How to start penny auction without loss?

Q. I have a question, about the penny auction.
Imagine that I'm selling something with real value 10,000. The bidding starts at 1 cent. Each credit you buy is worth one euro. Let say the bidding goes to 2 cents, but the problem I see is a person who will bid, if it will be no other bidder, he will win and you will waste your money. How can I avoid that? By placing a bid, or what?

A. 1) Traffic is a king of penny auction business.
For getting traffic, your you should plan a good advertising  campaign, think about marketing tools and let some people win items on your website and they will definitely tell others. You just cannot launch such business with 2 or 3 customers.

Any business cannot start without advertising, not only penny auction. We have seen, how with proper advertising, or existing base of customers, new penny auction business have made profit from the first month.

I want to say: if somebody “for extra insurance” will bid by himself, the website will live maximum 2 months, because if visitors can’t win anything and only lose money on the website, they will share this information with friends and will never buy a second bid package.

2) We have optional module #46 “Reserved price auction” - the auction is cancelled if the target “reserved” price is not achieved. All spent bids are returned to the participants’ accounts.

If the item’s real cost is 10,000, you can set “reserved price” at 100 – this means that the auction would be successful after visitors spend on it 10,000 bids.

Are penny auctions legit?

Q. I believe there is no honest penny auction because the method fundamentally broken.

A. There is no so much differences, no any fundamental differences, between classic auction and penny auction.

1) Pay-per-bid model.

Some traditional auctions are also payable. In some cases you should buy entrance ticket, or pay regular monthly fee. So, the bidding fee model is not something extremely different.

2) An incremental bid is small.

Yes, it is, but it is not any critical difference. Thank to it, the last participant to have placed a bid wins the item and pays the final bid price, which may be significantly lower than the retail price of the item.

3) Honesty.

Penny auctions are online business. Like many other businesses in internet, for example e-shops. There are proven, reliable e-shop, and, besides them, many swindlers. Same with penny auctions - is it honest or not, depends on the owner, not on business model.

Controversial penny auction software provider on sale

A controversial penny auction software provider Penny Auction Wizards decided to close the doors. An announsment is published at Ackwired.

Ad text is very attractive. Advertised price is a bit frightening - $100,000.

What we can say.
Penny Auction Wizards appeared on the market a year ago. 
Professionally styled website is made in good Web 2.0 tradition. 
But obviously fake promotional videos at the homepage aroused suspicion.

Portfolio consisting, at least in part, of the logos of companies that are market leaders and clearly can not be associated with this website, completed the unpleasant impression.
So, for us was clear, that a new star among questionable software providers is born.

As a conclusion. 

It is a pity that such a good webmaster and SEO professional neglects, even partly, business ethics. 

We believe that providing honest professional web design and search engine optimization services this man could grow a sustainable business.

We wish him to finish quickly a business that has lost buyers' confidence, and begin to provide professional Internet services on a new and fair basis.

Q and A on Penny Auction Software #33

Q. I wish to reward all my penny auction website customers, otherwise I have one happy customer and lot of unhappy at every auction. 

A. Loyalty points, bonus miles, loyal customer systems are widely used in many businesses, from small coffee shops to airlines and hotel chains.

At penny auction it can work as follows:

customer receives bonus points when he places a bid. It is done automatically by the software. Administrator can define how many points will customer receive for each bid placed. For example, it can be set that customer receives 5 bonus points for each bid. 

Another part of the system is Reward Shop. For example, Administrator can add/upload a product "100 bids package" to Rewards Shop, and set it price as 500 bonus points (or it can be even several times more expensive, as it is a bonus, for example 2500 points).

So, first customers buys bids. Then he bids on some auction and receives bonus points. After he can buy some product in Rewards Shop.

Good combination is a Reward Shop and built-in online games, like, for example, slot machines. Customers can spend their bonus points in your online casino, win or lose them. Playing for bonus points can be cheaper for them than playing for bids, because they can get 5 or 10 points for one bid placed.

Start with cheaper penny auction software first

Q. We want to start with cheaper penny auction software, and upgrade it when the business grows up. Please comment.

A. It is an illusion, that to start cheaper is more easy. That for $200-300, or max. $800-900 it will be possible to understand, is this business worth to pursue, or not.

In fact, to start cheaper makes your life more hard. Because, firstly, with a cheaper software you will close your website in 2-3 month anyway:

• if you do not have enough customers, you will close;
• if you will have enough customers, you should close; because your penny auction platform cannot serve them all.

So, as a result:

• you lost time;
• you lost your efforts;
• you lost money (software + promotion + operations);
• you lost you nervous energy;
• you killed your reputation;
• you messed up a reputation of a penny auction industry.

Do you think that after all of that it will be easy to start second time?

Penny Auction hosting

Q.  I have a few technical questions for you.

1. Is a dedicated server essential for the website to run or can we host it on a shared server?
2. Do we need SSH?
3. Are there any additional things to keep in mind?

Many thanks.

A.  

1)    Yes, dedicated server is essential for Penny auction website because penny auction software needs access to server resources permanently. At shared server penny auction can work only as a demo, with 5-10 users max.

2)    Do you mean SSH or SSL? SSH is important, SSL not.

3)    Server provider, or other organization who is responsible for your
server, should be able to provide:

• initial setup of the server software, including server software required by our software platform;
• server software administration and maintenance;
• backup and recovery.

Penny auction software mobile versions

Question: Is there a way to get screenshots or a test version of the mobile penny auction software so we can take a look at it?

Answer: a) please find screenshots below;

b) Our Android version is freely available at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=biz.softmedia.bidclassic&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImJpei5zb2Z0bWVkaWEuYmlkY2xhc3NpYyJd

or at http://goo.gl/EC91U 

c) Our iOS version is also available, but Apple does not allow demo applications to be uploaded into App Store.

Because of that we cannot send a direct link.

It has the same functionality as Android version, but user interface is done in iOS style.

We have attached screenshots of iOS version.

If you want to install our BidClassic demo mobile application, we will send it to you and you will need to manually install it. If you are interested, please do the following:

1. Send us your iPhone 's identifier (UDID).

   a) Connect your device to computer and open iTunes.

   b) Go to Summary tab of your device.

   c) If you see label "Serial Number", click it once. It will change to "Identifier (UDID)" and you will see your identifier (something like "7vp9md22db5fd283ac1978e44baf78726933k196", may be divided into two lines).

   d) Make a right button click on identifier (UDID) and copy it. Send it to us.

2. We will send you an e-mail with two links:

   a) a link to so-called Provisioning Profile. Please navigate to this link from your iPhone and install this profile.

   b) a link to app.

3. After profile installation please download app (.ipa file) to your computer and double click on its icon. iTunes will open.

4. Select Apps option from Library drop-down in upper left corner of iTunes.

5. Select Bidclassic app and drag it with mouse to the right side of iTunes window.

6. Devices panel will arise. It lists all devices that are currently connected to your computer. Drop app into your device.

After these steps BidClassic demo app should be installed to your iPhone and you should be able to use it.

How to host an Easter auction successfully

Are you celebrating Easter?
Yes?
The question is not about you. It is about your penny auction website. Just to close the auction for four days is not the best solution. You should think about your customers first.


See below the description how to host an classic Easter auction successfully (from http://ministry-to-children.com/how-to-host-an-easter-auction) , It is not exactly our case, but very close.

Ask for volunteers to donate Easter goodies. My closest friend loves making wreaths. She makes a few Easter egg wreaths and other craft goodies she comes up with. (She’s so creative!) I place a few large wicker baskets in my kids’ church to collect Easter toys, jewelry, coloring books and even Bibles. I start collecting a month in advance.

• Create flyers to advertise the Easter auction. I give clues about cool baskets and make sure people know why we hosting the Easter auction.
•  Post updates on your social networking pages. I show pictures of the baskets. I reserve the largest basket for the silent auction. That way, people everywhere can bid on the basket.
•  Set the baskets out on a decorated table. Place a descriptive sheet in front of each basket. This allows everyone to get a clue about the goodies inside.

Funny, isn't it?
Also, penny auctions are same good for fundraising, as classic auctions. Even better.
Happy Easter!

1. Create flyers to advertise the Easter auction. I give clues about cool baskets and make sure people know why we hosting the Easter auction.
2. Post updates on your social networking pages. I show pictures of the baskets. I reserve the largest basket for the silent auction. That way, people everywhere can bid on the basket.
3. Set the baskets out on a decorated table. Place a descriptive sheet in front of each basket. This allows everyone to get a clue about the goodies inside.

- See more at: http://ministry-to-children.com/how-to-host-an-easter-auction/#sthash.ZhPm4q97.dpuf

Here’s how to host an Easter auction successfully.
Ask for volunteers to donate Easter goodies. My closest friend loves making wreaths. She makes a few Easter egg wreaths and other craft goodies she comes up with. (She’s so creative!) I place a few large wicker baskets in my kids’ church to collect Easter toys, jewelry, coloring books and even Bibles. I start collecting a month in advance.

1. Create flyers to advertise the Easter auction. I give clues about cool baskets and make sure people know why we hosting the Easter auction.
2. Post updates on your social networking pages. I show pictures of the baskets. I reserve the largest basket for the silent auction. That way, people everywhere can bid on the basket.
3. Set the baskets out on a decorated table. Place a descriptive sheet in front of each basket. This allows everyone to get a clue about the goodies inside.

- See more at: http://ministry-to-children.com/how-to-host-an-easter-auction/#sthash.ZhPm4q97.dpuf

Iowa Calls Halt to "Penny Auctions" (A piece of history)

February 17, 1933. The Iowa state legislature has passed a foreclosure moratorium law that will keep banks from foreclosing on farms unable to cover their mortgages. The growing number of "penny auctions" and the threat of violence at farm auctions led to this measure.

In farm regions, an estimated 76 foreclosure sales were blocked by penny auctions in January and February alone.


What's a Penny Auction?


The Great Depression plus harsh drought conditions were hard on farmers in the 1920s and early 1930s. Many could not make enough money to pay the mortgage. As a result, banks would foreclose on the property. They would then sell the farms at public auctions.

Farmers resented the foreclosures. When they would hear about an upcoming auction, they would gather on the day of the auction and make it clear to officials and potential bidders that bids from outside the farm community were not welcome.

"When the bidding commenced, someone in the crowd would start it off at fifteen cents or so, and it rarely got beyond a few dollars before the bidding stopped and the auctioneer would close the sale. If anyone in the farmyard might be so ignorant of what was going on as to put in a serious bid, a suitably burly man would be likely to step up and put a hand on his shoulder with the words, 'That bid's a little high, ain't it?'" 

:=)

Q and A on Penny Auction Software #32

Q. Where To Find The Best Penny Auction Software Reviews?

A. If you search in Google for best penny auction software review, you mostly can find a marketing blah-blah, like the following:

"...

It is for that reason crucial to search for a script that is composed in pure PHP template for your site’s functionality sake, and that you have the understanding on how to harness it.

On the internet penny auction internet sites attract hundreds of thousands of folks around the world as it helps make purchasing a good deal much easier in which you can obtain items at a portion of their fees, which has been designed attainable by the penny auction script that has a pre-integrated panel admin panel that makes it possible for web page directors to management its internet content material. Penny auction script absolutely free training guarantees that you will be equipped to connect very well with your finish end users and that you can take care of all the data of the transactions for one hundred% client retention.

..."        (from the website www.scribd.com).

The only purpose of these senseless long texts is a rating in Google organic search list. You can find dozens of such websites, near every producer of weak, or even fake, penny auction software keeps 1-2 such websites.

So, what to do, if there are no reliable PA software reviews in Internet?
Nothing to do, you should review the software by yourself.

How?

Our recommendation is to take a look at a Portfolio - examples of the PA websites made by particular provider.
Ask from yourself at least the following questions:

• Has this particular provider the portfolio at his website?
• Are all websites presented really working as a penny auctions?
• Do these websites have any mention or reference to that particular producer. In another words, can you be sure that the producer is the author of these websites?
• If clients' testimonials a presented, is it clearly understandable which penny auction websites these clients own?
• Etc.

Do not be in rush, take your time. This helps you to find the Best Penny Auction Software.