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.

An online advertising banner is a graphical advertisement embedded on a webpage with the intention of attracting traffic to the website of that particular advertisement. It usually utilizes technologies such as flash, shockwave, or java to make it more interesting and interactive for the viewer, at the same time catch their attention.

You can approach individual websites or online banner network that allows you to display your ads within their group of website. With numerous online advertising sources available, it is very difficult to find what constitutes the perfect banner advertising source marketers would want their online advertising banner to be posted on. Online advertising banners cost real dollars. You’ll want one that would maximize the selling potential of your product. How can we choose the right banner advertising sources? Here are a few tips:

Choose online banner advertising sources that give control. Choose online banner advertising network that allows most hands on approach to the design. An online advertising banner with a pre formatted design or templates, while makes it easy for you, may not give you the results you need. You won’t be able to put your desired design and it could yield unsatisfactory results as well. The best sources are the ones that could give a personal touch to the design and layout of the online advertising banner.

Online banner advertising sources should have reasonable costs. Price is also a factor in choosing the right online banner advertising source. This does not mean that the cheaper the cost of the online advertising banner, the better. This simply means that a higher advertising banner cost should yield satisfactory results and provide a great positive impact on the marketing company. Most of the time, you’ll be charged a CPM or cost-per-thousand-impressions – that is, the amount per thousand times your ad shows up. You’ll want to measure the cost of displaying your ad versus your ROI (return on investment) to ensure that you’re getting your money’s worth.

Transparency in your results. You need to be able to measure your results in such a way that you can use the data to see how successful your banner is (or isn’t.) An online banner advertising network that allows you to track your results is a good place to start. This way you can make any changes to give you the results you want, or you’ll want to totally remove your advertising banner from website that just drain your ad budget.

With lots of products being marketed in the web, it is important that the product you sell is advertised strongly and with an edge against competitors. Choosing an effective online advertising banner source is one essential element that can boost online sales. Combined with other marketing strategies, online banner advertising is an important tool to help you gain online customers.

Why are more Americans starting their own home based businesses? The numbers have been out the roof with the number of people who own and operate their own business from home. What a great time to start one for yourself! With the high unemployment rates and threats of layoffs people are starting to realize that the days of job stability are over. Some people think that home based businesses are rinky dink companies selling cheap products that no one buys. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. Majority of home based business opportunities are with reputable companies with superior products,services, and they allow you to make a great income selling their products or services from home. Some of the top home based business company’s make over $1 Billion dollars in sales every year. Even Bill Clinton fully endorsed the industry because of the opportunity it gives to Americans to live the American dream through financial freedom, and business ownership.

Types Of Home Based Businesses

Product Based Companies

Product based home businesses sell products to consumers directly through a independent distributor which would be you. There are thousands of companies that sell anything from nutritional products, makeup, juices, to Tupperware. The sky is the limit with the amount of different companies that sell different products that you can choose from.

Service Based Companies

Service based home based business opportunities sell a service versus a consumable product. These companies include insurance,electricity and natural gas,internet,mobile phone,legal, and many other services.

Unlike product based opportunities you are offering a service to people instead of selling a product. These services offer substantial savings to consumers and gives you an opportunity to earn a great income just for referring their particular service.

Affiliate Programs

Affiliate programs are similar to ones I listed above but the only difference is how you get paid. With an affiliate program you get paid a % on the sales that you make when you sell their product or service. These do not offer any type of residual income that the other companies pay. Residual income is when you get paid over and over again for selling a product or service once. Affiliate programs pay you one time for every product or service you sell.

Benefits Of Owning A Home Based Business

Low Start Up Costs

Starting a home business is the cheapest and easiest way to start your own business. Most traditional brick front businesses cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to get started and takes years to get into profit. The great thing about a home business is that it’s really affordable from $100 and up to get started and your up in running in minutes not months.

Your The Boss

When you start your own home based business you are the boss. You work when you want and how often you want, but if you treat it like a hobby it will pay like one. So treat your business like a multi million dollar corporation because it can pay you like one.

Unlimited Income

The sky is the limit with the income potential that a home business can generate. There are people making millions of dollars in the industry. Instead of earning a hourly income you are earning a weekly or monthly residual income and once it’s up and running you are getting paid regardless if you work or not. That’s the freedom that a home based business can allow for you.

Tax Benefits

When you start any type of business including a home business you get tax breaks that regular employees do not. Here are a few examples of tax breaks:

Mileage- Write off mileage when any kind of business trip is made.
Utilities-Cell phone, internet
Travel- Let’s say you go on vacation. You can write off the expenses as a business expense if you do it right. Why not have a business meeting in Hawaii?
Meals- Write off your meals when you are doing business and this includes on vacation.
Check out a book called Lower you taxes big time! By Sandy Botken. He use to work for the IRS and gives you loop holes you can use for your home based business to take advantage of the tax breaks.

Overall I hope you get an idea of why it’s a great idea to start your own home based business. Imagine earning thousands of dollars every month and getting to spend more time with your family and doing the things you love. The supplemental income can have a great impact on your bank account and you will have more money to spend or save or do whatever you want to! So I hope you make a decision to start your own business and cash in on the American dream!