Hi guys, sorry if this has been posted before, I couldn't find a similar post... and I know a lot of DP members make a lot of their money over in the SP Marketplace... Since the upgrade to the "new" and "improved" SitePoint Marketplace, there has been plenty of people unsatisfied, and apparently sales of sites have been hitting the floor drastically. I haven't listed in a few weeks, but I make the majority of my money over there. And seeing the comments posted in their feedback forums and by watching the auctions (especially in Established Sites) I have been noticing a swift decrease in the number of sites getting sold. Also since the upgrade, there have also been a large number of spammers hitting the BIN button and not following through on their commitments (even though now it is apparently a legal binding agreement). Comment Spamming is also another one I have been closely watching. They are apparently doing some things to fix this, but in the mean time.. ?? Just wondering if you guys are struggling with the sale of some of your "bigger" sites over at SP? If they don't fix this do you think the DP Marketplace might come back strong as ever? Where else are you listing?
I have never been there before, so no talk about leaving. Feel that DP is more carefree to be in. A lot of nice people to engage in discussions amid a few nasty ones.
I'll probably go make a test listing to see what you all are talking or I've been reading about "new" sitepoint I used to list there a lot but havent been for long time! but yes if many aren't satisfied it'll likely go downs until it gets stable with left over ones again. I only list on DP now.
I also 100 % agree with you. I do not participate in the forums over on SP, I do however rely on the Marketplace to sell most of my sites 95% of the time. DP is a much better forum environment, and (mostly) everyone I have met here is wonderful.
Do you mean the fact that they have it paid or the fact that they now allow users to see deleted posts, and etc.
not sure what you mean? Basically wondering how everyone is doing with their sales, etc, etc since the new marketplace was introduced (about a week ago I think) ..
No problem You can see a list of what's new for sellers and buyers here: FOR SELLERS: http://marketplace.sitepoint.com/help/whats-new-2-sellers FOR BUYERS: http://marketplace.sitepoint.com/help/whats-new-2-buyers Basically the thing that apparently is putting the buyers off is that there is no real protection yet for the sellers. And sellers are basically losing their $10, $20, and $40 listing fee's and not making their usual sales. I think that is the biggest complaint I have been seeing. Which makes me a little more than leary to list... However I think they nailed it on the hammer when they decided to implement a feedback system in which everyone can start to build reputation over there for either being a legit or non-legitimate seller/buyer. I think that one was a long time coming. (P.S -- So much for them Leaf's huh? lol, I love em, but I love to hate them some times)
Personally I think that their changes are, for the most part, for the better. They still need to work out some wrinkles but it is still one of the only places that I know to sell some higher priced sites/ templates/ etc. I would love to see some sort of escrow system implemented, or maybe you would have to pay 50% of your bid at time of bidding to help fend off some spammers. This of course could detract further from the sales, but the sellers would definitely be more confident... On another note, the economy is kind of slowing down around the world so people just might not have that extra $100 or $5,000 dollars laying around to buy websites. Could be related but might be totally irrelevant.
I was thinking of starting a thread about sp marketplace, just to rant you know I really think that for being one of the biggest webmastering/developer sites in the web and one of the oldest, their marketplace system is pretty buggy. And their support is really, really, and I mean really slow. Some days ago I posted a site for sale and screwed it up and posted the url wrong. I realised inmediately so that should not be big deal, but when I tried to edit the sale listing guess what, the edit page gives me a blank page?!?!?! With a wrong url and the sales going on the thread got pretty messed up, with a lot of confussion from people interested in the site. I sent and email to their support and received and answer in around 10 hours. To much time I think. To make a long story short I asked them that I wanted to relist the auction, they finally cancelled the auction and I got to relist it 2 days later. Way, way to slow. So as I mentioned before, I really do expected more from one of the best developer sites in the web. The main problem with dp is that since there are too many people on the forums, your sales thread get buried really fast, that's why there are always people bumping them. I think that if dp dont make a new independent marketplace system, at least should have more threads showing on each page. I think that will help in the exposure of the sites that are getting sold.
I've had a lot of sucess with their marketplace. The changes are definately a step in the right direction, but they still need some sort of itrader system. Also I expect that once buyers and sellers get used to the changes it will get back to full swing. When a sports team gets changed around a lot it takes a while for them to get used to playing togethor. The results shall come through and I'm sure it will all be well.
The feedback system was one of the biggest upgrades in v2.0. The first week did have some rough patches and we're actively listening to all the feedback in our blogs and forums and working our way through the feature suggestions, bug reports and impovements. The next big step will be identity verification so we can increase transperency and trust.
I don't see anything wrong with it, I did like the posted bid part though which they removed, I think it has more to do with the state of economy then how their site looks