Open two screens on your computer. One can display Platoon Daddy at... http://www.pltdaddy.com/. On the other, look at Just Glass at... http://www.justglass.com/.
Use the following criteria to evaluate the two sites as a practice run. Continue to add to your criteria as you gain experience. You want to locate the best auction sites for your product or service.
1) Degree of professionalism -- Many auction sites are so amateurish that they are an immediate turn-off. This does not mean that unless the site owner has spent $10,000 creating a site we should ignore it. Sound business practices, however, do need to prevail.
2) Ease of use -- Net research has proved again and again that site owners have a few critical seconds to either entice a visitor to stay, or turn her off entirely. And causing confusion in potential customers is a great way to send them screaming away.
3) Targeted traffic -- Starting a general site and successfully competing with huge, well-financed, already established giants may be possible -- but it’s unlikely. However, smaller niche sites (who specialize in a field that is too small for the giants to bother with) have a chance for success. Attracting targeted traffic is their only reason for being.
4) Site promotion -- One of the ways that eBay grew to be so gigantic, so quickly, is because it has spent a fortune advertising itself. Not only has it paid for advertisements but eBay has also created an affiliate program, developed strategic alliances and has skillfully used press releases. In short, eBay has followed all the rules of sound Internet business practices.
If you are going to ally yourself with an auction site, you need to make sure that the owner is actively promoting the site in as many ways as possible. As a potential customer you have the right to ask. If their response isn’t satisfactory, then carefully consider whether you should spend time with them.
5) Site owner interest and enthusiasm -- The last, and most subjective, criterion is whether the site seems lively and interesting. Do you have a feeling that the owners are excited about what they are doing? Keeping any auction site alive is intense work, and if the owner isn’t interested in doing it, forget it and go elsewhere.
Don’t necessarily be put off if many of the items on an auction site don’t have any bids. This can be true on eBay, too!
