Question about selling ebooks via your website

[MrPLD]

Steven,

Just waking up at the moment - will post up those scripts for you in an hour or two... need breakfast, coffee, walk around the property... etc

http://elitadaniels.com

[Steven Lake]

lol. Yeah, I know how that goes. Will happily wait for your reply. ^_^

[MrPLD]

Steven,

Okay, the critical file is the http://pldaniels.com/downloads/ipnrx-php.txt file which you have to tell PayPal to request (you choose the URL when you create the button).

The normal receipt file that people see is something like http://pldaniels.com/downloads/pprebook-php.txt

If you need more info, just holler - the one that is the trickiest is the ipnrx one.

Both files are skeletons but the key in the ipnrx one is that it opens up the SSL/https backchannel to PayPal to validate the transaction for you.

Paul.

[Steven Lake]

Danke, good sir!

[MrPLD]

Steven, I made a slightly better package at the following;

http://pldaniels.com/downloads/itemsale.zip


Maybe I should consider putting some effort into making a bit of a 'self contained' 1-item sale page + sqlite3 database.

Paul.

[B.K. Wright]

I use e-Junkie. It is easy, fast, and the customer's financial info. is kept on their server, so lessens your liability if your website should happen to be breached in some way. It is very easy to use, can use Paypal and other means of payment, and it is very inexpensive -- only $18 a month to carry 60 items -- ebooks or other stuff. It is very user friendly. And, you can try it for free for a week!!

[Steven Lake]

Originally Posted by MrPLD

Steven, I made a slightly better package at the following;

http://pldaniels.com/downloads/itemsale.zip


Maybe I should consider putting some effort into making a bit of a 'self contained' 1-item sale page + sqlite3 database.

Paul.

Hey, if you could do that, it'd be awesome. Thanks! I'll also look at the other file and see how that works for me.

[MrPLD]

Sounds like more work for me

Hope you had some success with the initial files. As mentioned, it's the ipn.php file which contains the real 'key' to making it all work.

Paul.

[simon462]

Originally Posted by Steven Lake

Alright, I'm seriously considering offering ebooks for sale via my website to help with those who either can't go through my current vendors (ezbooks & smashwords) or who prefer to deal directly with me, the author. The problem is, I only take credit card payments online through paypal. So here's my questions.

1. Is there some kind of shopping cart system that will interface with paypal that you guys trust? (it needs to take payment via paypal, and then allow download of the ebook)

2. Is there a different payment system you guys recommend for online website transactions, or should I stick with paypal?

Currently the only way I can sell ebooks via my website is to A) have the user pay what they owe via my tip jar, then B) I email them the ebook once I have payment. I'd rather not do that if I can help it, but that's the only way I have available to me at present. Any suggestions would be welcome. Thanks.

Steve, did you have a good developer for your web site, can you recommend one? Does your web site access multi formats - nook, ipad etc

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by simon462

Steve, did you have a good developer for your web site, can you recommend one? Does your web site access multi formats - nook, ipad etc

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by simon462

Steve, did you have a good developer for your web site, can you recommend one? Does your web site access multi formats - nook, ipad etc

nook, iPad, etc are not eBook format. They are electronic devices capable of displaying eBooks in different formats with different DRM.

[GeoffC]

it's a case of someone jumping without checking facts .... (perhaps)

[Steven Lake]

Originally Posted by simon462

Steve, did you have a good developer for your web site, can you recommend one? Does your web site access multi formats - nook, ipad etc

I actually developed my own site. I'm a part time cloud app developer. I write custom cloud apps for people and businesses as time and my writing/event schedule permits. It's a nice bit of side work to earn a little extra cash.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

nook, iPad, etc are not eBook format. They are electronic devices capable of displaying eBooks in different formats with different DRM.

Originally Posted by GeoffC

it's a case of someone jumping without checking facts .... (perhaps)

Or generally mistaking the device for the format, or mixing up the two. I've actually seen that with quite a number of users who I've dealt with in my development work. They think their computers are a specific format rather than a platform. I had one ask me one time if my apps were compatible with their systems. I said, "What OS are you running?" to which they replied "Dell XPS." lol.