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View Full Version : Setting up site to sell documents in .pdf format (long)--


Connie in TX
06-06-2004, 04:38 PM
Hello everyone,

I'm in a bit of a fix and could use your help. Last winter, a friend of mine was in the hospital and realized he couldn't work anymore. We weren't sure he would make it, but we *were* positive that he needed something to look forward too-- long story short, me and my big mouth offered to help him set up an e-cmmerce website to sell some of the techniques he'd developed over his years of working in the hair styling industry. (Don't mis-understand... I am SO happy to help, but I'm such an absolute novice at this sort of thing, and I've been assuring him over and over that I'd find the answers if I didn't know them myself, etc...)

Okay here's the deal.

My web design skills consist of a basic knowledge of MS Frontpage and some cut and paste stuff (finding html code elsewhere and figuring out where to place it on his site. His skills consist of checking his email-- barely.

*The files he's selling are in .pdf format created in Adobe Acrobat 5.0

*He wants to use PayPal (no setup fee...) but would probably switch to something else if it wasn't too expensive (esp. setup fees...)

*Everything needs to be fully automatic, where the buyer pays and is either sent the .pdf file automatically or is sent to the page where the file is ready for download.

*He has about 6 different files to sell.

The site is up, I have one of the files ready (the others should be done by this weekend) and now I am totally lost on what to do next and unfortunately, I don't even know enough to know who to ask or where to go for help.

Do I need to set up a hidden/secret page, that isn't linked to anything else on his site for the files? Do I need a seperate page for each?

Do I have to password protect things? Generate a new password for every buyer, etc? How on earth is that done?

Could I somehow set up an auto-respond type email that would have the specific file attached?

Finally IS THERE A COMPANY (or some sort of software) that does this sort of thing automatically? I'd gladly pay setup fees for him if necessary if there was a company out there that would host his .pdf files, collect the money, and send the file. I checked into Clickbank, but if I'm reading their website material correctly, they just handle the paying end, and I'd still have to find a way to get the files mailed automatically to the buyer.

Any help would be most appreciated and your patience is appreciated in advance. Here's his site, if you promise not to laugh...

www.haircolormarc.com

Connie

phppete
06-06-2004, 06:30 PM
Check out http://www.digitalriver.com/ , I am sure others will post alternatives.

If this were me I would set up a custom built system but if you lack the skills then using a 3rd party is your best solution IMHO.

Pete

Rich
06-06-2004, 07:08 PM
I would recommend that you check out www.clickbank.com. Clickbank specializes in downloadable content and is one of the easiest solutions to get up and running quickly.

dank
06-09-2004, 03:38 PM
I've got a shopping cart add-on that manages instantly downloadable product, including PDFs. It works with PayPal (although a recent user is reporting problems with changed field names that I have no explanation for) and Authorize.net (what I use) at present.

Dan

Connie in TX
06-10-2004, 09:17 AM
Hello Dank,

I looked around your site, but didn't see the plug-in you mentioned. Could you provide more information?

Thanks,

Connie

dank
06-10-2004, 12:07 PM
http://abledesign.com/programs/d-man/

It's the "Automatic Payment Processor Plugin" listed as coming soon, although it's actually been available for some time now... It's listed as beta due to limited testing and even more limited feedback on the PayPal portion of the plugin, but the authorize.net side of things works very well.

The plugin basically verifies a transaction and checks what was purchased against what you have in the way of downloadable content. If it is a match, the user is either prompted to create a user account or log into an existing one, and the transaction is passed along to set up their download authorizations via the secure download manager.

Dan