Featured Seller: BuildARamp.com

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.

Featured Seller: TheContractorsGroup.com

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

Featured Seller: CartoonSmart.com

This is the first post in a series on merchants that sell digital goods. We hope to provide some insight into people who have had success in the digital downloads area from a wide variety of product types.

This week we have Justin from CartoonSmart.com here to tell us a little bit about how he approaches selling digital goods online. He has been with PayLoadz almost since the beginning, so we are very happy to feature him here.

Tell us about what kind of digital goods you sell.
Downloadable High Quality Video Tutorials mostly focusing on teaching Adobe Flash.

What file and delivery formats do you use?
Zip files (remotely hosted and PayLoadz hosted), for file delivery, and QuickTime for video tutorial playback as well as Flash source (.fla) and movie (.swf) files .

How long have you been selling your items?
Three years now.

How have your sales performance changed since you started selling?
Mostly on the rise.

What tools have helped your increase your sales?
PayLoadz, in the sense that buyers love an immediate download, which often times equates to an immediate solution to their problem. Many of my buyers have a need to learn Flash quickly, either the boss put them on a deadline or they have a school project due soon. So instead of waiting days or weeks for something in the mail, they are instantly gratified.

What tools or service have helped you manage your business?
Aside from PayLoadz, PayPal is another big one. I think non-PayPal merchants underestimate how many folks already have an account, and are more willing to buy because they DON’T have to use their credit card on yet another site.

What types of marketing do you rely on?
Google Adwords and Yahoo’s Search Marketing.

Can you provide any advice to sellers just getting started selling digital goods?
Play up the immediate download thing! A couple times I’ve bought from other e-merchants that were a bit vague about when the post-purchase download would occur. And then I was surprised to find out these merchants were using Payloadz. If you can put emphasis on getting your product right away, you always should. Especially when you consider how often cart-abandonment occurs. If a buyer has any uncertainty it usually boils down to a whole cart load of sales being abandoned. Also don’t mention a download time-limit, or make it seem like it’s a one-shot attempt at downloading. You want people comfortable when buying. And some buyers have this self-imposed download-pressure regardless, so anything you say to alleviate that helps.

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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