shareware payment services

[rbliss]

I'm not certain if this is the correct forum section, but I couldn't find a specific one for this question. I was curious what methods shareware developers have used for payment collection--specifically for low-cost titles. Kagi seems to take a big chunk for cheap titles (%100 if it is under $5), and I have heard all kinds of Paypal horror stories. I was curious what somebody like Strange Flavor did for accepting payment before they hooked up with freeverse. Any suggestions would help.

[ERaZer]

I think you should check out eSellerate(http://www.esellerate.net/), they seem to be good.

[codemattic]

I wish some of those digital cash companies were able to make it work. Cybercash, millicent, etc... Unfortunately its going to be hard to take credit cards for small payments ($5) much less micropayments.

You might find these links useful:

http://www.macdevcenter.com/lpt/a/2859

http://www.blackcatsystems.com/regservices/

also - if you are really determined and a diy kinda hacker - you could take cc directly through something like:

http://www.amerimerchant.net/

but of course - you will have to recreate all the services that a kagi does now - so what you save in $$ you make up in work and time and hassle.

As Sanford Selznick says in his article - there is an opportunity for an open/shareware bill payment system if any programmers wanted to take that up.

You could always offer more than one payment option. A lower price for those that can pay through PayPal - and a price a couple of bucks higher if they pay with Kagi.

hth,
Codemattic

[Zwilnik]

We used a system called Fairtunes until they sold to a bigger mp3 selling company who changed the system to be impractical for shareware micropayments. (what happened is a pretty long story, but the guys who invented and ran Fairtunes had a really good idea and were good honest people). Fortunately for us, Freeverse were good enough to come along and offer us a shopfront for Airburst.

Avoid PayPal like the plague. There have been too many reports of tip jars being emptied by hackers, or bank accounts linked to PayPal accounts being milked. Add PayPal's complete inneptitude to the mix and you've got a recipe for disaster.

The shareware market is crying out for a decent micropayment system of some sort. In the absence of one however, maybe a group of shareware authors should get together with similar titles and release them as a compilations of 3 games at $15 through Kagi/RegNow etc. effectively making each title $5

[GoodDoug]

The latest installment of the Shareware Do's and Don'ts at MacDevCenter.com has a good summary of three current systems, including Kagi and eSellerate.

The more I read about eSellerate, the more I like it. I know of some others who are very happy with it as well. but, I'll still do some due dilligence to make sure it will work for our stuff.