How-To: Put Pix in Your Auction

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How-To: Put Pix in Your Auction

Chapter 4

Enter the information on the auction listing form.

As we discussed in Chapter 3, using pictures in your auction requires that you already have your pictures at some accessible place on the Web. That chapter covered how to get your pictures on the Web. This chapter will assume that you have posted one or more pictures onto the Web, and that you know the address or url of each image.

On the auction listing form, right after the description is a box that asks for the link to your picture. Depending on the auction site, it may ask for a "picture url" or just say "Add a Picture" An example is shown below.

Notice that they have already filled in "http://" This is to remind you that your picture url must always start with "http://". Enter the picture url here.

It is extremely easy to make a typographical error when entering the url. It must be exact, or your picture will show as a broken link. The easiest way to make sure that you are entering the url exactly is to use copy and paste to paste your url in. Below is an example of a valid url. Notice that there is only one http://. Some auction sites already have "http://" entered in the form to get you started. Don't make the mistake of starting to type at the end of the http:// that they have provided and then entering another one.

Picture URL	(optional)
Shown above is another snapshot of the an listing form with a Picture URL properly entered.

One place to cut and paste from is to display the image in your browser window by entering the url in the address of your browser and pressing enter. This will bring up the image in your browser so you can verify that you have the address right. Copying the address is a two step process. First you copy, then you paste the copied information into the auction listing form.

An example of a picture url highlighted in the address (Location) in Netscape Navigator

To copy, you first highlight the information you want to copy. In the browser address line, just clicking on the address will usually highlight the whole address. If it doesn't, just place your cursor right at the very beginning of the adress, so that the pointer changes to a vertical bar. Now hold down you left mouse button, and while holding it down, drag your mouse across the address until the whole address is highlighted in blue. Lift up your mouse finger. Now click Edit, and then Copy on the menu at the top of your browser. The url will now be in a hidden storage place called the "clipboard". It will stay there as long as you need it.

Now navigate to the auction item listing form. Place your cursor at the beginning (far left) of the blank on the form where they are asking for the link to your picture, and then select Edit, Paste from the menu. The url you "copied" in the previous screen will now be in the Picture url field, and you can be sure there will be no typos.

When you click the "Review" button on the auction listing form, you will see your item preview, including will see a preview of the picture. Note that the picture may take longer to load than the rest of the page. Even if you kept the image size smaller than 30k as recommended, that is still big compared to the rest of the page, so give it a little time if you don't see a picture right away.

If the box where the image should display turns into a broken image icon, that means that either you don't have the image already loaded on the Web, or you entered the address wrong in the listing form.

If the box where the image should display turns into a broken image link icon, that means that the image wasn't found. Either you don't have the image already loaded on the Web, or you entered the address wrong in the auction form.

You can press the "back" button at the top of the browser then make corrections in the picture url field and try again.

That's all there is to it! If you've followed these steps successfully, you now have an auction with a picture, which should help your item sell better, faster, and with less email questions to answer.

Note the auctions with a picture url filled automatically will display with the pictur icon (

) when buyers view the category listing pages so everyone will know they can see a picture.

Sometimes you will want to add a picture to an ongoing auction. You may have made a mistake and ended up with a broken image instead of a picture in the auction. Or you may have taken a close-up shot in response to questions. These are all good reasons to add a picture to an ongoing auction. This is done using the same form used to add to your item's description, using the "text to add to your item's description's box".

The information you enter here is your picture url along with some additional information. Here is the form you need to use:

Note an important difference: Before the regular url there are the characters "<img src=" and at the end of the picture url, there is a ">" (greater than) sign. These beginning and ending tags are the standard way to tell web browsers to interpret a url as an image or picture. When you enter a picture url on the regular new auction form, the auction server computer automatically adds these tags to the picture url. When you add to an items description, you need to do this yourself. Below is a snapshot of a filled in example.

You'll have a chance to preview your change and check to make sure the picture displays ok, just as you do when starting a new auction.

Well, that's all there is to it. We hope we've given you lots of information to put pictures in your auctions, whether you are just starting to figure out what equipment you need, or you already have those pictures on your computer and need to get them on the Web.

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