Tips and Tricks

Before we go into the Outright Bargains Extra features, let's quickly go over the Ad basics.

Parts of the Outright Bargains Ad:

• Classified ID - This number is assigned to every AD posted to OutrightBargains.com, besides being a mere ID number it allows you to do cool things with your AD. (this will be taken up in the next section)
• Ad Views - See how many times the Ad have been visited on our site (either by click through or browsing).
• Seller - Business name of the seller, also a link to send a message to the seller via our site.
• Location - City, Province/State, Country; This is very important because our site is open to ALL of North America (actually the whole world has access), and it is important that this information is completely filled in. If not your customers in your area may never find you or your product/service amongst all the other global products/services.
  Note: Use full proper name for your city/town, otherwise your item may get excluded from banner rotation or when someone does a search by city. ex: use "Thunder Bay" not "T. Bay".
• Price - The price or brief terms of sale. Ex: '$ 3 for 2' or '$ 9.99/h CAD' (use the currency option only if you have a numbered price ex: '9.99').
• Description - The text content of your ad. This is where you put the details of your product or service. The secret to a good ad post is not posting hype, rather posting good information. Be sure to use words in the description that you think your customers are going to use in their search. You can also include alternate contact information such as a phone number if you wish. If not customers will have to contact you via our website messaging system.

Ad features/tools:

• tell a friend - Sends a link of the ad to somebody via email with the sender's message.
• send message to seller - A link for sending a message to the seller via our site.
• add to favorites - A registered user can keep ads in their 'favorites' file.
• seller's other ads - A great tool for buyers to discover your other products/services.

At the top of your ad you are going to see a ‘Classified ID’ – write that number down, as it’s your key to promoting your product/service.

Want people to visit your Bargain spot? Of course you do! Here’s how to do it:

Just give this out – OutrightBargains.com/Item(your Classified ID number)

Ex: OutrightBargains.com/Item140
(Works with/without the www. and with/without capital lettering)

That’s it! Put it on a card, newspaper ad, a website, email, wherever people can read it.

Because the 'Item#' system is people friendly, it's also search engine friendly! When a search bot visits our site, your ad will get indexed quicker and easier than a site that only uses somefile?x=1&y=2&z=3&a=9&b=8&c=7.

Most on-line classifieds won't let you use Bold, Italics, or Underline and if they do, they probably charge you extra for it. At Outright Bargains we allow simple HTML formatting of your Bargain Ad at no extra cost.

What's HTML?

HTML is Hyper Text Markup Language, and it uses < > tags to tell a web browser how to display the text on the screen.

Simple formatting tags allowed here are: <p>Paragraph</p>, <b>Bold</b>, <i>Italics</i>, <u>Underline</u>, <hr />(horizontal rule/line), <br />(line break),
<font color=red>Red text</font>, <h1>Largest header text</h1>, <h6>Smallest header text</h6>, <Center>Centered text</Center>

There are some more advanced tags available like STYLE, U, UL, LI, OL, PRE, TEXTAREA, OPTION, MAP, MENU, AREA, BLOCKQUOTE, IMG, however being 'advanced' HTML, please read up on how to use before you use them here.

NOTE TO REMEMBER: These tags are for making your ad more readable (easier on the eyes) not to make it jump out as the ad body already has the reader's attention. Also HTML anchor <a href="some site URL">Some site link text</a> is available on the OutrightBargains.com ads, however the anchor tag is filtered out on the banners and OutrightClassifieds.com ads entirely.

The attached Ad image serves two purposes, Get the attention of the browsing buyer and represent the product or service the best way possible.

Outright Bargains allows one image (picture) to be attached to your ad. The image you want is a clean crisp Jpeg photo/image of only your product in front of a blank (neutral) background. You want your product image to take up as much of the photo space as possible without the product image touching the edge of the photo. This is so that when Outright Bargains shrinks the image into a thumbnail and icon the product is still recognizable.

If you don't have a product image (maybe because you are advertising a service) then you should use an image of your company logo. Normally this is best done with a Gif formatted image, however for our site Jpeg is still recommended. If you are going to use the GIF format just like the photo recommendations you want the image to take up as much of the photo space as possible without the image touching the edge of the photo. If your logo is unsuitable as a thumbnail or icon (because it has small print or is complex) or you don't have a logo available, then use a place holder image. Place holder image can be a simple rendering of a geometric shape such as a cube, star, ball, or something else eye catching yet simple and pleasant to look at. When using a place holder image, do not use a photo or an image of an actual item/object as it may be misleading).

Note: Some GIF formats (ex: transparent background or animated) will not translate into thumbnails or icons on the site, however will display in the banners and RSS feed. If you want the image to work as thumbnails or icons on our site, convert the image into a Jpeg format. An image is required for the ad to go into RSS, listings and banner rotation.

A little about photo/images online

Jpeg is a format that is commonly used for photos on-line. With a palette of around 16 million colors this is great for realistic 'photos' of your product. Having this size of a color palette allows for lower resolution images 'fooling' the eyes with color shades giving the illusion of detail and depth. Because of this and the fact that display screens don't have the resolution of print material, it is recommended to use no more than 96DPI (dots per inch) and no larger than 5x7 inches (standard photograph size) or 480px high X 672px wide.

Gif is a special format it allows transparent background and image animation however GIF's are limited to a palette of 256 colors. This format is great for use in the 'Body' of your ad (icons, bullets, small images). The transparent background feature is great for hiding the edge of your image area making the image seem one with the page. The image animation would be great for a 'small' slide show, demonstrate moving parts, assembly/use of your product, 3D rotation or alternate views of your product. Beware of file size when using GIF images! Try to keep it under 100 kilobytes (under 50KB would be even better), people may not want to wait or view the image if it is too long to load. GIF format using the above mentioned features will not translate into thumbnails or icons within our site, so it is not recommended to use these features of Gif format for the attached ad image.

PNG (portable network graphic) is a new format that allows the color palette of a Jpeg and the transparent background feature of a GIF. PNG is allowed here, however the transparent background feature may not be supported by all browsers and may not translate into thumbnails or icons within our site. Beware of file size when using PNG images! Try to keep it under 100 kilobytes (under 50KB would be even better), people may not want to wait or view the image if it is too long to load.

Here's a trick: In the 'Adding style to your ad' there is a tag that allows you to add images to the body of your ad. Be careful however, Outright Bargains does not thumbnail or control these images. Keep your ad body images small and use sparingly remember your ad body is to inform as well as promote your product/service. 

When placing ads in Outright Bargains, you will notice a new little 'PayPal Button ID' field at the bottom of the page. If you have a PayPal account and create a 'Buy Now' button for the product or service you are selling, you can enter the button ID in that field and Outright Bargains site will place the 'Buy Now' button in your ad.

It is likely you only have a certain number of items you are selling, if someone has bought the last item, be sure to edit the ad as SOLD OUT as soon as possible and remove the button ID from the Button ID field. If you have over sold the items (ex: you had two however three purchases been made) be sure to refund the last buyer via the PayPal refund system.

PayPal is an on-line payment processor that is set-up to be an affordable yet safe and secure way to perform transactions on-line for both the buyer and seller. This is a great tool for making that sale while you have them right there at your ad.

If you are not interested in using this feature, that's fine, just leave the button ID field blank and the button will not appear in your ad.

Note: OutrightBargains.com provides business classified advertising via the internet and is NOT involved or have anything to do with any transactions between the buyer and the seller. OutrightBargains.com is NOT an affiliate of PayPal nor receive any compensation for it's use on our site, this feature is offered only as an enhancement of our service.

Everyone knows that posting in a classifieds means nothing if nobody is going to see it.

At OutrightBargains.com we have the solution! As soon as you post your classified ad, your classifieds are available to be inserted in an HTML listing, banner and part of various RSS feeds. Now your classified ad can be displayed anywhere with no extra service charges and/or subscription fees!

Visit Publishing the Classifieds : Ad Networking - How it works to find out how to get more exposure for your ad.