Question about Paying People/Getting paid from this site

I am looking at doing a couple of transactions with people from this site. A couple of things possibly, Purchasing a website, paying for article writing services, paying for image designing, paying for traffic and also looking at creating images in some contests.

My question is, is it safe to pay through paypal for any of these transactions on this site? By that I mean, if I buy something off a website, the website legally has to send me my goods if I've paid. But on here, no one signs such an agreement?

I'm only asking because I don't want to shell out on getting a couple hundred dollars getting some articles and designing done if the other person is just going to scam me. I also see a few threads where people ask for suggestions on domain names, picture ideas etc for a contest and promise a prize, and in the same threads I see people complaining because the host never paid them.

Is it safe to do these transactions or is there a safer way to do it like settting up an auction or something on eBay?

 

With paypal you can open a dispute if you do not receive what you paid for.
For article writing and any sort of designing, it would be best to outsource through freelance networks like odesk and elance where you could use escrow.
But the best thing to do would still be to look at the feedback on the person you are purchasing from.

 

Maybe you can pay after you get product...
You can also look at their feedback score...
And about the contest, it sure to be luck, if you lucky you will get something.. but if no you can tell the moderator to ban them...

 

Yes its completely safe if you coz if the seller did not send you the product.
You can open dispute at paypal against the seller.

 

yea there is more risk for the seller. Anytime someone disputes my transactions (which doesn't happen often) I just give them full refund.