Items on ebay

George / Mannesty - thanks for the feedback. Have to say that I agree with you gents, waiting for all the flash animation to load is a real chore. However, when you put it into the context that it's a simple template site that I bought for £35 with no other ongoing costs apart from the hosting then it's better than having no website at all. Some of the links only have a couple of shots as I haven't updated it for quite a while... Must find some time to do some house-keeping

Will

Sorry to disagree but if you want to showcase your work and have visitors spend some time looking at your site and maybe commissioning you, it might have been better to wait and 'polish' it a bit first and populate it with more images. As it is, your site could well be turning people away to look at better prepared sites (not necessarily better images). If that is happening, no site is better than one that puts prospective customers off, or maybe just an 'under construction' page with contact details.

I do see what you mean but I'm not exactly advertising for work. My sign off on here is about the only place where I've had the link up and other than friends, you and George are, as far as I know, the only people who've been on the site. Whilst I do aspire to selling some more of my work and that's ultimately why I wanted a site website - I haven't had the time over last year 18 months to work on any aspect of my photography as much as I would like. I recent week long trip up to Scotland has just inspired me to get back into things 'seriously' so only time will tell...

It is very much a work in progress or to be more honest a lack of progress that I have spent very little time on since I first had it made back in 2005. I think that all in all I've probably only spent 3 or 4 hours working on it. Unfortunately, I'm not savvy enough to know how to even take it down for a while while I 'polish' it.

It is really good to get some feedback anyway and I have a feeling that the comments from George and your good self may well spur me into a bit of action... and that can only be a good thing...

Cheers!

Will

Way to go Will. Go for it!

FWIW, I love your domain name.

I too have had little time to develop my photographic hobby/skills in recent years. I'm hoping that will all change now that I am semi-retired, and we get a lot more sunny days in Spain than UK.

Regards,

Thanks Peter - took me ages to think up a decent domain name that wasn't already taken... Funnily enough after reading your post I googled it for the first time, along with a couple of other domain names I have registered. The diffraction one came up second in the list on google which I was a little surprised about but again spurring me on to do some work on it... I also found a great website from my namesake - http://www.willbartonphotography.com.au/index.html - he must've been pee'd off to find the standard .com address was already registered!

Funny how work etc always get's in the way a little - I used to travel loads with my old position and had loads of time to spend taking pics of fabulous places... Got promoted at work and that all vanished - yep I've got more cash to spend on toys but what's it worth if you can't use them???

Watch this space for a much tidied up website...

Cheers again Peter!

regarding ebay feedback.

I dont see any problem with leaving a buyer feedback as soon as I recieve payment, I am totally confident they will be happy enough with the sale to leave feedback in return, anyone who tries to claim non-delivery with me will find me quickly providing them with details of how to contact the post office for compensation because I always obtain proof of postage. OK there is a slight risk that some a$$//01£ will try it on but like Drew has pointed out this attitude of waiting for the buyer to leave feedback first is ruining ebay, And I must also point out that anyone threatening negative feedback without just cause can get a slap on the wrist from ebay if the other party reports it.

I usually state in my auctuions that I make no conditions over leaving me feedback first and it is up the the buyer if they wish to reciprocate, I always make it perfectly clear that I always obtain proof of postage and ask buyers to let me know as soon as the item arrives.

And negative feedback doesn't really damage your status (unless you have loads) I think the majority of users can read between the lines, as my previous post states, determine if negatives are genuine or just sour grapes.
I actually have negative feedback from a guy who I left it for FIRST, the item took over 20 days to arrive, when I contacted him over its suspected loss in the post his attitude was pathetic, "I definately posted it...so its your problem", this a$$ didnt even get a reciept for posting, the packaging was also naff and the item box damaged on one corner where it had been dropped.

Hi all,

Just to add my tuppence re ebay:

I feel fairly well qualified to comment, as I have been a retailer for a large slice of my life and also collect antiques, so have attended many auctions. I have also traded many items privately from the age of 16 and have used ebay a lot for about 5 years now.

In no particular order..

1. ebay is a microcosm of society, so the vast majority of users are honest and genuine. There are a minority of thieves and scammers, but since ebay has millions of users, this minority is a large minority. There are also many, many users with no knowledge whatsoever of the items they are selling and many lazy users who cannot be bothered to do even a little research on the items they are selling. The scammers are usually easy to spot, as are the lazy users, who have poor listings with short and bad descriptions. A listing in caps throughout also says: 'lazy user'

2. The feedback system works as well as it could in it's present form. It was a masterstroke by the ebay founder Pierre Omydar, it is simple and yes, it does have faults, but NO-ONE has yet come up with a better and workable alternative.

3. Feedback is VOLUNTARY and users should not forget this. I get the impression sometimes that ebay users are more concerned with collecting good feedback than trading succesfully.

4. ebay themselves advise that buyers should be the first to leave feedback. This is so the seller knows the buyer is happy with the goods and the transaction itself.

5. Users also forget that many things can still go wrong after the buyer has paid. A transaction is not completed the minute a buyer pays, it is completed once the transaction is successfully concluded by BOTH parties.

6. The feedback whingers are usually users who either only sell or only buy. They only tend to see things from their own perspective and have a biased viewpoint. If you both buy & sell then you are able to be far more objective in your views. The only realistic way to use the feedback system is to let the buyer go first. I have no problem with this and I buy many items.

7. The most important mistake many users make is to treat ebay as if it is a shop..it is not a shop and does not work like a shop does. It is an auction and works like an auction. In other words, it is a case of BUYER BEWARE, if users do not like this, then they should not use ebay at all.

8. The only real difference between ebay and say, Sotheby's, is that on ebay you have to buy blind, or 'sight unseen'. This is probably the issue that causes most disputes on ebay..usually when a buyer thinks the item has been wrongly described by the seller. This is why the item description and photos are so important on ebay. Lazy buyers cause just as much trouble on ebay as lazy sellers. If you cannot be sure the item is 'correct' for you from the description, then ask questions!

9. Just returning to feedback, I advise you to ignore the percentage score, as it can be misleading. I always check the actual comments given. A seller with for instance 97% positive f/b can actually be just as difficult as one with 80% or less. It purely depends on the amount of transacations concluded. Also if you read all negative and neutral comments you often find a common thread amongst the comments that may send alarm bells ringing, even if the seller has on the face of it, a high percentage of positive f/b.

Here is a link to a very useful FREE site. You can enter the ebay ID of anyone and it will show just the negs & neutrals given and received by the person with the ID you enter.

http://www.toolhaus.org/cgi-bin/negs?User=carpe-noctempoetry&Dirn=Left+by

cheers Steve.M.

Thanks for that link Steve, potentially very useful.

Dan

All very sensible, Steve, many thanks for that.

Probably too late now, and of interest only to our UK based members, the BBC TV program " The Money programme" had a look at Ebay yesterday.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6154754.stm