http://www.regshare.com/matrix1a.asp

I've been looking mostly at www.shareit.com
They seem to offer allot of nice services. So I was wondering what are other people using and what have they thought about using.

John

SWREG, because it has the lowest fees and is the most flexible (at least in the ways that matter to me).

I have had a ton of experience with this, and here's what I recommend:

1. BMT Micro: I have been with them for years. Not only is their commission low, but they are very full service, offering an 800 number answered by a real person to take orders at no additional charge. They accept every form of payment imaginable. They are friendly and personable. They have an affiliate program too. They will customize your order form for you in just about any way you can imagine. They also pay promptly- I have never received my check any later than the 6th day of the month, for the previous month's sales. Opera uses BMT Micro too.
Check out my BMT order pages here (http://www.retro64.com/ordernew.asp).

2. Shopthings.com: They also offer excellent service, and are slightly more automated than BMT. They are based in Indonesia, but they pay on time and are very reliable. 9% commission for ASP members.

3. Regnow: Totally automated, customizable, and everything works fantastic. It should for the 20% commission they charge!

4. SWREG: They are good too, and very inexpensive.

An interesting alternative has come to my attention too. Take a look at 2checkout.com. They are very big, and now do commerce for electronic goods too, at a commission that rivals a merchant account. 45 cents plus 4.5%.....

Pavlina and I have debated this topic in the ASP forums. If I recall, he said that anyone doing over 1000$ a month should have a merchant account and handle the orders themselves. We can agree to disagree on that one.

Mike,

Just had a look at BMT Micro, that base tier of 9.5% looks very good. I know it does not include for Telephone, fax and mail ordering... but still very good, I might just have to move from shareit!


Alfie

PS Do you get many people wantin to order/pay by fax, phone or mail?

Originally posted by Mike Boeh


3. Regnow: Totally automated, customizable, and everything works fantastic. It should for the 20% commission they charge!


They also offer secure downloads when the customer makes a purchase. This is of course only good if you separate your demo from the full version completely. But I think that's the better way to go since it saves bandwidth for you, and download time for the customers.

PS Do you get many people wantin to order/pay by fax, phone or mail?

95% are standard online orders...

-Mike

I use regsoft and I have now for a few years. Support is pretty good but they don't have many options to customize your order process. I use shopthings for some affiliate program stuff and I have an affiliate account with regnow. I've also been on digital river's system for a while. I think digital river is better now than it was, but when I was with them it wasn't easy to customize stuff on the web like it is nowdays. The downside with digital river is that it's a little pricey. They do own regsoft and a few others though.

I'm using eSellerate and RegNow (no reason to choose just one). eSellerate has a nifty 'integrated eSeller' that enables the user to buy the game without exiting it, and of course they have a web store option too. I suspect RegNow has a broader reach with their affiliate program.

If you're trying to decide what's best for you, you should definitely check out http://www.regshare.com/, and especially their service fees calculator (http://www.regshare.com/matrix1a.asp) that lets you make apples-to-apples comparisons to a whole bunch of different services (including different price points, presumed number of sales, etc.).

Originally posted by Mike Boeh
95% are standard online orders...

-Mike

Your space shooter and breakout game is your income. How long did it took to complete those games? And if the game was only 2D is it still possible to sell?

Your space shooter and breakout game is your income. How long did it took to complete those games?

My current best selling game is Best Friends. Bugatron and Z-Ball are not far behind. A small portion also comes from Marbles Deluxe, which I publish, but did not create.
Bugatron: 8 Months
Z-Ball: 4 Months
Best Friends: 11 Months

And if the game was only 2D is it still possible to sell?
Any game will sell if it's great, there's a market for it, and the publisher promotes it correctly.

-Mike

I have 'backup' accounts or used RegSoft, RegNow and SwReg, but I'm with eMetrix (www.emetrix.com)
They charge 13.9% but I think it's good deal.

I started with eMetrix at the end of 2001 because they were able to handle third-party affiliate programs but I'm still with them. It's very simple to setup program, they can hendle CD burning for you, support for aff programs, all questions answered within 24 hours (usually within few hours), CC/phone/fax orders with no additional charge, payments on time...

Nedzad
www.yupgames.com

Originally posted by Mike Boeh
My current best selling game is Best Friends. Bugatron and Z-Ball are not far behind. A small portion also comes from Marbles Deluxe, which I publish, but did not create.
Bugatron: 8 Months
Z-Ball: 4 Months
Best Friends: 11 Months

-Mike


Are you doing the artwork yourself ?

thank you
pat.

Mike Boeh:

What does BMT Micro charge per game ???

Check out the RegShare link above (in alchemist post) for info about BMT Micro among others

Are you doing the artwork yourself ?
Yes

What does BMT Micro charge per game ???
BMT charges 10% if you don't want phone orders or a custom page. 15% if you do.

Emetrix does look very good and totally pro...

That shareware comparison does not include shopthings.com or 2checkout.com

2checkout.com costs less than swreg, and you can easily make a custom page with it. I plan to use them as my backup...

For Artifact (http://www.samugames.com/artifact), we primarily use our own merchant account. But we still have DigiBuy, or previous primary service, and also accept payments from PayPal.

For The Journal (http://www.davidrm.com/thejournal/), I'm currently using DigiBuy as my primary payment option, with RegSoft and RegNow as backups. With my next update, though, I'm shifting to RegSoft as my primary payment option for several reasons: cheaper payment fees, better affiliate support, etc.

Both Samu Games and DavidRM Software signed up for DigiBuy back before their 13.9% payment fee came into effect, so we've only had to pay 11.9% all this time. Otherwise, I would've left DigiBuy long, long ago. Interestingly enough, though, DigiBuy and RegSoft are owned by the same company (Digital River).

-David

DavidRM: I thought RegNow was owned by Digital River, so I just wonder if you meant
RegNow instead of RegSoft, or do they (Digital River) own them all (DigiBuy, RegSoft, RegNow)?

[edit - added this]
Anyone that has used Kagi (www.kagi.com)?

It says they own RegNow on the RegShare site. "Register Now! (Digital River)"

I used Kagi for years. From 1996-2001. Never had any problem with them. When I dropped them, it was mostly to get more options, like customized Web pages. They've probably added a lot of features since I last used them.

As for RegSoft vs RegNow...you're right...RegNow is owned by Digital River. RegSoft might still be its own entity.

I use RegNow as a backup payment option for The Journal. At 20% commission, I'm not interested in using them as a primary. As a backup, though, they're handy, since they give you a "Buy Now" button on places like Download.com.

-David

I been looking over all of them, and I think i'm gonna end up using kagi. They now provide custom pages. As a backup I will use BMT micro, the 15%, and possibly sign up for more to get more affiliate programs.

John

I recently released my first shareware game and went with RegNow. I had only one issue (so far) with them - a Russian customer tried to buy the game and couldn't. He e-mailed me telling me he tried all three credit cards he had. He also told me that I had purchased shareware games before through ShareIt (I'm pretty sure it's a German company). Anyway, I went ahead and signed up for ShareIt also. A few days later he registered through them OK.

Jeff Evertt
www.evertt.com

Just a quick update: RegSoft is also owned by Digital River. It says so on the RegSoft payment pages: "RegSoft, a service of Digital River"

So, that's 3 of the big payment processing companies all owned by the same entity. I guess they market/appeal to different people based on what they need.

-David

DavidRM or anyone else, What percentage of your orders comes from the regnow download.com button? Is it worth signing up just for that?

Well, just to throw my hat in the ring... I'm going to be using my own merchant account. No word yet on how well this is working (as I'm not selling yet), but when I found out how easy it is to get an account vs. how high the commision rates were for other services, I knew I had to get my own merchant account. I'll be paying somewhere around 2.4% + $0.25 per transaction.... so probably around 4% of total price. Assuming I make any sales. :)

Make sure you don't have hidden charges in case of low volumes.
it might be something like
0.25 $ after 1000 sales.. ( the 1000 sales is probably written in a 2 pixels font... )


pat.

Originally posted by Gromph
DavidRM or anyone else, What percentage of your orders comes from the regnow download.com button? Is it worth signing up just for that?

I get 1-2 orders per month from RegNow, most of them from download.com's "Buy Now" button.

Hardly a huge amount, but since it took only a few minutes to sign up for RegNow, and they don't charge a setup fee, I figure it works out.

-David

Originally posted by DavidRM
I get 1-2 orders per month from RegNow, most of them from download.com's "Buy Now" button.

Hardly a huge amount, but since it took only a few minutes to sign up for RegNow, and they don't charge a setup fee, I figure it works out.

-David

They don't have a setup fee? I'm confused now. It says on their FAQ page (http://www.regnow.com/client.html) "One time account activation fee: $9.95"

Does anybody hosts their demo at thier e-commerce service?

Originally posted by Fenix Down
They (RegNow) don't have a setup fee? I'm confused now. It says on their FAQ page (http://www.regnow.com/client.html) "One time account activation fee: $9.95"

I guess they do now. My bad. I setup an account with them long, long ago...

-David