eBook Publishing: Why Bother Going With a Payment/Product Fulfillment Service?
Now that we know there is a dirt cheap, automated in-house solution for processing payments and delivering your downloadable ebook to customers (see yesterday’s post), this then begs the question: Why bother with an external third-party service like PayLoadz, ClickBank, E-Junkie, CafePress, Lulu and the others I know are out there but I’m getting too old to remember?
A couple of reasons jump to mind immediately.
You just don’t want to deal with the in-house tech. Believe me, that’s perfectly understandable. Some people just can’t do it. Some people just won’t do it. In-house solutions require a certain amount of technical work (set up and maintenance), and you don’t have to deal with it if you don’t want to… but that’ll cost.
Just like hiring an employee costs.
The assumption here is that the service you go with makes this part of your operation easy for you; that’s up to you to “discover” and figure out, since heck if anyone but you knows what “easy” is to you. But you have no shortage of options.
At the end of the day, if you don’t want to wrestle with in-house tech and can absorb the cost of the service (don’t forget to calc in the opportunities you gain from being able to focus on stuff you do want to focus on!), more power to you!
Now what if working with the tech in-house isn’t a problem? Is there another reason to consider a third-party service? Yup…
The service gives you promotion and marketing benefits. Gee whiz tech isn’t going to produce a single sale for you if you don’t “get the word out,” and many of these services could theoretically help you out in this area.
On paper, this is some serious oomph for the buck. You can, after all, always scramble and kludge together the tech as needed, even throw money at it to get a quick working solution as folks pound on your website, demanding your product… but building that demand in the first place? Time-consuming, tough, even artful work. If you get a whiff of anything available that could help in this area, I suggest you take a very close look at it.
I’m not saying that after you start using any of these services, sales will suddenly materialize. Nope, you’ve got some work to do (and still a bunch of it). But you’ll have some potentially useful tools and/or other benefits available to you that you would otherwise not have.
Of those, the two that I consider most beneficial would be the existence of an established network of affiliates ready to promote you (although you still have to convince them to do so, you’re now just a step or more closer to them). And giving prospective customers the warm fuzzy security of dealing with a service they may already be familiar with.
If I were buying an ebook through a small publisher using ClickBank, for example, even if the publisher’s site is so dinky it reassures me not one bit, I know from experience that if I’m not satisfied for whatever reason, one email to ClickBank and I get my money back easily (sure, I can always get my funds back through my credit card provider, but that’s a hassle I’d rather not deal with if I don’t have to).
Some services claim to also offer you a “marketplace” of prospects and existing customers who’ll be exposed to your product once you start selling through them. Umm, I’m not really too sold on this benefit, because aside from going through a few big boys like Amazon and eBay when I’m in “browse shopping” mode, that’s not really how I shop. I more likely will do the Google search or saw-it-mentioned-on-a-site-so-I-thought-I’d-check-it-out route.
But hey, that’s me and my idea of what my customers do. If you know a substantial number of your prospects shop through the service you’ll be using (say Lulu or CafePress), I’d say the decision’s a no-brainer. If you just have a feeling they’re there (again, how do you shop?), consider trying and testing the service.
After saying all that, I leave you with this question: Who said you’re limited to a single payment processing/product delivery solution?
Have fun!
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