EcommerceBytes Revs Up with New Publishing Platform

by: Ming the Merciless

What refreshing, novel concepts!

by: aim04744

I am going to miss the old slide show. It made it easy to browse through the posts and decide what I want to read further. This scroll down the page for every post seems clunky.  

by: Bill

I agree with aim. The font size is larger with huge images so it makes it harder to get to the items I have interest in. It needs to be toned down a little.

by: Marie

I look forward to the new experience.

by: David Steiner

Appreciate the feedback so far everyone. @Bill & @Aim, how do you typically view the site - on desktop or mobile?

I had a hard time giving up that home page slider, myself. A lot of design and programming that went into it, and we were one of the early adopters of a home page slider, especially a tabbed slider. That being said, people either loved it or hated it.

There are other ways to get to the news you want to read, for example, if you are an Etsy seller, and want to focus on those articles, you simply click on the "Etsy" tag at the bottom of the articles, or home page abstracts, and the page will be populated with nothing but Etsy stories.

We haven't discounted making a formal home page (with a slider of some kind) but want to live with the scroll of latest stories right now.

The big images...I don't entirely disagree. Larger images are definitely better for search engines. Most news sites use a similar format - Title, large image, social media buttons, content - so we're trying to get a sense of what the layout does for SEO. We'll reassess after a bit.

I want to stress that the feedback posted here - good or bad - is important to us as we tweak the site to make it as user-friendly as possible.

D

by: Rexford

Congratulations!

And I for one appreciate what David and Ina do on a daily basis. THANK YOU!  I honestly don't know where I would get my news without the two of you and your team. You synthesize information that would take me countless hours of research (every day) to pull together. I hear it here days or weeks before I hear it on some of the ecommerce sites I sell on.

Keep up the GREAT work!

by: Flying Childers

David and Ina- you are the best!  Thank you for being so considerate towards your readers.

I don't know what we would do without your hard work and perseverance on our behalf.  

Most of all, thanks for your commitment to free speech.  It is getting harder and harder these days to find an online venue that allows honest and open discussion about Etsy, Ebay, Amazon, et al, especially the down and dirty stuff that reveals the back room antics at these sites.

Your publications are invaluable to everyone who buys and sells online and I wish you the best in everything you do.

by: toolguy

Desktop here 100% of the time!

Mobile screen is too small, even on my old Samsung Mega 6.3

by: MainelyVintage

Checked it out. Very nice!

Appreciate your hard work, David and Ina!!

We have been buying online since 1999, the year of your inception... Selling since only 2005 : )

Keep up the great work!!

by: buffalochick

I too liked the awesome convenient scrolling/tab setup. Extremely easy to find what you want to read without having to scroll, click, back... reminds me a another certain site. More clicks, more work.  I love your site, just don't love the changes.

by: aim04744

I read almost always on a laptop, unless I click something from Facebook and then will open on my cell browser.  

by: BuildingMyOwnSite

Like It!

Desktop Only for me, Hate anything that moves or jumps out.

Hate slow news days, have NEVER been able to find ANY other Enews site worth reading.

▲ Keep it UP! ▲

by: TomH

I work from PC daily. Either one or the other. Not both. Most setups for total responsive between PC and smart phones end up with a lot of white space and scrolling for the PC user. Your new set up is not different.

I am only speaking of the tech side and visuals I see. I am not downgrading or insulting your news value which is now, and has been for years TOPNOTCH.....

by: TomH

PS: I have four fairly active web sites on which I struggle with the same issues as you have here. I have not solved them to my satisfaction yet, so I do look upon your efforts with a bit of eagerness to see if you solve the conflict..... lol   Hope you do.  

by: Frank Abagnale

EBay- hire these people!!!!

by: Bill

David,

I just use my desktop to read your news and insight. Been a user here since the beginning but my old email is now on my tablet. I will check out the new page on my tablet when I get a chance and let you know.

by: Bill

David,

I am viewing on my desktop and the font is really big. I enjoy the articles and the insight and have been doing that since the beginning. My email for this account is now on my tablet so I will take a look at it from there when I get a chance and let you know.

by: David Steiner

Thanks for the continuing feedback. I agree about the white space - since site responsiveness is rewarded in search, I've noticed that many site layouts have a similar look, which includes the larger areas of blank space, more required scrolling, etc.

When we started the site, the challenge was to put as much of the important content "above the fold" so that no, or little scrolling was required. Different time - but I will see if the layout can be tightened up a bit to decrease the blank areas.

Bill, the difference between the blogs and the main site is that the blogs used fixed size fonts, which makes them harder to read on mobile appliances. Have you tried using ctrl + and - to adjust the font size in your browser? It's not a perfect solution, as that will make the fonts in the blog even smaller.

D

by: RKTOYS

"WordPress"
"faster"
Must be talking about a different WordPress.  Site never had speed issues for me before.

by: David Steiner

Quick update: The large images at the top of articles are no more. They are now smaller and right-justified within the content of the story. That accomplishes a couple of things - making the content look more in line with with the old format, bringing the body of the story up higher (so less scrolling) and still retaining it's responsive design.

D