Online Carbooty

Flyonthewall

Just seen this on their facebook page:

There's a lot of buzz on the site this week so it's an ideal time to try selling.. Online Car Booty top tips for selling : Keep your items varied.. Try to cater for everyone.

Doesn't that defeat the point of clearing out what you want to sell and being a private seller (like you would be at a carboot) if you have to make sure you have different items to appeal to all?

No clue how stalls look as you can't get to see without registering, but if you're looking for a certain item surely it's harder to find it if every person tries to get as many various different items as possible on a stall? More effort, less buyers, less sales.

soolin

They posted both as the site itself and new members who had 'just found this marvellous site and who had no connection' ( sigh) on a few of the facebook selling sites i use . Trying to sell the idea of an online selling community that was expensive , on a selling page that was completely free, open 24//7 and with over 5000 active members just showed how little they understood selling online.

Flyonthewall

soolin wrote: »

They posted both as the site itself and new members who had 'just found this marvellous site and who had no connection' ( sigh) on a few of the facebook selling sites i use . Trying to sell the idea of an online selling community that was expensive , on a selling page that was completely free, open 24//7 and with over 5000 active members just showed how little they understood selling online.

Yeah. True. I don't really think an online carboot is the way to go for selling items (certainly not to compete with ebay) but they could make it a half decent site with some proper web design and some good marketing. I don't know why they feel the need to spam and, it seems, buy likes.

One facebook post is a competition for a free stall. Said 190 comments - for a moment I thought maybe they actually had a few real members but then a look at the previous comments showed about 10 (if that) different people posting multiple times. Their competitions are guess the name so even with real members they could claim no one got the name or just randomly decide, hardly fair. At the very least, a good fair competition would probably get them a few new members but seems they can't even do that.

Flyonthewall

Hi, just noticed a few visitors from this site so came over to have a look. I run Online Car Booty.

There is already an account from someone who runs Online Car Booty who replied on another thread. Not sure if it still exists but either way you've posted before.

We completely understand that people will be sceptical of new sites, I am myself.

It's less sceptical, more why would I pay so much especially when you hide half the site from people who are not registered.

However, could I please request a little recognition and understanding for what we have achieved. We set the site up last May and it's doing really well.

And yet your site domain expires on: 2015-05-10. Ok, that makes me a bit skeptical, but if it's doing so well and you were trying so hard to get this site to be something why does the domain expire so soon?

We have just won a 'Scoot' business award in their search for the UK's best businesses. The site is completely genuine and we are registered under the company name 'Computer Friendly'.

That award really means nothing to me. Don't know if it means anything to anyone else. Ignoring the spam, there's no real reason to doubt that you can't pay, get a stall and attempt to sell which technically makes the site genuine. Whether you get any buyers and the fact you've paid so much are the concerns.

Our Facebook Likes are all genuine, I wouldn't know where to start with buying Likes and we need genuine ones from people interested in the site from the UK. If anyone would like any more information, please contact us at [EMAIL="admin@onlinecarbooty.com"]admin@onlinecarbooty.com[/EMAIL] where we can happily supply figures and information.

Then I'm very curious how you've gained so many considering the lack of marketing and reviews elsewhere. Not to say you would, but it's quite easy to make up figures so showing someone the information probably won't prove much.

We also invite you to contact any of our members to enquire about its authenticity. We love to hear criticism about the site, we know there's areas to improve and we're working hard to do so.

Ok, then first please change the design. At the moment you couldn't pay me to use the site, it gives me a headache. Aside from that, why not let people view stalls when they're not registered? Just so they can see how it all looks/works. You could allow people to look without giving them the options to do anything else unregistered.

Please if you could liaise with us we would love a chance to fairly prove the site is genuine for people that aren't already using it. We would love to have your readers with us and not against us so that we stand a chance as an intermediate site that can offer people an alternative to Ebay. I use Ebay myself and can't fault it. They have made it big, where we would simply just like a chance to make our site fun for buyers and sellers and give them another alternative. We're doing well but it would be nice if we can put this to rest and have your support. If 'Flyonthewall' or any other member of MSE would like us to give you a call, I would be happy to oblige.

Thank you for your understanding. Best wishes, Mark.

Nothing much to say to this part except why'd you pick on me...?

Flyonthewall

Online_Car_Booty wrote: »

Hi again, thanks for the reply. yeah I think I replied to one months ago under a different 'online car booty' account but couldn't log back in for some reason.

It may have been banned for self advertising or something.

Anyway, when we first started we had a very basic site created using wix, it was more of a test run. When the site took off we changed hosting companies and employed a programmer to re-write the site. This is where you will be seeing conflicting information on whois etc. I'm no expert on that side of things but i believe when the domain is ready to expire we are notified and renew it.

Fair enough. Yeah, you will be able to renew it, it's just a bit odd that it expires so soon. You could have opted for longer in the first place and then you wouldn't have to worry about it and people who look at that information wouldn't doubt how serious you are about it.

When we started last May, we had the booty viewable by anyone registered or not.. This is how i would like it to bring in even more buyers. However, in order to display stalls by nearest first and for users to be able to message each other on the site, we made it registration only. But, what you have suggested is actually a cracking idea.. Have the sale open to anyone but they need to register if the wish to message sellers. It was mentioned a few weeks ago by our programmer and I think we will be going down this road very soon. I appreciate constructive criticism like that, it's when you say we're buying likes and suggesting we could easily make up figures etc which is what i don't appreciate. We don't need to buy or fake anything, we are doing really well. That is why i singled you out in response to our site being 'picked on'.

I see. I did not state you were buying likes, I said it appears that way. I even stated why it seems that way, to which you've given no answer I might add. A site with no real marketing (at least from what I can see) doesn't usually get over 18000 likes on Facebook just from word of mouth and friends/family liking the page. Again, not saying you are doing anything dodgy, it's simply an observation.

I also said, "Not to say you would, but it's quite easy to make up figures so showing someone the information probably won't prove much." Just making a point that that if you were scamming you'd say exactly the same thing.

For example, right now I could say I have a website that's all about race cars. I get 1000 views a day on average most of which come from google but I get some from youtube based on a video I uploaded there and a small percentage come from bing. There's also some incoming traffic from a blog where someone spoke about my site but that varies a lot. On average 200 people a day click a link to leave the site and go to a product I sell on Amazon although only 10 people on average buy something a day. The stats show that most people spend 5.3 seconds on the homepage before clicking to other pages. Most of the users use Internet Explorer but lately we've seen an increase in users using Chrome.

I could go on but you see my point. It would take me 2 minutes to put a few figures in excel and bring up a graph. Simply being willing to state figures doesn't prove a site is genuine. That's all.

I wasn't the only person on here talking about the site. I wasn't the one who said to avoid the site either.

If I can meet you half way and say Yes you're right, we should open the booty back up to unregistered buyers to view. And yes I can understand your concerns about paying upfront for a stall, it's simply to keep it in context of a Car Boot Sale.

If we could get a fair mention on sites like this then we wouldn't need to post on Facebook. I do however understand that the site may not be to everyones taste and I'm happy to take that.

Thanks again for your comments. I do appreciate them. Regards, Mark

The concern isn't about paying upfront. With ebay you pay listing fees so in that sense it's no different. Although I will add that personally I wait for free listing days to avoid that lol. It's about the cost of it and the limit on the number of items. It's not cheap enough for me to be willing to give it a try and there are times when I have more than 10 items I need to sell.

If you want a fair mention then market your site. Google adwords, youtube, articles in newspapers, blog posts by popular bloggers and so on would all be a step towards the site appearing more genuine and getting noticed. If a well known blogger has been able to experience the site and write their own opinion, for example, it shows people that you're not just pretending to be a user yourself and giving it a 5 star rating to look good.

Also, what happens if things go wrong? Paypal may protect people to a certain point but it's not the only payment option. What happens if you get a seller or buyer who's out to scam, for example? I don't remember seeing anything about that on your site.

Flyonthewall

Online_Car_Booty wrote: »

When I said I could supply figures etc, I would ensure whatever I presented was received as genuine, whether it be from Google Analytics or some other way I could think up that would show it's genuine. But yes, anyone make stuff up. What's the URL for the Race Car site ? You've sold it to me.. I wanna see it ;-)

You may know it's genuine, that doesn't mean you can prove it. Even if you gave a link for us to log in and see the stats links/sites can be redirected, fake accounts created and so on. It would be a lot of effort to fake it that way obviously, but then again if you were running a massive long term scam then it's not beyond what some people will do to convince people. It's both amazing and worrying at the same time really what people can do lol. That's not to say I wouldn't believe what you said, just something to think about.

The better way to convince people is to do as I mentioned in my previous post and just let people see the site so they can decide for themselves and do a good job at running the site.

I could create a site but I won't lol.

It's swings and roundabouts.. Our site may not work out fantastic if you're selling a pair of socks and a candle. But if you sell an expensive item you save a fortune compared to Ebay. We had 3 cars on there yesterday come to think of it.

For more expensive/larger items my first thought would be Gumtree. Others would also consider Facebook. Both free.

For selling (or buying) a car I'd go for a site like Autotrader. Might cost a little more to sell but it works well and it's there just for that purpose. Although I have seen cars that say for sale on them at carboots - I would assume they'd sell them at a later date though or how else are they getting home lol. No issue with that for an online carboot but you do have competition.

I imagine I'm not the only one who would do the same. Other options are great, but getting people to use them and remember them is a different matter.

We have an Adwords account and a Youtube channel etc. We are working hard to help get it busier so that Sellers do well.. that is our main concern. The stall fees go into development mostly.

We haven't had much trouble on the site at all really but Paypal have refunded buyers when they haven't received goods etc. We have a good relationship with Paypal.

Anyway, gotta fly fly ! Cheers for your understanding, glad we've both cleared the air a little. We'll endeavor to perfect the site until we can get you on it ;-)

Best wishes, Mark

As the site grows so will the problems. Scammers are nice like that, they like to give all sites a fair chance What if it goes wrong and one seller is scamming a lot of buyers? What if they don't pay through Paypal?

You've got a way to go yet until I'm on the site From what I can see links all work fine - so you're off to a good start there. You'll need to change the site design to get me on it though. For one example, you have a block of black text with a bright red backgound. I can read it but it's harder to focus on, it's not as clear as it could (and should) be and the bright background gives me a headache.

Just a point, that red and green aren't good for colour blind people either. In my case, they just give me a headache when overused.

You may want a site that's fun to use and perhaps you want that to come across in the design but I think you can get a balance of professional (you are a business afterall) and fun.

I'm not saying redesign the entire site or anything, but there are certainly improvements to be made in my opinion.

When I sell stuff it's usually media. So from my point of view to get me selling you have to compete with Amazon, ebay, gumtree and all game/entertainment stores. Although I'm curious, how well do books sell on your site?

soolin

Online Car booty , you have actually demonstrated exactly why your company will fail to inspire users, the fact that you continue to post here without permission just marks you out as a spammer.

You can't read the MSE rules, yet you expect people to trust your site and to pay you money to use it.

I suspect your latest attempt at posting also won't work once the forum team are notified.

Sorry, companies can't post on the forum without MSE Team permission and verification, which is usually given to larger companies and those mentioned in our guides etc (please see the forum rule). If you have any questions about this policy or would like a right of reply please email forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com.

Flyonthewall

Online_Car_Booty wrote: »

Yeah we had some scammers a few months back so we doubled security. We now have a system that alerts us to suspect stalls and we can ban them from the site completely. We strongly recommend Paypal for security reasons and tell all sellers NOT to send payment as a Friends or Family payment as Paypal will not cover them.

Good to know you're keeping on top of it. Safety/security is important when buying/selling online.

I agree, black and red don't work well together, it all displays nicely this end so it didn't click that some people may struggle with it. I might have a look at that tonight.

We are trying to keep it a fun style site, you're right.. it is hard to balance that with the professional look.

Your homepage is quite colourful and busy. Colour isn't a bad thing but having a colour theme usually works best. 2-3 colours means you can keep the site more colourful and fun while maintaining the more professional look (assuming you have a well thought out design/layout).

The site loads fine on my desktop computer but my laptop is a little slower. What I did notice when using my laptop is that the page jumps around as it's loading. A common thing for websites because it jumps as it's loading content and obviously pictures and videos can take longer. When you're over the menu it flashes green (or yellow and green if hovering over the selected page) then you've got the blue background jumping around too and the colour strips above and below the menu, plus any images or text below. That's a lot of colour flashing in front of you.

Don't get me wrong, I quite like the little colour strips and there's nothing wrong with hovering over a menu button and it showing a different colour but perhaps there is something that could be changed a little.

Books are always tricky to sell online with postage costs. I've noticed lately that a lot of Sellers are grouping books and cd's into lots of 3 or 4 to compensate for weight/postage. Any further ideas on that and i'm all ears ;-) They do sell on our site but I don't think you can beat Amazon for books myself. There's that many books out there that on Amazon you can find the exact one you want where at a booty like ours it's pot luck if someone was selling one you're after.

Indeed. Sadly I have no answer to the books/CDs. Out of all things they are certainly the hardest to sell regardless of platform which is why I have a fair amount sat around in boxes waiting for the day I can find a way to sell them lol.

I've already spoken to our programmer today and we're going to sort entry for unregistered users to browse. I'm really glad you've brought that to my attention because it may help attract more visitors and prove the site is genuine all in one go.

Anyway, I'm happy to hear your suggestions. Once we have some more major features incorporated on the site it may then be a good time to look at a full makeover.

Many thanks, Mark.

That's good to know. I do read help pages so I can see how a site works and all but I always like to check it out for myself before I consider registering.

What I'd suggest is having people test the site and give their opinions. There are sites where you can pay and people will test it if you struggle to find an unbiased group to do so otherwise . Or feel free to pay me and I'll test it

Flyonthewall

soolin wrote: »

Online Car booty , you have actually demonstrated exactly why your company will fail to inspire users, the fact that you continue to post here without permission just marks you out as a spammer.

You can't read the MSE rules, yet you expect people to trust your site and to pay you money to use it.

I suspect your latest attempt at posting also won't work once the forum team are notified.

Sorry, companies can't post on the forum without MSE Team permission and verification, which is usually given to larger companies and those mentioned in our guides etc (please see the forum rule). If you have any questions about this policy or would like a right of reply please email [EMAIL="forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com"]forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

NeverInDebt wrote: »

Online Car Booty showing once again contempt for forum rules

Reported to abuse again

Online Car Booty hit :spam: button on any posts should make

Much as I agree it's not the way to advertise, it's not good for a company to be spamming and they have broken rules about companies posting to be fair their posts have been more about explaining and advice and not join our site, we're the best etc.

Might be a good idea to try and seek permission to post though based on the above.