Used camera & lens website

Cheers guys

I was about to redirect my usedlens eu domain, and 123 reg greeted me with this

  1. If you DO NOT HAVEa European address:
    Unfortunately, you will not be able to keep your .eu domain name once Britain leaves the EU. This may be as soon as October 31st if no-deal Brexit occurs. We recommend that you transfer your site to a new domain to keep business running as usual during the Brexit transition and beyond.
 
Brentor said:
Looks like I am out of line so I will not expand on my view.
Click to expand...

:D hah not out of line, i'm happy for any input that may spark new ideas. I may not make the changes you suggest, but it will give me something to think about.
 
Brentor said:
Looks like I am out of line so I will not expand on my view.
Click to expand...

It's important to get feedback. So far, 2 people said they like it, 1 said they didn't. If it was 200:1 I'd say ok, but all opinions are valid. Dan will (hopefully) take what he likes & leave the rest and his comment suggests that's exactly what he'll do.
 
dancook said:
:D hah not out of line, i'm happy for any input that may spark new ideas. I may not make the changes you suggest, but it will give me something to think about.
Click to expand...

Some thoughts:

Name “Usedlens” but covers much more (too late to change)

Insert some info from About under the heading RESULTS FOR ALL USED CAMERAS AND LENSES - ie what is the purpose of the website

RESULTS FOR ALL USED CAMERAS AND LENSES - also covers accessories etc

Search help ie tips for quick search and not everyone understands “exact” and - negative

Show less or no example search results on the “Home” page

Move the Wex advert down the page (probably paid to be there)

Results are not “All“ must be some other retailer, local adverts etc

Sub divide manufacturers further eg lens, cameras, others

Hide # xxx from some ebay results

Best of luck with the venture.
 
Brentor said:
Some thoughts:

1- Name “Usedlens” but covers much more (too late to change)

2 - Insert some info from About under the heading RESULTS FOR ALL USED CAMERAS AND LENSES - ie what is the purpose of the website

3 - RESULTS FOR ALL USED CAMERAS AND LENSES - also covers accessories etc

4 - Search help ie tips for quick search and not everyone understands “exact” and - negative

5 - Show less or no example search results on the “Home” page

6 - Move the Wex advert down the page (probably paid to be there)

7 - Results are not “All“ must be some other retailer, local adverts etc

8 - Sub divide manufacturers further eg lens, cameras, others

9 - Hide # xxx from some ebay results

Best of luck with the venture.
Click to expand...

Thanks,

Here are my initial reactions, I am interested to hear your further thoughts particularly where I may not fully agree. It's good to have outside opinions, in case I get a little narrow in my vision.

1 - The domain is short, memorable and covers some keywords, I'm not sure I could have done better here. Consider that camera price buster actually promote lenses and Carmarthen cameras and every retailer with cameras in their name sell lenses too.
2 - Thanks, will be good to do this as part of a SEO exercise which I am keen to do, I am ranking on page one for "used lenses" at the moment.
3 - Accessories only ever get added because I can't easily filter them out all the time, I really only intend to include Cameras and Lenses as accessories tend to just bloat the database, particularly filters. I could mention it, but I've never really wanted to support them.
4 - Yup would be useful
5 - I don't understand, can you explain?
6 - They don't pay, I put it there in hope to generate some income to support site - but I'm not sure it's working so losing it from the top probably won't make much a difference.
7 - That seems a bit pedantic, is that how people view the word 'all'? I mean it's meant to mean ALL in the database.
8 - You apply a filter in the filter section for cameras/lens but at the same time it's not perfect. I try to not make a big deal of it because some lenses and some cameras will either be in the wrong category or in a miscellaneous category not shown at all when filtered. This is because when I pull the data from retailers, many don't distinguish between camera and lens so I look for words like 'body' or '/w' or ' + ' or 'camera' or 'back' or or or and then for lenses look for words like 'cm' or 'mm' or 'lens' but it's not always perfect at categorising by user inputted titles.
9 - Ok I kind of get this and I would remove them, but at the same time, does it matter from a practical stand point? You will only see them if browsing page by page through 35,000+ ebay results? or 60,000 of the whole database. I imagine if you do any kind of realistic search you wouldn't see them ? Which is why I've considered it but it's been very very low priority.

meanwhile I do have a list of about 30 european and u.s. retailers to add, but I think i'd like to take a break from that to do some optimisation of the website.
 
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Well I made a start on things today, a few SEO bits and pieces more to do.. got a hero banner in.

and just a quick addition of a 'remove filter' link for people who seem to get stuck in a category and can't find anything else...

Will rejig some of the page further down and add some search advice and tidy some stuff up

usedlens12.jpg
 
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Hi Dan,

By no 5, I meant you currently include:

Showing 1 to 10 of 60,196 entries

Do you need to show 10 lines or even any at all?

Just seen the new layout, looks good.
 
Brentor said:
Hi Dan,

By no 5, I meant you currently include:

Showing 1 to 10 of 60,196 entries

Do you need to show 10 lines or even any at all?

Just seen the new layout, looks good.
Click to expand...

Thanks Brentor, I get your point - I'll give it some consideration thanks!
 
Used it to source a lens for my new to me Xt2
Should arrive in next couple of days
excellent resource
Gary
 
One that's been requested a few times..

I've replaced the hide ebay with the ability to select specific retailers.

118318718_151047403307168_5064589859005215904_o.png
 
This site is great! Thanks for putting it together. There are so many more stores that sell reasonably priced second hand gear than I thought. Always assumed eBay would be the best value but actually a lot of the camera stores are just as cheap (or cheaper) and it’s a real store not just some random!

Problem now is that it’s even easier to buy things I need. :)
 
Looking good Dan. when I click on retailers and then show all it flips me back to the landing page.
BTW, I don’t see B&H Photo on your list who are one of the biggest US mail order retailers.
 
Peter123 said:
Looking good Dan. when I click on retailers and then show all it flips me back to the landing page.
BTW, I don’t see B&H Photo on your list who are one of the biggest US mail order retailers.
Click to expand...

The 'show all' means the same as 'clear filters' - as in show results for all retailers.

The retailers listed in the nav menu are only for the country you are logged into, I could consider changing this in future. When you switch your search to Europe or International, the extended retailers are listed in the filter section.

I'll consider improving all this.

I've applied for the affiliate program for B&H Photo, so waiting for that response - everyone takes so long!
 
Ahhyes said:
This site is great! Thanks for putting it together. There are so many more stores that sell reasonably priced second hand gear than I thought. Always assumed eBay would be the best value but actually a lot of the camera stores are just as cheap (or cheaper) and it’s a real store not just some random!

Problem now is that it’s even easier to buy things I need. :)
Click to expand...

:D I'm glad you're finding it useful,


This site is terrible for my sleep, I went to bed thinking of things I need to do... woke up at 6am wanting to get up and do them.. and now I'm a zombie - the show must go on!
 
I setup a little contest on my blog and facebook page, one to encourage sharing of the website.

usedlens.co.uk

Win a £50 Wex Voucher - ended - Usedlens.co.uk

This competition has ended. In between adding retailers and improving the site, I have been working hard to market it. Perhaps you can help! The more people who use the site, the…
usedlens.co.uk usedlens.co.uk

Since I've had great support from the members of TP, I thought you should at least know in case you want to take part.
 
Just an observation, it seems like Cex has stopped feeding data in the last week or so.
 
hunnymonster said:
Just an observation, it seems like Cex has stopped feeding data in the last week or so.
Click to expand...

Yes their cloudfare firewall has blocked my scripts, I’ve emailed them to see if they want to do something about it.

Thanks
 
I've been using your website recently and it's great. The speed is crazy, faster than the original sites usually! lol
 
Blank for me. Win 10, Firefox.

gqrereggreq.GIF

Just clicked in the filters and selected MPB results.
 
For those who are showing blank, what happens if you choose only MPB in the filter list?
 
gman said:
For those who are showing blank, what happens if you choose only MPB in the filter list?
Click to expand...

That was what I did.

Edit: Just tried it in IE and it's fine.
 
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Seems all ok on Safari and Big Sur operating on an Apple M1. Tried with all sites selected and only MPB.

Thank you for the site too, it's a very useful tool to accompany the camerapricebuster site I normally use
 
Okay found out it was uBlock Origin hiding that element for some reason. I turned it off on the site and it appeared.

Back to spending all evening compiling a list of lenses I want, their prices and then still not knowing which one to buy.
 
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Ahhyes said:
Okay found out it was uBlock Origin hiding that element for some reason. I turned it off on the site and it appeared.

Back to spending all evening compiling a list of lenses I want, their prices and then still not knowing which one to buy.
Click to expand...

Oh good i'd never have figured that one :D
 
@dancook
I check your site a lot and it usually works very well, but today I have not been able to get on.
Earlier today Firefox stated that I should not try as the site was insecure and was a danger to my passwords, credit cards etc.
Later I could not get on with the message "The server at usedlens.co.uk is taking too long to respond."
I thought that I should let you know.
 
superpippo said:
@dancook
I check your site a lot and it usually works very well, but today I have not been able to get on.
Earlier today Firefox stated that I should not try as the site was insecure and was a danger to my passwords, credit cards etc.
Later I could not get on with the message "The server at usedlens.co.uk is taking too long to respond."
I thought that I should let you know.
Click to expand...

Looks like it's either down or gone.
 
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