Downloadable Goods eCommerce

PayLoadz Integration Incentive Program

2008-04-01T13:28:00.021-05:00

We are pleased to announce a new program designed to reward developers for integrating the PayLoadz service into their applications by providing financial compensation for their development efforts. Payments will range from $100-$5,000 for the initial development, and will include a 10-20% revenue sharing for all new referred clients resulting from the integration.

Following the release of the PayLoadz API live Beta, we feel this is the best way to get developers on board as partners of our service. We strongly feel that by working together, we will be able to take the service in new directions that our in-house team may not have known about. We are also hoping to seize upon this opportunity to provide better services for our existing users by leveraging the expertise of third party developers.

To be considered for an Integration Bonus, please contact us and submit a brief summary of the planned integration. Based on the merits and potential usability of the application, we will give an award amount for completion of the integration. It is not limited to API development, developers can integrate into our system in any way including our RSS/XML feeds and other data sources.

Some of our interested integrations include:

Shopping Carts
- osCommerce
- Joomla
- Volusion
- StoreFront.net
- Yahoo Cart
- 3dCart
- Mal's
- Magento
- any others...
Hosting Providers
- iGoogle
- WordPress
- any hosting provider...
Payment Processors
- ClickBank
- TrialPay
- Authorize.Net
- Echo Inc
- Pligg.com
- PaySimple
- BeanStream
- AlertPay
- any other payment processor...
Widgets
- Google Gadgets
- Open Social Widgets
- Facebook Widgets
- any portable, simple application...
Storefronts
- Yahoo!
- Amazon
- Homestead
- CafePress
- any other storefront...
Social Networks
- MySpace
- Facebook
- Flickr
- Zoomr
- any other social network...
Newsletter/Email Management Tools

Basically, anything you can think of that provides value to a person looking to integrate downloadable files in an eCommerce environment.

We are looking forward to hearing about the great ideas you have planned for our service.

Cheers,

Shannon

New PayLoadz API Released

2008-04-01T13:03:00.008-05:00

We are happy to announce, after a lengthy development period, that the new version of the PayLoadz API has been released in a live, fully-functioning Beta. This new system will allow any developer to integrate our services within their website or application.

The API is SOAP/XML based and is very similar in structure to the eBay and PayPal APIs as well as Google's APIs. Any developer with experience in these popular API formats should have no trouble integrating our service within their application. We have full documentation as well as functioning sample code for every call we have already built for your use.

The API allows developers to create a downloadable good, upload a file into our system, create a download transaction, and present an end user with a download link. The API also provides supporting calls for all of the above functions like transaction status and product purchase button HTML generation.

We feel this new system will be the key driving factor to the growth and new features released in our system using the talents of outside developers to take our service in a new direction. Shortly, we will be announcing an Integration Incentive Program which will provide developers with compensation for developing an application or site that uses our service.

If you have any ideas or are an experienced developer, we'd love to hear from you. We are more than willing to help anyone get this development under way. We can likely provide some financial incentive. Just give us an idea of how you see the system being used and we can take the discussion from there based on the idea's merits.

Happy Programming,

Shannon

The full API file set can be downloaded here:
http://api.payloadz.com/docs/PayLoadz_API_Documents_and_Samples.zip
Additional Information can be found here:
http://help.payloadz.com/help/default.aspx?page=PayLoadz%20API.aspx

Digital Delivery at eBay - Over Half a Million eBay Transactions Worth over $15 Million

2008-03-31T13:43:00.004-05:00

It looks like the fight for Digital Delivery is over and the loser is the thousands of loyal eBay sellers using the auction site to sell Digital Goods. eBay recently announced that they no longer support the listing of any item that can be electronically delivered to a customer and instead, must use the Classified Ad format to promote their items at eBay. Classified Ads may not link to another website in order to purchase the items, nor may they contain any purchase buttons, links, or other information for buying a digital good. The potential customer has to contact the seller via email or phone to initiate the purchase. I assume after contact has been made, the seller can provide a purchase link to the customer. Not exactly in keeping with the theme of instant gratification promised via a digital good.

We were one of the first to sell downloadable content on eBay. Certainly one of the firsts to enable automatic file delivery once PayPal introduced their IPN system (1999 I think) that allowed server to server communication when a transaction was made enabling the file to be sent to the customer without interaction. It was an ideal solution. eBay evolved from a site offering one off items (pez dispensers), to sellers offering non-unique items (cd-rom drives), to new products (think eBay Express), to the future- digitally delivered goods.

I've spoken at every eBay/PayPal developer conference since 2000. I had proctored developer tracks on a wide variety of subjects each year, but always gave one track on digitally delivered goods and their benefits.

In 2004 I believe it was, PayLoadz partnered with eBay in providing the first officially sponsored downloadable auction at eBay in selling Madonna's American Life single as a download. The auction was a hit and it was the first time ever that a digital track debuted on the Billboard Top 10. It was a proof of concept that digital goods were real. We even went out to eBay's campus and had several meetings and discussions with eBay and digital goods, all looking very promising. They definitely "got it" at that time and they were exploring ways to make things easier for their sellers. Shortly after, they began offering the new digitally delivery listing flow. Certainly not perfect, but an effort nonetheless.

Then they announce this change. I had thought digital auctions were working out well, but apparently not. The feedback manipulation reason seems flimsy and many sellers have concluded it is related to the new $.01 listing fee enacted recently. Whatever the true reason, eBay appears to be moving away from the future of online commerce. So be it.

FYI, our service has processed over 500,000 transactions for digitally delivered goods at eBay worth over $15,000,000. Best of luck to all sellers.

Shannon

eBay Suspends Digital Good Auction Format

2008-03-28T10:44:00.009-05:00

eBay has announced that the Digital Delivery format listing flow will be disabled on March 31st. They cite abuse in the Seller Feedback system as the motivating factor for the change in policy. They can list their item as a Classified Ad at eBay still, but no transaction can take place there which defeats the purpose of the system.

They have good reason to look at the Feedback system manipulation caused by digital goods. I have seen many digital auctions at eBay priced as little as one penny ($0.01). This means a customer can buy an item, get feedback for themselves and the seller with very little cost. Their feedback scores will be artificially inflated because of having many, very low cost, transactions. Understandably, this is something eBay would like to avoid. The solution they propose however, is not in the best interest of anyone involved.

The first issue is that they do not explicitly prohibit Digital Goods from being sold in auction format. They are simply removing the Digital Delivery flow from the listing process. Sellers were able to sell and deliver their digital goods on eBay long before this flow ever existed and will likely just use those older processes to deliver their item. Our system has been servicing digital good delivery for years before their Digital Good flow. In fact, our own eBay Store (Power Seller with 99.9% positive feedback) does not even use the eBay Digital Delivery flow for handling our digital goods and we still achieve excellent results in terms of reliable delivery. The key is to match the digital good name, the auction title, and use PayPal's IPN to do a product lookup on auction payment and send the download to the customer in that way. Very straightforward and there are systems in place already to do it this way.

Another option is that sellers will be able to use a trick that has been known for some time for digital good sellers at PayPal. This trick was presented to me by a PayPal employee during one of the eBay Developer conferences held before eBay Live each year. You see, digital goods are not covered under PayPal's Seller Protection Policy because there is no reliable means to prove the item was delivered or not unlike physical goods which provide tracking information via a major carrier. The suggested solution was to sell a download via their website and then mail a small item to the customer using the major shipping carrier which would act as proof of delivery and be protected under the Seller Protection Policy. The seller could send a CD containing the files bought, but could simply send anything they chose, like a pencil. This obviously only make sense when selling larger value digital goods like software. However, using this principle, eBay sellers can list and sell digital goods in auction format and include a tangible, shipped item like: "Widget on CD- Plus Instant Download Delivery". Who knows if it will come to that though...

I think a better solution would be to put a minimum starting price point or Buy It Now price on any auction being listed via the Digital Delivery flow. As soon as the flow is invoked a simple trigger in the eBay system will require a Starting Price of say $5. This is the ideal solution. It will keep digital goods listed in their proper format instead of using the normal auction listing flow as mentioned above which will prevent the need for policing of auctions looking for digital goods under the new policy they currently are implementing. It will also keep eBay actively involved in the quickly growing digital good space. Otherwise, they will have to spend a considerable amount of resources tracking down sellers who list in the standard format. The Digital Delivery flow provides a centralized mechanism for eBay to track and manage this type of auction.

We have actually implemented a minimum price policy for Sellers on our system for listing their goods in our eBay Store. Sellers have two options in terms of listing digital goods when selling on our service. In their own auctions, and in the PayLoadz eBay Store. We do not enforce a price point when they list in their own auctions, but enforce a $1.00 minimum when listing in our own eBay Store. This is to ensure people are not simply flooding our store with worthless goods and to reduce the risk of negative feedback due to a seller configuration issue in their PayLoadz account (like not specifying a valid file for delivery). We'd rather not list an item that generates a negative feedback rating when the customer pays less than a dollar for the item.

Alternatively, eBay can look to a service provider, like PayLoadz who is a Certified Application on eBay, to enforce these policies for them and act as a single integration point for digital delivery. Just a thought ;)

Until eBay explicitly prohibits selling digital goods in auction format, then the old system (using our platform or another) will continue to work.

I hope someone is listening...

Shannon

Sellers' Sales Increase 1,036%

2008-02-29T22:57:00.011-05:00

Sellers Using Our Service See 1,036% Year Over Year Sales Growth. A pretty incredible number. It basically means a seller that was selling on our service a year ago, on average, has seen their sales increase by 10x. That is pretty impressive.

As an example, if the average seller on our service has sales of $1,000 today, a year from now based on the average growth, they will have sales of over $10,000 per month. I'm impressed! I knew there was accelerated growth in digital sales when using PayLoadz vs. tangible goods, but I never realized it was this significant.

Get growing!

Shannon

THE SIMPLE MATH OF IT ALL
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Fun with database queries on a Friday night. Let's look at the math...

First, we query our system to get a list of all the sellers who had sales this time last year. We also get a total of those sellers' sales for a 30 day period from one year ago. Fast forward to today, we generate a list of sellers and match them up with the list from a year ago and compare their sales for this past month. Now we have a BIG list of digital good sellers from last and this year. We do a simple percentage change calculation using:

(New Sales-Old Sales)/Old Sales = % Growth Year Over Year

Finally, we average the number above for all the sellers in our list and we come up with 1,036.23%, or a growth factor of 10!

Features and Fixes: January and February 2008

2008-02-29T21:07:00.005-05:00

Work continues over here at PayLoadz. A lot of small things this month while work continues on the bigger projects. We should have a few of those being released this coming month. Stay tuned...

Drop Down Navigation Menus - Mouse over drop down menus have been added to the top navigation bar to increase the efficiency in which sellers can access common functions of their account.

MassPay Error for Syndication System Payouts - An error has been addressed for website owners using our Syndication System to earn click through payouts.

Delete File Function Updated for New Delivery and Storage System - Delete file function fixed to remove files properly.

Automated Reseller Fee Payouts - The PayLoadz Reseller System now has automated payouts to users on a per click and recurring revenue basis.

Removed Paid Additional Storage - Sellers can simply ask for more storage and we should be able to provide them with the needed amount.

JavaScript Variables on Download Page - Sellers can access the payment variables of the order via JavaScript variables in the download page to use for their own code such as affiliate programs and tracking programs.

Improved SQL Queries for Store - The PayLoadz Store has had a revision of the display queries which have increased their speed and efficiency dramatically.

Affiliate URL Optional in Product Setup - Sellers no longer need to enter and affiliate URL when setting up their product.

Items Missing From Available Affiliate Products - All seller items will appear in the list of Available Affiliate Products in our site if they choose to.

History Search Date Defaults - The selling history now defaults to one day in the future to ensure proper encapsulation of the search results as a default.

From Name in Add Download Email - When using the Add Download Email system to send out downloads manually from our system the seller's Profile Business Name is shown as the From Name in the email instead of just their email address.

Enjoy!

Shannon

Live Site Issue: File Names (Resolved)

2008-02-28T12:15:00.008-05:00

We are working to resolve an issue with downloads currently where the user is prompted to download an incorrect file. Our team has found the issue and is working to resolve as quickly as possible.

Regards,

Shannon
------------------------------------
UPDATE 12:38 PM EST - Issue Resolved

The issue with the file names being the same has now been resolved. It was actually a bigger issue than the simple file names. A new script running on the server that we moved from the development environment to the live product server had a seemingly small bug in it that prevent it from binding the change to a single user's account and caused a site wide update instead. The only recourse was to remove the offending script until it could be looked at closely and to restore the data from a backup.

This is where things got a little messy. Our system backs up data regularly in case something like this comes up. However, the issue arose when some of the backups still had the offending incorrect data in them. Luckily, one of the backups from earlier today 6:00 AM EST had the proper data. In a perfect world, we would be able to restore the single table and fields that caused the issue, but unfortunately, that is not the case. Databases are generally monolithic creatures with one aspect of data, like product information, intimately tied to other tables, like user information and order information. The only reliable solution is to restore the entire data set to the last known good value. This means the 6AM data backup. Meaning, there is a current data gap from 6:00AM EST today until 12:00 noon today that is unrecoverable at this time.

Ultimately, this is a good thing. I see issues in a potential data loss recover process that will need to be improved and I am putting those at the top of our task list. Changes will include a better testing environment before scripts go out, a better QC check when the script moves to the live server, and a faster, automated data or site restore option. It took a few hours to restore the data when it should only have taken a few minutes. We didn't want the 6 hour data gap, but in hindsight, we should have just accepted it for the time being. We spent far too long looking at ways around the gap in data to no avail.

Finally, the system should be working properly now. If it is not, we will be on it all day. For sellers, the orders placed during the data gap will not be recovered- this unfortunately, is unavoidable. You can still send the downloads to customers manually using the Add Download Email link found on the Product Detail page in your account.

Thank you for bearing with us during this hectic time,

Shannon

PayLoadz Offers Unlimited Storage for Digital Content Sales

2007-12-26T13:34:00.000-05:00

PayLoadz.com unveils new storage and delivery platform for digital goods ecommerce offering virtually unlimited product offerings.

New York, NY December 18, 2007 -- PayLoadz.com, a leading self-service digital content ecommerce platform, has released a new version of its content storage and fulfillment system to deliver downloadable content such as ebooks, music, videos, software, crafts, or any other file. This new platform provides unlimited file storage for sellers using its services without any increase in cost.

"I am very excited about latest version of our file delivery system," says Shannon Sofield, founder of PayLoadz. "Because of the repeat and impulse buying nature related to selling digital goods, the more products sellers have available, means more sales and revenue for our sellers. By providing them with as much storage as they need for their downloadable goods without increased cost, they can create more valuable content offerings."

The PayLoadz.com service now has a key competitive advantage with this new release as other companies attempting to enter this market niche are bound by their limited product inventory and file storage capabilities. The PayLoadz Free, Basic Service, gets a file storage increase from just 50MB to 1,000MB representing a twenty-fold increase. Higher level accounts feature Unlimited File Storage.

About PayLoadz
A New York, NY based company, PayLoadz is a long standing leader in the digital content and delivery sector. The privately-held company has over 60,000 registered users selling over 280,000 downloadable goods.
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Features and Fixes: November and December 2007

2007-12-26T12:59:00.000-05:00

Some updates from the last month or so of dev. Things have been a bit hectic with the new delivery system development and roll-out. Things should calm down now as we move into developing other functionality. Thanks for bearing with us during this time.
Happy Holidays,

Shannon

Unlimited File Storage - We can now offer unlimited storage for accounts with our new file storage and delivery system.

New Delivery System - A more robust and reliable system. Download speeds are much higher and do not require the use of FTP links meaning reduced firewall issues.

Seller Subscription System - Sellers can now sell their products as subscription items. Customers can pay a monthly fee and the seller will be able to send any list of subscribers any product in their account.

Send Download to Existing Customers - Sellers can send a download to any of their existing customers using the same Add Download Email method as when sending a single download.

Increased Bulk Download Limit - Sellers can now send a product download to a list of email addresses they paste into the system. Up to 200 recipients now.

Seller's Note to Send Download - Sellers can add a note when manually sending a download via the web interface. Useful for adding instructions or simple notes.

Enhanced Affiliates Search - Sellers can now search their affiliates using a variety of criteria.

Download Link Text Enhanced - Greater emphasis has been placed on the download link on the download page to be less confusing.

Continue Shopping URL - Sellers can specify a specific URL that customers will be sent to when clicking Continue Shopping in their shopping cart.

Captcha on Contact Seller in Store - Word/image verification to prevent spam.

SEO on Store Detail Page - Some tweaks to make search engine results more relevant for items in the Store.

Auto Assign Item Number - Sellers can leave the Item Id/Item Number field blank when creating a product and it will be auto-assigned in an incremental value.

Enable Checkout Language Selection - Sellers can specify the page language their customers will see when checking out.

Category Selection in Advanced Store Search - Customers can search by category as well as keyword when using advanced search by default.

Export Products Invalid File Location Alert - Seller's are alerted to misconfigured products on file information exports system.

Pay Affiliates in PayLoadz Interface - Sells can enable PayLoadz to pay their affiliates directly from within our interface using the PayPal API.

Move Express Site to New Server - Express system has been moved to our new server along side our other sites.

Custom Email Text in Google Checkout Fix - Custom product text included in GC now.

RSS Feed of Sales History - An XML/RSS feed of a seller's recent order history is now provided to track sales when not at our site.

Disable PayPal Checkout - Sellers can choose to not sell with PayPal if they like.

Featured Seller: BuildARamp.com

2007-11-19T12:15:00.000-05:00

You can view the entire Featured Seller series posts here.

This week, we have Brandon Cardone from BuildARamp.com here to tell us how he sells downloadable plans for skate and bike ramps.

Tell us briefly about what kind of digital goods you sell.
I sell a 54-page PDF format, Skateboard Ramp Building Guide for Beginner’s titled “The Beginner’s Guide To Building Ramps”.

I also sell 4 variations of skateboard ramp plans that include full color illustrations, measurements, and materials list. The Ramp Plans compliment the beginners guide.

What file and delivery formats do you use?
PDF files compressed into zip files.

How long have you been selling your items?
Since March 2004

How have your sales performance changed since you started selling?
My sales performance has steadily increased every year since I started in 2004.

What tools have helped your increase your sales?
PayLoadz is at the heart of my business; it allows me the freedom to focus on the marketing end of things instead of dealing with my customer’s purchases and product deliveries.

The ability to use both PayPal and Google Checkout for payment gateways seamlessly with PayLoadz has greatly increased my sales.

The use of Google AdWords and paid online advertising in strategic niche areas on the web.

I also utilize the PayLoadz Affiliate builder program to maximize my websites exposure on similar and relevant websites.

I also have my products listed in the PayLoadz Store and eventually plan to utilize the PayLoadz Ebay store.

By far the best tool I have used is good old Search Engine Optimization to increase my organic search rankings with popular search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN.

I use my blog to help add quality content to my website. I also post customers projects to my website photogallery. I offer sample product downloads, free desktop wallpaper, and free skateboard ramp plans to increase interest and traffic to my pages.

What PayLoadz features do you use the most?
I use the sales statistics to keep track of my business progress and accounting. But mostly I use Payloadz for the professional and secure delivery of my electronic goods.

What PayLoadz features helps to increase sales for you?
The integration with PayPal and Google Checkout. I also use custom text that is sent to a customer along with their download links to help up sell and cross promote my products.

What other tools or services have helped you manage your business?

Google AdWords
Google Checkout
Google Analytics
Google Webmaster Tools
Google Adsense
PayPal
Blogger
Advanced Web Ranking
CSS
RSS
Email

What types of marketing do you rely on?

Organic Search Results
Google AdWords Pay Per Click
Yahoo Marketing, formerly Overture
Paid online advertising with targeted websites
Blogs
Word of mouth
Athlete Sponsorship
Tshirts
Stickers
Affiliate program
Link Exchanges

Can you provide any advice to sellers just getting started selling digital goods?
Really get to know how your customers are using your website. You can use free services like Google Analytics to gain valuable information about your visitors and it will help you optimize your pages for sales.

Once you are setup properly with payloads to deliver your goods. Focus your energy on getting as many links to your website as possible (but don’t be a spammer!). It’s all a numbers game really, the more doors there are to your website the more visitors and potential customers you will ultimately gain.

Consider using Pay Per Click Advertising to jumpstart your marketing campaign, make friends, network and exchange links, provide excellent customer service, giveaway stuff, offer free information, promote, promote, promote.

Digital Rights Management (DRM) Decreases Sales and Increases Costs

2007-10-31T12:55:00.000-05:00

(I've been meaning to write this post for some time, but there is just so much information to include to cover all the points. Therefore, I will begin this post and provide a basic framework for the reasons why DRM is wrong. This is a draft that will be added to as we go along. Feel free to play devil's advocate and bring up any issues I have missed.)

Digital Restrictions Management
DRM, or Digital Rights Management (Digital Restrictions Management for those in the know), is an attempt to limit the usage of a digitally delivered good to a single person- usually a person that has purchased a single copy of the item. Using these systems, the seller intends to prevent the item from being used by anyone other than the person that bought the item.

The fact is DRM systems are the furthest thing from being perfect. No system works on all computer platforms or all situations of the end-user. Whether it is attempting to secure a PDF eBook, a piece of software, or a pay-per-view movie file- no technology exists that will successfully allow a customer to view the file in all computer environments. What this means is that you are placing minimum technical requirements on your product as soon as you intend to use DRM. Even if it is something as simple as a password protected PDF, you have instantly reduced your potential sales market by excluding those end-users who do not have the minimum PDF viewer requirements that will allow the password to be entered properly. Only certain versions of PDF viewers like Adobe Acrobat will allow the use to enter a password to open a file. It gets even more restrictive across other product types like video files, especially those using a technology like Microsoft DRM. An unprotected PDF can be viewed by 100% of the Internet population using freely available software. When the seller puts DRM on the file, that number drops and no they have effectively eliminated a large portion of sales.

"They are Stealing from Me!"
That is the argument I hear most from small sellers. Most have never sold even one copy of their file, but they want to make absolutely sure that no one other than the customer can use their product. As we saw above, that is not possible as DRM systems are flawed fundamentally. A person who receives your file is not stealing from you. You may have not received compensation for your product, but since it is a digital good, available in infinite quantities without incurring additional overhead- it did not cost the seller any out of pocket expenses.

Limited File Sharing Increases Sales
If a customer who purchased a digital knitting pattern shares the file with their friend you now have the potential to gain a customer. The non-paying recipient never heard of the seller or their product and was likely never going to hear of them. By having the original customer send the file to the non-paying recipient, they can now determine the value of your product directly and are likely to do so because of the direct testimonial from the original paying customer who shared the file. Provided that the file has identifiable information as to where the item can be purchased in terms of either file properties (or in the case of this knitting pattern), a direct link to the seller's store with the ability to market similar products to the converted user.

Increased Support Costs
We sold DRM Windows Audio Files using MS DRM on our system a few years ago for a major recording artist. We sold the same exact song as an unprotected MP3 file on the same page. Not only did the MP3 file outsell the DRM file 15-1, but the costs incurred from providing end-user support for using the DRM file was extraordinary. Both files sold for $1.49. To this day, four years later, we get email requests from customers who purchased the DRM file asking to retrieve their DRM license for the file. That means we have to look up the order, generate a new license, deliver it, and troubleshoot any additional installation issues. That does not even cover the bulk of the support costs which occur immediately after the sale when trying to initialize the DRM on their computer. This again relates to the technological requirements or misconfiguration that occurs when dealing with the wilds of the Internet. Time spent supporting customers because of DRM is money lost. You are also likely to loose the endorsement of your product for every customer that has a problem with the file.

Nature of Digital Goods
This point has to be made as it may not be completely obvious to people unfamiliar with selling digital goods. It has to do with the impulse buy and the re-purchase behavior related to selling digital goods. The following describes the vast majority of downloadable good purchases. If a customer buys and item from a seller and they got value out of it and it was easy for them to use (no DRM), then that customer will likely go back to the seller's store and immediately purchase one or more related products they have for sale. In addition to this impulse buying behavior, the entire existing customer base of a digital good seller will be much more likely to buy any new product offerings from the seller in the future when compared with tangible items.

An Anonymous Coward writes:
"Actually, it did cost the seller; it cost the seller a potential sale."
Again, if you read above, it didn't cost the seller anything because the person was never going to pay you for the item anyway. If the person was not given the product by a friend, they were not actively pursuing the item. The exception is a person actively seeking the product on a warez site, in which case, no DRM would have worked since you see every piece of software ever made there. So again, it didn't cost a thing for not using DRM, however if you do use DRM, then it did cost you a potential sale.

Features and Fixes: October 2007 (Pt. 2)

2007-10-31T11:47:00.000-05:00

Here are a few more tweaks to round out this month's work. Still have two bigger projects on the board which is taking some extra effort, but it will be worth it when completed.

Currency Selection on Accounts Page - Users can see our account types and fees in their own currency rather than just USD here.

Currency Conversion for Transaction Volume and Limits - The user's Transaction Limit and Volume used will be shown in the currency they select in their Profile.

Button Code Generator Image Selector - The system that generates the purchase buttons to place in the user's web site now properly uses custom images specified by the user.

Keyword Search in Affiliate Product List - Affiliates can now find products using a keyword search in addition to category here.

Contact Seller on Store Page - A first round version of allowing potential customers to contact the seller directly from the sales page in our store.

Manually Generate MassPay Files - Sellers can now generate their own Affiliate MassPay files using their own date ranges if they prefer.

Discounts - Expanded discount functionality described here.

Send to Friend Improvement - Improved the email that is sent from our store to a friend to include HTML and a direct link to the product.

Currency in Google Checkout - A bug has been resolved in setting your currency for Google Checkout shopping carts.

Let us know if you have any specific requests,
Shannon

Discounts Feature Expanded

2007-10-23T12:05:00.000-05:00

The Discount Feature on our service has been in place for some time now as a simple flat fee discount based on the user entering a system-generated string of letters/numbers (discount code). We have expanded this functionality to include all of the following situations:

Discount Code Flat Fee - User enters the code provided by the seller and is given a flat fee discount off the price of the items in the cart. Example: $1.00 Off with Coupon Code.

Discount Code Percentage Off - User enters the code provided by the seller and is given a discount equal to the amount specified by the seller from the total amount of their cart. Example: 10% Off with Coupon Code.

Number of Items Flat Fee Discount - Based on the number of items in the customer's cart as specified by the seller gets the customer a fixed amount off. Example: Buy Two or More, Get $5.00 Off.

Number of Items Percentage Discount - Based on the number of items in the customer's cart as specified by the seller gets the customer a percentage amount off. Example: Buy Two or More, Get 15% Off.

Value of Items Flat Fee Discount - Based on the value (cost) of items in the customer's cart as specified by the seller gets the customer a fixed amount off. Example: Buy $10 Worth of Items, Get $5.00 Off.

Value of Items Flat Fee Discount - Based on the value (cost) of items in the customer's cart as specified by the seller gets the customer a percentage amount off. Example: Buy $10 Worth of Items, Get 15% Off.

That should cover most scenarios for people wanting to use discounts. The discount system can be accessed via the Selling tab once logged into the site. Let us know if you see any issues with the system and we will get right on them.

Thanks,

Shannon

Features and Fixes: October 2007

2007-10-16T11:32:00.001-05:00

Been a long time since the last post, but we've been working nonetheless. Here are a few updates.

Invalid File Alert - When a seller has an invalid file location specified for their product, the system will now prominently display an alert message on the product detail page in their account. The message will also display on the download page. Even though failed delivery is rare, this type of product mis-configuration is the largest issue for non-file delivery.

Featured Listings Link - The ability for a seller to have their product featured in the PayLoadz Store has been linked directly from the Selling tab in their account.

Affiliate Fee Decimal Values - There was an issue with the Affiliate Fee specified in the product setup being rounded to whole numbers instead of retaining the decimal. This has been resolved.

Payment Variables to JavaScript on Download Page - A seller can now obtain all of the needed payment variables on the download page using JavaScript. This is particularly useful if they are using their own affiliate or tracking system using the Download Page Text field in their PayLoadz Profile.

Remember User - We now keep the user logged in for a few days unless they click on the logout link in their account.

History Search for Product - The sales history on the Product Detail page for a product now links to the sales history page for that particular product when clicking
"View All".

Revised Sales Statistics - The Sales Statistics page which contains graphs and figures now can be modified by date and by product, giving better sales history information.

Add Featured Listing Funds Using API - Sellers can now fund their Featured Listings account without leaving the PayLoadz site using the Enhanced Services agreement.

Tracking Syndication System Clicks - The Syndication System now tracks detailed information for each click. This is leading up to allowing us to pay all people who place the system on their web pages to get paid on a per-click basis.

Software Registration System- Single Password - Sellers can now offer a single password in the Software Registration System for their product instead of having to enter a separate password for each customer.

Modify Payment Buttons in Generator - A seller can specify any image or choose from a gallery of images in the purchase button Code Generator system.

Low Key Alert Email - If a seller is delivering product keys with their product, the system now sends them an email when the key count becomes low, indicating they need to replenish their keys.

Seller Id in Affiliate Products - Potential affiliates and sellers offering affiliates can add the query-string variable "uid" to list all products by a specific seller.

We are working on some bigger projects right now, expect them to be live in a month or so.
Enjoy.

Shannon

PayLoadz Downtime 10/8/2007

2007-10-10T10:27:00.001-05:00

Well, this is not quite how I wanted to bring the blog back to life, but I guess I don't have much of a choice. At 3 A.M. EST today the SQL Server automatically installed an update and had rebooted itself to finish the installation like it normally does. However, this time, the MSSQL agent which runs the database server failed to initialize and the database for the PayLoadz site was never loaded properly. After fooling around with it for a little while we got everything back to where it needs to be and all is running well again.

All orders placed during the downtime should be processed normally as PayPal/Google/2Checkout begin repeating the requests for the previous orders to our order processing scripts- no orders placed during this period should be lost. They all should be processed normally.

Obviously, we try to avoid this kind of thing and yet they still happen. We will likely move to a manual installation of updates, or at least move it to a time when the main team is available so we can monitor the update accordingly.

Thank you for bearing with us during this time,

Shannon

p.s.- Check back here in the next few days, I have a lot of updates to deliver!

Features and Fixes: May 2007

2007-06-04T10:52:00.000-05:00

Some bugs crept in this month from the pace of development, but we have them sorted out now. A lot of behind the work was done for some major projects we have under wraps. Hope to get them all out the door this Summer.

PayLoadz Store
Results Paging Bug - An issue with the store results paging. Not all products were being shown and some were shown more than once.

User Keywords Integrated in Search - Now the keywords entered by the user's during product creation are included in the search queries.

PayLoadz Site
Bulk Product Import Price Issue - Prices over 1,000 were throwing a SQL insert error. This has been resolved now.

Correct Date Examples - We had pretty poor examples of dates as form field hints on the site. We have corrected these with proper examples that will guide users from other countries.

Google Checkout Bugs - A big issue with GC at the end of the month. Really problematic, but now it is sorted. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Affiliate Products Navigation - Now affiliate products are better sorted and have proper page navigation options.

Shannon

p.s.- We will be speaking next week at eBay Live! in Boston on selling digital goods on the eBay/PayPal platform. Feel free to listen ion or to chat with us afterwards.

Round Trip Product Import/Export

2007-05-15T10:08:00.000-05:00

Previously, we announced some changes in the product import system our service has to allow sellers with large amounts of products to get their items into the system quickly in a single step process by uploading a spreadsheet of product information. This is a great feature and saves a lot of time, but often sellers need to make changes to many items at once. In this case, they can use the new Product Export system to have our site generate a spreadsheet of all of their available products. This gives them a backup source of product information and allows them to make global edits. Once done editing, they can use the import system to update their products in a single step.

Cheers,

Shannon

Featured Seller: TheContractorsGroup.com

2007-05-03T15:35:00.000-05:00

The is the second post in our series on merchants that sell downloadable goods. The first installment can be seen here.

This week we have Diane Dennis from TheContractorsGroup.com. She has been selling on our system almost since the beginning in June of 2002. She currently has over 150 products available for sale from her site.

What kind of digital goods you sell?
Construction business forms that construction contractors and suppliers use in their day to day business (ie: preliminary notice forms, release forms, mechanic’s lien forms, etc.).

What file and delivery formats do you use?
Word, PDF, Excel, and Rich Text Format. Most files are stuffed into .zip, .exe and .sit formats.

How long have you been selling your items?
Since 2000.

How have your sales performance changed since you started selling?
The more I utilize PayLoadz’s tools the more sales I get.

What tools have helped your increase your sales?
The PayLoadz Store feature and, surprisingly to me, the eBay listings.

What other tools or services have helped you manage your business?
Yahoo Stores and SiteSell.

What types of marketing do you rely on?
Paid search and heavy word of mouth.

Can you provide any advice to sellers just getting started selling digital goods?
Anyone can sell a digital good but not everyone gives good customer service. Promise 100% satisfaction guaranteed or 100% refund with no questions asked and follow through on it. Give unlimited free replacements with no questions asked. There are some who will take advantage of these policies and request a form even though they haven’t purchased it or request a refund even though they’re using your product but the honest folks are so incredibly touched by the fact that they’re trusted (who trusts anyone anymore these days?) that they continually send you new customers and come back regularly for other needs. Try to review each purchase because often folks will include personal notes in the comments section, or they’ll make a mistake and order 2 when they only needed to order 1 (unlimited usage). Respond to every email, inquiry, comment, kudos, complaint, etc. personally and friendly. Don’t be offended by anything and use every comment to better your customer service.

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That's all for now, check back later or subscribe to our feed to read more about other downloadable product sellers.

Shannon

Features and Fixes: April 2007

2007-04-30T12:50:00.000-05:00

Another month of solid progress all around. Here is an update of what we've been working on...

PayLoadz Store
Store Image Upload - A long overdue feature that allows sellers to upload images for their product listings in our Store and in the PayLoadz eBay Store. This increases sales for sellers as products with images outsell products without images by several times.

Require Category and Subcategory When Listing - Small issue that the system would not require both a category and subcategory when listing their product in the store. This would cause the item to not be displayed in searches. Proper listing of items ensures the customers find what they are looking for.

PayLoadz Site
Sales Statistics Charts - The Sales Statistics page has been expanded to host a few other types of stats for our sellers including product performance and history for the past year. Also added some flash based graphs and charts so the sellers can get a visual representation of their performance. Going to expand this functionality. If anyone has any suggestions on what data would be helpful, please add a comment. Providing more information on sales data increases the seller's ability to know what is working and what isn't.

Success Message After New Product - Simple success message after listing an item and link to create another product. Saves two unnecessary clicks. By increasing the ease for sellers to list items in the store, more inventory is created and therefore, more potential for sales.

Enhanced Listings Status - If the seller has an Enhanced Listings Balance, they can choose to enable or disable the Enhanced Listing for the individual product directly on the detail page. Previously, all items in the seller's account were set to "On". By providing the seller with the ability to get preferred placement for their items, they have a better chance of making sales.

Restore Account Access - If a seller exceeds their account limit for an extend period of time and does not upgrade after receiving several warnings, the account is placed offline. Now, when the sales volume drops below the limit, the account access is restore automatically. Permanently removing account access does neither the seller, nor PayLoadz, any good. Showing them the value of the system will increase the chances of them paying for the service.

Email Notifications Email Address - Updated all email communication from our system to be from one of two email addresses, sales or support at PayLoadz.

Code Generation Page - A centralized code generation area for all products a seller has in our system. Can customize the type of code and purchase buttons to be displayed. Very useful. Making it easier for sellers to get selling code means more sales buttons on the net. More buttons increases the chances for sales.

Registration System XML Bug - Sellers requiring registration keys pulled from a web-based script were required to provide a specif XML result to our system. It required the nodes to be present for multiple keys even if only one key was needed. This requirement has been removed.
Direct Link to Subscription Modification Alert Email - Transaction Limit emails now include a direct customized subscription modification link that allows the seller to modify their PayLoadz subscription to the correct level without logging into their PayLoadz account.

Sort by Columns - Sales and Product Histories both allow the seller to sort items by categories. Providing data easily and clearly to the seller reduces stress and frustration.

User-Defined and System Keywords - Sellers can specify a set of related keywords for their products in the Store listings in addition to the ones generated by the system itself. This should increase the effectiveness of our product placements. By providing more relevant keywords, correct products will be presented to potential customers thereby increasing sales.

In-line HTML Editor - A rich HTML editor has been added to product setup to allow sellers to create better looking and more informative product descriptions for their products. We store the HTML and also store a plain text copy version of the product description for our own use. Being able to present product information more clearly increases sales conversions for our sellers.

Contextual Help System - Depending on which page is being viewed, relevant help for that page will be displayed to the seller. Enabling the seller to get help for the system decreases support time and frustration when using the system.

PayLoadz Syndication
Multiple Ad Formats and Customized Appearance - Affiliates who take advantage of our Affiliate Syndication System can now chose from a variety of ad formats. The ad formats can also be modified in terms of font, color, sizing, etc. These changes should help to increase the number of installations. Increasing the installations of the system, means happier affiliates and more sales for the seller.

PayLoadz eBay Store
Auction Format Bug - A small bug was affecting the format of the auction listings. This has been fixed.

Auction Admin Approval - New sellers were previously not allowed to sell on the PayLoadz eBay Store. We now have the ability to approve individual products via an administration page. More inventory in the store means more potential for sales.

Enable eBay Listing on Product Setup Page - Sellers can now list their item in the PayLoadz eBay Store without having to go through a separate process. All listing duties are done via the Product Setup page. Making it as easy as possible to list in the store means more inventory and a greater potential for sales.

That is all for now. Please feel free to send any suggestions our way...

Shannon

Registration Key Bug

2007-04-27T09:36:00.000-05:00

We just finished working through a pretty pesky little bug that surfaced yesterday. We've been trying to consolidate code across application pages as much as possible and one of the commonly used systems is the Registration Key System. While a very small percentage of our overall users actually use the system, each one that does generates a sizeable amount of transactions per day, so it is important that it be running as well as it can be.

Three particular pages were affected by a bug we introduced into the system, the main order processing script for PayPal, the Add Download Email function, and the Bulk Add Download Email functions. The first two have been fixed as of 10:30AM EST. They are by far the two most commonly used. The Bulk Add Download Email function one is still persisting and we are working through it. Expect the Bulk Add Download system to be 100% again by tomorrow morning.

At least it's raining out today so we'd rather be inside coding anyway.

Shannon

Product Image Upload for Store Listing

2007-04-07T13:20:00.000-05:00

Another small, but much needed enhancement, the ability to upload a product image during product setup for the PayLoadz Store and PayLoadz eBay Store listings has been added to the product setup page.

The previous version of the system required that the seller enter the web URL of an image file they would like to use to be displayed with their product. If the seller did not have a web site, then they couldn't display an image with their product. Sellers that have images with their products in the Store have a much higher sales rate. Using the sellers file storage that they use for their products was not an option as the FTP site is locked down from un-authenticated access.

The solution was to use a file upload component to let the seller select a file on their computer and upload it during the product creation process. Our system then optimizes the file for display in the store. This new system should dramatically increase the number of listings with images in the store and therefore increase the amount of sales for those products.

Shannon

eBay Listing in Product Setup

2007-04-07T13:04:00.000-05:00

This is a small, but good enhancement to the process of our system. We have the PayLoadz eBay Store that sellers can choose to list their items in for free. The store has been pretty successful with a good volume of transactions and a 100% positive feedback score (which in itself is a testament to the reliability of the delivery system in my opinion).
Approved sellers were able to list their items in the eBay store after creating their products through a separate process previously. It would require them to re-enter a lot of the same information found in their PayLoadz Store listings. We have now consolidated the process and have placed a checkbox on the product setup page that allows the seller to automatically list in our eBay store using the same information as entered for the PayLoadz Store.

Since we have to keep tighter controls of the quality of products listed in our eBay store, new sellers will have their auction information posted to a Pending listing where we will review and approve/reject the listings via an admin process. This keeps the quality of products high.

This new system should dramatically increase the amount of inventory available to our eBay Store and demonstrate to the sellers that eBay is a viable venue for selling digital goods online. Perhaps even convince them to create their own eBay Store and sell their goods directly themselves.

Enjoy!

Shannon

Bulk Product Import Revisions

2007-04-06T15:24:00.000-05:00

I see there being a few ways to make PayLoadz a success for our sellers. One of the major ways is to increase the sales of products being sold in our system. This topic actually has several different facets to it, but one of them is to make the system as easy as possible for sellers to get setup and running. I'd say the majority of our users only have one or two products to start, but some have large catalogs they are bringing over. The Bulk Product Import system enables them to import all of their product information in a single step for all of the items they are selling.

We have had a barebones Excel spreadsheet in place for some time now. It didn't provide any enhanced functionality, just basic product information. We have since revised this process to include the more advanced listing features including the store listing component into the spreadsheet itself. eBay listings will also be enabled by the revised file as well. The file contains column descriptions and data entry hints and rules so sellers will have an easier time of deciding what goes where in the spreadsheet. If a seller needs to make any changes in bulk, they can simply make changes in the spreadsheet while keeping the item numbers the same and have their existing product information updated with the new values in the revised spreadsheet. This feature in particular opens the door for product export and re-import with revisions.

Once the spreadsheet is uploaded into the system, the seller can then upload their files using the File Manager or an FTP client. Using the Code Generator, they can obtain all of the HTML needed to add the payment buttons to their web site.

Back to work,
Shannon

Features and Fixes: March 2007

2007-04-03T20:48:00.000-05:00

Just thought I'd add a new blog series to keep everyone updated on our work over here.

PayLoadz Store
History Length Display - The PayLoadz Store allows for a user history (searches, products viewed, etc.) to be displayed on the right hand column. This would wrap to two lines and off-set the design in some cases. We have limited the length here for extra long values.

Category Preservation in Search - When a user is browsing a specific category and initiates a search with "search only this category" checked, then the search will keep the category values in the search results.

PayLoadz Site
Swapped Store and Affiliate Information in Product Setup - In the product creation process, we moved the store listing information just below the basic product information where the affiliate info used to be. We moved the affiliate info to the bottom. It seems like a more logical flow as people access the store information more often.

Affiliates Status Page Form Tags - During porting to the new site design, the affiliates status page where sellers approve and edit their affiliate information did not retain all of the form elements that were required to work. Simple fix.

Shopping Cart Price Bug - There was an annoying bug with prices over 1,000.00 that was causing the cart to error due to a FormatNumber issue. This has been fixed.

Keyword File in Product Setup - Sellers can enter their own product keywords for their products during listing. This will help our store search engine, the ad syndication system, and also for our paid placement listings like Google AdWords.

Buyer Purchase History Search - Added a better search capability to the customer purchase history page. Now they can search by several different types of values based on product, date, or seller.

Clickable Active Navigation Tabs - When a user is in a particular section of the site, the active tab is clickable and returns them back to the section homepage. Simple, but useful. PayPal does not have this and a user is forced to click a separate tab, then go back and click the original tab of they want to access the section start page.

PayLoadz Syndication
Pass JavaScript Values to Ad Code - The new PayLoadz Ad Syndication system allows for user defined design elements like font type, size, colors, etc. Users can now edit this information directly in the chunk of HTML we give them to customize the look of their ads. Several different ad formats will be out in a day or two.

PayLoadz eBay Store
Product Deletion, End Auction - When sellers who had a product listed in our store delete the product from our system, the eBay auction was orphaned. Using an eBay API call, the auction is now ended.

That's all for now. We have a lot of cool things in the works. Stay tuned....
Shannon

New PayLoadz Site Design Live

2007-03-28T12:57:00.000-05:00

I think it is safe to say after a week of squishing bugs and tweaking that the new PayLoadz site design is officially "live". The feedback so far has been positive, so that is cool. The design is a lot better than the old one imho, but that is not a real reason to do a site overhaul.

The hairy part was that the new site now resides on a new server. The specs of the server are pretty hilarious in terms of overkill with loadbalancing and insane amounts of ram and 64-bit processors, etc. The server is now in the same rack as the database servers. That will help as they have a 1GB direct connection to one another. The speed of the site is much improved. I still have to work on the weight of the HTML, but for now, it cruises along.

The trouble with rolling out a new design is always a bit sketchy. However, when the site is staying on the same server, you can roll out in phases and manage the bugs as you go. When moving from a new server, you almost have to do an all or nothing type of switch. I made the change in the DNS admin to flick the switch. That first hour was a bit hectic, but a lot less issues than I had thought.

We've finally caught up on all of the fixes and are rolling out new features at a rate of one per day. The cumulative effect of the new features will be huge. Like a lot of people, we developer, roll out, bug fix, fine tune the interface, and revise. Then start again. Seems to work well for us.

We are focusing on providing sellers with tools to increase their sales. There is a decent amount of competition in our area now and customer acquisition is getting harder. Therefore, we are focusing on increasing revenues by increasing the revenues of our sellers. We can do this using the same techniques we use to promote our own site. It really helps those sellers who do not have the time or expertise in marketing on their own.

A new design for the PayLoadz Store will be rolled out. The Ad Syndication System is going to be upgraded in the next few days along with a ton of behind the scenes improvements.

Thank you all for the support you have shown us over the years, it is appreciated.

Shannon