Inexperienced auction sellers, or those lacking in confidence,
often want to make their auction listings more dramatic and
exciting. They dread the possibility that buyers will be bored
by their auction and turn away with indifference.
Therefore, they reason, they will spice up their auctions with
some "animations" - graphics that blink, change colors, spin,
travel around the web page.
Or the seller may be a tech person who loves toys and is proud
of his ability to create unusual effects.
Regardless of their reasons, animated elements on an auction
page are almost never a good idea for the following four
reasons:
1. Rather than attracting attention to the merchandise in your
auction, your potential customer may watch a spinning ball or
follow Santa and his reindeer through the sky. We want the
customer's total attention on that all-important question: "Do I
want to buy this widget or not?" Distractions are not good for
your wallet.
2. Animations can make the load time of your auction listing
much longer. I have been using DSL four years and have forgotten
(happily!) how horrible it is to use dialup. However, for many
places on this planet, high-speed connections simply are not
available. For these folks, loading your page might take
forever, and you can be sure they won't wait. Experts tell us
that the average user spends only 7 seconds at a webpage before
departing for greener pastures. If your sales page is still
loading, no sale for you.
3. It takes time for you to figure out how and whether to use
animations. This is time that would be better spent on writing
more exciting and dynamic copy - copy that will turn a
prospective customer into a real buyer. A smart business person
will treat time as her most precious commodity and spend it on
what is most likely to bring a sale.
4. Many of these animations are just downright annoying. I
personally do not enjoy looking at screens that are twirling,
whirling and blinking. Two particularly irritating animations
are an inescapable message that follows up and down the left
side of the page, regardless of where I'm looking, and "trails"
that follow my mouse.
A huge majority of people feel the same, apparently. Sellers
need to make it as easy as possible for people to buy, rather
than throwing obstacles in the way.
Are there any occasions when animated pictures are of any value
in an auction listing? Possibly. For example, if you are selling
to graphic designers then animated elements might be
appropriate. As always, testing, testing, testing is the only
way to truly know.
But for the rest of us folks - forget the glitter and focus on
your merchandise. That's what makes us buy.
About the author:
Learn how to sell on eBay with 16 hours of online instruction
taught by a 10 year eBay veteran. Own an eBay business instead
of an eBay hobby. http://www.auction-genius-course.com
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