WEB DESIGN

[modularsamples]

Depending on your needs/volume you might consider using something like gumroad as a "backend". I use it and am pretty happy so far. It handles payments, distribution and basic email marketing. This covers all the dynamic features the site needs which means I can serve a fully static site, no php or database required. Percentage fees are pretty high, but that's okay for a low volume, amateur hour operation like mine.

The site itself is developed using a local instance of Drupal, Tome generates the static pages which then gets pushed to GitHub. This might sound complicated but it's easily the least stressful workflow for me. I don't need to worry about security updates, payment processors, customer data and the only upfront expense is domain registration.

[DanH]

Getting an irritating amount of people who are struggling to download a 300MB file from my website. The download obviously disconnects but looks completed on both OSX and Windows. Users then complain that it doesn't open.... 95% of the downloads are fine it should be said.

I'm using pcloud, which I have had issues with before but not for downloading files.

Anyone else experienced similar?

[Dan Korneff]

@DanH sounds like a web server timeout setting. I'm using Amazon S3 to host my files and couldn't be happier.

[DanH]

@dustbro seems like the most reliable choice.

[Lindon]

@DanH pCloud works seamlessly for me, and support is pretty good...contact them

[DanH]

@Lindon I've found with them they just say everything's fine their end and that's all they can do.... Last year people couldn't open the links as they weren't trusted by their browsers.

[Lindon]

@DanH hmm,not been my experience, but if thats the case - head elsewhere...

[DanH]

@Lindon I'll give me one last chance

[DanH]

@Lindon oh they just replied...

"There are no specific issues at the moment with the service.
Your customers must be experiencing some technical difficulties on their side."

lol

[Matt_SF]

@DanH I'm using onedrive here and a tiny few of my users also had issues downloading files at times. After talking with them, It turns out it was indeed a problem on their side (small bandwidth, poor connection service, etc...).

[orange]

@DanH I'm just using Dropbox. I am distributing even free plugins with 300MB size and have been downloaded so many times every day, no issues here.

[DanH]

@orange isn't it quite complicated to use direct links with dropbox? I looked into it and PCloud's public folder was much more straightforward. I'd prefer to use dropbox however.

[orange]

@DanH I am not using direct Dropbox links, I am using redirection. There are constant links of the products, such as "/product-masOS-version" or "/product-Windows-version"

These links are constant but I am only editing their redirected links with a Redirection plugin in the Wordpress when the new version is uploaded to the Dropbox. So no need to edit the links of the products on every new Dropbox link update.

I looked into it and PCloud's public folder was much more straightforward.

What is the tool for this in pCloud?

[DanH]

@orange oh that sounds like a good method.

PCloud has a 'Public' folder from which files can be downloaded directly through an app etc.

What's the WP plugin?

[orange]

@DanH https://wordpress.org/plugins/redirection/

The only disadvantage is Dropbox is forbidden in a few countries like China. But most users are using vpn for these things.

[trillbilly]

IDK if this is any help to anyone but I have a fully custom site and host via Digital Ocean. So far, I don't really recommend Digital Ocean. Constant download issues from email links and banned in a few Asian Countries (Singapore and China off the top of my head). They also must use VPN to download.

I'm currently looking for a better hosting solution.

[DanH]

How do you guys manage selling on 3rd party / reseller sites in terms of license keys etc? Presumably the 3rd party site connects to your own site in order to get the license key?

[orange]

@DanH Regarding the license management, we use Woocommerce License Manager plugin on the website. So I give the "unregistered" License keys to the 3rd party sellers for the purchases.

Then after the purchase, the customer creates an account on our webiste > registers the license key. Thus the license key is attached to the customer's account.

Alternatively there is an option for giving Redeem Codes to the resellers.

[trillbilly]

@DanH @orange

I do something similar to this process. Some customers complain about the extra steps (having to sign up to your site mostly) but 98% dont seem to mind.

I've been considering using one of the marketplaces I am on (Xchange) in order to implement their License Manager on my site which seems like it would eliminate this. That poses 2 issues though.

1. Of course, it comes with a fee.
2. Now I may not receive customer info.

Seems like I will just have to accept the fact that I cant make everyone happy lol.

[orange]

@trillbilly said in WEB DESIGN:

Now I may not receive customer info.

Personally, this is the reason why I don't choose that kind of service.

Because you will need this information to retarget sales in new products or updates. This is one of the most essential things in sales.

Besides, it is almost necessary that the user needs to sign up to the software manufacturer's website to hold/see/manage the owned licenses and most the users will want that. And yes you can't make everyone happy :)