How to sell downloads like mp3, ebooks, software etc.

One thing E-commerce transactions lack when compared to traditional transactions is "instant gratification" for the buyer. Merchant gets paid instantly but buyer has to wait for the product to be delivered. Not much can be done to change this for tangible products like CDs and t-shirts, but you are in luck if you are selling downloadable products like e-books, music or software etc.

The best part about selling digital products is that the payment as well as product delivery can be instant and automatic. Payments can be accepted instantly using a widely accepted payment processor like PayPal. After that comes the part of delivering the product after a successful payment. Basic steps of automating product delivery are:

Setting up your server to receive notification of the payment by the payment processor - PayPal.

Making sure the notification is valid and is from the correct source.

Making sure that the payment is not pending due to any reason.

Making sure that the business PayPal email mentioned in the notification is your own.

Screen for fraud by comparing the amount and currency in notification to the expected price and currency of the product(s).

Making sure that this is not a transaction which you have already processed.

Generate a dynamic download link with set expiration limits.

Generate a registration code, if required by your software or e-book.

Send buyer the instructions, product download link and the registration code (if applicable) or notify in case of an error.
E-junkie takes care of all this and more. E-junkie provides you a "Buy Now" and "Add to Cart" button for each product you want to sell on your website. These buttons are advantageous as you can manage your product from E-junkie admin without ever having to the button code on your website. These buttons come pre-packaged with information needed for PayPal to send an "Instant Payment Notification" and redirect the buyer.


These buttons pick up the information about your product from E-junkie database and send the buyer to PayPal payment page. The buyer directly pays you in your PayPal account you have on file with E-junkie. Once the payment is complete, buyer is redirected to your product download page at E-junkie. Of course, these download links expire after the set number of downloads and the time period specified by you.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Computer with internet

1. 

   To start using E-junkie you will need to register at http://www.e-junkie.com/. When you log in for the first time, you will be prompted to enter your PayPal e-mail where you want to accept payments. You will also need to enter your business name and e-mail visible to the buyers.
   
   Adding a product is very straight forward. Click the "Add Product" link in the Admin panel. The only information you need for adding a product is "Product Name" and "Product Price". On this page, you can also customize the text of the e-mail your buyers will receive after a successful purchase.
   
   By default the product is assumed to be a downloadable file. You can additionally specify whether your product needs registration codes, multiple files or if it's a redirect to a secure area on your website.
   
   If you need to customize settings like the number of downloads and hours after which a download link will expire, hit the "More Options" button. If not, then you can simply click "Add Product" button and you will be taken to the page where you can upload your product file and you will get "Buy Now" and "Add to Cart" button code.
   
   Another optional feature is the ability to add custom HTML code on the download page. If you are using any pay-per-click advertising and/or tracking programs like Yahoo Search Marketing, Google Adwords/Analytics, you can place their tracking code on this page to measure the success of your advertising campaign.
   
   E-junkie has other features which let you manage affiliate programs, promotional codes and product listings. Its architecture is flexible and can be used in many different ways to suit your needs like generating customized products on the fly, or tying up with your member registration system, but that is beyond the scope of this tutorial.

[httpwebwitch]

on 11/10/2009 Scubbly (http://www.Scubbly.com) is a great place to sell anything downloadable - it's very easy to use, free to sign up, free to add products, and offers the highest payback of any of its competitors.

[sunshineandrose]

on 3/25/2009 I would like to sell an e-book one day if I can find time to write it.

[goldandsilver]

on 2/2/2009 Great information.Thanks.

[sdguide]

on 10/18/2008 Nice. But there are many ways of selling ebooks, audios, videos and MP3. http://www.SellDownloadsGuide.com explains in detail how you can sell from your website, without a website and on ebay.

No matter where you sell from, security does matter and you have to ensure that you have managed to secure your product.