business end of things

[menty666]

I know this has been asked before, but I wanted to start it as a new thread because I know times change, services fall out of favor, etc.....

But I've recently hit a point where people actually want to buy something I'm making and I need to set up a rudimentary site for folks to pick a few options and be able to pay via credit card. Let's just say Paypal frowns on this class of product :naughty:

So my question is, who do people like for hosting/cart/merchant account combos?

I'm looking at GoDaddy with their quick cart setup, but the fees on the Quickbooks Merchant Account they shill for are a little high.

Co-locating a server of my own really isn't a preferred option at the moment, so I'm looking for a third party hosting service.

[wildrokproductions]

no info hear ,but would like to know what you come up with

[mer]

how does paypal know what you're selling? maybe an ignorant question but whenever i pay someone with paypal i just have a box to check that says "goods/services".

[Headchange]

I second the paypal comment .. they shouldnt know or care.. You are the one liable if yousell anything to someone.. younger for a different purpose ec.. It is not their place to make a sdetermination unless involving sale of humans or something I thought..

[menty666]

Good point , and I really don't need a shopping cart for the time being. I just know they frown on some items as far as ebay auctions are concerned, so folks use bidpay instead. Bidpay, however is only good for that one situation, and even then not so much.

Thanks!

[primal]

be cautious paypal does care ihave heard a few stories

[loydb]

If you use Paypal, be sure to *daily* xfer any money that Paypal has, into your bank account. Then transfer the bulk of *that* into a savings account or different checking account.

I've used Paypal for years with no problem at all, but I've heard horror stories. To be fair, there are horror stories about pretty much any bank/credit card company.

loyd

[gravdigr]

paypal does indeed care and will freeze any account breaking their terms of service. One of those terms of service is that paypal cannot be used to pay for porn, and it is enforced (long story but my brother in law is gay and buy's/sells his porn on ebay).

[Swampy]

MentyI'd just use paypal, takes a couple of goes to get the hang of it but once you got it down you just copy and paste the code onto your page.


Sorry to hijack; How do I open a US account if I'm not resident in the US, any ideas?

Then I can transfer all the dosh made from selling boro punties lol

[ech]

It is not a good idea to violate the TOS of Paypal. They will freeze the account and take the money if they find out you used it for the sale of any kind of paraphenalia.

[Headchange]

MentyI'd just use paypal, takes a couple of goes to get the hang of it but once you got it down you just copy and paste the code onto your page.


Sorry to hijack; How do I open a US account if I'm not resident in the US, any ideas?

Then I can transfer all the dosh made from selling boro punties lol

Go to etrade.com and open an investment checking.. which can be where you deposit from and is an american institution that has frequent foreign customers. 100 opening.. easy pm if ya need more info

[Headchange]

It is not a good idea to violate the TOS of Paypal. They will freeze the account and take the money if they find out you used it for the sale of any kind of paraphenalia.

Do ANY of us sell paraphenalia? I sell pipes.. There is a difference and intent is a big part of that.. They have already won if you say you make paraphenalia :bangHead:

[CliffsideGlassworks]

par·a·pher·na·lia (păr'ə-fər-nāl'yə, -fə-nāl'yə) http://content.answers.com/main/content/img/pron.gif
pl.n. (used with a sing. or pl. verb)
Personal belongings.
The articles used in a particular activity; equipment: a photographer's paraphernalia. See synonyms at equipment (http://www.answers.com/topic/equipment).
A married woman's personal property exclusive of her dowry, according to common law.[Medieval Latin paraphernālia, neuter pl. of paraphernālis, pertaining to the parapherna, a married woman's property exclusive of her dowry, from Greek : para-, beyond; see para–1 (http://www.answers.com/topic/para) + phernē, dowry.]



hmm...

[CliffsideGlassworks]

i swear its all her paraphernalia..

:D

[bc]

Do ANY of us sell paraphenalia? I sell pipes.. There is a difference and intent is a big part of that.. They have already won if you say you make paraphenalia :bangHead:



yeah good luck with that 'I sell pipes not para...' excuse when paypal has already frozen any cash from a transfer, let's see how talking to your computer on how rightous your 'pipes' are then. Get real your one fucking person, paypal is a multi-billion dollar operation, they win, hell...even an multi-thousand dollar operation would beat you.

[CripSkillz]

hey if yo already have a merchant acct mals is sweet actually its sweet for everything try this out see if its what your lookin for http://www.mals-e.com/ Pipes should be fine but not this stuff, "Anyone can use the service who has a website and something to sell. However I absolutely do not accept anyone who sells adult (including sex toys, DVDs, Viagra) or racist material, advocates violence or engages in any activities involving spam email."



ive use em a few times best of all its free and there cart is secure Sick

[menty666]

LOL....Not selling anything illegal (well, not in MA anyway....yet). I was just planning to make a few dildos :) I'm just not proud of it, but hey they're pretty and people like them and want to pay for them, so much the better. I just anneal them a bit longer to be on the ultra safe side. I've got some polarized glass on the way as well to make a polariscope.

If you're interested the price on the P glass wasn't too bad and it's a dutch auction: here (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330043732651&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ebay.com%3A80%2Fsearch%2Fse arch.dll%3Ffrom%3DR40%26satitle%3D330043732651%250 9%26category0%3D%26fvi%3D1)

Thanks for the tip Crip but I think I'm violating everyone's TOS here :D


Just by way of an update....

I'm considering using Zen Cart and one of the certified compatible hosting providers mentioned on their site. For the merchant account I was considering merchantanywhere.com (http://www.merchantanywhere.com/index.htm)
They have one feature to their site I find particularly attractive if I ever go do "normal" glass at a craft show or something; cell phone based card swipe attachments

Of course I may just forgo the cart for the time being and just give people customization options then process the card offsite.

Too many options and no idea which ones are compatible :)

This might be a good time to jerk around a few companies I don't like though that I *know* would have a problem with the merchandise. I've had a bone to pick with Verizon for a while......

[Chase Designs]

Have you tried www.pappashop.com. They will set you up with a shopping cart for pretty cheap and you can get a merchant account at propay.com for credit cards. propay has no idea what you are selling and doesn't ask either.

I have no idea if pappashop would care about selling dildos or not though.

[Chase Designs]

Oh scratch that, appears pappashop on hosts "family friendly shops"

[canaan]

Menty,

paypaaaal does not discriminate (at the moment) for selling solid glass scultpure, which is what you're referring to. A dildo, is a cheap piece of rubber you can buy from the sleeze at the porn shop.

We have sold erotic glass art online for 5 years, and have never had a problem with our paypal sales, and we do receive quite a few payments each month using pp.

[menty666]

Thanks for the input folks.
GoDaddy told me that they can support zen cart if I use one of their Linux hosting plans. So I think what I'll do is when I set up the domain go that route and take my chances with PP in the mean time. Worse comes to worse if they want to suspend my account I just stop using them to unsuspend it and set up a normal merchant account which I'll need eventually anyway. I just would have rather used windows hosting because I'm more comfortable with asp.net than php, but hey, we all learn.

Thanks again!

[canaan]

hosting on a windows box is awful.

There's a reason *nix operating systems in commercial production environments vastly outnumber Windows machines. Windows may be the predominant o/s for desktop machines, but as a server platform, you may as well walk up hill in the snow, with no shoes, and dragging an anchor behind you.

*nix systems are far superior, in every server aspect. Reliability being the most important. They also make far better usage of system resources, cpu and memory management. In a server platform, you really dont want to put too much trust in a microsoft platform. I've been running web and game servers for 10+ years, and wouldnt ever consider doing so based on a microsoft product. I'm sure it's 'user-friendly' for a beginning amateur, and choosing to run windows based soley on your familiarity with ASP (a microsoft product) would not be the best decision. ASP was developed by microsoft to attempt to sway those who code in the PHP scripting language back to a microsoft platform. For some corporate pencil pushers, this may seem an ideal decision. Someone needs an excuse to employ all the microsoft certified techies. laff.

If you are comfortable enough with ASP, then it shouldnt be very diffiult to make the transition to PHP. It's actually much more streamlined, and simpler than ASP. Micropuff has a tendecncy to over complicate things.

Go pick yourself (d/l) up an ASP to PHP conversion script - and play around with some of your current ASP scripts. You'll quickly catch on to the differences, and eventually, you'll find yourself just as, if not more comfortable with PHP.

[Phoenix]

Thanks for the input folks.
GoDaddy told me that they can support zen cart if I use one of their Linux hosting plans. So I think what I'll do is when I set up the domain go that route and take my chances with PP in the mean time. Worse comes to worse if they want to suspend my account I just stop using them to unsuspend it and set up a normal merchant account which I'll need eventually anyway. I just would have rather used windows hosting because I'm more comfortable with asp.net than php, but hey, we all learn.

Thanks again!

It'll be easier than you expect- I went with pho on mine even though I was an ASP gal back in my programming days. The php is pretty user friendly and intuitive if you are already comfortabel with ASP. I haven't done any actual programming in years and I'm ok making a number of my own mods and playing with things- you'll be good!