New Front Page and Pricing Changes
Hi, gang! As you’ve no doubt noticed, we spent today deploying and working the kinks out of a redesigned front page for the SitePoint Marketplace. We believe this new look is not only cleaner and easier to read, but it gives greater prominence to featured listings.
Because of this greater prominence, we’ve upped the price for featuring listings on the front page to 40 credits. But don’t despair! We’ve also reduced the price of many other upgrades across the Marketplace. Check out the full price list if you’re curious.
We have plenty of tweaks in mind to make the new front page even better (e.g. Ajax live updating of the three lists when you hit the next/previous page link), but at this point we’d love to hear your ideas too!
Have a great weekend,
—Team SitePoint
May 9th, 2008 at 5:54 pm 1
Hi,
The front page seems great but it would be better if you include categories in the list
May 9th, 2008 at 6:02 pm 2
I on the other hand think that many of the recent changes have made the marketplace worse. I used to check the marketplace every day and now I find myself checking it maybe twice a month.
Stop messing with it.
May 9th, 2008 at 6:52 pm 3
Where are the categories? And I can appreciate featured getting more prominence, but 50%? The only positive I see during this round of changes is the auctions ending soon - the rest seem like a downgrade.
May 9th, 2008 at 7:42 pm 4
I must say that I have been completely disappointed with all of the changes. First, when you made the changes to auctions of domains, I lost a fortune. Then, you stopped accepting auctions. For five days, I kept checking the page and there were no new auctions. The worst part was there was NO NOTICE on the domain auction page that people were then listing in the classifieds. Also, pricing. When it costs $10 to list here in the classifieds versus free at the other domain forums it really starts to add up. You need some sort of pack. Like buy Five at $10 each and get five free or something. Those of us who like to have lots of sales get our pockets picked. I have been really disappointed with about twenty different things. Please, remember that those of us who list a lot here are going to list less. When the pricing goes up, the listings go down. And sellers no longer often new sales but rather one sale for a long time. Plus, I must say that I have NOT purchased a single domain since you messed with and stopped taking auctions. It hurts the other sellers when the buyers leave. Also, I have NOT sold a single domain since you switched the domain categories. I couldn’t find the new listings so I guess others aren’t either. My sales have dropped 100% here in the last three weeks. My sales have risen 20% at the forums that are free because I spend more time there since all of the changes have stopped business here. Please think about those of us who list multiple sales. It has truly become a price that is no longer acceptable for the smaller audience than some of the domainer forums out there. For free, I get a lot more service from some of the other sites. Not to mention, you guys didn’t even care when I got scammed out of $3700 selling two domains here. Cannot give out IP address of the criminal was the response. And gave me 30 credits. Not acceptable. These things keep adding up and the value has gone down. Please, stick with something. Please, make it cost effective to the domainers that own thousands of domains like me who want to have several sales per week. Please protect your members. Please start all of this NOW. I am willing to see this through, but if things don’t start improving, I will be forced to do business elsewhere…
I really hope someone with some decision making powers gets to read all of the complaints. All of the people I have spoken with about these changes have felt the exact same way as I do. We are all spending more time at the other forums. Like I said, I am sticking with you guys, but you need to start making some correct moves, NOW…
May 9th, 2008 at 8:05 pm 5
I have like most of the changes on the site. however the new frontpage for marketplace is now confusing - the phrase “if it is not broke then dont try to fix it” comes to mind. I was checking the marketplace every day as well, but now i have to drill down to find anything
May 9th, 2008 at 8:25 pm 6
Thanks for the honest feedback, Dave! Rest assured, the decision-makers are reading. I have no doubt we will be discussing your feedback next week.
To answer one of your questions directly, we do offer a discount when you buy a larger quantity of Marketplace credits. The offer should be displayed in the checkout process when you are buying credits. I believe the current offer is that you get 20 credits free when you buy 100 credits at once.
May 9th, 2008 at 8:29 pm 7
I see several of you miss being able to see category names on the listings on the front page. This was mainly done to allow space for the listing titles.
Can you describe what was useful about seeing the category names, so we can consider some alternate methods of providing the same information without taking up too much space? For example, if you just want to be able to see which listings are auctions and which aren’t, we could indicate that with a small icon.
May 9th, 2008 at 10:08 pm 8
Hi guys,
I really am dissapointed with the changes Sitepoint have made.
The switch to 99designs for the contests i believe is pointless, and very much less user friendly to your users, we always like to have everything under one roof
1 other thing thats really been bugging me for a while now is that when you are at sitepoint.com/forums then click in a marketplace catagory it doesnt take you to the catagory, it just takes you to /marketplace which means you then have to select the catagory you want again.
I really DON’T think you guys have done well with the re-design of the front page of the marketplace. I believe its much less attractive to the eye and very much confusing to us users. It looks terrible..
I really hope Sitepoint takes our feedback and sorts things out, you have broken our favourite community.
May 9th, 2008 at 11:13 pm 9
I can’t believe you even have to ask what is useful about the categories. I usually scan Premium or Established sites. Now I can’t do that on the front page.
I suggest adding a “More” link at the bottom of the Auctions ending Soon list.
Also is it possible to have a drop menu so you can go to any category from any screen as opposed to going to the home marketplace page to select a category.
May 9th, 2008 at 11:45 pm 10
Ok it is bad…
I think I like the table like structure of the old page. I do like the list below showing auctions about to end.
The domains area still needs work. (idea) I think you should put the domains back to the auction format but place a button that allows add a line for you to input more domains and puts a bid button next to each of them. Then do a scheme were you can pay 5 credits for the first listing and each extra domain under the same listing is just 1 credit.
May 9th, 2008 at 11:54 pm 11
I agree with Joe - I check the premium and established sites many times a day just by scanning the front page, as I can’t do that now I’ll probably just check back once in a while.
The only improvement I’d suggest over the old design is to have an option to exclude expired ads when sorting by date - I like to look at sites which are expiring soon, but have to wade through pages of completed ads after I sort by date just to get to the ones which are still available…
May 10th, 2008 at 12:48 am 12
Seriously, asking about the categories? It is a lot easier to scan with the categories, having to drill down to each one is awful and time consuming (but I won’t address the speed - or lack thereof of the site).
Honestly, for a company that sells web design & development resources, this is a shambles. Why not allow us, the users, to control what we see and how? Why does featured need 50% of the screen? Why can’t we have categories, why can’t we also see lists of auctions ending soon and filter our results in our own profiles instead of clicking the headers of tables to change the sort order? Some of us only glance at turnkey (often for the included domain) and some of us also never look at webhosting deals or want to buy. If you can’t give us the control to manage what we see please just stick with what works. An out of the box phpBB installation has more functionality and usability.
*sigh*
May 10th, 2008 at 1:22 am 13
Could be nice to know about updates before they appear.
May 10th, 2008 at 2:37 am 14
It was better before.. Please, for God’ sake, revert it back to as it was before..
Regards,
Carty..
May 10th, 2008 at 2:46 am 15
I have to agree with the feedback that others have posted already. And, I am AGAIN asking - please ADD a category for content.
Thanks.
Traci
May 10th, 2008 at 2:53 am 16
Please revert it back.
Just the ending auctions list is OK.
PLEASE REVERT IT BACK!
May 10th, 2008 at 4:00 am 17
The featured items now have less value on the marketplace index page. They look no different than the regular listings table - which now has even less information available on it. The fact that you even have to ask why having the category shown on the listing is important lets us know you have no idea what you’re doing. I would love to listen in on these meetings where you brainiacs justify decisions like these…
Here’s an idea:
Leave the Marketplace alone. Implement changes we request and stop trying to improve on something you don’t actually use. If you’re so hell bent on trying to impress someone by changing it around, do it somewhere else and give us the option to use it rather than forcing us to.
May 10th, 2008 at 4:23 am 18
At very first glance I thought it looked good. But without any category indication it is absolutely pointless.
Maybe you could use some nice icons that after a little while regular visitors would get used to?
May 10th, 2008 at 5:19 am 19
I find the new design confusing and not targeted to the things I liked about the market place, which was the ability to quickly scan the listings and having all the information in tables with the categories, views, bids, etc. The Featured doesn’t deserve 50% of the page. That may serve a select bunch of sellers, but I believe most sellers and buyers found the old format easier. I can appreciate that you believe you must change in order to be successful, but I think you’re changing without really understanding what made your site useful to all players. Instead of focusing on design, I think you should be addressing the best way to make the marketplace secure for buyers and sellers. Buyers want sellers that don’t scam and vice versa.
It may be easy for all of you to chalk this up to “Hey, everyone hates changes” theme, but I think you will find that this isn’t the case. Your customers are in this business and we know what works as well or better than you do. Your marketplace was working, but I think you are drifting away from the clarity of your simple design with loads of information. You’re business model may have suggested increasing the size of the featured and charge more money, but if you lose the number of successful transactions between sellers and buyers…. you will lose overall. Thanks for listening. At this point, I would like you to go back to the old design and focus on making the marketplace transaction more robust and reliable than overhauling the CSS.
May 10th, 2008 at 8:38 am 20
OMG, what have you done?
Dont you guys have ability to hire some nice designers? The new screen looks awful and confusing…. and 50% screen to featured items! thats GREEDY!
Day by day you are trying users to also buy UPgrads to get common features which we should get giving the money!
Increasing prices, messing up with ugly and un-useful design…
you guys are very near to end of marketplace…. i have an idea… start 99sales.com :p
Please, save your self and ours by reverting the design!
Thanks!
May 10th, 2008 at 10:54 am 21
Thanks for all the feedback, we hear you loud & clear.
It’s Saturday here in Melbourne, but we’ll be cracking into this first thing on Monday. Thanks for your patience.
May 10th, 2008 at 1:12 pm 22
Wow, I have to say I am shocked. I always check the Marketplace many times per day, and I have to say now, I will only check once in a while, less than once a month.
I also was a weekly advertiser, always choosing the front page option. Increasing it to $40 is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. Honestly, I will not be placing another add unless you do some major changes and reduce the price back to where it was.
As many have mentioned before, you can’t even tell the difference between the normal listings and the featured listings. What’s the point? And, you say it’s better and you increase price?
All in all, I’m thoroughly disappointed. Don’t “fix” something that wasn’t broken.
May 10th, 2008 at 10:27 pm 23
I have to say you had the front page looking great now you’ve screwed it up big time. Back peddle and return to the old style, it worked just fine. Most of us have our categories we trawl through - personally only Established, Premium & templates ….
Glad your keeping an open mind to feedback
May 10th, 2008 at 11:09 pm 24
Hi Sitepointers - as a long time user of your site, and having spent well over $1,000 in listings and books in the last 18 months I feel that I have gained lots of experience here in the marketplace area.
The comments above are by and large negative towards the changes that have been made to the marketplace, and almost any change (in any walk of life) will always attract negative responses from those that are used to the “old way”.
Regardless though, I do NOT feel that the new sitepoint marketplace functionality, look, design, and above all PRICING help us, the customers, in any way whatsoever.
Granted, the whole site now has more of a web2.0 feel, but lets face it, us webmasters dont really care for the design elements of this marketplace, but DO care 100% about the functionality, ease of use, & we like a marketplace thats easy to scan quickly and easy to promote well.
I DONT think that the changes are a step in the right direction, I feel that they are a step backwards and I think a fundamental rethink as to what the customers (us) want out of this system, and the priorities for change are rethought..
Finally, I would just like to echo the comments made above me by “homesonsale” - us regulars did have our routines nicely set up, and the categories we used to search through were nicely engrained into us, in the same way as reading the morning papers is to most non webmaster people - I personally visited every day or two and checked all the established and premium sites, and I have zero interest in most of the other categories. Now I am exposed un-necessarily to content that I have no desire to see….
….please bring back marketplace 1.0
May 10th, 2008 at 11:13 pm 25
On the new market place front:
I really miss the category and date listed.
Every morning I cruise the listings so the date is important. And I am usually just looking at sites for sale so the category is important.
May 11th, 2008 at 5:25 am 26
WHEN ARE GOING TO PUT BACK THE CUSTOMER VIEWS FOR EACH AUCTION? IS YOUR TRAFFIC GOT THAT BAD I SEE YOU ARE LOSING RANKINGS EVERYWHERE GOOD JOB YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT IT ALONE
May 11th, 2008 at 8:08 am 27
Honestly guys, wow.
You know, I was actually considering sending you guys my CV as I want to work with a great company, but after seeing this it makes me wonder if you’re so great after all.
You really need to listen to your customers, release a beta version and get feedback before putting it online. I’m sure there are people out there who are happy with the changes (maybe they just haven’t commented yet,100% say the changes suck so far)
I personally think the new changes suck. Even just REALLY basic stuff (I’m talking web design for beginners here) such as the “Auctions Ending Soon” section - why the hell are there ended auctions in there? It’s the Auctions Ending Soon, not the already ended auctions section. People will be looking in that section for last minute bargains the same as they do on ebay, they don’t want to see a bunch of ended auctions (who cares, its over and done with)
With the categories, put them back in. Make the titles span to 2 lines if they are two long. Problem solved, win-win.
There are lots of new features which is good, and the 2 free sections are a really good idea.
Really guys, I know there is a ton of talent on your team, so its a poor effort. You’ve implemented some awesome backend work, and screwed up the basics (which at the end of the day matter more than everything else)
- Matt
May 12th, 2008 at 1:15 am 28
Guys! really this new design SUCKS HARD!
Change it back to the old one
May 12th, 2008 at 2:18 am 29
Well, I’ll just put in my vote here and agree with the majority that the previous version was far better. I’m fine with the new prices, but I believe the layout & usability of the previous version was far better and this new stuff has effectively wrecked the site for many old users.
May 12th, 2008 at 2:58 am 30
Im not impressed. Sales have been crap since all changes so im moving to Ebay and free forums. I think you should give free listings to customers who have spent loads on listings and i think you should allow a relist for free.
I think your being shown as greedy and only worrying about your profits
May 12th, 2008 at 6:56 am 31
Agreed 100% with all negative comments above, you have hindered the functionality of Sitepoint on the user end, which ultimately will affect your bottom line and the usefulness of your site.
Another thing I have always wondered is why sellers are allowed to delete comments on the sale at their free will. Also, what does Sitepoint do about the numerous and I mean numerous people that scam on here on a daily basis.
I think something to help curb this problem as well as making the design more user friendly is the only way to get the marketplace back to the top.
John
May 12th, 2008 at 12:41 pm 32
The feedback above from those that can be bothered commenting is overwhelming.
Guys - you got it wrong. 10 years in the making - how many days to destroy?
I don’t have a stats meter, but my personal observation says that the new listings are so thin in quality and/or volume, it’s hardly worth checking here more than once a day.
There are features of the new market place that are great, but the presentation and usability has taken a nose dive.
Great to kill off sacred cows every now and then to make sure you are “recreating” yourself and focusing on what’s important - however don’t let your experience be over-run by consultants who would tell you better.
It’s easy to get caught in the hype and forget the principles that make you successful in the first place.