Finally the internet connection problems we were experiencing have been resolved. However we will be moving to new servers in the near future.

Auctalot Online Auctions has now been live for 8 months and has seen modest growth in that time. Given the strong competition in the online auction field wen are optimistic for the future and believe Auctalot is well positioned for slow steady growth throughout 2010. Along with several new Auctalot country websites planned for release this year (Auctalot.in, Auctalot.cn, Auctalot.de and Auctalot.co.uk) we are planning a whole array of changes to the websites.

Here are some of the changes planned.

• Free seller accounts: In a bid to get more sellers using the websites we will be removing the $5 seller registration fee.
• Upgraded ‘My Account’ pages.
• Complete overhaul of main pages and item pages.
• Adding the ability to import bulk listings, from eBay and in csv file format.
• Revised affiliate program, paying a set commission for all user signups not just sellers.
• New Help pages

Auctalot is proud to announce the up coming launch of:

Auctalot.in

and

Auctalot.cn

We are seeing more and more buyers from India and China so we decided these would be the next two websites to launch.

In the pipeline are also, Auctalot.co.uk and Auctalot.de websites which we aim to launch by the end of 2010. Along with Auctalot.mobi which will be a handheld device version of Auctalot, which will enable you to make bids or purchases on the move.

We are still experiencing connection problems. The problem has been escalated and we hope should be fixed within 24-48 hours. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

For the past few days we have had problems with our servers internet connection. This was due to a fault beyond our control. The service has now been fully restored and we apologize for any inconvenience caused over the last couple of days.

Well, the new listing page is finally up and running on auctalot.com, auctalot.com.au and auctalot.co.nz and boy is it easier to use than the old version.

Some of the changes applied to the new listing page:

Single page format – All relevant listing sections can now be found on the one page which saves you the time of switching between pages to select categories and calculate shipping prices etc.

New category select section – As well as the regular category selection, you can now also select a category by searching all categories or from your recently used categories.

Improved template system – The on the fly template system is now more versatile and you can create templates from a listing at any point in the listing process. Also a few bugs in the template system have been fixed, i.e. the ‘Worldwide’ shipping option on Int. Shipping option 1,2 and 3 now saves correctly.

The changes, we believe, have greatly reduced the time required to create new listings.

All suggestions / comments welcome.

Making money from the Auctalot affiliate system is easy!

How it works

By placing a link on your website to Auctalot you can earn $2.50 when a user signs up to Auctalot as a seller.

How to get started

The first step is to register for a free Auctalot account click here to register now.

Once you have signed up you will need to follow the instructions and verify your email address. Once you have verified your email address login to your new Auctalot account and navigate to ‘My Account > Affiliate Account’ (it is the last link in the ‘Options’ section).

Enter your preferred payment account email address, at this stage we only offer commission payment by Paypal or Paymate, then click ‘Create Affiliate Account’ and your affiliate account is ready to go.

How to create a link to start earning

Creating an affiliate link to Auctalot is easy. All you need to do is append aid=yourusernamehere to the end of the Auctalot url you are using. So say you user account name is auction_one simple add the following link to your website:

http://www.auctalot.com/?aid=auction_one

Now when a visitor clicks through to Auctalot from your site and then within the next 30 days signs up as a seller you will receive $2.50 commission. Simple as that!
If you already sell on Auctalot then using the affiliate system in conjunction with the Auctalot basic API is a great way to drive buyers to your items and earn commissions from visitors that then decide to also start selling on Auctalot. This will be the subject of the next mini how to.

Well – Welcome to the Auctalot Blog.

It has been a busy few months getting Auctalot up and running.

As soon as the website went live true testing began and plenty of bugs have been found and those that have not already been fixed are on the list.

In addition to the original Auctalot system that was released some months ago, we have now added several new features. Worth a mention is the auto Twitter function that allows sellers to update the twitter acount with their new listings from Auctalot automatically. This has proven to be a great success for sellers who are already embracing this new feature. One of the great features of integrating Twitter with an Auctalot account is that it brings quite a good viewing audience to the listings that have been Twittered almost immediately.

At the moment we are focusing on fixing any remaining bugs that have been reported and are happy to say the system is working pretty well now! We are also working on a basic dispute resolution system (No. Not eBay style) this is basically a message portal for members to discuss any problems that may have arisen with a transaction and at the same time provide sellers with a function to receive refunds for all fees associated with a listing that was not paid for or was refunded.

In the coming months we are planning several new additions to the website. Most notably is an extended version of the basic browse / search API we already have in place. Our goal is to provide developers with the ability to create complete auction sites running on the new Auctalot API. Also planned is a redesign of many of the sites membership pages, especially the listing page itself. The listing page that is in place now was one of the first parts of the site written when Auctalot was created and is definately in need of an update, it is high on the list.

Although Google is working very well with the site and roughly 85% of most visitors come from organic search results we believe there is much room for improvement in getting new listings into Googles index faster and are considering ways currently to achieve this.

A few days ago we updated www.auctalot.com with a redesigned main listings browse page, you can compare www.auctalot.com and www.auctalot.com.au to see the differences (although by the time you read this they may have been both updated to the new design). Once we are happy with the system and ease of use for both sellers and buyers we will clean up the design of many of the current Auctalot pages, as mentioned above, especially in the members area.

Anyway, to all those that have already joined Auctalot Online Auctions we would love to hear your views, opinions and experiences when using the site. We are hear to make a great online market place so need all the input we can get from you the sellers!