Selling Digital Products on Multiple Websites
In my previous post Paypal Setup for Multiple Websites I discussed how to set up Paypal to sell products on multiple websites. This method works fine, but since I started using E-junkie to host and deliver my digital products, I’ve stumbled across a trick or two to make the process run even smoother for you. The following method removes the need to poke around in the Paypal button code (good for non-technical people), and allows you to take back control of what happens to your customer after the sale. Plus E-junkie is a very good service in its own right, and makes it very easy to manage your digital products.
E-junkie is a site that hosts and delivers your digital products. A mere $5 per month allows you up to 10 products and 50MB of storage space. It also allows you to create coupon codes, confirmation and thank-you messages, send free review copies, and manage and track affiliate sales. All included in your $5/month. I’ve found it to work very smoothly, and it tracks and notifies me of sales. Perfect for selling digital products on autopilot.
The following steps will allow you to use a single Paypal account for selling products on multiple websites, and also ensures that the checkout experience is customised and consistent for each website. As discussed previously, Paypal on it’s own does not make customisation easy for owners of multiple websites.
Step 1
Set up an E-junkie account, using any email address that is linked to your Paypal account.
Step 2
Upload your banner. In the admin section of your account, under “Manage Your Seller Account” click on “Edit Profile”.
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You should now see a button that says “Upload Your Logo”.
This will allow you to upload a logo or banner (size must be 736×90 pixels or less, with a file size under 100KB). Note that in the Paypal-only procedure, you had to create multiple custom payment pages (one for each site), but this step removes the need to do this. The logo or banner you upload will be shown on the Paypal payment page for this product/website and will override any default banners or custom pages you have set up in Paypal.
When you use E-junkie, you’re no longer using Paypal button code, since E-junkie provide their own version of a Buy Now or Add To Cart button. This means it’s not straight-forward (or possible?) to enable Paypal custom payment pages. It was while trying to find a solution to this problem, that I stumbled across the usefulness of the E-junkie logo feature.
Step 3
Add your product by following the steps. When you’re finished, E-junkie will provide you with the button code for your product, which you will then paste on your website in the desired location (as per the e-junkie instructions).
Optional: In my previous article on Paypal Setup for Multiple Websites, one of our astute readers Andrew pointed out the limitation of Paypal’s auto-return feature (i.e. you can only set one auto-return URL, regardless of how many websites you’re selling from – thanks Andrew). If this is causing a problem for you, E-junkie provides options to deliver a thank-you page for you, or to redirect to a thank-you URL of your choosing.
Step 4
There is a small catch. Your E-junkie account can use only one logo. So in order to have a unique logo or banner displayed (on payment pages) for each website, you’ll need to set up a separate E-junkie account for each website. Just repeat the process above with a different email address (still linked to the same Paypal account) and new logo. I’ve still found this to be a good solution personally, since each account is only cheap ($5 per month), and unless I’m updating or adding a product I rarely find the need to sign in to my multiple accounts (particularly since sale notifications come via email).
Please fire away with any questions this article arouses about using E-junkie. I will add more detail to this guide if people are demanding it…so please do leave a comment or question below. Thanks – Dave.
