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Auction Listings Are Vital to the Success of Fundraising Auctions

Fundraising Auction Tip: You should always provide potential bidders with a printed Auction Listing of both your Live and Silent Auction items at any Fundraising Auction. A printed Auction Listing is vital for several reasons:

An Auction Listing informs bidders of the order of sale, and what is coming up next. If you keep your bidders guessing, they will simply not bid.

If bidders are not 100% certain of what they are bidding on, they will not bid. A printed Auction Listing should answer any and all questions about what is being sold in order to encourage bidders to bid as much as possible.

Bidders often need time to plan their bidding strategies, especially on multiple and/or larger value items. A printed Auction Listing helps them to do that.

Couples often need time to consult with each other about what they are willing to spend on something. A printed Auction Listing helps them to do that.

Potential bidders need to know the specifics, the benefits, and the restrictions on any item they are going to bid on, especially on travel and/or other higher value items. A printed Auction Listing should answer all of their questions, in writing.

After bidders see that they have lost an item to another bidder, a printed Auction Listing makes it easier for them to re-strategize on what else they can bid on.
Printed Auction Listings generally come in 3 forms:

Printed in the Event Program or Auction Catalog.

Printed on loose sheets of paper and hand-inserted into the Event Program or Auction Catalog.

Printed on loose sheets of paper and hand-delivered to all attendees, or left on each dinner table in the room.
Auction Listings cost practically nothing to produce and they can make the difference between the success and failure of a Live and Silent Auction. You should never conduct a Fundraising Auction without one.

A Case Study

Let me share a real-life experience with you. Once I was hired to conduct a Fundraising Auction for a nationally renowned organization. The event was held in a major hotel, in one of the country’s largest cities, with several hundred “black tie” participants attending. It was an extremely professional event, with the music, singing, lighting, speeches, and awards all perfectly timed and choreographed. Everything was done to perfection… exception the Fundraising Auction.

Although I had signed an agreement to serve as their Auctioneer nearly one year in advance of the event, no one bothered to contact me for any advice or help. Approximately one week prior to the Auction date, I contacted the group to see if they had replaced me with another Auctioneer. But they said that I was still their man.

Upon arriving at the event I asked for a copy of the Auction Listing. I was told that there were none. I’m not sure whether they felt that the Auction Listing wasn’t necessary, or whether someone forgot to have them printed. This was never made clear. When I asked what I was to use at the podium, I was told to copy the list of Live Auction items from a committee member’s computer. It took me about 30 minutes to copy three pages of hand-written notes in order to prepare for my role as their Auctioneer.

I knew that they had created a PowerPoint program showing the various Live Auction items. When I asked whether the PowerPoint slide order corresponded to the order of sale I had copied from the committee member’s computer, I was met with a blank stare. The committee member left to check the slide order, and returned to let me know that the slide order did not correspond my notes, and he provided me with the correct slide order… hand-written on a paper napkin. This forced me to re-arrange my three pages of hand-written notes before taking the podium.

There was a Live Auction Table with descriptions of the Live Auction items that were to be sold, but the table was not clearly marked, and it received significantly less attention than the Silent Auction Tables, which were clearly identified. Since the Live Auction Table was located adjacent to the “Raffle Table”, it appeared that most people thought it was part of the raffle and therefore paid very little attention to it.

According to the event program (which did not include an Auction Listing), I knew approximately when I was to begin the Live Auction. At the designated time the Master of Ceremonies announced the start of the Live Auction to the several hundred people in attendance, and introduced me as Auctioneer. As I approached the podium I realized that photographs of award winners were still being taken… directly in front of the podium where I was to stand… which required me to stand aside for several minutes until the photographers were done. Can we say “awkward moment”?

As the photographers cleared, I approached the podium and began my Live Auction introduction. Approximately one minute into my introduction, the “Raffle Committee” approached the podium and stopped my Live Auction Introduction in order to pull the 8 or 9 Raffle Winners. These drawings lasted about 5 minutes. Upon it’s conclusion I was allowed to resume the start of the Live Auction.

When standing at the podium two intense and extremely bright spotlights were pointed directly at the podium. The lights were so bright that I literally could not see the center 1/3 of the room. I could see the tables on the right, and on the left, but was totally blinded when looking straight ahead. It took perhaps five minutes before the spotlights were turned off.

While at the podium and describing Lot #1, I had to ask someone to start the Lot #1 PowerPoint Slide… because apparently no one was assigned that job.

So with only the Auctioneer’s verbal description, and a PowerPoint slide, it appeared that few people in the room had any idea about what we were selling… or when we were selling it… until it was announced by the Auctioneer. As a result, bidding was extremely light and the final results fell several thousands of dollars short of where they should have been
The learning experience is this:

The Live Auction is where you place your better items, and where the real money should be made at any Fundraising Auction. Let bidders know as far in advance as possible what you will be selling, and the order of sale, so they can get excited about the Auction, and plan their bidding strategy accordingly.

Auction Listings are absolutely vital to the success of both Live & Silent Auctions. In my opinion, revenues at this Auction fell thousands of dollars short of where they should have been, because no Auction Listing was provided to the guests.

If bidders are not perfectly clear on what is being sold, including both the item’s specifics, benefits, and restrictions, they will not bid.

When you have a committee of volunteers, especially volunteers having full time jobs and/or very busy schedules, the services of a professional Fundraising Auctioneer can help to keep the committee on track.

And once you retain the services of a professional Fundraising Auctioneer… use the services that you are paying for.

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You Can Find the Best Home-Based Business and Make Real Money Online If You Understand This

To find the best home-based business for YOU, a key to making real money online one must first start with a little research. While it may look like all home-based businesses are equal in their income potential, there are some critical components that an online business must possess to give you the best chance at success.It All Starts With YouTo find the best home-based business for you, consider your skills and interests. Are the products or services that you would be selling something that you can promote with enthusiasm? Also consider your marketing and web skills. If you feel your skills in these areas are inferior, then you should definitely make training and support a priority.A Solid Business PlanThere are two strategies for being successful in a home-based business; you can either go it alone by creating your own business or you can join an established business like a network marketing program and simply duplicate the strategies that others have parlayed into success. To go solo, one should already have a product or service to market AND the skills to build an internet business from the ground up. This approach can take a long time to get into profit, since critical pieces of a successful business must be established.If you wish to build your business more quickly, then joining an already established network marketing company may be more towards your liking. Do your research here to find a business whose products reflect your interests and already has a successful business plan in place. If you go this route, be sure the company you choose has superior training and support and offers business tools you’ll need to be successful.Resources Versus OutsourcingEven the most experienced solo internet marketer occasionally needs the help of experts who can help complete projects for which he either lack the skills or time to do himself. A simple Google search on “internet marketing outsourcers” will reveal a host of places to find these talented individuals. Indeed, you can find web designers, article writers, copywriters, or virtually anyone you need to help you grow your business. If you choose to participate in an established network marketing business, these resources (or at least most of them) should already be available to you. In fact, the top home-based businesses have ready-to-use websites, autoresponders, sales pages, and fulfillment programs in place, ready to use. Here, you won’t need to spend time developing the infrastructure of your business, so you can concentrate on results and making real money onlineThe Credibility FactorIt wasn’t long ago when owning an internet business was considered risky. But today, as more and more marketers are showing that you can make real money online, online business ownership has become much more widely accepted. In fact, most brick-and-mortar businesses have an online presence, and many have used the internet to extend their global reach. For this reason, owning a home-based online business has become very attractive to people looking to improve their financial status.To continue the rise in credibility of the online business and network marketing models, we should all choose to offer quality products and services with superior customer service and ethical marketing strategies.It’s taken a few years, but internet marketing has now “come of age.” And with research and planning you, too can find the best home-based business for YOU, and make real money online.

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Top Home Based Businesses – 5 Hidden Methods For Online Success

If you are searching for more ways to make your internet business a success, you have landed on the right article. In this article, we will briefly describe the five methods or tools the top home based businesses use to guarantee profits online. We are living in a day and age when everybody, from your grandmother to the kid next door, is moving toward starting their own home based business. However, there are a few steps that, sadly, most entrepreneurs don’t know, that draw the line between the profitable top home based businesses and the failing home based businesses.

One of the first pointers you need to remember in establishing top home based businesses is that there is nothing wrong with the word “HELP”. The most powerful thing you can do as a business owner is contact consultants that can help you create infrastructure and get your business off the ground. Surprisingly, many of the top home based businesses gained a huge amount of their success by working with internet marketing professionals and experts. Partnering with other professionals is a hidden key to gaining online success.

The next powerful method you must work on to effectively win among the top home based businesses, is in the setup, development and designing of your own personal website. A functioning website is imperative to have in the ultimate success of your home based business. Most of the top home based businesses have their own websites where they can market most of their goods and services. Your website is the key factor to online profitability.

Sadly, many business owners create a website and are still not successful in building their home based businesses. A website, alone, is not enough to guarantee instant online profits. You must learn how to market your website properly. As a result, the third method one must use in gaining results, like many top home based businesses, is to create a comprehensive marketing plan. In order to succeed in any business, you must have a detailed road map of your marketing and promotional efforts.

Included in your marketing plan, should be details on how to stay in contact with customers or visitors to your website. Most of the top home based businesses work at building an opt in email list and corresponding follow up message series as a part of their marketing campaign. Establishing an email marketing campaign is one of the most effective ways to increase conversions and profits in any home based business.

Last but not least, if you are competing with other top home based businesses, it is important to keep in mind that the market can be highly competitive and hard to penetrate. As a result, you have to become very innovative and think of creative ways to “out-promote” your competition. This requires constant learning and reading on internet marketing trends and tips. If you don’t want to do this, you can always hire someone to do it for you. Of course, this is what most of the top home based businesses do anyway.