Information and Advice for Sellers
General advice for advertising
Advertising prices and promotion levels
Modifying or deleting your advertisement
Registering with Musicale
Before you can begin advertising on the Musicale site you will need to complete a simple registration form. There are a few fields that are mandatory - username (which can be anything you choose, provided it's not already taken), your first and last names, and your email address. Please note that your username, first name and last name will always remain confidential and can only be seen by the administrator. You can choose to also enter a name into the 'seller' field if you prefer and this will be visible on your advertisement - however, to remain anonymous just leave this field as the default value of 'Private sale'.
Once you have completed the registration process you will be sent a temporary password. You should log in and change this as soon as possible. When you have logged in, you will notice an extra, personal menu that lets you access your profile, see your ads, check your subscriptions and view your purchase history.
If you experience any problems at all with the registration process please contact us immediately.
General advice for advertising
When you have completed the registration process you will be able to place your ad... click on the 'Submit ad' option on the menu and you will initially be asked to select the appropriate category from a drop-down box.
Once you have made this choice you will be presented with the main entry window where you will next have to select the required 'Promotion level' for your ad - this will depend on the amount of information you would like to include. Note that the free ad option (with no images) will generate significantly less views than the higher levels, which can include multiple pictures, associated documentation, web links and sound files. For the maximum amount of publicity you should consider choosing a Gold level ad, which will also appear regularly as a featured item at the top of the page listing. Any sellers who have purchased an advertising package with us should select Business level for all of their advertisements.
For more details about the advertising prices and promotion levels see below. If you would like to discuss our business advertising packages please contact us.
Once you have worked out which Promotion level suits your requirements, you can go ahead and complete the ad submission form... making sure that you only fill in the fields corresponding to that level of advertising. PLEASE NOTE: While it is possible to enter data into every field on the page, the information that is ultimately displayed in your ad will be dependant on the Promotion level that you have chosen and purchased.
For more help with completing your ad, please refer to the detailed advice page. You might also like to look at our instructions on measuring your instrument or bow, while our glossary page will explain some of the common terminology used. We advise you to take some time and care over the information that you present about your item as this will maximise your chances of a response and an eventual sale.
Once you are happy with the ad, click on the Ok button and wait (if there are multiple pictures or a sound file it may take a few minutes to upload all of the data). If you have selected a paid ad you will be immediately directed to a payment window where you can elect to pay using a credit card or through PayPal (the credit card transaction is handled securely by PayPal - you don't need a Paypal account).
Alternatively you can use the contact us option to notify us and receive details of other payment methods (cheque or direct bank transfer). Your ad will be displayed immediately and it will also be checked by the administrator (normally within 24 hours). Please note that the administrator may make some small editorial changes, but if any significant modifications are required then these will be discussed with you. Any parts of the ad that do not conform to the promotion level criteria will be deleted.
All ads run for 3 months, and you will be notified by email 14 days before your ad is due to expire.
Advertising prices and promotion levels
Features/Level |
Free |
Bronze |
Silver |
Gold |
Price |
Nil |
A$20 |
A$40 |
A$60 |
Duration of advertisement |
3 months |
3 months |
3 months |
3 months |
Title of item |
 |
|
|
|
Basic descriptive information |
|
|
|
|
Photographs |
 |
Two |
Four |
Eight |
Extra descriptive information |
|
|
|
|
Web links |
|
|
One |
Two |
Media files |
|
|
One |
Two |
Featured ad |
|
|
|
|
Instrument photography
Photographs of your instrument or bow are essential to give people some idea of the quality, condition and appearance of the item. You can have up to eight photographs with each advertisement, and it is strongly recommended that you include at least two. It is possible to take quite adequate photographs yourself with a digital camera as long as you follow some simple guidelines. PLEASE NOTE: All images displayed on this site will be resized to a maximum width of 800 pixels. It is a good idea to reduce the width of the images yourself before uploading them with your ad.
Most importantly, all photographs should be taken square on - please avoid the urge to take artistic shots from an angle. These might impress the buyer with your photographic skills, but they provide very little information about the instrument or bow. Fortunately stringed instruments provide an easy way of lining things up: the front and back corners. For example, if you are taking a photo of the front of an instrument just make sure you can see roughly equal amounts of the back corners peeping out from behind.
In the past, instrument photos were typically taken as a full length shot (ie including the neck). While this can be a useful view, it is a better idea to maximise your digital image resolution by only photographing the body. The scrolls can be taken separately and should show the front and side view. With bows, the most useful images are a close-up of the head and the frog.
Turn off the flash on your camera and use direct lighting. Desk lamps are fine and can be moved around to make sure that you have minimised the reflections. You will need to use a tripod or some other means of supporting the camera, and you will also need to securely support the item. A violin or viola can be rested vertically on a wide mouth glass or jar, BUT please also include a safety measure by attaching a loop of string around the scroll and fixing it to some solid point above, just in case the instrument topples. For larger instruments and bows you will need to be inventive in your approach. To minimise camera shake a remote shutter release is useful, but you can get the same effect by using the shutter timer delay that almost every digital camera includes as a standard feature.
Finally, it is a good idea to use a pale, monochrome background - ideally white or light gray.
If you would like some more detailed advice there is an excellent page on the Tarisio web site. And if you have a valuable instrument or bow it might be worth commissioning a professional photographer to take the images, such as www.violinphotos.com.au.
Modifying or deleting your advertisement
Once your ad has been approved you can modify or delete it at any time. You are able to access your ads through the 'My ads' option in your personal menu which will display a listing of all of the ads that you currently have active. Next to each ad there is an option to allow you to modify or delete it.
If you no longer wish to list the item for sale, you can select the delete option and remove the ad completely. Please remember to delete the ad when the item is sold to avoid receiving ongoing enquiries from prospective buyers.
