Auction Info

Auction Info

Contents


Part 1. Setting Up The Auction
          a- Rules
          b- Benefactors
          c- Dates (And Opportune Run Times)
          d- Gift Point Storage
          e- Donations


Part 2. Running The Auction
          a- Accepting Bids
          b- Updating Bids
          c- General Info


Part 3. Closing The Auction
          a- Collecting Winnings
          b- Giving To Benefactors
          c- Closing It Down (Or Re-Running)


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Part 1. Setting Up The Auction

Rules

Setting up the rules for an auction are an important part that needs to be established at the start. There are two main things that the rules should state: How much each bid should increase by and Who can bid.

A common number for increasing a bid is 1,000 Gift Points. Any number could be used for the increase amount but going too high could discourage people from bidding. The best range is between 1 and 2,000 Gift Points.

Designating who can bid is an important point. Without showing who can bid, anyone is capable. One thing to be sure to point out that is, if you wish, to allow the owner to bid in the auction as well. Bidding is usually open to everyone.



Benefactors

Benefactors are a key part of every auction. A good way to get people to visit your auction is to state who is getting what portion of the total earnings your auction brings in. Without benefactors, your auction is less likely to have participation.

A good idea for benefactors would be to look around Writing.Com for "charity groups". These are groups that are dedicated to helping the members of Writing.Com in the way that they state within the group. Some common groups used for benefactors are "RAOK Upgrade Brigade Group" , which is the Site's designated upgrade group, and "The WDC Angel Army"  which is run completely by members in the community.

A common thing to do in auctions is to save a few gift points for yourself. This is normally between five (5) and ten (10) percent. These gift points are taken by the auction owner to help with membership, donations to other auctions, etc.

Remember that if people don't know the benefactors, or if they aren't stated clearly, your auction will probably have a hard time getting off the ground!



Dates (And Opportune Run Times)

You want to have your dates for the running of your auction clearly stated. Most auction runners will set up a certain amount of time for a donation period, in which they accept only donations and no bids. At the end of the donation period, donations are no longer accepted. When the donation period ends, the bidding period should begin right away.

Auctions have an average length of one month, which allows about a week for donations and then three weeks for bidding. This is a good enough amount of time to get your auction noticed while also slowly getting more people to get in and see what they like.

Writing.Com time is commonly used for keeping track of specific times for auctions. WDC time is also the Eastern United States time zone. Auctions normally run until the time of 11:59 WDC time on any given closing date. It is that because it allows the auction to end on that day exactly and any bids going after that have gone into the next day of the auction and do not count.

Remember to look at how many other auctions are running before starting your own! You don't want your auction to drown in a sea of others that are running and then end up not raising many funds for your chosen benefactors. Always keep an eye on what else is going on within the community before starting up your own auction.



Gift Point Storage

The most used form of Gift Point storage for an auction is a Group item. This is used because you can send gift points to the group and it will keep a Gift Point Log of all transactions in and out. This is used to help prevent the owner from accidentally using funds for the auction and having to keep a record manually of all gift points coming in and going out for the auction.


A group is also used because it is a good thing to put into the auction forum for receiving Gift Point donations. Sending Gift Points directly to the group allows the points to bypass you so that they are already where they need to be when the auction ends.



Donations

Donations are the key item in an auction. Getting donations is important because without them you will have nothing to auction. Donations are usually items such as reviews, Merit Badges, an item or two from the Writing.Com Shop, and even Gift Points.

Item donations are given by individual members or specific groups within Writing.Com. These are things like the reviews or Merit Badges. A forum is the standard item used to create an auction because the donor can just create a new post with their donation in it. Many donors will look at the benefactors before choosing whether to donate or not.

Gift Point donations are given by members or groups. These can be any amount, since any donation to an auction is helpful. Many auctions will offer a Merit Badge as a reward for donating a certain amount of Gift Points.

Donations are the main point on which an auction will run. Without donations, there is no way an auction can work well.


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Part 2. Running The Auction

Accepting Bids

When accepting bids, you will want to post a message in your forum saying that bidding is now open. If you don't do this, it is unlikely to receive bids and then it becomes difficult to raise Gift Points for your chosen benefactors.

Bids are usually accepted from any member of Writing.Com. Make sure you clarify that anyone can bid (as stated above).



Updating Bids

Bids should be updated in a timely fashion. If they are not updated at least daily, bidders could get confused and then you could have bids mixed up in the forum posts. Always keep your auction up to date and check it whenever you are online to be sure it is correct.



General Info

Auctions run at their own pace. Go with the flow of how people visit but don't forget to advertise for it if you want more visitors. Here are a few ways to get the word out on your activity to get more people participating:

Plug It
          Put your item in places people will look. ( i.e., Your Signature Block, "Activities @ Writing.Com"  )

Bid Click
          Use the BidClick system to advertise your item. Information on BidClick is here: "The Writing.Com BidClick System" 

Remember, the more people see your auction, the more they will visit it and bid to raise Gift Points for your benefactors.

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Part 3. Closing The Auction

Collecting Winnings

For an auction, collecting the winnings is a huge part because without them you cannot help the groups you designated as benefactors. The best way to go about this is to email each individual winner. Here is a good form to use:


Hello! Thanks for participating in [Insert Auction Link]! You won the following item(s):

[Donation]
[Winning Amount] - (Repeat as necessary for how many the member won.)

Please send [Total Amount] to [Link To Bank Group] and then the donor(s) of your item(s) will be contacted. Thank you once again!


Once each person has been emailed, the Gift Points should come to the group or back to yourself in an email. If they are sent directly to you, send them to the bank so that you can better keep track of them.

Some issues may come up when you are trying to collect gift points.

1) The winning bidder does not want to pay for their items. This would result in going to the next highest bidder on the item(s).

2) Gift Points are not received in a reasonable amount of time (3-5 days) or you have not heard from the winning bidder. This would result in going to the next highest bidder on the item(s).

By sending out emails and establishing contact with your bidders you are showing responsibility in taking care of everything that an auction involves.



Giving To Benefactors

To start giving the total Gift Points raised to your benefactors you will need to know how many go to which group. Make sure this has already been set out between the total amount raised and percentage each group/member will receive.

You will go to the group that you are housing the auction Gift Points in and go to the "Give/Spend Gift Points" link along the top of the item. Once there, you will need the Item ID# of the group(s) or the username of the member(s) receiving the Gift Points. Enter that into the "Group's Item ID" section on the page. Next enter the amount the group is receiving in the Gift Points box. You will want to add a message to this letting the group/member know that it is from your auction. Here is an idea for a message:

This is from [Auction Link]. Thanks for being such a great group/member here on Writing.Com!

Continue doing this until all of the Gift Points are given out to where they are supposed to go.



Closing It Down (Or Re-Running)

Closing down the auction means putting it to rest, at least for a while. When you close the auction down, make sure that it is noted in the forum that it is closed so no one will try to bid at a later date.

A good thing to do when you close the auction is to set it to Private. Doing this, however, is not always the best thing. You don't want to set the auction private until at least two (2) weeks after it closes. This will give all donors ample time to see their donations and complete them when they have time. Setting the auction to private for a while is ideal in case you want to run it again at some time in the future.

Another option would be deleting the forum, group, and anything else going along with it. If you have little space in your portfolio and do not wish to re-run the auction, this would be an apt course of action to take.

Re-Running the auction is another story entirely. You may wish to keep the forum open so that you can edit it and let others see what you are planning to do in the (near) future. Before running an auction again you will want to wait at least two (2) weeks as stated above.

When re-running the auction, you will want to look at the dates. (Refer to Dates (And Opportune Run Times) above.) Doing too many auctions closely together can result in less activity and thus less Gift Points going to your benefactors. It is best to wait a month or two before doing another auction.


Good Luck with your auction!


Remember:
- Always check to make sure your auction includes what it needs.
- Keep an eye on all other auctions running.
- Have fun with it and help some wonderful groups/members of Writing.Com!