Penny Auction Software Tip

Q and A on Penny Auction Software #4

noreply@blogger.com (www.Softmedia.biz) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 02:02:00 PST

Q. What products should I auction?

A. It’s a tricky question as it will largely define your business. The first rule is – market products that will appeal to your costumers.

And we’re not talking about market segmentation here. If you already have a successful e-commerce website that offers, let’s say hunting equipment or diving equipment or any other special niche range of products, this doesn’t mean that you should open a penny auction featuring the same line of products.

Keep in mind that choosing highly targeted products for your auctioned items will significantly narrow down your target audience. Always ask yourself, will these items be able to attract a sufficient amount of active bidders and keep your auctions alive longer. If your auctions will end quickly because there are only a few bidders on your website not only will it result in revenue loss but also in low levels of engagement of your clients and soon even the few bidders you have will lose interest.

It’s a good idea to think about products that are popular in your country or region, something that can attract and engage a lot of people. Surprisingly you may find that it’s not necessarily expensive products like iPads’ or Plasma TVs’.
Although our experience suggests that quite often the lower the country’s GDP per capita the more expensive products are required to be auctioned in order to reach the required critical mass of interested bidders to keep the business growing.

Feel free to send us more questions to blog@softmedia.biz

And don’t forget to comment and “Like”, we appreciate the support.

Penny stories #3

noreply@blogger.com (www.Softmedia.biz) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 05:04:00 PST

“Find a penny pick it up, all the day you’ll have good luck” probably most of you heard this saying somewhere at some time but does it still stand? Of course over 100 years ago a penny had substantial buying power and with the civil war starting in 1861 and the great depression following it a found copper-nickel penny was a sure sign of good luck.

At that time you wouldn’t see Lincolns figure on the coin instead a profile of a man wearing an Indian feather hat was placed on the head of the coin.

The Penny is strongly tied in with human history and culture, if you look around you’ll find that rumors and urban legends formed around pennies. And the word itself will always be pleasant to the human ear. People are still ready to try their luck with just a penny, or a penny auction for that matter.

Feel free to send us more questions to blog@softmedia.biz
And don’t forget to comment and “Like”, we appreciate the support

Penny stories #2: New Ford for a rare penny

noreply@blogger.com (www.Softmedia.biz) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 06:32:00 PST

Here’s a story for you.
In the 1940’s a rumor captured the hearts and minds of thousands of Americans across all states, spreading rapidly like a wild forest fire. Imagine you could get a brand new Ford car for just a penny! But not just any penny - it had to be a 1943 copper penny.

What was so special about it?
During the war there were a lot of emergency cutbacks across almost all sectors. One of the emergency measures demanded that all 1943 US pennies were made out of steel instead of copper, but before the bill was implemented a small amount of 1943 copper pennies where stuck and somehow entered circulation.

Wanderlust of the idea of getting a car for just a penny moved a lot of people. Some tried to hunt down the original copper cents, some tried to counterfeit fake ones.
But rumors are rumors, I’d like to think there a happy end in this story. I wonder if a penny auction will ever start such a powerful story, a deal of the 21st century.

Have a nice weekend!

Anthony
Softmedia.biz

Penny stories testing

noreply@blogger.com (www.Softmedia.biz) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 05:51:00 PST

S5CDCXHE9EVC (This is a testing post. We apologize for any inconvenience).

Q and A on Penny Auction Software #3

noreply@blogger.com (www.Softmedia.biz) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 03:46:00 PST

Q: My question isn’t software related but I’d be grateful if you could give your opinion. It seems that the economy is still suffering through rough times, is this really a good time to start a PA business?

A: We keep an eye out for any news on the entertainment industry. From what we can tell, numerous marketing researches show that in 2011 there was a significant raise of interest towards casual gaming and online entertainment. There seem to be two main reasons behind this.

First: Casual games are a light and easily available form of entertainment. They don’t require you to spend a lot of time or money to relax and take the edge off of day-to-day stress. Traveling, going to concerts, planning a trip to Las Vegas or getting in to a new AAA video game release are all great but they get left beyond the reach of a lot of people.
But we all still want entertainment. So spending 10 to 15 dollars couple of times a week without leaving the house seems like a good alternative to a lot of people, and as in the case with penny auctions if there’s a chance to win a bargain of a prize, well it just adds to the more interest to the experience.

Second: Stats show that as wireless devices notebooks etc penetrate deeper and deeper in to various demographic layers, more age groups get exposed to online and interactive forms of entertainment. In 2011 gamers aged 18-49 made up 53% of the total community and people over 50 made up 29% and growing. In addition more than 55% of all of them use hand held devices (source: Entertainment Software Association).

Feel free to send us more questions to blog@softmedia.biz
And don’t forget to comment and “like”, we appreciate the support ;)

Q and A on Penny Auction Software #2

noreply@blogger.com (www.Softmedia.biz) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 07:52:00 PST

Only one big question this week but that doesn’t make it less interesting or important.

Q. If I’m going to make money from my penny auction site is there a way I could artificially raise the price of the product or if it is possible to define a minimum price limit for an auction?

A. We often hear this question, and we have to note that a lot of people who plan to open a penny auction site have a strong misconception on how to make a site profitable. The important thing is this – penny auctions income doesn’t come from selling products! The majority of income is generated by active bidding ( user participation in auctions and buying of bid-packages). Earlier we described the income formula here.

For the second part of the question, we strongly do not recommend usage of bots, use of any other methods of manipulation to artificially raise the price of your prizes, or your income. Treat your customers with care and respect and they will keep coming back to your site, generating more and more profit in a more natural way.
Spend time to develop your strategy and plan ahead - our penny auction software provides a lot of ways you can make your PA site more entertaining without any foul play .

Penny stories #1

noreply@blogger.com (www.Softmedia.biz) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 07:23:00 PST

Recently a penny that used to worth only 1 cent way back in the late 1700s was sold at auction in Florida for a stunning record braking $1.38 million! Now that’s one pricy penny.

The supposedly “historic” penny was made at the Mint in Philadelphia in 1793, during the first year that the United States started making its own coins after gaining independence from Great Britain.

You can read more at http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/historic-penny-sells-1-38-million-florida-auction-setting-record-article-1.1002456

Q and A about penny auction software

noreply@blogger.com (www.Softmedia.biz) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 06:01:00 PST

Q. I need penny auction software for selling my specific products

A. Truly speaking, there’s a difference between regular e-commerce and penny auctions.

What we offer is a platform for entertainment auctions, and like any form of entertainment it’s profitable only when there’s a crowd involved. Your products can be one of a kind unique items, but they will bring you money only if you have plenty of visitors.

So the broader the product niche the more bidders you can attract and the more income you can generate.

Q.One thing I would like to ask is what modules do you recommend for start?

A. Excellent question. There are a lot of feurures to choose from, both adding completely new features and extending default ones, the desire to achieve total control can be tempting but it’s important never to loose focus.

We divided our penny auction software modules into five different groups to make it easier for our customers to workout a development strategy plan for their auction.

Don't focus on just one aspect of your auction features, choose a balanced mix between: usability, marketing, communication and administration modules depending on your business plan and customers' needs. Also after launch you can introduce fresh features as newly added to promote your website and let people know that your working hard to provide them with the best experience.

Why do penny auctions really fail?

noreply@blogger.com (www.Softmedia.biz) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 05:36:00 PST

A while back one of the most well-known blogs on the penny auctions Penny Auction Watch published an article by Chris, the founder of a PennyPurses.com.

We thank Chris for pointing out the importance of preparation. In addition to Cris insiders’ expertise, we’d like to add a few words based on our experience.

• From every 20 people (or groups) wishing to enter the penny auction business, around 15 have a very small business experience;
• From every 20 software providers 15 are incompetent or even frauds.

So when you do the math, you'll get a number of 6.25% that’s the number of all PA that actually have a chance on success. And from our experience that number is more or less accurate.

In conclusion we’d like to share a short abstract from one of our clients’ reviews, founder of Lokuaz.com penny auction.

“I read penny auction forums and I think that people have a wrong impression about the industry and how to setup a company. It is as difficult as setting-up any other company where a very important variable is to create a good relationship and trust with your suppliers. I think that our good relationship with Softmedia is based on the fact that we had a clear business plan and budget, clear idea of what we wanted from the software and our software partner”.

Subscribe, stay informed and good luck!

Belgium to block unlicensed online gambling sites from 2012

noreply@blogger.com (www.Softmedia.biz) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 00:36:00 PST

The Belgian government announced that it will block access to unlicensed online gambling sites from January 2012. In addition, websites on the 'blacklist' will not be able to process financial transactions coming from, and going into the country.

Peter Naessens, Chief of the Belgian Gaming Commission, reiterated: "After the 1st January, 2012 ISPs will be required to block the access of Belgian citizens to unlicensed internet gambling websites. Belgian banks will also be required to block the financial transfers coming from and going to these unlicensed websites."

So, it is a right time now to think about other entertaining websites for Belgians, for example penny auction sites.

Social Gaming to top $5 Billion by 2015

noreply@blogger.com (www.Softmedia.biz) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 12:09:00 PST

In a new report issued by Parks Associates, the firm forecasts that the social gaming industry will increase it’s revenue by five times between 2010 and 2015. The revenue increase is fueled primarily by increased advertising revenues and virtual goods sales. According to Parks Associates, these driving factors have already pushed social gaming revenues north of $1 Billion in 2010, and they see the trend continuing. The research firm presented the findings of their Social Gaming: Market Updates report at the Game Investment Conference in Austin, TX.

“Gaming on social networks has quickly become the most visible category of online games,” said Pietro Macchiarella, Research Analyst, Parks Associates in a statement. “Right now more than 250 million people play games like Zynga’s CityVille and FarmVille on Facebook every month, and both game developers and marketers have taken notice. Big brands such as McDonald’s and 7-Eleven have carried out cross-promotions with existing social games.”

Macchiarella also points to improved user monetization is a factor contributing to the industry’s success. He notes that early entrants to the field missed key monetization and revenue opportunities, but rapid advancements in gameplay has allowed for more effective incentives for users to purchase virtual items. Examples include virtual tractors and seed, items that improve or enhance gameplay, as well as rare items (swords, shields, etc.) to build status.

Penny Auction profit

noreply@blogger.com (www.Softmedia.biz) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 06:53:00 PDT

Our customers often ask us: "Can a penny auction business be profitable?"

From our experience we can give an answer: Yes, it can be.

We have seen the following cases.
The iPad went for $202.15. As each bid increments the price by $0.01 it means that Bouncybids got 20,215 bids and earned $12,129 (one bid costs $0.60):

As the retail price of this iPad is about $1,200 the profit is 12,129 – 1,200 = $10,929 USD or 910% !

The Amazon Electronic gift card of $250 value. It was won for $23.32, which means that 2,332 bids were made. 2,332 bids * $0.60 = $1,399 income. $1,399 – $250 = $1,149 profit or 460% !

So, these are good results. And it is a true proof, that when running penny auction business goes step by step and is accompanied by well-organised marketing strategy, it can be profitable and succesful.

Good luck with your penny auction business!

Penny auction software - 2 strategies

noreply@blogger.com (www.Softmedia.biz) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 04:36:00 PDT

Customers, who purchase penny auction software from us, often ask us what strategy is better in order to run penny auction business. We can say that there is 2 main strategies:
1) aggressive;
2) step by step.

The first strategy contains significant promotional budget. As auction items are used quite expensive electronic goods, such as computers or gadget and not less than 20 live auctions per day are held.

The second strategy "step by step" characterizes modest expenses on advertising and promotional campaigns. Auction items are the goods at a price from 10 to 50 dollars. The number of live auction are about 2-3 daily or even 2-3 per week. Customers like new small penny auctions because the competition is low initially.

We are convinced, that both these strategies have a right to "live". Even the fact, that aggressive strategy gives an opportunity to make money fast, it containes risk and big initial expenses. That is why, deciding to run penny auction business, think over, what strategy mainly you will choose.

Penny auction sites

noreply@blogger.com (www.Softmedia.biz) — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 05:43:00 PDT

From time to time our potential customers tell us that their country is saturated with penny auction sites.
We believe, that if penny auction web site is professionally and good made, it will gain much interest even it is not first on the market. Modern attractive design, interesting features together with online advertising give the site more opportunities to be successful.

There are many features, that could attract customers. These are, for example, voting system, that gives a possibility for registered customers to vote on future auctions. Auction items, that gathered the most number of votes, start first.
Customers appreciate when their wishes are taken into consideration. Another not less interesting feature is Higher Lower game. This is for those, who like to try their luck in playing cards. Basically it is a simple card game, but with a possibility to win additional free bids.

Usually customers want much attention for themselves and, for example, everyday quiz may be useful. There the customers can answer question and get free bid(s) for this. Thus they get more satisfaction from their participation.

It is known, that bidders bid against each other and they all want to be ahead of their competitors. In order to know how powerful the competitor is, they need some information. It is possible to use the following - customers can see other customer’s 30-days bidding history. They pay money for this service and get history information.
At the same time exists the ability for the customer to hide his bidding history from others. It makes the competition more passionate.

Such features make a penny auction website more good-looking.

.............. /Natalie Shtangrat, Softmedia international sales manager/

Why seat auctions do not generate an interest?

noreply@blogger.com (www.Softmedia.biz) — Wed, 04 May 2011 03:34:00 PDT

From time to time our customers inquire from us to deliver seat auction software to them. And then we are using many efforts to persuade them not to order this. After the last conversation we decided to bring our arguments here.

For those who do not know what is seat auction: customers pay fixed entrance fee; when the needed number of participants have paid this “seat” fee, penny auction starts and bidding is free of charge for them.

One of the main reasons is the length of time it takes an auction to get started. So, customers should wait unpredictable period of time till auction starts.

Another important factor seat auctions don't give any success is because there is no instant gratification. Many people start bidding in penny auctions because of the fast action. Within a few minutes (or maximum hours) they will either have won or lost. If a bidder knows he is going to have to wait hours/days (or even weeks) to participate in a seat auction, he is surely losing his interest.

The whole reason why many bidders participate in penny auctions is to relax after a long day of work. And even the fact, that seat auction format does not contain the risk of the customers' losing much money, it does not give much interest.

The more experienced bidders who use auctions to make a profit view seat auctions as a bad investment. As the probabilities of them winning are basically equal with everybody else, the chances for a profit decrease remarkably.

Social games in numbers

noreply@blogger.com (www.Softmedia.biz) — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 01:36:00 PDT

55% of all players - women.
43 years - average age of the player in USA and UK.
76% users of social games play with the users from same age group.
89,6 million people - a world audience the most popular social game,CityVille from company Zynga

/Appdata.com/

Penny Auction as part of the iGaming Business

noreply@blogger.com (www.Softmedia.biz) — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 07:57:00 PST

Sometimes people wonder under which label of business penny auctions stand. Is e-commerce? Is it Retail? Is it Gambling?

We believe that they are a little of everything mentioned above, but cannot bear any of those restrictive labels.

Softmedia happily and satisfactorily sponsorship and participated in ICE 2011 held in London 25-27 of January. ICE 2011 is the biggest global show in gaming world and we believe it was a great opportunity to spread our brand through what might be the future of our business.

Having access to wide amounts of online consumers, bookmakers and online gaming providers already have one of the most essential requisite for a successful enter in the exciting business of penny auctions.

We are ready to co-operate with the iGaming Business, what about you, are you ready to take the challenge?

Penny auction and a hosting server

noreply@blogger.com (www.Softmedia.biz) — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 13:04:00 PST

We composed, with a little help from our customer from Austria, the following arithmetic task:

At your penny auction website you have:
- 10 live auctions;
- 150 bidding customers;
- 350 just logged in customers, not bidding;
- 1500 not logged in, just visitors, followers.

Question: how many requests will receive the server per minute?
/Please give any number what you want – average, or minimum, or maximum.../

We look forward to receive your estimations and we will respond fast - is your answer close to real or not. And you will know the level of your penny auction tech. knowledge. Please write to mail@softmedia.biz. Thank you all in advance.

Guidelines for Penny Auction Site Owners

noreply@blogger.com (www.Softmedia.biz) — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 12:30:00 PDT

Pennyauctionwatch.com published recently an article "Guidelines for Penny Auction Site Owners". From the title we concluded that it will focus on how to make the PA website successful.
In fact, the article is about what not to do. Despite this, we fully agree with the following tips.

What Not to Do

* Never, ever, ever shill bid- Don’t use fake admin bids/bots, this can be a script or it can be the site owner bidding. against customers or users that are employed by the site to bid and are not paying for the bids.
* Never divulge users personal information to a third party. Make sure you do not fail to BCC e-mail addresses when bulk mailing.
* Never tell other bidders how many bids another bidder has.
* Never give out free bids under the table.
* Don’t false advertise, don’t use “fake news advertorials” or create shill watchdog sites.
* Never pretend you’re a customer of your own site, this is shill reviewing and is prosecutable (see United States v. Denlinger).
* Don’t inflate retail prices.
* Don’t have hidden fees or fine print, display terms & conditions in a readable font.
* Don’t auction off items you cannot afford to lose and do not intend to fulfill.

Thanks, Amanda!

Penny auction script search

noreply@blogger.com (www.Softmedia.biz) — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 02:41:00 PDT

We would like to bring here some typical discussions between us and our customers.

Customer1: "Hello,
The price is really high for our budget, we are considering http://www.phppennyauction.com/ "

Customer2: "We don't want complicated script but we want simple and lowest possible priced penny script.
We want this kind of working : http://www.bidrivals.com/ "

Softmedia to Customer1: "Hello,
Good, that you sent this e-mail to us. We will save you a some portion of money.
Press here: http://www.google.ee/search?q=phppennyauction.com+scam
Please read also below our answer to Customer2".

Softmedia to Customer2: "Hello. We have experience 2.5 years in penny auctions, 10 years in software development, 20 years in business, and can say the following:
1. Lowest possible price, what you can find in internet, is probably 2 dollars, or 49.
2. Lowest possible price for the script, which is really working, is USD 3,000. Truly.
3. This is not e-commerce, this is online gaming business. It is not for everyone. www.Bidrivals.com is a global project, has 11-12 servers in datacenter in Finland. We estimate the total investment between EUR 700,000 and EUR 1.2M. We can send our pricelist, starts from 3000, and other detailed information."

Customer1: "Yes, send the list please."
Customer2: NA

First Penny Auction for casino players (... and v.v. :)

noreply@blogger.com (www.Softmedia.biz) — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 11:34:00 PDT

"We are officially the first penny auction site that specifically caters for poker, casino and sports enthusiasts!" - declares UK Penny Auction Bidibot.com.

And really, they draw credits for well known online casino and online poker websites. Bets for the sports betting websites are promised soon.

It is nice, that Penny Auctions have attracted increasing attention from gaming industry' professionals.

Good to inform all our readers here about our participation in the 9th European iGaming Congress and Expo, 19-21 October in Copenhagen, Denmark. Welcome to Softmedia stand no. 392.
Our idea of participation is to inform internet-gaming businessmen about possible synergy between Penny Auctions and gaming websites (affiliate deals and much more).

Links:
Bidibot.com
EiGExpo.com

Big players are starting to recognize Penny Auctions

noreply@blogger.com (www.Softmedia.biz) — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 01:52:00 PDT

According to VentureBeat.com, Skype cofounders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis’ investment group Atomico Ventures, have just recently invested US$6 million in UK penny auction site MadBid.com.

MadBid.com was launched in August 2008 in London UK and they are now the UKs leading pay-to-bid auction site.

Full story: venturebeat.com/2010/07/26/atomico-ventures-skype-madbid-com

Penny auction scam

noreply@blogger.com (www.Softmedia.biz) — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 01:13:00 PDT

This link below is for all who are dreaming about making money using shill bidders:

www.pennyauctionwatch.com/2010/05/penny-auction-pardoo-gone/

Please spend 10 minutes of your time and read the story from there.

Penny auction profitability continued

noreply@blogger.com (www.Softmedia.biz) — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 02:11:00 PDT

We made a short Study of Penny Auction website productivity depending on intensity and quality of the internet traffic to the website.

*) Counted as interval between first purchase and last visit.

As can be seen, 100 unique visitors to the auction website bring from 1 to 4.5 paying bidders, each of them can bring $50-60 during his “life”.

The numbers above are taken from real working websites with irregular advertising expenses. We estimate that permanent advertising support can improve average “life” expectancy and income per customer up to 2 times.

The dependence of income in $1,000 per month (Y) on the number of unique visitors per day (X) may be as shown at the following chart:

The revenue percentage will be bigger in case of bigger traffic, because operational costs do not grow as fast as income.

Expected revenue is 30-50% from total income due to the advertising cost, the cost of prizes and operational expenses.

We welcome all followers to share their opinion about above mentioned numbers - are they relevant or not?

Penny Auction profitability

noreply@blogger.com (www.Softmedia.biz) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 03:03:00 PDT

Penny auction business became a relatively big industry and because of this the number of interesting information in internet about penny auction profitability is growing.

If earlier the information was mainly spread through blogs, Wikipedia is coming to the fore now.

For general information we recommend the following links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_auction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swoopo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unique_bid_auction