market, charity, or region.