Please give some feedback on my MP3 shop

[JimOfferman]

I would like to hear some feedback on the new MP3 shop I've added to my website: Jim Offerman » Music

You don't have to buy anything (although I won't stop you ), just give me your impression of the store itself. Is it easy to navigate? Is it clear how everything works? What's missing? etc.

Thanks!

[Jcs]

I like the design. Looks good and all . The cart system is a bit 'weird' though since it for me opens a new window and I have to close it to return to your site. Or if I press continue shopping it opens a new page *again*. Other then that it looks awesome .

[JimOfferman]

Thanks Jcs!

The cart is a 3rd party system (Payloadz), so my control over it is a bit limited. But I'll see what I can do to make it better

[Jcs]

Have a look, just a look, at E-junkie Shopping Cart for selling downloads & tangible goods

Ran across it few days ago, seems really nice.

[Angela]

It's very straight forward and easy to use, Jim. Would you consider either putting the $USD rate or a link to a rate equivalents site on there?

[seeker5]

Great stuff! I really like the preview thingy. That "Hold on to your Dream" song is great! I was very tempted to buy it.

Suggestions:

1) Have the purchase page on paypal be in the English language. I think it's in Dutch, and not speaking Dutch, I couldn't understand what info goes where. If your songs are in English, and your selection page is in English, I think you're limiting the ability to sell your songs if your paypal purchase page is not in English. At least, have two links available - one for English-speaking only purchasers and one for Dutch speaking purchasers.

2) If it's possible, make it obvious that clicking on the song gives you the lyrics. I didn't know that, and almost wrote "include a link to the lyric" of the song. I initially thought that clicking on the song would be a purchase (yeah, I know there's a cart there, but that was my first impression until I decided to revisit the page).

3) I would also suggest the link to the Creative Commons License be to the English version of it. While (unlike the paypal page), you can click on the English version on top, I think for the sake of consistency with the rest of your site, that the Creative Commons License you link to be in English. Or at least, link to both of them like "All my music is available under a Creative Commons (English | Dutch) License".

(I didn't include the actual link in my example )

Also, I don't know about British English, but in American English, the proper phrase would be "All of my music....." with the "of"

[JimOfferman]

@Jcs: I knew about E-junkie already. Their system is really nice, but for now more expensive...

@Angela: Done! I've added an exchange rate table to the bottom of the main store page. I'm not entirely satisfied with this solution, but it will do until I find something better

[Jcs]

Ah alright. Hope you'll sell well ^^. Thought about iTunes store? No idea how that actually works though.

[JimOfferman]

Originally Posted by seeker5

Great stuff! I really like the preview thingy. That "Hold on to your Dream" song is great! I was very tempted to buy it.

Thanks! Too bad my Dutch checkout page stopped you this time

1) Have the purchase page on paypal be in the English language.

Good catch! I had set the default language to English, but since the default country was The Netherlands, PayPal shows the checkout page in Dutch - ugh!

I've reset the default country to United States, so the checkout page is once again in a language we can 'all' understand.

2) If it's possible, make it obvious that clicking on the song gives you the lyrics. I didn't know that, and almost wrote "include a link to the lyric" of the song. I initially thought that clicking on the song would be a purchase (yeah, I know there's a cart there, but that was my first impression until I decided to revisit the page).

Well, the introduction to the store does say that clicking on a song or album title leads to more information (currently just the lyrics and liner notes - I might add even more later).

3) I would also suggest the link to the Creative Commons License be to the English version of it.

Another good point. Changed!

Also, I don't know about British English, but in American English, the proper phrase would be "All of my music....." with the "of"

Fixed! :P

Thanks for these excellent comments!

[JimOfferman]

Originally Posted by Jcs

Ah alright. Hope you'll sell well ^^. Thought about iTunes store? No idea how that actually works though.

I'm in there already and also in a whole bunch of other stores. They all have the same problem: the people who like my music don't shop there.

[Gene]

The site looks nice. I would change the cart to zencart or even cubecart which seamlessly allows download of the digital product immediately after the product is paid for by the customer.

[JimOfferman]

Originally Posted by Gene

The site looks nice. I would change the cart to zencart or even cubecart which seamlessly allows download of the digital product immediately after the product is paid for by the customer.

Why? What's the big difference? Either you get an e-mail immediately after you've paid or you get to a landing page where you can download your stuff... seems more or less the same to me. But if you have a strong conviction why I should absolutely have the latter, I would love to hear!

Other than the immediate access to the downloads, cubecart and zencart do not seem to offer much benefit over Payloadz (the service I'm currently using) or E-junkie (the one that seeker5 suggested).

[seeker5]

Originally Posted by JimOfferman

Why? What's the big difference? Either you get an e-mail immediately after you've paid or you get to a landing page where you can download your stuff... seems more or less the same to me. But if you have a strong conviction why I should absolutely have the latter, I would love to hear!

The latter seems to indicate it's an automated process. The former seems to indicate a more manual process, where you email it when you get around to it, and thus doesn't have that "right-away" feel. Even automated emails sometime takes a while to be delivered. Furthermore, it also means having to put a email address in, and also having to check the email inbox until the email is delivered. If it goes to the spam box, it may take a little while to dig it out for those who receive a lot of spam. Thus the "receive by email" requires additional effort and time on the part of the purchaser.

E-junkie (the one that seeker5 suggested).

I didn't suggest any particular service . You meant Jcs.

[Gene]

Originally Posted by JimOfferman

Why? What's the big difference? Either you get an e-mail immediately after you've paid or you get to a landing page where you can download your stuff... seems more or less the same to me. But if you have a strong conviction why I should absolutely have the latter, I would love to hear!

Other than the immediate access to the downloads, cubecart and zencart do not seem to offer much benefit over Payloadz (the service I'm currently using) or E-junkie (the one that seeker5 suggested).

With the carts the download is available immediately. The customer does not need to worry about the email getting lost or caught in the spam filter or otherwise going astray. I really have a bad feeling when an email gets lost in the bit bucket and I am forced to go to customer service and ask where is my user or download information.

I am sure either will work and you will sell your quality music. As a customer my experience would be better with the cart. Others may have different preferences and experiences.

[Blue Wolf]

First, I really liked what you did - great music. Plus, the site lets you play a sample, something critical before purchasing.

I'm going to second that the 'click purchase' and get e-mail directions to download would give me hesitancy (I'll admit I live on itunes and am used to the instant click and purchase). By implying an email and set of directions, how would the consumer know that - there are not 20 steps or that it would work with his or her computer, etc.?

Finally, I'm sure (or hope) you realize that this is the tip of the iceberg as to what you could do with this. What if you had a brief entry on another page as to the signficance of song ----. Perhaps you wrote it when you going through a certain point in your life, or for a dog/person/tree etc. I really believe if something is made personal for other people, they may buy into. Anyway, you could try that with one or two songs and see if more people click purchase for that song.

Have people interviewed you or your group and put that in mp3 format? Attach it to your website? Again, more personable, more insight may = more sales.

Good luck -- I think your website has a lot of potential.

[JimOfferman]

Thanks for your insights, Blue Wolf!

Yes, this is just the tip of the iceberg. I plan to add background information for all the songs, add some free stuff, etc.

I also want to have my own theme eventually (currently using a stock WordPress theme - great as a start, but not entirely me)

The E-junkie service offers immediate downloads, plus the nicest cart I've seen so far... I think I'll switch the shop over to their service.

[ken nubo]

I like the website template, it looks nice and simple. Here's a cool tip on how to get more clickthrus for your google ads: place your ad on the right hand side, wide skyscaper format instead of having a banner on top.

[Jenny]

Jim,
I like the site. Perhaps you want to include a picture of yourself? I enjoy seeing the person as well as hearing the music.

[JimOfferman]

Thanks Jenny! Yes, the site needs some pictures... just need to decide which ones, really

[JimOfferman]

My shop now offers pricing in EUR or USD (employing some technical wizardry to extract the exchange rate from the data published by the IMF).

Question for you American folk: does this make the shop more accessible to you? What do you make of the note that appears when you select $ prices? (I'm trying to be legally sound, without sounding like a lawyer)

For your convenience, here's the link again: Jim Offerman » Music

There's still more work to be done: I'm hacking away at a new DIY back-end for the shop that supports instant downloads and iDeal (which is the most popular system for online payment over here). It sure helps to be a nerd with all those things

[seeker5]

Originally Posted by JimOfferman

My shop now offers pricing in EUR or USD (employing some technical wizardry to extract the exchange rate from the data published by the IMF).

It doesn't work for me. I select the $ on the drop-down menu, and the prices stays in Euro. I'm currently using IE 7

Question for you American folk: does this make the shop more accessible to you? What do you make of the note that appears when you select $ prices? (I'm trying to be legally sound, without sounding like a lawyer)

Yes it would, if it worked

[JimOfferman]

Originally Posted by seeker5

I'm currently using IE 7

Ugh, figures... it works in Safari and Firefox... should've known that IE would mope.

I don't have a PC handy here, so I'll go find out why it doesn't work in IE at work tomorrow.

Thanks for checking, though!

[JimOfferman]

It works in IE now! Yay!

[Jamie]

Originally Posted by JimOfferman

I would like to hear some feedback on the new MP3 shop I've added to my website: Jim Offerman » Music

You don't have to buy anything (although I won't stop you ), just give me your impression of the store itself. Is it easy to navigate? Is it clear how everything works? What's missing? etc.

Thanks!

Your eCommerce providor takes 15%? If so, that's a fairly big chunk, I think BMT micro are 9.5% and Plimus 10%.

Other than that, all worked fine, FireFox 2.0.0.11

Jamie.

[seeker5]

It works now, that's nice!

I recommend you put the thing where you change the price on the right colum of the page, if it's possible. The idea is to put it above the price so the eyes naturally see it. People may not be as aware of that button to change the prices into American prices the way it is.

Hmmm, if you were fancy, you could try to see where the ip is from and then set the default according to that. No clue if it's easy to set that or not.

Another thing, you set the U.S. prices at $1.00. In the U.S, we're kinda used to seeing prices at 99cents or 98cents. I-Tunes prices are 99 cents for a phychological reason rather then $1.00. Not sure if you changed your prices to make it 1.00, or if it's purely chance, but just thought I'd point that out.

[JimOfferman]

Originally Posted by seeker5

I recommend you put the thing where you change the price on the right colum of the page, if it's possible. The idea is to put it above the price so the eyes naturally see it. People may not be as aware of that button to change the prices into American prices the way it is.

Good point! In the final layout, I'll put the drop down closer to the price column.

Hmmm, if you were fancy, you could try to see where the ip is from and then set the default according to that. No clue if it's easy to set that or not.

Yup. I'll do that as soon as I've found a reliable way to get that info.

Another thing, you set the U.S. prices at $1.00. In the U.S, we're kinda used to seeing prices at 99cents or 98cents. I-Tunes prices are 99 cents for a phychological reason rather then $1.00. Not sure if you changed your prices to make it 1.00, or if it's purely chance, but just thought I'd point that out.

The U.S. prices aren't fixed - they are converted from euros based on the most recent exchange rate data from the IMF website. That's what the 'scary' disclaimer message (about the prices being approximate) is for.