WHAT IS A PENNY AUCTION?

Penny auctions have exploded in popularity with the massive growth of the internet. However, few people know the true origins of penny auctions.Beginnings actually stretch back to the Great Depression. Those were hard times for everyone, but even harder for farmers. Farmers struggled to bring in steady income because of droughts and crops not selling as well as they had previously. As a result, the banks would foreclose on the farmers who couldn’t keep up with their mortgage payments.

The banks weren’t satisfied with just repossessing the house, they wanted to raise as much capital as possible, so they resorted to selling off the possessions of the owners of the repossessed houses. There was not much the farmers could do about it so they began bidding ridiculously low prices, pennies, on the items while threatening others who dared to bid higher than a few pennies.

The auctions of today hardly resemble their tremulous beginnings. Being part of a penny auction today is exhilarating, fun, and addictive. It combines the selling format of auctioning with a little bit of chance factored in.Auctions are a game of strategy but also a game of luck.

The premise behind penny auctions is giving people the chance to win an item at a drastically reduced price.Auctions make that possible by spreading out the cost of the product among multiple bidders. In order for a person to take part in an auction, they must pay a set price for each bid. For example, if a person wanted to bid on a fifty dollar Amazon gift card then he would spend a dollar for each time a bid placed. If he ended up winning the gift card, then he would only have spent a few dollars for a fifty dollar gift card. Usually penny auctions sell bids in packages.

HOW PENNY AUCTIONS WORK!

The main foundation of penny auctions is the pay-per-bid format. It is the key that allows bidders to win items at the fraction of their retail value and allows the auction owners to keep their site profitable. Most y auction sites run on the same premise: people pay a set amount for each bid, whenever a person places a bid within the closing seconds of the auction time will be added, the last person left with a unique bid after the clocks runs out will win the item. There are a large variety of items that can be won, but they tend to be popular electronics or gift cards to popular stores.

There are two types of auctions: lowest unique bid auction and highest unique bid auction. Lowest unique auction sounds confusing but it is actually quite simple. A unique bid is when only one person has a bid at a certain price. Bids usually start at one penny, a bidder can then place a bid at two pennies. Until another bidder places a higher bid, the most recent bidder will be the lowest unique bid because that was the only bid at two cents and nobody bid higher. However, penny auctions generally don’t stop at one penny. It is not uncommon to find auctions that end up at a couple hundred dollars based on the popularity of the item being auctioned. However, the same principles apply for those auctions. Highest unique bid auctions follow the more traditional auction format such as eBay. The person with the highest bid at the end of the auction wins the item.

Auction site owners turn a profit by selling bids. Say twenty people are bidding on a ten dollar gift card at one dollar per bid, at the end of the auction if there were twenty bids placed in total then the site owner would have made twenty dollars with a ten dollar profit.Auctions do seem like a win-win situation:The site owner makes money while the bidder gets an item for dirt cheap. However, not everyone wins in penny auctions. The people who paid one dollar each bid but left with nothing to show for their investments will not be so happy.

HOW TO WIN!

Penny auction has a lot of chance mixed into it, but one can incorporate strategy that will help raise the chances of winning. Playing smart can make all the difference between gambling and auctioning.

The first crucial tip to winning penny auctions is to know how to manage your bids. Your goal should be to win as much as possible without spending a ton of money buying bids. Managing your bids means that you should already know how much you are willing to risk in order to win an item. The amount of capital you are willing to risk will determine how many bids you can use. Once you know how many bids you have to spend on an item, then you will be better able to manage how and when you place a bid. That will keep you from blowing away all of your bids in the first few seconds of the auction.

The next tip is to practice time management. When fighting in the trenches of penny auctions, you have two enemies: other bidders and time. Knowing when to bid is a must if you want to have success. Placing a bid when there is a lot of time left on the clock is never a good idea. You have to remember that the key to winning a penny auction is being the last one standing when the clock runs out and that each bid increases the amount of time left. It would be a good practice to wait until the last few minutes of the auction before you begin to bid.

The final tip for successful auctioning is to keep your emotions under control.Auctions have a lot of similarities to gambling, and just like gambling, your spending can get out of control. If you keep your emotions level, it will keep you from making rash decisions and blowing loads of cash. Keep your mind clear so that you can gage the behavior of the other bidders and outsmart them.

HOW TO AVOID SCAM SITES!

Penny auctions are a great addition to the web whether you want to win an item that otherwise you wouldn’t be able to afford or if you simply enjoy the thrill that comes with bidding in auctions. Unfortunately, scam sites have tarnished the reputation of the legitimate penny auction sites. However, there are ways that you can protect yourself from scamers and enjoy your auctioning without having to worry about losing your money due to dishonesty.

Checking the reputation of the auction site before you start spending your hard earned money is always a good idea. Chances are other people have tried the site before you and some of them have left reviews. The reviews are your way to gage whether a auction site is trustworthy or not. If a site is getting overwhelmingly negative reviews, then that is a clear indication that you should steer your business elsewhere.

Another tool you can use to protect yourself is checking the Alexia ranks of the auction sites. Alexia rank will give a solid view of how much traffic the auction is getting. If you see a huge difference in the amount of traffic Alexia is projecting and the amount of active bidders on the site, then warning signals should be ringing in your head. Some auction sites have been known to set up robots that automatically bid on projects in order to keep the auction going and inflate the price. That is known as shill bidding. You can sniff out those sites by comparing the traffic the site should be getting to the amount of users using this site.

CONCLUSION!

New legislation may come out later down the road that will officially make penny auctions gambling, but until then, it is a fun, exciting auction that allows one to win the item they’ve always wanted but couldn’t afford.Auctions are also quite lucrative for the site owners because of the pay-per-bid strategy they’ve incorporated. Penny auctions had humble beginnings with farmers who just wanted to get back at the banks who kicked them out of their house. More recently, auctions have enjoyed an explosion in popularity with the rise of the internet.

There are two main formats fora auctions, lowest and highest unique auction, however they both run on the same premise where the last unique bid wins the item. Winning a penny auction will require a certain amount of mental tactic and a bit of luck. However, you can increase your odds of winning by practicing certain techniques such as managing your bids wisely, learning how to work with the time, and keeping a level head and your emotions under control. When you combine those three strategies to your bidding plan, you will find that you win a lot more often.

It is important that you do your due diligence to protect yourself when participating in auctions. Not every auction is run by honest and trustworthy people. There are people out there who just want to take your money. You can protect yourself by ensuring that you only bid on sites that already have a very positive reputation from real users.

Feeling like you’re not getting your money’s worth on advertising and marketing? Then maybe you’re doing it wrong. Take a look at these questions and see for yourself.

5. Are you advertising enough?

Effective advertising does not happen in an instant. It actually requires constant advertising to make sure that your advertisements really sink in. Don’t be afraid to keep repeating on advertising. You may consider Digital Outdoor Advertising since it offers a repetitive means of capturing audience attention. Grab the opportunity and make the most of it.

4. Are your advertisements clear and easy to understand?

Don’t forget what it is you are advertising. If you want your customers to buy your products and services, then make sure you tell them what it is. It’s the simplest things that could cause huge damages to your advertising campaigns.

3. Are you engaging the audience with your ad?

What makes a successful outdoor advertising campaign is how it motivates the consumers to take action. It’s that strong sense of desire an advertisement brings that moves the customer from knowing about a movie to actually watching that movie. You have to make them feel like they really want and need your products or services so that you’re able to reap the benefits of your Outdoor Media Advertising advertisements.

2. Are you aware of your target audience?

Do take time to research on your consumers. In order to effectively convince them that they want your products or services, you have to know what it is your consumers exactly want. Find out what will motivate them to buy what it is you’re offering.

1. Are you advertising at the right place?

What makes an ad really effective is being in the right location at the right time. Knowing your target audience also means that you have to know where they usually are. If for example you’re targeting commuters, then the last place you’d want to advertise is on a highway. Yeah sure, chances are that commuters will pass by. But examine the percentage of commuters that pass by highways than non-commuters. Put yourself in your consumers’ shoes and think outside the billboard box. The best place for you to advertise would probably at transit systems. Not to worry, there are a lot of Media Owners out there that offers these kinds of services. Like SMRT Media who offers one of the largest outdoor advertising solutions and network in Singapore. Make sure your target audience actually sees your Outdoor advertisements and Outdoor Digital Media advertisement. Otherwise you’re just wasting money selling make-up in front of an all-boys school.

If you answered mostly “no” to these question then you definitely need to rethink your advertising campaign. Advertising and marketing is an investment and in order to get all the benefits, it’s important to be strategic about it. Plan ahead. Taking time to plan how you advertise will increase the chances of your advertising success.

Home based businesses provide assistance for you to seek an alternate route to earn a residual income from the comfort of your home. With the inception and expansion of the internet, it has become very easy to transact business from your home using a PC connected to the internet. I am very sure that at some point in your life you must have done a look up on Google to get the best home based business idea available. While it is a very good move to find out ways to make money online it is also important for you to do your due diligence before investing your time and money in any home based business. Thousands of people have fallen prey to unsuspecting scammers on the internet in a bid to make money online; it’s very easy to build a website these days so anyone can design a catchy website just to get your interest and to rip you off your money.Before you supply your credit card numbers to any website, it is pertinent to find out in details what the supposed home based business is all about. There are certain ways you can get information about any make money online from home business. I will be discussing them below:1. Do a Google Lookup: Google can give you just about any piece of information you need just at the click of a button. If for example you find business xyz that claims to be a legitimate home based business, you can do a Google lookup by typing “xyz scam,” Google will automatically bring out any scam report about this online home business. Anyone who has been a victim of the scam would definitely want to share his bad experience with the business.2. Visit Home Based Business Forums: Home based business forums provide a great way for you to interact with forum members to find out the best ways to make money online. You can get all the information you need by connecting with knowledgeable and well experience people in the field of information marketing, website flipping, affiliate marketing etc. depending on the type of forum. You will be amazed at the responses you get when you type in a question.3. Send A Mail To Their Support: It is also useful to send an email to the support of the home based business you intend investing your money and your time into; genuine businesses always take less time to respond depends on the volume of mails they are receiving and most of them have a chat support that can answer your questions almost immediately. Others organize online conferences where you can ask questions and get instant clarifications.4. Start Little: Don’t be tempted to throw in all your cash at any online business; you should have a reserve just in case. Start little and as time goes on you can add more funds to it. I am just suggesting this to you; speaking from experience.I have been burnt and ripped off a couple of times while trying to make money on the internet, I have done several work at home businesses that did not pay off at the end; turned out to be a waste of my time and resource. One honest advice I can give you about a work from home business is to find a legitimate home based business, work with it and stick to it. At the moment, I am promoting one business and making a good chunk of money out of it. It is a very simple and realistic program run by a renowned internet business expert Frederick Mann. I hope to make more money from this business; it’s a definitely sustainable business and anyone who wants to make money online should leverage on it; it’s a simple and understandable process with life supports in the form of online conference calls, you can ask the experts questions and get immediate response.I wish you the best.