There are others out there that do this. The most direct competitor is http://gumroad.com But any site that allows selling files such as digital river is really a competitor.
Gumroad looks a bit more polished but what I'm missing with all those services is some sort of browse section. (is that only after logging in?) ... Ok you can share it via twitter or other networks but browsing around makes me impulsively buy more than just seeing one link on twitter :)
I signed up and put one of my favourite photos of a thick fog covering the city at night up for sale. $1.99 is a steal :)
A few comments:
I couldn't find a how-to or guide for formatting in the text entry area.
Considering that you do not host the resource being sold, are you able to list a set of instructions for how to best host the secured image and generate a public thumbnail for it?
Is it possible to customise the purchase page with a company logo or something else so that customers know they have landed in the right spot? At the moment it is branded as Jungle Blaze, but my customers may have been expecting to purchase from Jim's Photography company.
Well done on getting your product to launch. What did you find the most time consuming during those few months? Would you change anything if you started again?
(edit)
I signed up for gum road, not having used it before. The process from resource -> selling involves much fewer steps. I don't need to sign up for a stripe account, then find the stripe key and give it to you. That is a big win. I can sell a link, or I can upload a resource, another huge win. Most people I know can upload a file, but have no clue about where or how to host a resource.
Sorry, in all my excitement I never saw that upload button. I think this is a great selling point for your product. Now that you have mentioned it, I can see it sitting there as plain as day :)
8 comments
[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 21.2 ms ] threadLet me know what you think. I can take the abuse... ;-)
I signed up and put one of my favourite photos of a thick fog covering the city at night up for sale. $1.99 is a steal :)
A few comments: I couldn't find a how-to or guide for formatting in the text entry area.
Considering that you do not host the resource being sold, are you able to list a set of instructions for how to best host the secured image and generate a public thumbnail for it?
Is it possible to customise the purchase page with a company logo or something else so that customers know they have landed in the right spot? At the moment it is branded as Jungle Blaze, but my customers may have been expecting to purchase from Jim's Photography company.
Well done on getting your product to launch. What did you find the most time consuming during those few months? Would you change anything if you started again?
(edit) I signed up for gum road, not having used it before. The process from resource -> selling involves much fewer steps. I don't need to sign up for a stripe account, then find the stripe key and give it to you. That is a big win. I can sell a link, or I can upload a resource, another huge win. Most people I know can upload a file, but have no clue about where or how to host a resource.
Here is my gum road product: https://gumroad.com/l/vm $2.50
You upload the files and in that case I do host and secure them - in that case I never let the purchaser see the real url.
I suppose I could proxy the link to other files too - New feature to work on...
Visa and Mastercard don't allow what's called "aggregation" which really just means collecting money as a middleman for the transaction.
If anyone knows how he has worked around that, I'd be interested in learning about it... ;-)