2/3/09

Break Out Your Cameras!

In the online marketplace, a good photo is worth a thousand words!
Are your photos helping you to sell your items?

Today's OLA Tuesday Tidbit is all about photos...

You know, I heard on the OLA-Radio show last Thursday,
direct from Dave White, that he RARELY uses a flash when taking
pictures for auctions. Neither do I! Do you know why?
The flash tends to white-out your item!
Instead, try taking photos in a well-lit area, without a flash,
and lighten up your photo once it's on your computer... it really works!

I am a member at http://www.photobucket.com/.
Basic accounts there are free, you can host up to 1GB of multimedia,
(that's videos, slideshows & pics), and you'll have access to fun features,
like resizing, decorating, tweaking, & sharing with family & friends.

The Pro account, (which I opted for), only costs $11.85 for 3 months,
& includes all the above, + 10GB storage, so I will never exceed bandwidth.


The key here, for me, is that when I upload the pic from my computer,
I set photobucket to upload at 320 x 240, which allows me to use those
pics in the chat room, in my auctions, and in emails,
without ever having to worry about resizing them further.

For anyone who is not comfortable at Photobucket, I have
some great tips, directly from my buddy Rowen, at OLA:

Picture file size,(when uploading), must be less than (1) megabyte in size.
Pixel size should be limited 500 pixels x 500 pixels.
(This size always works.)

The member should become acquainted with their camera’s settings
and set the camera to take medium pictures.
This may take a little experimenting to find the optimum setting.

To resize existing photos you can download Irfanview from

http://www.irfanview.com/

Or you can resize your photo online @
http://www.photosize.com/

Personally I prefer the irfanview program,
as it allows me to work offline until I am ready to upload.

Here is the link to the OLA help page for picture tips.
http://www.onlineauction.com/?page=help:main&content=pic_tips

Remember, the larger the picture the slower the page load.
A slow page load may cost you a sale.


Rowen,
Let me just say that I've tried BOTH of his resizing suggestions,
and I found each of them to be fast & simple to use.
IRFANVIEW looks to have a lot of extras, which I will enjoy playing with!
Quick download, too!


And just one more thought about slow page loads...
two of my favorite features from Photobucket are the Slideshow & the Video.
After asking help from other OLA members, we determined that
the Slideshows load pretty fast on dial-up... not as fast as a pic,
but worth adding to the end of an auction.
(Thank you for being my testers, the*tiki*shak and aesthetics48!)


The video, however, loads VERY slowly for dial-up users.
Because of this, I revised any of my auctions that
included a video, to have just a LINK to photobucket.
That way, the buyer can decide for themself, if they want to view a video.
Helpful, if you have an item with movement or sound!

And another thank you, to TheRoyalTreasures,
for introducing me to the slideshow feature!

AND NOW...
FLEAPIRATES PLUNDER TUESDAY TREASURE!

This little gem is a vintage 800 silver pill box!
Circa early 1900's!
Click HERE to get the details of my newest auction!

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