Do I have to have a shopping cart?

[mikej]

Hi,



I know that I can offer a free product but can I have a "Get it now" button that leads directly to the Thank you/download page (after collecting name and email) without using or showing any shopping cart? I don't need to show a shopping cart at all since I am selling e-books (people just buy one product) and I want to give the first couple of pages for free using a separate button.



So what I mean is that I would like to have one button for the free version and another button for the paid full version - both collecting the users name and email without the use of a shopping cart. Is that possible?



Another thing:

http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/features.htm#digital-delivery - why isn't there an option for BUY NOW buttons for PayPal Pro?



Thank you in advance.

[E-junkie_Guru]

For the paid, full version of your product, you could use a Buy Now button:

http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/help.buttons.buy-now.htm



PayPal Pro requires us to offer the buyer a choice between PayPal (Express Checkout) or credit card (Direct Payment) before checkout. Since a Buy Now button goes directly to instant checkout using a predetermined payment method, that gives the buyer no choice, so we cannot offer Buy Now buttons for PayPal Pro. Also, since a free product would have no payment to process (e.g. PayPal can't handle a checkout for a $0.00 payment), it's not possible to have a Buy Now button for a free product, either.



If you just want people to download a file for free and don't need to issue each person their own, unique link that expires, then you can just upload the file to your Web site and make a link to it, just like you'd make a link from one page to another:



<a href="http://www.yoursite.com/path/to/yourfile.ext">Click here to download my file</a>



If you at least want to collect names/emails, but you still don't need to issue each person a unique link that expires, you could have a generic HTML contact form on your site that submits to any generic form-handler script, or even a subscription form for a mailing-list service like Aweber, which then leads to your free-download page after the form is submitted.

[mikej]

Thank you for your reply.



I was hoping that a free product could be offered with the use of e-junkie - I really want it to be as simple as possible and want all the information in one place. I would also like to have the free pdf file stamped in the same way as the paid one. I guess that a lot of people sell e-books with e-junkie so I think it should be an option... PayPal doesn't need to process the free product, only e-junkie would, so I am not sure I understand why it would be a problem? (there is probably a good reason...)



I can see that e-junkie makes a list with names, email etc. for each buy so why isn't that possible with a free product? E-junkie would be the best choice for me if it was so.



You say that a Buy Now button goes directly to instant checkout using a predetermined payment method - would that be credit card or PayPal? Again, I don't understand why the buyer can't have the choice before payment.

[E-junkie_Guru]

When you obtain our HTML button code for a Buy Now button, you have to select which specific payment processor (PayPal, Google Checkout, Authorize.Net, etc.) that button will always use, so the button code will contain a reference to send the buyer directly to that specific processor's checkout page. Since free items do not involve any payment, and payment processors cannot perform a checkout for a zero-dollar "payment", it is not possible to have a Buy Now button for free products.



For free products, you would need to use an Add to Cart button, and whenever the buyer's order total is 0.00, they would be able to use our cart's Free Checkout, where we would obtain their name and email (and optional phone and company name) before granting access to the thank-you/download page. Their name and email would be saved to your E-junkie Transaction Log just like any other checkout, and if you'd enabled PDF Stamping for the free product, then the name and email they provided would be stamped on the file along with our Free Checkout transaction ID.



Also, bear in mind our system will only process up to 100 Free Checkouts per day for you; if you subscribe to our $18/mo plan or higher, that would raise your limit to 500 Free Checkouts daily.

[mikej]

Very good explanation - thank you.



But I still don't get why E-junkie can't offer a "Get it now" button for the free part of an e-book. I thought that E-junkie was also tailored to people who sell e-books? I think that a lot of people could use this function without being forced to have a cart (for the free product). People who sell e-books usually only offer one product and sometimes a free part, a cart for the free part will only confuse people = lost sale. Would it be difficult to create the code that does what you described for the Free Checkout, without the chart function? I need to collect name and email in one system, and I also need the PDF stamping function. E-junkie would be perfect if it was possible without the use of a cart.



One last thing - I don't understand why I have to pay $18 to be able to raise my limit to 500 free checkouts daily? Your site states "there is no limit on the number of sales or bandwith". For $5 I can sell 10 products and have 50 mb storage space - well, I only have one product and I will only use about 5 mb storage space so why do I have to pay more than three times just to be able to offer these free products? It seems a little out of proportions...



I hope you appreciate constructive criticism - I really like all the other things about E-junkie! Thank you.

[anitadefrank]

MikeJ, I'm also an ebook seller who offers both free and paid ebooks.



For my free ebooks, I personally have my readers subscribe to my newsletter to get the download links. This way I get their name and email address. For this I use Aweber. However, if I were to use E-junkie for this, I would choose the "Add to Cart" button because I want to be sure to grab this info.



I've read over this post several times trying to understand what exactly it is your wanting simply because it's all got my curiosity.



So to be clear here ...



- You're wanting your readers to be able to download your free ebook ...

- You want their name and email address ...

- But you don't want them to have to go through the process of entering this information?



Of course common sense says if you want your downloader's information, you're going to have to settle on some way of having them enter it. If you don't want them to have to go through the process of what a shopping cart offers to enter their information, then I suggest you do as E-junkie Guru suggested and put up a simple HTML form for them to enter their information that will automatically send them to the download link afterwards. (This is what I use Aweber for.)



If it's the look of the button that says: "Add to Cart" that you don't like, then I would suggest you get another graphic designed that says what you'd like it to. However, again if you're going to set it up through E-junkie's shopping cart system, then they're going to have to have it processed like a free purchase.



When you're using a shopping cart service ... I don't see how you could get it to work other than a shopping cart?



So even if you have your own button designed, you're still going to have to do one of two things:



1. You're going to have to use that button in your HTML code for your E-junkie account - in which they're still going to have to go through the cart system to enter their information (even though the button doesn't say "add to cart").



2. You're going to have to create a generic HTML contact form on your site that submits to any generic form handling script - or - a subscription form for a mailing ist provider (such as Aweber) that will in turn send your downloader to your download link after they've entered their information.



I think there's a few places where this whole post gets confusing and I'm wondering if your questions aren't because maybe you're a bit confused?



For example, you said:



""But I still don't get why E-junkie can't offer a "Get it now" button for the free part of an e-book. I thought that E-junkie was also tailored to people who sell e-books? I think that a lot of people could use this function without being forced to have a cart (for the free product).""



So let me ask this ... maybe this will clear things up some. Let's say for example you have your "Get it Now" button to use ...



- Where do you think that button should immediately send your downloader?

- How do you think your downloader should enter their name and email address?

[anitadefrank]

Sorry I forgot I wanted to touch on your other question as well ...



""One last thing - I don't understand why I have to pay $18 to be able to raise my limit to 500 free checkouts daily? Your site states "there is no limit on the number of sales or bandwith". For $5 I can sell 10 products and have 50 mb storage space - well, I only have one product and I will only use about 5 mb storage space so why do I have to pay more than three times just to be able to offer these free products? It seems a little out of proportions...""



You quoted part of the answer yourself actually ...



""there is no limit on the number of sales or bandwith"



That's 'actual sales' there's no limit on.



E-junkie is optimized as an eCommerce platform/service for merchants who pay to sell our products and it's set up this way to protect us from customers who abuse the system, hackers ... and those who simply like to rip us off.



Hope that clears that up some!

[mikej]

Thank you AnitaDeFrank for taking your time - that is great info! I don't have a newsletter but Aweber looks exciting.



You almost interpreted my post correctly (sorry, as you probably guess, my native language isn't English):



-Yes, I want my readers to be able to download a free part of my ebook (the first two chapters).



-Yes, I want their name and email address (through E-junkie).



-I don't want to have a shopping cart if that means that I will get the typical shopping cart icon on top of my salespage. I want my customers to click on a button (named "Get it Now" or something similar) which leads them directly to the form where they enter their information (name and email). After that has been collected E-junkie stamps the free version with their name and email address and provides the link so they can download it.



Simple as that - paypal doesn't need to be involved in this process since I don't receive any payment. No cart that collects items (because they only get one item) = no distractions or confusion. Maybe I misunderstood something, but I have never seen a salespage for any ebook, with a shopping cart in the right corner of the salespage (like you see in ordinary shops).



I am not sure I understand you answer to my last question. What I don't understand is why I have to pay more than three times to be able to offer some extra free products. Or maybe I do now.... E-junkie probably gets a part of what paypal charge for handling the payment whenever I make a sale (nothing wrong with that btw), and they won't get any commission whenever I offer a free product. I just hope E-junkie can see that whenever I offer a free part of my e-book I increase my sale and thereby their commission from paypal (if that is the case).



I can't see how the limit on free offers can protect me from customers who abuse the system, hackers or those who like to rip us off? It is a free product and they have to enter their email and name each time they want to download it...



Hope I made myself a little more clear this time - thank you once again, your help is appreciated.

[anitadefrank]

MikeJ Thank you AnitaDeFrank for taking your time - that is great info! I don't have a newsletter but Aweber looks exciting.

Sure, no problem. You're quite welcome.



I personally highly recommend having a newsletter list in general. It's super important to your business. With that said, I also highly recommend Aweber. IMHO, they're the best. (But yes, that is my own opinion as well as many others.)

MikeJI don't want to have a shopping cart if that means that I will get the typical shopping cart icon on top of my salespage. I want my customers to click on a button (named "Get it Now" or something similar) which leads them directly to the form where they enter their information (name and email). After that has been collected E-junkie stamps the free version with their name and email address and provides the link so they can download it.

In this case, I'm afraid you're probably going to want to have a graphic made for this. Maybe something that says "download this now" or "Grab Your Free Sample" or whatever you may want it to say. You can have them designed to say whatever you want.



Then when you put your E-junkie HTML code on your site, you're going to want to replace:



< img src="http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/ej add_to_cart.gif" border="0" alt="Add to Cart"/ >< /a >



with something like this ...



< img src=" http://www.yourwebsite.com/yourgraphicname " border="0" alt="Grab Your Sample"/ >< /a >



This all can be edited to whatever fits you.

MikeJSimple as that - paypal doesn't need to be involved in this process since I don't receive any payment. No cart that collects items (because they only get one item) = no distractions or confusion. Maybe I misunderstood something, but I have never seen a salespage for any ebook, with a shopping cart in the right corner of the salespage (like you see in ordinary shops).

I believe this is where your confusion may lie. Just because it says that it's going through the cart or "Add to Cart" doesn't mean it's going through Paypal. As a matter of fact, in this case it is not going through the cart because just as E-Junkie Guru said above, Paypal cannot process a $0.00 transaction and since it is free there would be no transaction/payment process.



All this would be doing is exactly what you want it to, collecting their information you want.



And I bet if you look on the sales pages (that are offering a free portion) you're speaking of, they're using a mailing list service like I recommended. Most do it the way I personally do it ... running it through my mailing list provider, Aweber.

MikeJI am not sure I understand you answer to my last question. What I don't understand is why I have to pay more than three times to be able to offer some extra free products. Or maybe I do now.... E-junkie probably gets a part of what paypal charge for handling the payment whenever I make a sale (nothing wrong with that btw), and they won't get any commission whenever I offer a free product. I just hope E-junkie can see that whenever I offer a free part of my e-book I increase my sale and thereby their commission from paypal (if that is the case).



I can't see how the limit on free offers can protect me from customers who abuse the system, hackers or those who like to rip us off? It is a free product and they have to enter their email and name each time they want to download it...

As far as I know, no E-junkie does not get anything from Paypal. But regardless if they did or didn't, again a free transaction would not go through Paypal at all. A free transaction would not go through Paypal at all.



E-junkie is a shopping cart system that is for merchandise that is for sale. Actually, they're kind enough to allow us to use them for some free downloads where as someone for example such as Paypal does not allow this at all. To open E-junkie up to thousands and thousands of free downloads is opening all merchants up to hackers who abuse the system - and in turn - worst case scenerio could hack into the system and do things such as stealing our customer's information (email address, credit card information, etc.), steal our downloadable products ... and whatever else those crazy people are capable of.



Take care,

Anita DeFrank

[mikej]

Thank you Anita DeFrank but I am still not sure we are on the same page.



I do understand that paypal isn't involved whenever a free product is being processed, but what confused me is this sentence from E-junkieGuru:



"since a free product would have no payment to process (e.g. PayPal can't handle a checkout for a $0.00 payment), it's not possible to have a Buy Now button for a free product, either."



Why can't E-junkie make a button for a free product without the need of a shopping cart? I do understand it can't be a "Buy Now" button but then something else. I mean they are the ones who makes the code, and just because PayPal isn't involved doesn't make it impossible for E-junkie to receive email and name into the system, and stamp the free part of my e-book. They say it is possible but I have to have a shopping cart - I can't express it more clearly than this: I don't want a shopping cart if that means I would have a shopping cart symbol on my page! Pages that sell e-books doesn't have the typical shopping cart you see in shops and I don't understand why I have to use another service to be able to do what I ask for.



Again, I can't see why offering free products will open the whole system for hackers who abuse the system or hack into the system and steal customer's information (btw, I don't think E-junkie store any credit card information... isn't that paypal's job to do?). E-junkie already offers thousands and thousands of downloads so I hope that isn't a problem for E-junkie to handle! I am not sure I can agree on E-junkie being "kind enough" to allow us to use them for free downloads.... It should be a part of the system because the more free products we offer the more products we sell. E-junkie is a service for just that - selling products and that is what we want to achieve at the end of the process - offering free products is a part of that (especially if you sell e-books).



Once again I appreciate your help Anita DeFrank. I hope that E-junkieGuru will join in this discussion because some of the things we talk about can only be answered by E-junkie (such as the last issue).



You take care too,

Mike

[E-junkie_Guru]

The reason we have a daily limit on Free Checkouts is to limit potential losses in case of inadvertent misconfiguration by the seller. We have many sellers who sell things like phonecard PIN codes which they use our service to issue, or tangible goods that are shipped automatically by a fulfillment house, or any number of other products where the seller has a cost sunk into each unit ordered.



Such sellers could potentially be out a lot of money if they inadvertently create, say, an automatic discount that takes 100% off the order total (which actually happens surprisingly often!); if someone discovers this and word spreads like wildfire in the online underground that, hey, you can get valuable stuff for free from that seller's site, the seller could be cleaned out to the tune of thousands of dollars of merchandise before they know what hit them.



There is also an overhead cost at our end to handle orders and to store and deliver downloads. The reason we require a higher subscription fee to allow more Free Checkouts daily is to cover our costs for such a high-demand download; whereas demand for actual paid downloads is generally much lower. This is related to our reasons for requiring a minimum 0.10 price on Remotely Hosted Downloads:

http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/faq.downloads.remote-minimum-price.htm



E-junkie is designed and intended for actually taking orders online for money and for fulfilling delivery of digital products; we are not designed nor intended as a service for providing free downloads en masse, just like we are not an email marketing service, so we may simply be the wrong tool for the job in meeting those particular needs, although they may be part of an overall "sales" strategy in the marketing sense.



As I suggested earlier, if you primary concern is collecting names and emails before providing a download link, then you could easily do that without needing to involve E-junkie in any manner whatsoever. For instance, you could have an ordinary HTML-based form on your site where prospects enter their name and email, and then when they submit their info, they'd be taken to a thanks page where you have a static download link posted for your freebie file. Any amateur Web site designer can set up something like that, so there's no real role for E-junkie to perform there: no payments to verify before offering the download, and therefore no need to issue each person a unique link that expires to inhibit piracy/sharing of premium content. A freebie giveaway ebook that anyone can get by entering a fake name and throwaway email is simply not at risk of being pirated.



If you're managing your newsletters with a mailing list specialist service such as Aweber -- which we recommend for any serious email marketing needs, since our own email-related functions are very rudimentary -- then the subscription forms they provide should offer a way to specify a thanks page where you could offer a download link for your freebie, or they may even provide a way to issue each new subscriber a free file download directly. You can even integrate your actual paid, premium products in E-junkie with your Aweber lists using our built-in Aweber integration:

http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/help.integration.htm#aweber

[mikej]

Thank you for your answer.



I do understand your reasons for limiting Free Checkouts, they are logic, but I think it could be solved with a warning such as "Are you sure you want to give a 100 % discount on this item?", where the seller has to confirm a couple of times. It would be so easy for me to have one system that collects emails and name for both the free version of my ebook and the paid one - I like to keep things simple. I could make a HTML-based form on my site and provide a static download link, as you suggest, but just because my product is free doesn't mean I want the link to be posted on some forum, so that people can download the file without providing their name and email. The E-junkie stamping function is also something, that at least to some extent, prevents someone else from stealing my pdf file and use it on their site - I won't have that function if I make my own solution.



However, you do offer a solution but I just have to pay more - I like the other things about E-junkie so I will have to think about it. Thank you for your time.

[mikej]

I don't think I got an answer on one of my essential questions (or maybe I just don't understand what E-junkie mean whenever they use the word "shopping cart"...).



Let me just repeat my question:



Why isn't it possible for E-junkie to have a button for a free product without the need of a shopping cart? I do understand it can't be a "Buy Now" button. Just because PayPal isn't involved whenever a free product is offered doesn't make it impossible for E-junkie to receive email and name into the system, and stamp the free part of my e-book. You say it is possible but I have to have a shopping cart - why is that? I don't want a shopping cart if that means I would have a shopping cart symbol etc. on my page. Pages that sell e-books doesn't have the typical shopping cart you see in shops and I don't understand why I have to use another service to be able to do what I ask for here.



This is my last question I need an answer for. I hope E-junkieGuru or someone else from E-junkie can explain it to me. Thanks.

[anitadefrank]

Hi Mike -



I of course am not from E-junkie like you asked ... but I did want to stop by and mention that the reason I personally stopped replying is because I really don't know what else to say.



In my own honest opinion, I'm thinking you're still misunderstanding something but I'm not sure how to explain it any further. I'm finding it quite difficult to help you understand.



However, a few more things I can mention are this ...



You're right, it's not impossible to do what you're asking for but when you mention that all the others you see that offer a free product the way you're wanting to ... I bet you don't find that E-junkie is what they're using. Even if they're using another shopping cart service, I'm willing to bet in majority of the cases, they're not using their shopping cart to handle the free product. In majority of the cases they're more than likely using their mailing list provider (ie: Aweber). Like I've said before, I offer both free and paid for products and that's how I personally do it. The reason I do it this way is because it's what I've learned from the majority of others.



Probably the most easiest way to answer the question you're ultimately asking is this ... what you're asking for is simply not something E-junkie offers at this time.



It's next to impossible to find any service to do 100% every single thing you want it to do whether it's a shopping cart, affiliate management program or even a mailing list provider unless you yourself design it.



This is something you simply have to deal with ... unless again ... you yourself design it or have a programmer design it for you.



You want to collect your downloader's information, stamp your product and send them to the download page once they've entered their information. The shopping cart button is what E-junkie has to offer for this purpose. One of the main reasons being they're set up to be a shopping cart service ... not necessarily for free product delivery.

MikeJWhy isn't it possible for E-junkie to have a button for a free product without the need of a shopping cart?

To answer this question the best way I know how is ... this is how E-junkie is set up to collect your downloader's information.



I can only suggest the same things that have already been suggested ...



- set up your own generic HTML contact form on your site that submits to any generic form-handler script



- a subscription form for a mailing-list service like Aweber, which then leads to your free-download page after the form is submitted.



- or simply have your own button designed to say what you want it to say and replace the E-junkie cart graphic.



Again, if you research these other pages from other people who you're seeing do this ... you'll see that they're doing one of these things or they're using another service all together that does offer this.



I am by no means suggesting you should find another shopping cart system. I'm just saying that to accomplish exactly what you want it to do, you are going to have to either yes, find another service that does offer it ... OR ... simply do one of the easy adaptations that we've suggested.



So again to ultimately answer your ultimate question ... the easiest way I know how to answer it is this: E-junkie simply does not offer what you're wanting the way you want it to do it.



Hope this helps somewhat!



Happy Easter!

Anita

[mikej]

Hi Anita

AnitaDeFrankI of course am not from E-junkie like you asked ... but I did want to stop by and mention that the reason I personally stopped replying is because I really don't know what else to say.



In my own honest opinion, I'm thinking you're still misunderstanding something but I'm not sure how to explain it any further. I'm finding it quite difficult to help you understand.

Thank you for your effort - yes, this was a question (and a suggestion) to E-junkie but once again I appreciate your input. I do understand what you are saying but I am also finding it quite difficult to help you understand what I am saying. I don't understand why you can't see how it would make my life easier (and probably others too) if my free product was processed the way I am suggesting. What I suggest isn't that unusual or complicated.



A) I want to stamp the readers name and email address on my free product - it would not be easy for me to have this function if I use the alternatives that you suggest.



B) E-junkie already have a solution for offering free products... but you have to use a shopping cart. People who sell ebooks sometimes offers the first chapters for free so why not do it the right way (without a shopping cart). Not sure I can replace the E-junkie cart graphic as you suggest - the shopping cart function will still be there and people needs to checkout somehow to get their free copy.

AnitaDeFrankProbably the most easiest way to answer the question you're ultimately asking is this ... what you're asking for is simply not something E-junkie offers at this time.



It's next to impossible to find any service to do 100% every single thing you want it to do whether it's a shopping cart, affiliate management program or even a mailing list provider unless you yourself design it.



This is something you simply have to deal with ... unless again ... you yourself design it or have a programmer design it for you.

- OR suggest that E-junkie makes a minor modification, which makes their product even more usable for people who sell ebooks so that they don't have to choose another provider...



E-junkie is competing with other companies who sell similar solutions - what I suggest should be real simple to change and would be relevant for people who sell ebooks. I would prefer not to make my life even more complicated and use money for an extra service such as Aweber since I don't have a newsletter and don't plan to have one either. Collecting and processing data from free and paid versions in one system is logic. Do you agree on that?



Happy Easter to you too!

Mike

[E-junkie_Guru]

You can replace the cart icon in our standard overlay-style shopping-cart display with a custom logo or other graphic:

http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/trouble.reseller.custom-logo.htm



We don't understand why you want to protect your freebie giveaway file from file sharing even though there's zero interest in sharing files that anyone can get for free by providing a fake name and throwaway email anyway. That bogus data is all you'd "lose" even if a direct link was posted to your freebie file anyway, and that's the same bogus data that would be stamped on the recipient's file, so there'd be no personally-identifiable disincentive to share copies of that file, either. You seem to be demanding a solution that doesn't actually solve a theoretical problem that doesn't actually exist. At least paid downloads would take the buyer's real name and email from their payment account's profile.



As for your other request, we simply don't have any existing code in place that would support a Buy Now type of button for Free Checkouts, so we'd have to write programming from scratch to do all of that, hardly a "minor modification". In the nearly 6 years we've been in business, with 8400+ merchants currently subscribed to use our service, you're the first person to request such a feature, so there isn't a lot of demand for it, in contrast to the many other new features and general improvements our Developers are already working on every single day.



Development prioritizes new feature requests according to broadest potential benefit and the simplicity of programming them into our existing codebase and algorithms. Because ours is a centrally-managed service that is shared in common among thousands of merchant subscribers, it's impossible for us to make a modification for one merchant that does not also affect all other merchants, so we place the utmost importance on maintaining bug-free stability for all merchants using our system.



Greater priority is given to popularly-requested features which many or most merchants could benefit from, and which can be written into our existing system fairly straightforwardly with minimal risk, whilst lower priority is given to features rarely requested and of benefit to fewer merchants, or which require substantial reprogramming or complexity that may introduce new bugs or instability problems in well-polished and stable parts of our existing system.

[mikej]

Thank you E-junkieGuru for your answer - I do understand most of the reasons you are saying.



You are right that people can use any name or email address they want, but at least the file gets the stamp. I may want to offer a rather large part of my e-book for free so I would like to prevent someone from distributing my file on their website (I know you can't prevent that but they would at least have to remove the data that would be stamped on the file - I think I just use a watermark instead).



I won't repeat myself once again - I know your product is used by a lot of people who sell other things than e-books and it is logic to have a shopping cart for that reason - I just don't want it on my salespage just because I want to offer a free file through your system.



I accept that and E-junkie is still a good product, I probably add Aweber to my growing collection of paid services that I have to learn how to use... It probably won't ruin my life.



Thank you for your time.