selling plugins - which distributor?

[ughnonumus]

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'.

I missed an opportunity to get in on the ground floor with PayPal, before they took off.

[Music Engineer]

setting up paypal seems to require some web programming knowledge, which to aquire would cost me too much time.

seems i was wrong - only basic html is required for the simplest integration option. i just had some other (wrong) tutorial for another, more complicated option. very good. in that case, i will use paypal.

[Leslie Sanford]

setting up paypal seems to require some web programming knowledge, which to aquire would cost me too much time.

seems i was wrong - only basic html is required for the simplest integration option. i just had some other (wrong) tutorial for another, more complicated option. very good. in that case, i will use paypal.

Yeah, all I did was cut 'n paste the code they generate for you for the Buy buttons into my web page's HTML code. Worked fine.

[dblue]

I just wanted to bump this thread and ask if anyone has used, or has considered using, http://www.e-junkie.com for selling their audio software (or any other software I suppose)? It seems quite friendly and has some nice features, and a lot of people online seem to praise it, whereas I see quite a lot of negativity aimed at ShareIt, SWREG, etc.

Ultimately, I could create my own system based on PayPal or Google Checkout (I created a system based on PayPal IPN some years ago), but it would be nice to avoid the headaches and simply use a robust, pre-existing system. I'm just curious what the experience is like for the user/customer... whether it's easy for them to access their purchased downloads in the future, etc.

Anyone got any experience with this particular site/service?

[Edit]
And here's one more that I'm kinda curious about: http://www.fastspring.com
Anyone using this one?

[Baz]

Whatever the system used to look "pro"...It's not really usefull to setup this kind of scommercial strategy.For selling one licence per day ( and even less), this is really not necessary.Anf finally I'm sure most of the people here have to handle less than ten sells per month...

[valhallasound]

Bumping this thread...

Any thoughts on this from a mid-2010 perspective?

I am looking for a solution that can take customer input, and deliver a key file or serial number (+ download link) via email. Share-It seems pretty good for that, but the comments in this thread are on the negative side. However, the thread dates from 2008, so it would be interesting to see how things stand today.

I have no web programming experience, and I am not sure if my web provider would allow me to run a command line program on their servers to generate the key files. It probably wouldn't hurt to learn web programming and the like (it may end up being a better career choice than audio DSP at this point), but I want to finish up my first commercial plugin sooner rather than later.

Thanks in advance for any advice / feedback / what have you.

Sean Costello

[Lotuzia]

Bumping this thread...

Any thoughts on this from a mid-2010 perspective?

I am looking for a solution that can take customer input, and deliver a key file or serial number (+ download link) via email. Share-It seems pretty good for that, but the comments in this thread are on the negative side. However, the thread dates from 2008, so it would be interesting to see how things stand today.

I have no web programming experience, and I am not sure if my web provider would allow me to run a command line program on their servers to generate the key files. It probably wouldn't hurt to learn web programming and the like (it may end up being a better career choice than audio DSP at this point), but I want to finish up my first commercial plugin sooner rather than later.

Thanks in advance for any advice / feedback / what have you.

Sean Costello

You might want to have a look at solutions like zencart. These solutions will provide you both the structure of your site + plug in prebuild solutions to implement Paypal IPN solutions, wich will give your users the possibility to use a cart system, and thus avoid to go thru the entire check out process if they buy more than one item on your shop.

There's no need to reinvent the wheel imho

Then for dynamic websites, or solutions like zencart, more or less PHP mastering is required. With PHP you can generate serials based on personal data on the fly for example, with very simple code.

Dont forget though that in this case, all the DL + the code to generate serials will be present on your server, making it look like a tasty target for various attacks.

Some cart systems include some direct DL plug ins possiblilities. There are known security issues (and probably unknown as well )

Anyway the basic choices remain -imho- :

. Non Real time (off line ) instantaneous delivery
. Basic Protection ( Serial aso )
. More Efficient protection (with additional costs and the use of 3rd party partners like dongle providers aso)
. Try to Find a distro deal ( Like with AD as you coded their reverb algo )

In case it helps,

LtZ

[kv331]

My 2 cents on the topic:

For selling my software synth, I use swreg.org. Pretty good service, and they take around %4 commission, which is acceptable for me. When there is a sale on swreg.org, they notify me so I can add the new user into my database, and send the user download link for the software. The software is stored on my web server, and the user downloads it by entering their registered email address + serial number. So I only need SWREG for the payment processing that's it, I handle all the rest myself.

For this to work, I had to write code in ASP.NET / C# / SQL Server, but it's well worth the effort.

[Urs]

OT: I'd recommend not to put keygens on your own webserver. Nowadays it's easier to gain access/control over a webserver than to reverse a strong serial number algorithm - which is why I think I'm getting all those attempts to break the various applications on my webserver (phpbb, wordpress, joomla). Hence I moved my keygens to a different server.

[kv331]

Nowadays it's easier to gain access/control over a webserver than to reverse a strong serial number algorithm

Well, I just trust Microsoft and my hosting company that such a thing wont happen. Of course I took the necessary steps to write secure code, which is not vulnerable to for instance SQL injection attacks.

[valhallasound]

OT: I'd recommend not to put keygens on your own webserver. Nowadays it's easier to gain access/control over a webserver than to reverse a strong serial number algorithm - which is why I think I'm getting all those attempts to break the various applications on my webserver (phpbb, wordpress, joomla). Hence I moved my keygens to a different server.

Are you referring to Share-It, with regards to the keygens? Or do you have your own e-commerce solution nowadays?

I had originally thought of just putting up a PayPal link, and manually sending out the keyfiles (or serial numbers, wherever I end up landing), but this makes going on vacation without bringing a laptop along somewhat difficult. Are there other hosting companies that will host command-line keygen apps that you provide?

Thanks,

Sean

[kv331]

which is why I think I'm getting all those attempts to break the various applications on my webserver (phpbb, wordpress, joomla).

You're referring to a request like this:

http://www.kv331audio.com/DownloadFile. ... etc/passwd

Luckly those generate errors, and I email the errors back to myself so I know if someone is trying to attack the web site.

[kv331]

but this makes going on vacation without bringing a laptop along somewhat difficult.

Hey, regardless of the keygen generation, you should always have your laptop with you if you're in this business I always carry it with me even on vacations, you never know... Someone can report a showstopper bug so you have to respond immediately

[Urs]

Sean,

I *highly* recommend to automate the keyfile generation. I've been through manually sending it - my nights & vacations have become much more like they should be, ever since I switched to some automated system.

@kv331: Yes, attacks like that and numerous other ones (DDOS, SSH login attempts). I'm hosting an unspeakable number of dynamic sites on my server, including some home grown applications. There's always a chance for a vulnerability so I won't take any risk as long as they can't write keygens.

Urs

[jobromedia]

Want an advice? Set up a site with Joomla! and VirtueMart. Gives you the freedom to choose what payment ways you want to allow. Takes a whole lot more work to install and manage the site, but once it's done it runs smoothly. I've got this configuration myself on my site. It has the benefit that you can reap all the profits.