selling plugins - which distributor?

[WilliamK]

Its funny how things are. 2CheckOut was terrible for me, too many chargebacks, while PayPal is also fully automated and almost no chargebacks.

Wk

[Lotuzia]

BTW, if you know a little bit about web programming I would advise you to do your own retail site and use Paypal or Google Checkout as a payment solution

+1

+2

[zircon]

Urs, are you sure ShareIt has addressed the problem with free mails not being allowed? I did a test order through them two weeks ago and it still seemed like that was the case.

[WilliamK]

BTW, if you know a little bit about web programming I would advise you to do your own retail site and use Paypal or Google Checkout as a payment solution

+1

+2

+3

[Aleksey Vaneev]

Its funny how things are. 2CheckOut was terrible for me, too many chargebacks, while PayPal is also fully automated and almost no chargebacks.

Wk

PayPal has a bad attitude towards people outside the 'golden billion'.

[sosayweall]

I have just had a closer look at Shareit's FLEX developer agreement, and I am shocked by what I see.

My initial concern was just that we didn't want to let Shareit have full access to our products, and was told by Shareit that the FLEX option is the way to go. However, not only FLEX's agreemnt is still vague in whether Shareit has the right to demand for full access to the software sold, the other terms are simply unimaginable.

Is this contract even legal? I mean, it seems just too unfair to be a valid contract. What do you (other software devs using Shareit) guys think of it?

(1) We may sell your Products, as a reseller, on our e-commerce platform share-it!. This includes, but is not limited to, submitting the Product into our virtual catalogue, provisioning an order form for the secure ordering of the Product via our server, electronically delivering the Product to Customers, collecting payments thereof and collecting Customers' information. More detailed information can be found on our Web site.

(2) If we deliver the Product electronically, you will provide us with your Products either (i) in the form of the software itself by uploading the software in the share-it! Control Panel, or (ii) in the form of a license key or registration key. In both cases you will also provide us with other information regarding your Products that allows us to sell your Products through the share-it! e-commerce platform.

(3) You may provide us with suggested retail prices for the Products ("Suggested Retail Price"). As the reseller, we shall be free to determine, in exercise of our sole and absolute discretion, the actual prices at which we will resell the Products through the share-it! e-commerce platform ("Purchase Price").

(4) Title to all Products will remain with you until we process an order by a Customer, at which time we purchase the applicable Products from you, and title to those Products will pass to us for immediate subsequent passage to the Customer. We shall have full control over the terms and conditions of sale, and text of pages which are utilized in connection with the share-it! e-commerce platform. We will retain ownership of the share-it! e-commerce platform.

[TheSteven]

Edited: (less attitude/more information)
=================
During the last couple of years Digital Rivers has bought up/bought out most of the significant players in this arena.

RegNow
ShareIT!
DigiBuy (now defunct or in the last stages of being phased out?)
element5
FileBasket
SiliconRealms
-- all now owned by Digital River.

I think it was ShareIT! that I was recently checking out (might have been RegNow) where their commission was based off of the full retail price of your software.

* If you had a sale or discount coupons - their commission was based off of the full sale price.
* If you had charge backs - they (DR) kept their commission, the difference was paid by you.

I didn't like the 'we control everything & will do what we like with your software' attitude.

That's why I'm currently using paypal.

[james0tucson]

Is this contract even legal?

Does the contract require any party to do something that is illegal?
Are there parties to the contract?
Does the contract have subject matter?
Is the contract mutually agreed to by the parties?
Is there some tangible consideration (e.g., payment) associated with the contract?

If the answers are no, yes, yes, yes, yes, then it's a valid contract.

Is your problem simply that the contract makes some actions optional?
That's not illegal. It's quite common to have options in contract clauses.

[sosayweall]

Is this contract even legal?

Does the contract require any party to do something that is illegal?
Are there parties to the contract?
Does the contract have subject matter?
Is the contract mutually agreed to by the parties?
Is there some tangible consideration (e.g., payment) associated with the contract?

If the answers are no, yes, yes, yes, yes, then it's a valid contract.

Is your problem simply that the contract makes some actions optional?
That's not illegal. It's quite common to have options in contract clauses.

I guess you are right. As long as the actual terms are not illegal, it's valid then. However valid it may be, shareit's terms are simply outrageously unfair. As shown in the quoted text, they take away all the crucial rights from the developers; and that can definitely be a huge problem, if Shareit decide to take advantage of the agreement.

We may have to give in in the end, unfortunately.

[AdmiralQuality]

My advice is to get your own site up, and use PayPal for your sales. They have the lower fees, and you get the money right away with their debit-card, or by withdrawing to your bank-account. (not all countries works with PayPal)

+1

We offer Share-it too -- but only as a payment processor, we don't let them "distribute" (what possible value could they add?) and they take WAY more money off the top than PayPal do. And yes, they send you the money when they feel like it (quarterly is it?). I'd recommend getting your own website. You don't need a "distributor", this is the Web! (Unless that distributor is going to put your product in boxes on shelves in every music store in the world. That would be worth something.) With PayPal on the other hand you can request your money any time, and you'll have it in your bank account within couple of business days (they say 5 but I've never seen it take more than 2 or 3 days).

Haven't used Don'tCrack, but that was because I didn't see what they were offering. Other than to lump my world-class product in with a bunch of "hobbyist" crap. And I have to offer my product at a DISCOUNT through them? When they're already taking a huge cut???? Riiiiight! Admiral Quality NEVER have sales or discount pricing -- the price is the price, for all time (well, it's allowed to go UP! ) and from anywhere you might buy it (which right now is ONE place, nice and simple). Sales, discounts, etc, that's all just good ways to piss off the people who already bought your product. The early adopters. Your BEST customers. By having a sale you're just teaching them that next time they should wait longer before buying. And by having a discount at some other site, you're teaching them to avoid YOUR site.

I also REALLY hate that "dontcrack" name. It's tantamount to calling it "DidYouKnowYouCanStealThisStuffForFree.com"

I can't praise PayPal enough though. I know some people have a dogmatic problem with them, particularly people in Europe. No idea why, other than PaPal being an American company. (I'd sign up with the Bank of North Korea if it meant better rates!) That's the only reason we offer Share-it, just so people with a PayPal mental block have another option. Not only will Share-it take more of MY money, but they take more of the customers' money too. They also use grossly exaggerated currency exchange rates -- on the day I checked they were 11% more than the banks were doing (when I asked, they told me this was "insurance". But why would you need insurance that the rate isn't going to change for a transaction that's happening NOW? Are they afraid the exchange rate is going to change by 11% in the next 5 minutes?) It's borderline criminal, if you ask me. So here's a tip to the Share-it buyer, ALWAYS buy in the native currency of the seller and let your credit card company do the currency conversion rather than have Share-it convert to your country's currency at their artificially inflated (always in their favour) rates.

And we also occasionally get an email from people saying "I don't have PayPal, I'd like to send you my credit card number". I do my best to try to explain to these people that you don't "have" PayPal, they're just a payment service and they'll be happy to take that same credit card info you were about to give me, and they will then provide MUCH better security through their systems than I could ever offer on my $200/yr web hosting plan on a server I don't own or administrate. I don't WANT your credit card info! I can't afford to keep it safe!

PayPal. Forget distributors. Spend the money you'd lose to them on advertising for your own website. The internet is the distributer.

Here's one Poly-Ana sale from PayPal...

Apr. 11, 2008 Payment From Xxxxx Yyyyy Completed Details $129.95 USD -$5.37 USD $124.58 USD

So $129.95 USD becomes $124.58 USD. Not bad.

And here is what I get from Share-it. We sold one Poly-Ana through them last pay period. And on top of the total they show, there's additional service charges from the bank for the wire transfer that I don't get through PayPal...

---------------------------------------------NET------TAX/VAT---------GROSS
share-it! Revenue USD 129.95 0.00 129.95
share-it! Margin USD -9.45 0.00 -9.45
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTAL (Products/Licences) USD 120.50 0.00 120.50
Additional services / credit no USD -2.00 0.00 -2.00
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTAL USD 118.50 0.00 118.50
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTAL BALANCE USD --.-- --.-- 118.50

With Share-it $129.95 USD becomes $118.50 USD. And to top it off, that became $116.01 CAD by the time it got into our bank. In small part due to the Canadian dollar actually being a tiny bit higher than the US dollar these days. But mostly due to the higher (and hidden) transfer fee through Share-it. PayPal on the other hand charge $0.50 for transfers under $150, and free for any amount over $150. Says so right where you request the transfer, no surprises.

[Shy]

I'm under the impression that Google Checkout might be better than the rest right now. Has any seller here had experience with it? I bought two products through it by the way, went nice and smooth.

[AdmiralQuality]

I'm under the impression that Google Checkout might be better than the rest right now. Has any seller here had experience with it? I bought two products through it by the way, went nice and smooth.

I love google, conceptually ("don't be evil!"), so... worth a look. It just wasn't ready when I set up my site.

I'm not married to PayPal, but... they've never done me wrong and it's been a generally wonderful experience. Yes, their interface sucks, but... try Share-It and you will get a whole new appreciation for suction. (To Share-it's credit, they did eventually provide interfaces for stuff I had to do by email before.)

End of the day, both services send you money. Just, PayPal sends it to you when you want it, with far more complete accounting. And they take WAY less for the service.

[Gavin@FAW]

If you want to handle the payments and distribution of the software yourself, I'd recommend checking out Ruby Rails.

[ATS]

interesting... I myself am also not in the computer software bizz, but boy I can't stand share it. Its makes buying very difficult, their support is NIL.

I mean, seriously their customer service blows.

anyways, what about paypal, and google check out and the like? I mean, it would seem to me that providing excellent freeware, and an Open Source project, paves the way for software sales.

I mean, its looks that way. Not always, obviously... but, chances are, if your freeware is constantly getting use on my machine, sooner or later I am buying a payware from you....

I called support at shareit once and it was crazy how rude this lady was to me on the phone. I stayed calm and didn't cuss her out but I really wanted to.

[Music Engineer]

update: O.K. i'm going to set up my sales-system in the coming days in order to start selling in early august. i wanted to go with dontcrack but after two mails without response i have to choose another route. i have narrowed down the options to 2checkout and google checkout - after all that has being said in this thread (thanks again fellows - the infos were really helpful) share-it seems not to be good because of the contract details. setting up paypal seems to require some web programming knowledge, which to aquire would cost me too much time. 2checkout and google checkout seem to be quickly up and running by just pasting some html code into my site. ...now which of the two? i would choose google for the 'trust-factor' (google is a well known and well trusted brand) but am i right in the reception that google checkout offers only one payment method, and that is via credit card? that would narrow down the pool of potential customers considerably, i think.