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jamestl2
06-09-2010, 09:31 PM
While I was doing Freelance work, the employers could easily just pay me via an escrow (freelance site's) account, else they'd just insert money into my PayPal account, once the projects were completed of course.

However, now that I eventually plan on releasing essentially tangible products (premium Wordpress themes, possibly plugins too), the payment methods get a bit more complicated.

I COULD just ask them to email me and I'll provide them with special download info, however that could become rather inefficient, and I'd have to set up a special communication system every single time someone wants to purchase an item.

I was thinking of a way to just allow them to make the payment (perhaps via PayPal, as I already have an account there), then they'd automatically gain access to a specific source (the download link) and could just proceed from there. So this way everything would be done on their end, and they wouldn't have to wait / rely on me for a manual transaction which could take hours. We'd want it to be immediate.

However I'm not entirely sure what the best way to set this up would be, and whether I should use an ecommerce / shopping cart script or just write something myself.

What have been your experiences in accepting payments online for the products you offer? Did you use a preexisting system, or something else entirely? Any other thoughts on transactions as well?

Evan
06-09-2010, 10:20 PM
I think PayPal allows for users to be redirected to a special downloads page after they have paid. I am not sure about other options, as website development is no longer my area of expertise.

nealrm
06-09-2010, 10:41 PM
Yes, paypal does have a system in place that will do exactly what you want. Go to their commence area. It give complete instructions. I think they also have some templates setup.

dynocat
06-09-2010, 11:59 PM
If you have a PayPal Business Account, with Website Payments Standard (one of their merchant options), you can create and grab the code for a PayPal Buy Now button for your site. link (https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?&cmd=_render-content&content_ID=developer/e_howto_html_buynow_buttons)

Under Step 3, it explains how after buyer completes the transaction successfully, you automatically direct them to the page on your site where the download is available.
Do you need your buyers’ shipping addresses (optional)?

Yes – Select this radio button to prompt buyers to select or enter shipping addresses during checkout. “Yes” is the default choice for this feature.
No – Select this radio button if you do not want to prompt buyers for shipping addresses. Select this option for items that do not require shipping, such as digital goods that buyers download, or if the item is a service that does not require on-site delivery.

Take buyers to a specific webpage (URL) after checkout cancellation (optional)?
Select the checkbox and enter a URL in the text box if you have a special page on your website where you want buyers to return if they cancel their checkouts before completing their transactions.

Take buyers to a specific webpage (URL) after successful checkout (optional)?
Select the checkbox and enter a URL in the text box if you have a special page on your website where you want buyers to return after they complete their checkouts successfully. bolding mine

It's a pretty simple and secure process.

jamestl2
06-10-2010, 12:23 AM
I take it PayPal is the simplest, easiest system to use then for receiving product payments?

I'm not sure if mine is a "Business Account" or not right now though, that'll be something to change and look into.

Thanks for the recommendations guys (and the link, dynocat). I'll probably go with it.

vangogh
06-10-2010, 10:48 AM
PayPal is going to be the simplest. Most shopping carts will easily connect to it too. Some only need your PayPal address and a few button clicks and they're all set up.

If your asking about how clients would pay you then it's probably a good idea to offer them as many ways as possible. I use PayPal, but I also have a merchant account and for some clients I'll accept checks. Some clients in town will pay me in cash.

More and more people are preferring PayPal, since it's so easy on both ends.

KristineS
06-10-2010, 12:57 PM
We use the Website Payments Pro from PayPal for our companies that take payments and most people don't even know it's Paypal. It functions exactly like any other merchant gateway, except that it does allow you to offer the option of accepting Paypal in addition to credit cards.

It's worked quite well for us.

jamestl2
07-27-2010, 12:12 PM
Hey guys, I think I'm finally ready to implement this solution. I finished up my first premium theme and have most of the details I'll need to categorize / sell the theme.

I just upgraded my PayPal account from Premier to Business and took a look at the developer API (there's a lot there, to be honest).

I believe the business account will allow multiple forms of payment other than just PayPal to PayPal transactions, which will be useful later. For now though, I just want to get a basic PayPal cart up and running (I'm new to the whole e-commerce, good transactions, online merchant world altogether, so this is to keep it simple as it's a learning experience.).


Now the way it looks, I could just go ahead and place a "Buy Now" button next to the theme for sale, however I'm sure I'll create more in the future, so it may not be that efficient in the long run when I want to move code around, rearrange themes, etc. Plus each button seems to need it's own "item name" and details on the PayPal back-end, so that's even more information potentially needing to be managed.

I'm looking at using Website Payments Standard right now, it seems to offer plenty of options. Website Payments Pro may not be overkill for just selling a few themes on my site in the time being.

Also, since I am using Wordpress (since this is for my Wordpress business), maybe I could use a plugin. Anyone have any experience with the Paypal plugins out there?

vangogh
07-27-2010, 12:54 PM
I haven't used a PayPal specific plugin, but I know they're out there. What you may want to do is grab one of the shopping cart plugins. They'll integrate with PayPal. Generally you just have to give some basic details.

I've been using the Shopp plugin (http://shopplugin.net/) lately and I like it. You can set it up to sell digital products like themes. I haven't set it up this way myself, but it should allow you to charge the customer via PayPal and then after paying the customer would end up at the download page on your site. The plugin is $55. There are some additional addons you also have to pay for, but I don't think you would need any.

Using a cart plugin will probably make a lot of things easier, not just the payments.

jamestl2
07-27-2010, 01:07 PM
Shopp looks nice Steve, but I'm not sure I'm ready to purchase something with that many advanced features when just starting out (and to see if it would be a good fit for just a few themes I'm selling).

Yeah, there's probably a few simple e-commerce cart plugins that may be worth looking into for integrating everything together (including PayPal). Thanks for the suggestion.

vangogh
07-27-2010, 01:32 PM
I can understand. It's not too expensive though and it will probably save you money on the time to implement another solution. It'll make the purchase and the download easier, which I think is worth the $55.

AGirlyGirl
07-27-2010, 05:12 PM
I would tell you from experience that you get what you pay for when it comes to carts. My Zen Cart was hacked twice so we ended up switching to a cart that we paid for......worth the money. I agree with vangogh......spend the money and implement the right one the first time. It does save time.

vangogh
07-27-2010, 07:30 PM
Welcome to the forum GirlyGirl. Yeah you do get what you pay for. I've worked with both osCommerce and ZenCart and wouldn't want to work with either again. I've also seen both hacked on more than one occasion.

cbscreative
07-28-2010, 12:25 AM
Agreed. If it's free and/or big name and popular, there is a hoard of hackers with nothing better to do than find the vulnerabilities and exploit them. It's a biggest bang for the buck sort of motivation. If you write a virus, make it for the PC because it will affect the most users. I steer people away from Norton and McAfee because there are a lot of infections out there written specifically to slip right past either one. It's the exact same principle, only in this case, we're talking about payment processing. That's a much more attractive target for the riff raff.

I'd be very reluctant to use the big name freebies. Even if you stay safe, it's a constant maintenance task just to stay updated with security patches. And logic tells me that many people will get hacked before the patches get produced and distributed.

I've observed that many people think they are safe because there are millions of web sites and their chances of getting targeted are small. That's a false sense of security because hackers can scan tens of thousands of sites per minute looking for specific vulnerabilities. If they automate their search, it's a fair bet they can also automate their attack. This all plays dangerously close to scare tactics, but the more you know, the scarier it gets. I know plenty enough to be cautious (and to recommend caution).

Harold Mansfield
07-28-2010, 11:48 AM
I used to do that..."I'll upgrade to the better or paid version later" and it bit me in the butt a few times. Now, if I can't do it with the tools and options that I want and know that I need, I'll wait until I can afford the investment.

For something like your business, selling themes...you want the solution that is going to provide the functions that you need, and make you you look the most professional to customers.
You can't shortcut perception. If you are going to sell Wordpress themes, you should have the best Wordpress tools on your site, including a good shopping cart system...at least one that is equal to your competitors. One of the easiest ways to sell is to make it easy to buy.

Sometimes when you wait to upgrade to a more professional version of something...you know the attitude of "Let me see if I make some money first, and then I'll spend some more money on it"...you never get the chance.

jamestl2
07-28-2010, 12:47 PM
Yeah, you guys are right.

I took a look at Steve's suggestion Shopp behind the scenes and I'll probably go ahead and purchase that shopping cart (it's the best one I've seen so far). It was specifically built for WP too, plenty of options and features to keep track of Customers, Purchases, etc. Even if I'm only selling a few themes.

Maybe I was just hoping there was a good free alternative due to the fact that my bills are starting to come due (a bunch of them) and there was something out there well coded that someone provided freely.

Harold Mansfield
07-28-2010, 12:58 PM
I am the first person to look for it for free or GNU, or GPL. I know where you are coming from, it's the first of the month for everyone, but, it is your business. You have to work it as if it is going to be a success from the ground floor up as much as possible. Where you actually take the money is the most important part of the whole darn shootin' match..you don't want to shortcut there.

I used to tell bar owners this all of the time, "How can you spend this insane amount to open and trust the whole thing on a couple of $250 cash registers? Taking the money is the most important part".

vangogh
07-28-2010, 02:29 PM
I also search for the free stuff too. Sometimes though you have to consider how much time you spend looking for an alternative to a pay option. I won't suggest Shopp is a perfect cart, but for $55 if you spend an hour looking for an alternative just to avoid the cost you've really spent more money in terms of opportunity. Searching for something else because you think there might be a better solution is one thing, but searching to save what you might charge for an hour of your time is another.

cbscreative
07-28-2010, 02:56 PM
Yep, very understandable to want to save a buck, but one of the benefits to this forum is having people challenge you and share their knowledge. I know it helps me for sure.

jamestl2
07-28-2010, 02:58 PM
I only didn't want to purchase it immediately because I had never heard of it before, and I had no experience dealing with any Shopping Cart programs (front-end or back-end). Also because I wasn't entirely sure that's the solution I wanted.

Previously, I started to build a simple one myself. All I have on my site though is a simple table for where the themes would be inserted. Then I realized I was going to need a lot more than a table and a few PayPal "buy now" buttons. And Shopp already comes with everything I'll probably need. (Except for the demo factor, I haven't quite decided how I'm going deal with showcasing my themes to customers yet, but that's an entirely different discussion.)

vangogh
07-28-2010, 07:23 PM
I want to say there are plugins (free ones I think) to help with the demo problem. I'm not entirely sure though. What you could do is set up another blog under the main one using the new network capabilities of WP 3.0. There's a plugin called "theme switcher" or similar that will let people change the theme from the outside. It would be up to you if you want to let people login and see the backend, though I think that might be more trouble than it's worth. I'd sooner just show a screenshot to highlight any backend functionality you want people to know about.

jamestl2
07-29-2010, 02:57 PM
I already looked at a bunch of free demo plugins, and honestly none of those impressed me either. (One of them even tried to inject ad code into my site's header!)

I thought about installing another blog, but wasn't sure if I wanted to do that entirely either. I was hoping there might be a solution similar to what the Wordpress theme directory (http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/) preview feature uses. I haven't made any decisions on that just yet though however, I'm still looking into it, and how I can now incorporate it into Shopp.

vangogh
07-29-2010, 06:35 PM
Are you wanting to show how the theme looks or do you want people to be able to click around and see how the theme looks across different pages? Do you want them to be able to click around to different pages and do you want them to be able to login and see the backend?

It's it's simply showing how the theme looks then use an image. You can have it show up in a modal window if you want. There are a ton of plugins to make that happen. If you do want people to be able to click around and interact with the theme I think you're best option is to set up a second blog under WP 3.0. It doesn't need a new domain name. It can show up as theme-demo.yoursite.com or yoursite.com/theme-demo. Then use one of the theme switcher plugins to let people choose whichever theme they want to look at.

jamestl2
07-29-2010, 07:52 PM
I think I'd want to at least have some sort of demo going. I'm not that inflexible with the display, I just want to give customers an idea of what they'd be purchasing.

In the WP Theme directory, you can visit a theme you're interested in, then click on the preview button and a frame showcasing that particular theme pops up. Just something similar to that. I'm not entirely sure how wordpress.org does it, it looks like it uses some sort of jquery or flash plugin, unless of course it was custom built for their site.

Although setting up another WP blog might be an easier way to go, as all the dummy content, etc. will remain the same.

vangogh
08-02-2010, 12:44 AM
That sounds like you don't need people logging into the backend. You just want them to be able to click around the pages of the site as it would look with the theme. In that case I think you're best bet is setting up a new install of WP on a subdomain or in a subdirectory. You can do that through the new multi-site feature. There are plugins that will let anyone visiting switch themes. All the themes installed usually appear in a drop down.

The demo link on your main site just points to the new install and I think the theme that first appears can be set based on the link they click to get there.

That new install would be your demo. It would be up to you whether or not to let people login to the backend, though I'd suggest against it since it's probably not best to give people admin access.

jamestl2
08-02-2010, 12:00 PM
I set up a separate demo site, and it pretty much functions the way you described. And I don't plan on giving out admin access (it's there so people can see the front-end of the themes).

Also, I did just start a thread about my shop in the review section, in case you wanted to discuss it there.

vangogh
08-03-2010, 01:39 AM
Cool. I didn't see your review thread yet, but I'll take a look and promise to give you a review if not right now then sometime tomorrow.

FidelityAccounting
05-02-2011, 10:21 AM
I suggest using a oscommerce shopping cart to load all your themes for sale into it. Then if you are using wordpress posts and pages to promote the theme have a link from your wordpress blog to the oscommerce page for that item. Then the store will assign product id's and proceed through the payment process.

vangogh
05-02-2011, 10:41 AM
I'd stay away from osCommerce for a few reasons. First it's an old system that really isn't up to date on how websites are built. It's filled in security holes that don't get fixes. It's simply not the greatest software.

Perhaps even more important though is if you're selling anything WordPress related you should really use WordPress themes and plugins for everything. Selling WordPress themes through an osCommerce cart sends a message you don't know WordPress as well as you likely claim on your theme sales pages. It's not the kind of thing to inspire confidence in your ability to create things on top of WordPress.