Feature eBook Marketplace

Yea I don't think I'll be using this ebook marketplace either.

Quoted from the user panel area for seeing what the system has to offer:

"Your eBook gets added to our eBook marketplace. We handle all the backend stuff (storing your book, handling payments for you, making sure only authorized users can download your eBook, etc.) You get payments in realtime as they happen (you don't need to "cash out" or anything). In exchange, we take a 10% commission (or $5 if your eBook is under $50). For commissions owed, your PayPal account is automatically debited monthly via a MassPay API call."

Automatically debited? And I should trust DP admin and mods because.....? I have been given infractions and banned at one point for false reasons and I should allow DP to automatically deduct money from my account? Seriously? But take no offense because I don't even let GoDaddy automatically deduct anything from my account and they I actually do trust them and definitely a heck of a lot more than I trust an admin of ANY forum. Letting a forum admin automatically deduct money from my account is like letting a panhandler on the street do it. That's just not going to happen. Who in their right mind would allow such a thing? I have a good question for you to think about before answering that turns the tables on you: Would you trust ALL DP members to automatically deduct money from your account via a MassPay API call? Why or why not? If not all members, then who makes that list of DP members you trust to automatically take money out of your account? And why? Then answer, why anyone should trust a forum admin over a panhandler on the street to automatically debit (take out) money from their account. It's a valid question considering this forum's reputation online is less than acceptable and is known to "house" many scammers including having shady mods and an admin (based on complaints I've seen over the years online about DP and I myself have been wronged moreso by the staff). All of which is one of the reasons I'm less than active on this forum: the bad rep. Every now and then I'll offer something of value to the community but my posts are not enough to overturn the negative reputation this forum has as my posts generally get buried by threads and posts of no value; just like this post will more than likely get buried, too. DP needs to build trust and be a forum that takes pride in value before offering such a feature -- if DP expects a good turn out rate by other people.

But as for me, I don't let ANY third-party automatically deduct something from my account. You know why? Because it compromises the security of my account and my money. Through these things people can make mistakes and deduct more than they should and then you have to go through the hassle of getting it fixed. Whereas if you do it yourself, you can avoid (as in eliminate) that problem altogether. I don't have any company automatically deduct from my accounts for the sake of security because yes humans do make errors from time to time. I feel more safe about my account and my money and what exactly is being disbursed so long as I am the one doing it myself and not something automatically making it happen. So that's the second mistake of this new ebook system DP has contacted me about, in my eyes. The first is, DP's bad reputation. Others might be perfectly fine with the idea and well it's a sure enough way for anyone to snatch more money out of your account than you expect. So no thanks. Security of my money is more important to me. I may not know much about API's but giving another some level of third-party access doesn't make me feel secure about my money especially in a community where a lot of bad stuff goes on. No offense to DP, but I can and would prefer to handle my own payments. Especially since a person can get payments in realtime anyway. Hello! PayPal wasn't born yesterday. PayPal has been around since the late 90s (I opened my account the same exact day they opened their doors). They have merchant features that allow payments to happen in realtime. Additionally, PayPal (through their merchant features) allows for people to set up buy now buttons (and you can get just a link that you an post through email or on a forum thread - I know because I've used it on forums and it is very effective) where the buyer through a secured server can immediately download the product they are buying right after they make a purchase. It takes all but 5 minutes or less to do. This feature offered by PayPal makes sure that only buyers are downloading the seller's product. PayPal didn't do all that they do offering such features and offering fraud protection the best they can just so people can turn around and use a third party to handle the process. PayPal may not store products, but DP is a webmaster community where I'm sure many people have their own hosting account somewhere online (paid or free) and can easily get one if they don't have one or get an account with SendSpace.com or similar site to store your ebooks for sale. And with that link to your product on your webhost's server or SendSpace.com can provide that link in the very easy to use merchant features provided by PayPal. The thing is PayPal doesn't charge 10% of your sales; not even close. So not only would a person have to pay 10% to DP, but also 2.9% + $0.30 to PayPal for the transactions. Now the DP feature would be an option if you cannot use PayPal. But if you can't use Paypal then you won't be able to use this DP system anyway as they require PayPal for the automatic debits. So if you are able to use PayPal, then why use this DP feature? Especially, when you get more control over your own money and products. So I really don't see any major benefit in this system. I've seen forum admins try to come up with their own third-party payment processing company that ends up flopping before it even gets started. And I think they don't understand, people are more prone to trust a real company over a forum admin when it comes to their money. Especially if they've been done wrong by the admin or its staff in the past. Companies like PayPal are more established as real businesses; forums are not. And people don't have that level of security with forums that they do with a real established business. They just don't. I mean, would you, DP admin, trust a forum admin you don't know nor trust to debit money from your account automatically?

About the honest or fake reviews, truly, people will always find a way around it. There is no foolproof system. And the security of my PayPal account to ensure only I have any access to what goes and comes out of it is more important than trying to determine what a fake and real review is. I personally haven't had issues with fake reviews about an ebook I've sold. And with the way it was before if a fake review was given a person could comment and say, "Hey this person didn't buy my product..." Because a person can still post a fake review online here or at a different site. And if done at a different site, well, DP has no control over that; so then what? Just shot your attempt to spot a fake out of the water when reviews on DP aren't being valued anyway by the online community as a whole due to this forum's bad rep. And most people when they buy products they do a Google search to see what other people think on different forums and sites. I've not ever bought a book here without doing my research on other forums. Other forums tend to have better written reviews than on DP; the kind of reviews that I'd give. So I mean either way it goes the buyer is still going to be left with the final decision whether or not to trust the review given: real or fake. DP needs to work on its reputation. That should be a high priority before offering such a feature as trying to convince anyone to trust you all enough to allow you to automatically debit money from their account. If a person can't trust you all to not give out false infractions and banning people for false reasons, then you're going to have a very hard time getting them to trust you to automatically take money out of their account. Be realistic here and put yourself in other people's shoes. Would you trust ALL members of this forum to take money out of your account automatically? If not, then why should any member trust you? That's what it boils down to and what you're up against.

 

I have been waiting for this move from DP promoters.
Thanks a lot.

 

Much better, in this form i have no negative comments to make

 

nice. I like this thing on dp

 

Jebus Kripes! That post is so long IT should count as eBook..
TL;DR..

 

Also about product community reviews, have you thought about that? Maybe a comment box would be great.

Edit: nvm, I just saw that when a product is purchased, the buyer can leave a review. But then comes this 'free review copy', is it possible with this system? Like if a newly registered user is selling something, we don't want to get scammed..

 

New members will be having very hard times trying to sell their products unless someone likes to take risks.
444 posts yay!

 

Will the ebooks need to be approved first (by mods, admin, etc) before they go live? I gave it a try a few hours ago but it gave me a blank page after i hit the button 'save'....and then nothing happened.

 

That's a good one because people always ask or give iTrader for reviews.

 

testing it out now ... is it possible to format the text in the ads, I didnt see that ability but may not have noticed as well,

thanks

 

I have a question.. The system says "For commissions owed, your PayPal account is automatically debited monthly via a MassPay API call."

So, WHEN exactly will our paypal account get debited? What time of the month exactly? And what if at that time we have zero funds in our paypal balance? It's possible that we might forget that someone bought our ebooks and we might've used up all the money in our paypal account before DP could debit anything. And let's say we sold 15 ebooks that cost $5 each, does it mean we have to personally calculate how much money we should leave on our paypal balance for DP to successfully debit their share?? Thanks in advance for answering...

 

Umm...i'm almost positive i won't have any money on my paypal by 1st of next month, and if dp were to debit my account dp won't be able to. I've only sold 1 copy of ebook for $9 so far, so right now i owe dp $2. Can i just PAY DP NOW to avoid any complications later? Can u give me details on how to do it?