Q: What is AuctionLINK?
A: AuctionLINK is a directory service for finding and locating Auction Sales and Auctioneers.
For Buyers, AuctionLINK provides an up-to-date resource on finding upcoming Auction sales, where you can research what is going to be sold at Auction in your area in the coming weeks. You can search by keywords, by tags, by Region or by Auctioneer.
For Auctioneers, AuctionLINK provides a useful channel to reach buyers of all types. Basic directory listings are free, and our Auction sale listing service provides the best value for money targeted advertising available.
Q: Why would I use AuctionLINK? I have spent a lot of money on my own website already, and we list our upcoming sales there.
A: There are many reasons, but we'll give you two good ones!
1. The AuctionLINK site is constantly refined and improved to make sure that it is optimised for visitors to find the site from popular search engines like Google and Yahoo. 90% of the many thousands of visitors per month we get come from search engines, looking for specific items in all categories. This is a constantly evolving field and we have staff working full time on it. AuctionLINK clients get access to this expertise and technology for a fraction of what it would cost for an individual business to concentrate their website marketing.
2. We convert many of those visitors to registered subscribers, who then rely on AuctionLINK emails to tell them what Auction sales are coming up in their area. Buyers tell us they prefer to register with a central site and receive a summary of all sales in one email, rather than having to register with many different Auctioneers to keep track of what is going on. For the Auctioneers, it means you don't have to worry about maintaining an email database and the streams of email 'bounces', complying with privacy and SPAM laws, yet you get the advantage of a targeted database of qualified buyers.
Q: Is AuctionLINK an online-auction service, like eBayTM?
A: No. AuctionLINK is a directory service for people to find Auctioneers who deal in public auctions, tender sales and other forms of traditional auction. In the future, Auctioneers will be able to use AuctionLINK services to advertise online auctions on any platform, but AuctionLINK isn't designed to be a competitor to any existing on-line auction providers.
Q: What are the 'Tags' that are on your site ?
Tags are a way of organising large amounts of data on websites. Each listing in our directory has one or more words associated with it. The system collates the most popular words and shows them in the tag 'clouds' on various pages within the site. The larger the text in the cloud, the more directory listings are associated with that tag. To see what listings are associated with that tag, just click on the tag. It provides a fast, powerful and infinitely flexible way to get around the site, and does away with the restrictive hierarchial frameworks most directories are lumbered with.
Q:What does 'HCalendar' and 'HCard' mean?
A: AuctionLink is built with the latest in web technology and standards. HCard and HCalendar are 'Microformats', which is part of a new initiative by web developers worldwide to make the website better integrate with other software. AuctionLink supports these new web standards, part of what is called the 'semantic web'. Without delving into the technical details, when the next generation of web browsers is released, you will be able to import Auction Sales directly into an organizer, whether that be a popular scheduling program like Outlook, or perhaps your mobile phone or PDA. It's all part of making sure that AuctionLink is at the forefront of technology.
If you are interested, search on 'Microformats' in a popular search engine and you will get a in-depth understanding of what the technology is about.
Q: What does 'BETA' mean?
A: BETA is a term for a version of software that is still in the testing and debugging stage. AuctionLINK is a new service, and is still being constantly updated and improved with new features. We can't promise that the site will be working 100% until this phase is complete. Until then, we ask for patience, and please, if you find a bug or problem, please get in contact with us and let us know so we can fix it.
Q: How did my company end up on your site?
A: We compiled a list of Auctioneers with a painstaking manual process of reviewing advertisements, listings, publicly available industry memberships and general enquiries. The directory of businesses within this site has not been automatically generated, copied or in any way taken without permission.
Q: I don't want to be on your website, how can I get my company removed?
A: That would make us disappointed if you didn't want to be included, but protecting privacy is number 1,2 and 3 at AuctionLINK, so if you really don't want to be listed on this site, please get in contact with us and provide a contact name and phone number for verification. We will remove without delay anyone who doesn't want to be listed, after they have verified that they represent the company in question.
Q: I want to be on your site, and I'm not, how can I get my company added?
A: Sorry about missing you on the list. We'd love to have you on board. A basic listing is free, so all you need to do is use the directory update form to let us know who you are. One of our team will add your company in no time at all.