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
------------------------------------
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!
Showing posts with label payloadz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label payloadz. Show all posts
Friday, February 29, 2008
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Digital Rights Management (DRM) Decreases Sales and Increases Costs
(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.
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.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Round Trip Product Import/Export
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
Cheers,
Shannon
Friday, April 27, 2007
Registration Key Bug
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
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
Saturday, April 7, 2007
Product Image Upload for Store Listing
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
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
Friday, April 6, 2007
Bulk Product Import Revisions
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
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
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Features and Fixes: March 2007
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
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
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
New PayLoadz Site Design Live
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.
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
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Beta - Syndicated Affiliate Ads
Here is a pretty cool idea methinks. Apparently, anyone who sells anything should have affiliates accounting for %25 of their sales total. I personally have not seen this in practice, but that is the claim made by several marketing sources. The Affiliate System at PayLoadz is bare-bones to say the least- that could be a reason for the low affiliate sales. During the new site rollout, we are working to bring the entire section up to speed, but that is another matter.
This post is about a new feature I put out today for syndicated affiliate ads. You may be familiar with similar functionality in services like AdBrite and AdSense (I actually wrote one of these kinds of apps years ago). I had thought about doing something similar to this, but this is much more exciting imho. I decided that our affiliate system could leverage this type of ad syndication. It works off of simple cut-n-paste HTML/JavaScript code that an affiliate adds to their web page. Here is a first-draft version of what the ads look like:
The system is very cool for both parties involved, the seller and the affiliate. the seller does not have to worry about marketing their affiliate program to try and get new affiliates and the affiliate does not have to tediously select individual products to market.
While it is fully functioning at the start (possible bugs aside), the revised versions will have ad customization in appearance and product types, categories based on the PayLoadz Store, as well as different ad formats. Oh, and a cooler name.
I'm pretty happy with it :)
Shannon
fyi- You can see the ads in action on the bottom right-hand column of this blog as well.
This post is about a new feature I put out today for syndicated affiliate ads. You may be familiar with similar functionality in services like AdBrite and AdSense (I actually wrote one of these kinds of apps years ago). I had thought about doing something similar to this, but this is much more exciting imho. I decided that our affiliate system could leverage this type of ad syndication. It works off of simple cut-n-paste HTML/JavaScript code that an affiliate adds to their web page. Here is a first-draft version of what the ads look like:
The system is very cool for both parties involved, the seller and the affiliate. the seller does not have to worry about marketing their affiliate program to try and get new affiliates and the affiliate does not have to tediously select individual products to market.While it is fully functioning at the start (possible bugs aside), the revised versions will have ad customization in appearance and product types, categories based on the PayLoadz Store, as well as different ad formats. Oh, and a cooler name.
I'm pretty happy with it :)
Shannon
fyi- You can see the ads in action on the bottom right-hand column of this blog as well.
Thursday, February 8, 2007
Alternative Reason for Jobs' Opinion on DRM
I hope to make this quick, even though this topic is extremely complex. Steve Jobs came out earlier this week in an open letter to the RIAA stating that he wanted to remove their FairPlay DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) from the music sold in the iTunes platform. He gave several reasons for this and pundits gave several more, but they all failed to key in on one I have had to deal with when implementing DRM, cost.
We were pioneers in the digital downloadable music space. We were the first service to break into the Billboard Top 10 singles for a digital download, a feat we managed to do twice, well before the days of iTunes. We did this selling an unprotected MP3 and a DRM protected WMA file. I will not reveal the specifics, but needless to say, the MP3 version outsold the DRM WMA version 15 to 1. I think the on was just a person who read "Windows Media Player" and thought that must be the version you want. That was 2002 I believe.
We had implemented the DRM platform to the best of our ability. It had a lot of problems. I shouldn't go into too much detail here, but the problem was on the DRM platform itself, not our implementation. Though, it may have been a bit tougher then, it still illustrated the issues behind using a system. While we were selling, a large percentage of customer who bought the DRM file had issues, like being on a Mac and not reading the media player version requirements, etc. It was really just not worth it in terms of support costs and time. Not to mention the time and costs associated with putting the system in place and maintaining it.
Fast forward to 2007. We still get support email requests from customers who bought the $1.49 single years ago claiming they cannot play their WMA file because it is asking for a license that they no longer have due to a variety of legitimate reasons including new computers, formatting, etc. The time it takes us to find their order and reissue a license costs much more than the original $1.49 that it was sold for.
I wanted to save the whole DRM thing for another series of posts, but I had to start with this. I will tell you, as an operator of a service that provides a downloadable service, DRM does nothing but increase costs, increase support time, and decrease sales. More on that later...
Cheers,
Shannon
We were pioneers in the digital downloadable music space. We were the first service to break into the Billboard Top 10 singles for a digital download, a feat we managed to do twice, well before the days of iTunes. We did this selling an unprotected MP3 and a DRM protected WMA file. I will not reveal the specifics, but needless to say, the MP3 version outsold the DRM WMA version 15 to 1. I think the on was just a person who read "Windows Media Player" and thought that must be the version you want. That was 2002 I believe.
We had implemented the DRM platform to the best of our ability. It had a lot of problems. I shouldn't go into too much detail here, but the problem was on the DRM platform itself, not our implementation. Though, it may have been a bit tougher then, it still illustrated the issues behind using a system. While we were selling, a large percentage of customer who bought the DRM file had issues, like being on a Mac and not reading the media player version requirements, etc. It was really just not worth it in terms of support costs and time. Not to mention the time and costs associated with putting the system in place and maintaining it.
Fast forward to 2007. We still get support email requests from customers who bought the $1.49 single years ago claiming they cannot play their WMA file because it is asking for a license that they no longer have due to a variety of legitimate reasons including new computers, formatting, etc. The time it takes us to find their order and reissue a license costs much more than the original $1.49 that it was sold for.
I wanted to save the whole DRM thing for another series of posts, but I had to start with this. I will tell you, as an operator of a service that provides a downloadable service, DRM does nothing but increase costs, increase support time, and decrease sales. More on that later...
Cheers,
Shannon
Friday, January 19, 2007
BitPass Shuts Down
I just received this email from BitPass:
Dear Valued Bitpass Buyer,
We want to thank you for your past business, however due to circumstances beyond our control, we are discontinuing our operations.
We have partnered with Digital River to provide operational support during the period prior to shut down. As of today, January 19, 2007, all Bitpass Buyers with US dollar denominated accounts are being notified that they will have seven (7) days to spend any amounts that currently exist in their Bitpass Account.
During this seven day period, US Buyers will not be able to further fund their account. On January 26, all US Bitpass Buyer accounts will be closed and Digital River will begin the process of refunding all unspent monies to the accountholder.
All account records and materials will be retained for 60 days and available upon request. Again we would like to thank you for your business and support.
Matthew Graves
Chief Operating Officer
Bitpass Inc.
Not sure what to think of this one. They were one of the first movers in the "Micropayments" payment solutions. They had a decent product, but one that was fundamentally flawed due to the pre-funding of the account requirement. That was not their fault however, it was just a reality of the payment processors and credit card companies at the time.
They may have been slightly ahead of their time. Even PayPal is realizing the importance of Micropayment transaction fees and Google Checkout could use their large credit card accounts to influence fees as well. They were one of our first competitors, though, they stayed married to the Micropayment concept. They were able to raise over $13 million in venture capital funding. To me, it seemed like a buzzword more than a business foundation. I thought their company could have survived in the standard value transaction processing arena in digital content.
I wish their team luck,
Shannon
PayLoadz.com
p.s.- Welcome diggrs!
Dear Valued Bitpass Buyer,
We want to thank you for your past business, however due to circumstances beyond our control, we are discontinuing our operations.
We have partnered with Digital River to provide operational support during the period prior to shut down. As of today, January 19, 2007, all Bitpass Buyers with US dollar denominated accounts are being notified that they will have seven (7) days to spend any amounts that currently exist in their Bitpass Account.
During this seven day period, US Buyers will not be able to further fund their account. On January 26, all US Bitpass Buyer accounts will be closed and Digital River will begin the process of refunding all unspent monies to the accountholder.
All account records and materials will be retained for 60 days and available upon request. Again we would like to thank you for your business and support.
Matthew Graves
Chief Operating Officer
Bitpass Inc.
Not sure what to think of this one. They were one of the first movers in the "Micropayments" payment solutions. They had a decent product, but one that was fundamentally flawed due to the pre-funding of the account requirement. That was not their fault however, it was just a reality of the payment processors and credit card companies at the time.
They may have been slightly ahead of their time. Even PayPal is realizing the importance of Micropayment transaction fees and Google Checkout could use their large credit card accounts to influence fees as well. They were one of our first competitors, though, they stayed married to the Micropayment concept. They were able to raise over $13 million in venture capital funding. To me, it seemed like a buzzword more than a business foundation. I thought their company could have survived in the standard value transaction processing arena in digital content.
I wish their team luck,
Shannon
PayLoadz.com
p.s.- Welcome diggrs!
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Sample Audio Player
We just put the ability to hear a sample of an audio file into the PayLoadz Store. It allows visitors to hear a sample of the music or audio before they buy.
This feature has been long overdue. There are a ton of reasons of reasons why I "thought" this would be so hard. It turns out, we were able to do it in a day or so. It is just version 1 as of now. I think with this foundation we can do a lot with players like this and build our eCommerce system directly into the player itself easily enough.
Have a listen to some Yodeling :)
Cheers,
Shannon
This feature has been long overdue. There are a ton of reasons of reasons why I "thought" this would be so hard. It turns out, we were able to do it in a day or so. It is just version 1 as of now. I think with this foundation we can do a lot with players like this and build our eCommerce system directly into the player itself easily enough.
Have a listen to some Yodeling :)
Cheers,
Shannon
Thursday, December 28, 2006
CD Fulfillment Beta - Update
In my previous post, I wrote about our CD fulfillment system that we have just launched for PayLoadz. After some more work on our end and the end of the shipping provider, the system is now capable of supporting products with more than one file. A small, but crucial, update to the system if we hope to have our users take advantage of this feature. Of the 200,000 products in our system, only 2% of the products have multiple files for each product.
More info on the PayLoadz CD delivery service can be found here.
Shannon
More info on the PayLoadz CD delivery service can be found here.
Shannon
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
PayLoadz.com CD Fulfillment Beta
I don't like releasing a product or service in "beta". Basically, it is just a way of saying, this might have some issues with it so don't complain. Google loves teh Beta! Any time I have heard criticism of a Google offering, someone quickly responds, "Give them a break, it's in Beta, what do you expect?" Well, I don't want to use the term as an excuse. Nor do I want a year long Beta as many people seem to do. I'd like to have a full roll out in a week or two, depending on the holiday craziness.
Right now, the PayLoadz digital goods ecommerce system is enabled to send the customers of our sellers their file on CD instead of a download. A lot of people prefer CDs, or do not have the connection to download very large files, so they would rather have a CD shipped to them. Great. We can now do this for them.
These are the current CD Fulfillment System limitations:
Single Item Purchase: The first release will require that you sell a CD by itself. You can't use the shopping cart method at this time. Should not be a huge deal in a lot of cases. We already built the shopping cart functionality for the most part, but want to see how this goes. In the near future, customers will be able to add a CD backup to their download, or just get all of the files on a CD.
Data CD Format: The system is capable of doing DVDs and Music/Audio CDs. We don't have the full logistics of the user interface in place to handle these two options, but will be adding them soon. So if you are selling a disc, ensure it is around 750MB or less in size.
Single File Products: Only products that have a single file attached to them can currently use the system. This is a limitation of our provider's API. This is being addressed as I write this and this limitation will be removed in a few days.
CD Mailers: The current CD mailers will be minimally branded with PayLoadz designs. The API we are using to fulfill the CDs provides a means to customize the mailer and disc image, so we will build that into teh full release system as well.
For more information, we have a short help entry here.
Happy Holidays,
Shannon
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
How To Sell Downloads with Google
I'm happy to announce we just launched support for Google Checkout on our PayLoadz.com service. The full press release below:
PAYLOADZ.COM ANNOUNCES FULFILLMENT SUPPORT FOR GOOGLE CHECKOUT; GOOGLE AWARDS THE PAYLOADZ SOLUTION HIGHEST LEVEL OF CERTIFICATION
NEW YORK, NY – NOVEMBER 15, 2006 – (FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE) PayLoadz Inc. (http://PayLoadz.com/), the leading provider of fulfillment for digital products, announces support for Google Checkout transaction processing. Publishers using the Payloadz digital good delivery service may now accept payments via Google Checkout in addition to the existing PayPal system. After payment, customers receive an email with secure download instructions for their purchase.
Working closely with Google engineers to ensure the deepest level of integration, PayLoadz.com becomes the first Google Integration Partner provider to specialize in digitally delivered goods. Products such as software, video, audio, ebooks, or any other e-product that can be downloaded, may be listed for sale with PayLoadz and paid for with Google Checkout.
Shannon Sofield, founder and CEO of PayLoadz Inc., noted the significance of being first to market with modules for Google Checkout. “Google has proven once again that scale combined with forward-thinking implementation creates a powerful solution. Publishers who want a ready-made system for selling digital goods need look no farther than the PayLoadz.com and Google Checkout system.”
Consistent with the PayLoadz.com model, publishers get paid immediately when a customer makes a purchase. Emerging publishers can get started for free and only subscribe once they start making sales.Merchants interested in using PayLoadz and Google Checkout can visit http://payloadz.com/google_checkout.asp to learn more about the solution. The page describes how to sign up with PayLoadz and Google Checkout and configure the accounts to work together seamlessly.
As an added bonus, Google is waiving all Google Checkout transaction fees until January 1, 2007. Merchants may take advantage of this savings by creating an account and getting started today. Publishers who subscribe to PayLoadz and set up their Google Checkout account receive double the amount of secure storage space for downloadable products.
Visit the PayLoadz.com website (http://PayLoadz.com/) to learn more about the company’s fulfillment features.
About PayLoadz Inc.
PayLoadz Inc., based in New York City, is the leading provider of tools and infrastructure for selling digital goods on the Internet. With over 44,000 registered merchants selling 250,000, PayLoadz remains the first mover in the marketspace for downloadable goods. PayLoadz is a privately-held enterprise. More information on PayLoadz is available at http://PayLoadz.com/.
PayLoadz and PayLoadz Express are registered trademarks of PayLoadz Inc. Google Checkout is a registered trademark of Google Inc. Used with permission. All other marks are property of their respective owners.
PAYLOADZ.COM ANNOUNCES FULFILLMENT SUPPORT FOR GOOGLE CHECKOUT; GOOGLE AWARDS THE PAYLOADZ SOLUTION HIGHEST LEVEL OF CERTIFICATION
NEW YORK, NY – NOVEMBER 15, 2006 – (FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE) PayLoadz Inc. (http://PayLoadz.com/), the leading provider of fulfillment for digital products, announces support for Google Checkout transaction processing. Publishers using the Payloadz digital good delivery service may now accept payments via Google Checkout in addition to the existing PayPal system. After payment, customers receive an email with secure download instructions for their purchase.
Working closely with Google engineers to ensure the deepest level of integration, PayLoadz.com becomes the first Google Integration Partner provider to specialize in digitally delivered goods. Products such as software, video, audio, ebooks, or any other e-product that can be downloaded, may be listed for sale with PayLoadz and paid for with Google Checkout.
Shannon Sofield, founder and CEO of PayLoadz Inc., noted the significance of being first to market with modules for Google Checkout. “Google has proven once again that scale combined with forward-thinking implementation creates a powerful solution. Publishers who want a ready-made system for selling digital goods need look no farther than the PayLoadz.com and Google Checkout system.”
Consistent with the PayLoadz.com model, publishers get paid immediately when a customer makes a purchase. Emerging publishers can get started for free and only subscribe once they start making sales.Merchants interested in using PayLoadz and Google Checkout can visit http://payloadz.com/google_checkout.asp to learn more about the solution. The page describes how to sign up with PayLoadz and Google Checkout and configure the accounts to work together seamlessly.
As an added bonus, Google is waiving all Google Checkout transaction fees until January 1, 2007. Merchants may take advantage of this savings by creating an account and getting started today. Publishers who subscribe to PayLoadz and set up their Google Checkout account receive double the amount of secure storage space for downloadable products.
Visit the PayLoadz.com website (http://PayLoadz.com/) to learn more about the company’s fulfillment features.
About PayLoadz Inc.
PayLoadz Inc., based in New York City, is the leading provider of tools and infrastructure for selling digital goods on the Internet. With over 44,000 registered merchants selling 250,000, PayLoadz remains the first mover in the marketspace for downloadable goods. PayLoadz is a privately-held enterprise. More information on PayLoadz is available at http://PayLoadz.com/.
PayLoadz and PayLoadz Express are registered trademarks of PayLoadz Inc. Google Checkout is a registered trademark of Google Inc. Used with permission. All other marks are property of their respective owners.
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Help us get the word out and
Thanks!
Shannon
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