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PayPal is Trippin' Over March Madness!


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For almost a decade a few buddies and myself have a March Madness Pool.  Over the last several years we have been using PayPal to send the entry fee. 

 

I already take it for granted that PayPal mines all our transactions for information.  Perhaps the information they obtain is a revenue stream.  But when they read our messages and arbitrary decide what is an acceptable transaction they have overstepped their bounds, on so many levels.

 

When I send someone a check, Citibank does not email me to say, "Hey we don't approve of the reason for you writing a check, stop it." This is absurd!

 

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Crazy! Do you know Paypal and Ebay closed my Paypal because I listed my own shoes that I made on my store? I own ARCH and these idiots said it was a knockoff brand. I gave them my GS1 information and UPCs and they closed my account! Now tell me if that ain't a crock of poopie! A long time ago they closed my account because some guy lied and said I sold him fake shoes. What's crazy is I sent them the receipt from Nike, and then I showed them that the guy was trying to sell the shoes on his Ebay page. They sided with the buyer and killed my online biz with Ebay and paypal costing me 5-7000 bucks per month. The moral of the story is... Paypal can do whatever the hell they want because they have a lock on the market. The way to go now is to use Square or Amazon, but so many people are comfortable with Paypal that you are literally stuck with them. Oh well...

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Cancelled your account for selling you own stuff?

 

I've sold tickets to events, on PayPal, then AFTER the event people would request a refund and PayPal would refund the money?!  

 

Yeah I've been using Square more lately.  They also have a nicer interface. I plan to migrate to Square from PayPal.

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Yep, for selling my own stuff! I submitted all of my GS1 info and they said that I couldn't sell ARCH on Ebay, it was insane. The good thing is that Square is a much faster set up and you can collect your money each day. Unfortunately, most people love and only know Paypal. I have Amazon payments, but it was only used through Kickstarter. I have a Square store, but I still don't have it set up. I have been contemplating moving from Amazon to Square to control all of my product and get that 15% back, but I would spend that 15% trying to get the customers from Amazon to my site... it's a really tough decision to make for me.

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Man I completely understand.  I can give people every option to buy a book and they will, virtually always, pick Amazon.  When I don't provide Amazon, as an option, they do not buy (at least not from me).

 

One popular author I've been working with says it is just so much more convenient.  I guess that is how everyone feels.  

 

It does not look like we are willing to trade in a bit of convenience for independence.  I swear the Montgomery Bus Boycott would not get past the talking stage today.

 

I also remember how long it took to me to get folks to use PayPal, there are still many who refuse to use PayPal today, preferring to use paper checks, which prior to cell phone deposits, were a royal pain.  

 

I have not noticed any greater push back from Square, compared to PayPal.  I took my first credit card payment from Square via my cell phone (without a card swipe (info was emailed to me) without a hitch it.

 

Finally I decided not to actively use social media a couple of days ago.  I will share from my website, but I won't engage with anyone personally or professionally.  I'm just tired of working for Facebook, often paying for the privilege.

 

I'm not closing my accounts.  More and more people use Facebook as their primary platform on the web, as a result I will still need to go to Facebook, but again I will not be writing anything on the site.

 

I will continue to use the Youtube social media platform, as that is a revenue generator.

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There is no way The Montgomery Bus Boycott would happen today. Convenience is king and brick and mortar stores are falling everyday. I actually have enough of a cushion to move my store from Amazon, but I'm terrified that I won't get the traffic to my site. But I understand the benefit of building my site and I've created great information and I have the product, but I simply don't push my shoe site out there to the masses. That 15% is a huge number that they take and my Amazon Associates doesn't generate enough to offset that 15% they take each month which equates to roughly 3-4K per month they take. My own convenience costs me money on a daily basis and I won't fix it. smh

 

What I have done is start to empower the next generation. Just this week I taught a rapper how to create his own downloads on his site. No middle man at all. I told him to do what you are doing, post his videos to Youtube, make sure he links to his site and put the Download button right under his videos. He has to pay for the plugin but I set it up really nice and clean: http://www.swiftizm.com/brand-new-music-video-icantlie/

 

The good thing is he can see how many times it has been downloaded. More important once he decides to charge it's as easy as paying for the 25 dollar plug in and boom! He is his own music store. I attempted to teach a class on setting up sites like this and no one responded. Well two artists did and their sites are moving along quickly.

 

Everyone I talk to who isn't as invested in their platform as I am with Amazon I am directing to go straight to the consumer. I've always known this, but it's been reinforced by the Dame Dash discussion as of late.

 

I understand completely on the use of Facebook. I use it primarily for what it is, finding old friends. I don't have a fan page any longer for either of my companies. Well when I mentioned ARCH they instantly reactivated the old page, but I haven't checked in on it. I do know that you can generate traffic with negative material so I often post something in my hater voice and watch the interactions pile up. I've been doing a lot more responding on sites using Disqus.  I have yet to invest in Youtube, though I'm planning a series of Google Hangout videos that will be saved to Youtube. You should look into that as well. It's a nice feature.

 

How is the add on your homepage performing? I'm planning out advertising and I'm still trying to figure out the best way to work with aalbc. I guess it's good that you are mentioned several times in my new book and the link will be active in the ebook. What's funny is that book derived from a negative interaction on Facebook... so Facebook is good for something, lol.

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Cool, let me know when the new book is available.  I eventually have to get a book out myself.

 

As far as the ad on the homepage.  I'll send you something shortly.  

 

I'm also running a report for another client (and myself), to look at click rates based upon ad position.  I put all new ads at the bottom, as ads higher up roll off, the newer ads can move higher up on the page.

 

Th client asked that I move his book to a higher position hoping it would increase sales.  I explained how ad placement works on the homepage, but I also said that the subject and book cover are more important than placement (at keast for the books on the AALBC.com homepage).  The report I run will see if place is indeed a factor.  

 

In other words does a nice book cover for a popular subject by a popular authors at the end of the book section perform poorly, while an ugly book cover about an uninteresting subject written by a no-name author perform well?   Also does the click through rates for the same book improve as book moves up the page? 

 

To clarify, as far as Amazon is concerned are you saying that you make more sales on Amazon, but less profit per shoe versus selling the shoes directly via you own website?  And that you are concerned (terrified) that if you migrated off of Amazon the increased profit per shoes would not make up for the lost revenue Amazon generates through higher sales?

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I will keep you posted on the book. I'm asking about the ad in general because I think that book is less likely to perform well here than Archie's Psalm. Blacks tend to by business or motivational books only from preachers or celebrity speakers. Hence Steve Harveys success.

On the Amazon thing, I have certain shoes on my site available on my site but I haven't sold a pair of those. I very rarely share info from my site and unless I post a new shoe the only traffic derives from search. Since I do have amazon associates as my shop now link I can see a few sales generated through the site but I have yet to change the site over to sell direct to the customer only. The interesting thing is I could give the customer much better prices, but I just don't think I would get as many sales. I have the same problem on CBP. I have copies of my books but my amazon shop now is more prominent than my own buy now buttons. My pathology is unsettling.

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My Power List site I just decided I will take the financial hit and promote and independent bookseller.  Overtime, I hope the example will speak for itself and I will win more customers.  Perhaps it will encourage other people to do the same.

 

Peace,

Troy

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