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Mixing Tumblr and Paypal/Amazon to sell something straight from a blog post. Blogs are really the way of the future, and there are a ton of people out there who

Mixing Tumblr and Paypal/Amazon to sell something straight from a blog post. Blogs are really the way of the future, and there are a ton of people out there who blog about their business or interests and sell things at the same time. Think of a band or someone who blogs about indie music. You can sell a new product easily from each post, without setting up a store. Both Amazon and Paypal now have micropayment options (5% + $.05). Both have code you can easily copy and paste into a post to add a sell button and both have developer API's. Both are free to implement (no set-up or monthly fees), Amazon has cheap storage and bandwidth and you only pay for what you use. Tumblr and other blog systems are also free. Its time for a digital goods selling revolution! All this great stuff is out there, but no good interface exists to make it easy for a non-developer to implement it. The current solutions available require monthly fees that usually overcharge you for bandwidth, storage, or transaction costs, or limit you in some way (e-junkie limits the amount of products you can have). And in typical e-commerce fashion they have gawful help desks and incomplete documentation. One big thing missing is a way to instantly direct your users to a download after they purchase something. I'm a non-technical guy who's looked into it, and believe me, its impossible to do without using a service such as e-junkie. But the parts of the solution are in place to make it happen for everyone. I think a lot of people out there want less of a website, more of a blog, less of an online store, but more of an easy way to sell digital or physical goods. Think musicians (or musical blogs), photographers, artists (a really great way to sell artwork as you make it). Monthly fees make it prohibitive to sell artwork, because you usually only make one, and there might be some time before you make another, but a blogstore is a great way to do it. I like Tumblr, because its non-technical yet can be messed with if you really want to dive in. What this problem needs is also a non-technical solution that will allow people to get at the nuts and bolts if they need to. Anyone want to have a go at it?

alaskamiller 18y ago
Conversion rates are low.
- villageidiot 18y ago
  Perhaps because people are nervous about taking out their credit cards except when they are familiar with the reputation of the online vendor. It may be hard for blogger X to overcome that fear factor.
  - tstegart 18y ago
    Exactly. I've formulated a theory of micropayment success. It requires: 1. A credit card or payment method already in the system, OR, a trustworthy vendor; 2. One click ordering or an Ajax style cart where you don't have to load a new webpage for every step of adding things to your cart and checking out. 3. Large product base spanning multiple product offerings but only one central payment center. Obviously, this theory was postulated by examining by the most successful micropayment vendor out there, Apple. They're really good at it. Think about it: you don't need to enter your credit card information twice;they have one click purchase; they have multiple product offerings, but all payment goes through them. There is only one person who needs to be trusted, them. I think the one person to trust thing is really the key point. People don't have time to evaluate online vendors for trustworthyness. But if they're already comfortable, it doesn't matter, and $.99 cents becomes no hassle at all to spend.
villageidiot 18y ago
Let me know if I'm wrong but I believe in 2007 Google Checkout introduced a solution to the problem you mention under "One big thing missing . . . " See here: http://googlecheckoutapi.blogspot.com/2007/07/introducing-digital-delivery.html http://googlecheckoutapi.blogspot.com/2007/07/introducing-di... "Now merchants will have option of tagging an item as digital within the shopping cart and specifying details about how it should be delivered. You'll be able inform a buyer that their digital purchase will be delivered via email, or you can provide a set of instructions along with a URL and license key."
- tstegart 18y ago
  You're not wrong, its just not available to the masses. A regular consumer will see the word "API" and the code snippet and move on. Tons of people want to sell stuff and have huge talent in their areas, but are clueless when it comes to coding and whatnot. Putting a wrapper around this sort of thing is something I think a ton of people would find helpful. Imagine if you could just upload a file, give it a product name, price, etc, and then write your blog post, and when you hit publish its automatically formatted with the buy button, checkout button, sends an email with a download link or directs you to a URL download right after you complete the purchase.Awesome. Hmmmmm, Tumblr? Are you listening? Just got that VC cash and wondering what to come up with for premium services and ways to monetize? This is something I'd pay for.
tstegart 18y ago
Just curious, what do you guys think it would cost me to have someone set this up?

alaskamiller 18y ago

Conversion rates are low.

villageidiot 18y ago
Perhaps because people are nervous about taking out their credit cards except when they are familiar with the reputation of the online vendor. It may be hard for blogger X to overcome that fear factor.
- tstegart 18y ago
  Exactly. I've formulated a theory of micropayment success. It requires: 1. A credit card or payment method already in the system, OR, a trustworthy vendor; 2. One click ordering or an Ajax style cart where you don't have to load a new webpage for every step of adding things to your cart and checking out. 3. Large product base spanning multiple product offerings but only one central payment center. Obviously, this theory was postulated by examining by the most successful micropayment vendor out there, Apple. They're really good at it. Think about it: you don't need to enter your credit card information twice;they have one click purchase; they have multiple product offerings, but all payment goes through them. There is only one person who needs to be trusted, them. I think the one person to trust thing is really the key point. People don't have time to evaluate online vendors for trustworthyness. But if they're already comfortable, it doesn't matter, and $.99 cents becomes no hassle at all to spend.

villageidiot 18y ago

Let me know if I'm wrong but I believe in 2007 Google Checkout introduced a solution to the problem you mention under "One big thing missing . . . " See here: http://googlecheckoutapi.blogspot.com/2007/07/introducing-digital-delivery.html http://googlecheckoutapi.blogspot.com/2007/07/introducing-di... "Now merchants will have option of tagging an item as digital within the shopping cart and specifying details about how it should be delivered. You'll be able inform a buyer that their digital purchase will be delivered via email, or you can provide a set of instructions along with a URL and license key."

tstegart 18y ago
You're not wrong, its just not available to the masses. A regular consumer will see the word "API" and the code snippet and move on. Tons of people want to sell stuff and have huge talent in their areas, but are clueless when it comes to coding and whatnot. Putting a wrapper around this sort of thing is something I think a ton of people would find helpful. Imagine if you could just upload a file, give it a product name, price, etc, and then write your blog post, and when you hit publish its automatically formatted with the buy button, checkout button, sends an email with a download link or directs you to a URL download right after you complete the purchase.Awesome. Hmmmmm, Tumblr? Are you listening? Just got that VC cash and wondering what to come up with for premium services and ways to monetize? This is something I'd pay for.

tstegart 18y ago

Just curious, what do you guys think it would cost me to have someone set this up?