How do you get paid??

26 replies
More specifically: How do you get paid when selling software?

What is the best and easiest "Purchase Experience" for your customer when selling software? Do you use PayPal, 2CheckOut, FastSpring, Verisign, or who?

I have the software ready to go and am trying to figure out the best e-commerce solution. Anyone have any experience?

Thanks!
#paid
  • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
    By far, the best checkout experience is integrating a traditional merchant account and using a simple 1-page checkout process.
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    • Profile picture of the author interspire
      Originally Posted by dave_hermansen View Post

      By far, the best checkout experience is integrating a traditional merchant account and using a simple 1-page checkout process.
      I agree with Dave here, if you are in the USA you can use authorize.net and many others for the solution. Its very easy to get a good checkout system in the USA, but in England its an other story.
      If you want a one step checkout in England you have to find your own merchant provider which will be very expensive or use paypal business services. It starts at £20 a month for a virtual terminal and website integration but if you want recurring payments that's another £20 a month.
      Personally i use 2CO its cheap to get going but they get you on the fees. I would just them just to get you started, but look for a alternative solution.
      I have been in the e-commerce business for over 7 years now and i have seen and used alot of payment processors. You have to careful who you choice because they could go in to liquidation or just come up with some reason not to pay you out.

      Do not use googlecheckout i found that we processed over £10,000 with then in a week and the suspended the account on suspected "fraud" i dont believe any of our customers got there refund ether.
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      • Profile picture of the author StudioArtha
        Dave,

        That was one of the considered paths. There seem to be easier methods to get started with, but they tend to charge between 8% and 20%!

        Is what you described (merchant account) easy enough to setup?

        Thanks for the reply.
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  • Profile picture of the author StudioArtha
    Interspire,

    Ditto on the Google issue, except with Ad dollars earned then taken away. Not a fun day.

    Good to hear about 2CO, I have heard good things about them elsewhere, and they are reasonable.

    Thanks again.
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    • Profile picture of the author interspire
      Hi, yes the ad money is very cool!

      I use 2CO they are a good merchant account and they care about you more than the customer. If you say no to a refund they so no to a refund too.

      It's only $49 so why not setup an account with them and see how it goes.
      After a few months of using them try and ask for a lower rate, they said if you process alot of payments with them they will look to lower your rates so you don't go else where!
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      • Profile picture of the author StudioArtha
        Interspire,

        Think I will take your advice (and several others) and use 2CO. I first heard about it in a book by Bob Walsh, Micro ISV, about creating and selling software.

        Thanks again.
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        • Profile picture of the author interspire
          Hi, I use them to process software & link building services.
          They will cover pretty much all business online services!

          They have an affiliation system too.
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          • Profile picture of the author StudioArtha
            Originally Posted by interspire View Post

            Hi, I use them to process software & link building services.
            They will cover pretty much all business online services!

            They have an affiliation system too.
            Excellent! That answers another question... How to manage an affiliate system.

            Thanks again!
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  • Profile picture of the author MattVit
    If you're a software programmer, get a white label generic Credit Card payment processor and use that. No need for PayPal or other commercial brands.

    Your bank should provide this.
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    • Profile picture of the author interspire
      If you go to the bank they will charge you about 3% then you need to find a gateway which would charge you again + transaction fee, there will be a setup fee, a monthly fee, cost per currency, cost for recurring payments, fraud prevention cost, chargeback fees, trouble.

      But if you use 2co or paypal merchant services its easy and rather cheap. Ok paypal will be £20 per month then another £20 for recurring. So you have to make sure you can withstand these fees. but if there is no need for recurring then its ok.
      The good thing with paypal merchant services its white label. checkout this video - https://merchant.paypal.com/us/cgi-b...howme_checkout .

      So why waste your time with banks when its costly and time consuming to get setup. Ok its very safe because its a bank but hey i would rather use someone who has had years experiance in taking payments online and thats all they do!!


      Originally Posted by MattVit View Post

      If you're a software programmer, get a white label generic Credit Card payment processor and use that. No need for PayPal or other commercial brands.

      Your bank should provide this.
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  • Profile picture of the author MattVit
    interspire,

    The bank I'm with provides the gateway to create a processor with. I assumed other banks did this too!
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    • Profile picture of the author interspire
      yes they do, but only problem is does most shopping carts accept that processor?

      NO! That is the main problem many people have.

      I have been in the industry for over 7 years now, i know the problems people have when it comes to payment systems. So then the merchant will have to outsource to a new processor who will work with there merchant account and shopping cart which is more money. This is why 2CO & Pay's new merchant services does so well.




      Originally Posted by MattVit View Post

      interspire,

      The bank I'm with provides the gateway to create a processor with. I assumed other banks did this too!
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  • Profile picture of the author StudioArtha
    Interspire,

    Most grateful for all the info.

    It is one thing to develop a piece of software, and a whole new ballgame to package, license, sell, deploy and get paid for it. And the real dilemma; as the primary developer, I have my hands full with just trying to build the best piece of software I can. (And it is very cool piece of software for the IM market).

    Bob Walsh wrote a book 'Micro-ISV' which is great overview of the process of developing and selling software. But it leaves out quite a bit of the how-to.

    For example, I assume I should be using AWeber (or a like autoresponder), but how do you wire that into the process? Do you collect name\email\etc in a shopping cart then pass it onto 2CO? Where do you host and deploy the software from?

    Do you have any recommendation of a book, WSO or other write-up on how to sell software, A to Z?

    Perhaps you would be interested in publishing and selling your knowledge on this?

    Anyway, thanks again. Very useful.
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  • Profile picture of the author interspire
    Hello,

    Most ebooks out there are scams, you just have to go for it alone and see what works best!

    I would recommend a login system.

    3 stages

    beginner

    intermediate

    advanced

    start the first plan around the area of $49

    You should host and deploy your software from your own website.

    I am unable to pm but i will take a copy to test for you.
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    • Profile picture of the author StudioArtha
      Originally Posted by interspire View Post

      Hello,

      Most ebooks out there are scams, you just have to go for it alone and see what works best!

      I would recommend a login system.

      3 stages

      beginner

      intermediate

      advanced

      start the first plan around the area of $49

      You should host and deploy your software from your own website.

      I am unable to pm but i will take a copy to test for you.
      Thanks! Give me a week or 10 days to get some loose ends wrapped up.
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  • Profile picture of the author interspire
    Sure not to worry, just pm me when your ready
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  • Profile picture of the author lordspace
    I think PayPal should be a good option (paypal standard).
    If you have clients and they trust you most of them will provide you they credit card.
    If it's PayPal or e.g Google Checkout people will be more trusting I think.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexdoerr
    PayPal, Google CheckOut, 2CheckOut are the best ways to get paid. We usually accept PayPal and Credit/Debit Cards.
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  • Profile picture of the author PeachCoding
    I normally accept 2 methods, merchant account for making customers life easier and PayPal for the security conscious customers who would rather not put in their credit card information directly into the website.
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    • Profile picture of the author cashtree
      I like iportis myself, ejunkie looks decent too.
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  • Profile picture of the author chaseclicks
    My vote goes for a traditional merchant account or PayPal.
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  • Profile picture of the author lawefft
    i saw digital river many times as cart software for digital prods, maybe you can count it in
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  • Profile picture of the author rainso0
    PayPal – Many freelancers accept payment via PayPal and other similar services. This can provide instant payment and only requires the client to complete a short online process to send payment. The biggest downfall is the third-party transaction fees that get deducted from your payment.
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  • Profile picture of the author ChartTraderZ
    Plimus is good. Clickbank is good and exposes you to many affiliates, however they have big commissions.

    PayPal is also ok but you'll have to develop your own system for sending the software to people (if you want to protect it), otherwise just a thank you page is enough. However they tend to block\freeze accounts with no warning so I would not recommend them.
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  • Profile picture of the author Atef
    2Co is better because you are not accepting creditcards and paypal at the same time so that you are not loosing customers

    it also has a nice fraud checker that will make your business much safer

    one thing that is not recommended is to use a generic Credit Card payment processor
    cause you are risking dealing with fraudsters just use a popular system they are tracking things well
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  • Profile picture of the author steve24
    For me paypal is the best way you can put your paypal money in your own bank account after an transaction you made..it would be easy just look in your paypal the transper i think..it would be great to do that rather than anyone..
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