In my never ending quest to be on the pure cutting edge when it comes to selling websites on Flippa, I have found out literally “as it happened” that Flippa has updated their auction interface. We have become quite used to how Flippa does things over time, and the (absolutely amazing) team behind this market place have always put their first foot forward when it comes to protecting their members and buyers, but is this new interface really going to do us all justice when it comes to our auctions? Find out for yourself, and continue reading below…
The one thing that always struck me as odd on the Flippa auction interface (the old one) is that there is no emphasis placed on the real data. By that, I mean the factual data that Flippa pulls from multiple services when an auction is listed. Don’t get me wrong, this is great that they even do this in the first place, however, when this data is mixed up with the “claimed” data, things get a little messy.
In webmaster terms, information that is on page “above the fold is always going to receive the most attention, and in updating the new auction interface, they have placed all factual information above the fold, even before the viewer reads the auction description. Is this going to reduce the number of dodgy sellers getting away with selling crap on Flippa? Who knows, however, this is a positive move for the marketplace, and it most definitely has my thumbs up.
The other notable thing is the fact that the auction attachments are no longer at the bottom of the page, they are now in the sidebar right beside the description. This is something that I think works great, as most people who list a good auction will always include screenshots of good and important information, such as site stats, earnings, and so on. This again puts the information in the right spot where potential buyers will have more of a chance at seeing it.
Last (and certainly not least) is the fact that there is no emphasis on claimed data. It is simply in the sidebar for people to find it. Sure, it can be found very easily, however, I dont believe that there should be a real emphasis on this kind of data. One, it is claimed data only. Second, the real stats are now above the fold. The only thing that I could think would work better is if there were any way that Flippa could confirm stats from Google Analytics and also place that above the fold, but that is just me being picky.
So, are there any improvements that I could suggest? Not really, and if there were, I would just be being picky, although I would love to see the option to embed a YouTube video into an auction, I think that would end up being clutter, but never the less, a great idea. Endless attempts to try and embed the HTML code for a video from YouTube have always been met with disappointment, and there really is no strain on their server by doing that, but then again, I don’t run Flippa, so I don’t know why they haven’t placed this option on site for their auctions. Might chase that one up and report back.
So for the moment, I would love to hear your responses to the new interface, I am thrilled with it to be honest, you can either @reply me on Twitter, or even contact me and let me know your thoughts.
