Several years ago I struggled with a way to sell
digital products, or more specifically eBooks, online without having to use a
digital products delivery service that charged a high commission rate. Companies
like Lulu.com for example charged 20% for every e-commerce and eBook order
purchased through them. In my mind this was too much of a price to pay for what
little value they brought to the table. The same is true today with Apple and
iTunes, and Amazon.com and Kindle. Both companies charge 30% or more for selling
your eBook or digital product online. Moreover they also effectively dictate
what the eBook prices can be. Simply put, I viewed that then and now as
unacceptable.
As a result, years ago I figured out a way to conduct ecommerce business and
sell digital products online in a safe and secure fashion using just encrypted
Paypal buttons, and over the years I’ve sold thousands of eBooks on my own
website. The commission rate, if you will, for selling a digital product via
Paypal is only around 3.5%, and you can charge whatever you want for the digital
product. Albeit, if you charge too much you’ll have few sales.
I should comment on another very important point. I consider the concept of a
safe and secure online sales transaction a two-way street. Both the buyer and
seller should be protected from malicious fraud and hacker attacks. Paypal has
historically been very good about protecting buyers against these concerns.
However, they have been less so protective to sellers, particularly as it
relates to selling digital products. Paypal offered the ability for sellers to
create Paypal BuyNow buttons to place on their websites for selling products,
and they still do today. These buttons were fine for selling real and tangible
items. However, they were not so good when it came to selling digital products.
Why not? Because, they offered a very limited way to encrypt the Paypal buttons.
Encryption is critical when it comes to selling digital products, where the
customer expects to have the product delivered immediately upon the completion
of the purchase. The encryption function is necessary for protecting the seller
from having a buyer or a malicious hacker from easily figuring out what the
download URL page is for the eBook. If a reasonably internet savvy person wanted
to have the eBook, they could easily figure out where to download the eBook for
free via looking at the un-encrypted Paypal BuyNow button code.
The issue with Paypal’s limited BuyNow button encryption service was that it did
not allow sellers to customize the button to state something as simple as “Click
Here to Download Your Order”. Instead, at the end of every purchase it just
offered a simple URL text link that said “Return to Merchant”. Without the
textual reference that stated what to do to download an order, however, the
buyer of the digital product was unclear on how to actually receive or get their
order.
I figured out a solution to this problem by coming up with a way to produce
custom encrypted Paypal BuyNow buttons that I still use today. As a result, I
enable a way to offer safe and secure purchase transactions for both the buyer
and seller, and ensure that the buyer knows where to download their product upon
completion of the sales purchase. At the end of each purchase, I simply have a
URL text link that states “Click here to Download your Order”. With the
customized encrypted Paypal BuyNow button there is no way for a hacker to figure
out where the URL download page is for the particular eBook or digital product.
I came up with the solution to this ecommerce problem of selling digital
products after much research. It mostly involved using open source standard
encryption tools to create the customized Paypal BuyNow buttons. The solution
was relatively simple. I simply enabled sellers an alternative way to create
Paypal BuyNow buttons locally on their computer in a customizable fashion. This
method enables sellers to include the important text of “Click Here to Download
your Order” or some other variant of language in their Paypal BuyNow button html
code.
I documented the solution to this problem in and eBook that I sell today on
HomeAdditionPlus.com. The eBook is titled “Selling
Ebooks Using Encrypted Paypal Buttons”. The instructions in the
eBook are clear and easy-to-understand and are meant for Windows based operating
systems. Within 1-2 hours after reading this eBook website designers and digital
product sellers will be able to have their own unique and customized Paypal
“BuyNow” buttons. To order the ebook today see http://www.homeadditionplus.com/Bid-Sheet-Ebook-info/Selling-Ebooks-Using-Encrypted-Paypal-Buttons-Ebook.htm.
