Just wanted to voice my opinion that ignoring the exchange rate on the largest exchange (MtGox) is absolute bullshit.
Not when the market is artificially inflated. and -1 for reviving a 2 year old thread just to vent
Topic: [ANN] Introducing Bit-pay Merchant Solutions (Read 3412 times)
Not when the market is artificially inflated. and -1 for reviving a 2 year old thread just to vent
Just wanted to voice my opinion that ignoring the exchange rate on the largest exchange (MtGox) is absolute bullshit.
ah, good point. it's not setup on the merchandise yet. It's just on our magazine access. You can buy any of the 115 monthly issues on this page:
http://www.staremagazine.com/Store/PurchaseIssue.asp
I got ya. At the very first page where you fill in email, username, and password it would be better to show the price in BTC as well. Or even just BTC since that's what the user clicked on to pay with along with the conversion rate you are using. http://www.staremagazine.com/Store/PurchaseIssue.asp
Have either of you used the bit-pay service yet through STARE? Do you have any comments or suggestions on the checkout process?
I don't have any BTC at the moment but I went to merchandise and clicked something to add to the shopping cart. At the shopping cart the only choices were checkout and checkout with paypal. Maybe I missed something. Was there supposed to be a checkout with BTC? ah, good point. it's not setup on the merchandise yet. It's just on our magazine access. You can buy any of the 115 monthly issues on this page:
http://www.staremagazine.com/Store/PurchaseIssue.asp
Have either of you used the bit-pay service yet through STARE? Do you have any comments or suggestions on the checkout process?
I don't have any BTC at the moment but I went to merchandise and clicked something to add to the shopping cart. At the shopping cart the only choices were checkout and checkout with paypal. Maybe I missed something. Was there supposed to be a checkout with BTC?
I haven't tried the service yet. Just looked at the Bit-pay site and the video.
You're right that the priority should be to get the technical aspects working first and then you can work on the marketing/presentation of the service.
You're right that the priority should be to get the technical aspects working first and then you can work on the marketing/presentation of the service.
Good job so far guys but i have to agree with some of nickwits points:
the site needs some more work - too much white.
the video - I'd make it more conservative, for anything to do with payment solutions/money it should be more professional looking, less glam. This sounds really prudish but even if the presenter wore a nice tailored shirt (i.e. no bare arms) it would make a difference. And definitely try to re-dub the audio.
again good luck. Not trying to knock you, just offering my opinion which hopefully may be of some help.
the site needs some more work - too much white.
the video - I'd make it more conservative, for anything to do with payment solutions/money it should be more professional looking, less glam. This sounds really prudish but even if the presenter wore a nice tailored shirt (i.e. no bare arms) it would make a difference. And definitely try to re-dub the audio.
again good luck. Not trying to knock you, just offering my opinion which hopefully may be of some help.
You guys have good points. The website and the video will get updated.
At this point our #1 priority is getting the product to work, and it must work properly every time, for the buyer and the merchant.
Have either of you used the bit-pay service yet through STARE? Do you have any comments or suggestions on the checkout process?
Good job so far guys but i have to agree with some of nickwits points:
the site needs some more work - too much white.
the video - I'd make it more conservative, for anything to do with payment solutions/money it should be more professional looking, less glam. This sounds really prudish but even if the presenter wore a nice tailored shirt (i.e. no bare arms) it would make a difference. And definitely try to re-dub the audio.
again good luck. Not trying to knock you, just offering my opinion which hopefully may be of some help.
the site needs some more work - too much white.
the video - I'd make it more conservative, for anything to do with payment solutions/money it should be more professional looking, less glam. This sounds really prudish but even if the presenter wore a nice tailored shirt (i.e. no bare arms) it would make a difference. And definitely try to re-dub the audio.
again good luck. Not trying to knock you, just offering my opinion which hopefully may be of some help.
That all looks massively misjudged to me.
1) the design of that site is appalling - it looks like one of those dodgy tabloid-advertised "MAKE $700 AN HOUR, WORKING FROM HOME" sites.
2) "Launching" when you're totally under-construction - there isn't a way to register... just a login box, does not inspire confidence at all.
3) I think that video is terrible - it looks like it's trying to use "sex to sell" for something that absolutely should not need sex to sell it. That girl will be (no doubt) someone's sister, someone's daughter - so no personal insult intended... but the way she's presented, she looks like a budget-level glamour-model.
Take a look at kickstarter.com - take a look at the projects that inspire confidence for people to invest. Ernest nerds work, budget-level glamour-models do not.
4) I think the benefits that you're offering over CCs are pretty dubious as well. Charge-backs are a consumer-protection measure. Bitcoin basically shifts all the risk from the seller to the buyer. As to Identity-theft... sure, but all of a sudden there's cash-theft, for which there is no protection. I have had CC cards and details stolen (and used) on at least 10 occasions - and it's never cost me a penny. If I'd been using bitcoins I would have lost thousands. Bitcoins have benefits. These are not them.
So. Good luck with this - I am a merchant (selling actual, physical, white-economy goods) and I looked long an hard for the service you ostensibly provide, and couldn't find one. We badly need this.
Your presentation of what you have done so far is not doing anyone any favours however. For god's sake, get someone with some web-design/UX suss to redo it.
1) the design of that site is appalling - it looks like one of those dodgy tabloid-advertised "MAKE $700 AN HOUR, WORKING FROM HOME" sites.
2) "Launching" when you're totally under-construction - there isn't a way to register... just a login box, does not inspire confidence at all.
3) I think that video is terrible - it looks like it's trying to use "sex to sell" for something that absolutely should not need sex to sell it. That girl will be (no doubt) someone's sister, someone's daughter - so no personal insult intended... but the way she's presented, she looks like a budget-level glamour-model.
Take a look at kickstarter.com - take a look at the projects that inspire confidence for people to invest. Ernest nerds work, budget-level glamour-models do not.
4) I think the benefits that you're offering over CCs are pretty dubious as well. Charge-backs are a consumer-protection measure. Bitcoin basically shifts all the risk from the seller to the buyer. As to Identity-theft... sure, but all of a sudden there's cash-theft, for which there is no protection. I have had CC cards and details stolen (and used) on at least 10 occasions - and it's never cost me a penny. If I'd been using bitcoins I would have lost thousands. Bitcoins have benefits. These are not them.
So. Good luck with this - I am a merchant (selling actual, physical, white-economy goods) and I looked long an hard for the service you ostensibly provide, and couldn't find one. We badly need this.
Your presentation of what you have done so far is not doing anyone any favours however. For god's sake, get someone with some web-design/UX suss to redo it.
Yup, warnings gone now. Good luck on your venture. I think services like yours were shops can accept payment of Bitcoins but still receive cash are pretty valuable.
Very nice! You may want to adjust the YouTube video settings so that it doesn't cue up another video after yours plays.
Good idea. I'm looking all over Youtube's settings and I can't find that. Do you know if that is that a user setting or a publisher setting?
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Very nice! You may want to adjust the YouTube video settings so that it doesn't cue up another video after yours plays. When you leave it open like that you never know what will be shown to your prospects next. Am very interested in your service for several of my projects.
I get a warning saying the certificate is invalid as well, but i make a habit of not going to sites my browser doesn't like :3 would you consider uploading the video to something like megaupload.com? or www.multiupload.com which then uploads them to many share sites 
I've upgraded the SSL cert...so this shouldn't be a problem now. is it really a working site or just under construction ?
Yes, it is really working, but it's in beta and we're only working with a few merchant's in our beta program, one of which (staremagazine.com) has gone live with accept payments. So, new merchant registration is not available at the moment. We expect to be ready to expand the beta program in a couple weeks. For those that are interested in participating in the beta, send an email to [email protected].
is it really a working site or just under construction ?
I get a warning saying the certificate is invalid as well, but i make a habit of not going to sites my browser doesn't like :3 would you consider uploading the video to something like megaupload.com? or www.multiupload.com which then uploads them to many share sites
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDFt5sslE7o&feature=player_embedded
Part of the problem is that browsers treat self-signed certificates as more insecure than plain HTTP.
What should happen is that the browser pops up a warning saying: "Warning: this certificate is self-signed. You should check the the certificate fingerprint (SHA-1 9e8d c573 7f6e 8fa2 b112 fd30 62fa 1af2 305d cc53) matches the fingerprint you received out-of-band (such as in the mail, posted on the premises, etc)." Even if you don't check the fingerprint, the browser should save the certificate and warn you if it changes in the future.
When you go to a website using just plain old HTTP, the browser should pop up a warning (unless you are using IPsec authentication) saying: "Warning: This website is using an unauthenticated connection. Third parties can monitor, intercept, and manipulate any communications between you and the server."
What should happen is that the browser pops up a warning saying: "Warning: this certificate is self-signed. You should check the the certificate fingerprint (SHA-1 9e8d c573 7f6e 8fa2 b112 fd30 62fa 1af2 305d cc53) matches the fingerprint you received out-of-band (such as in the mail, posted on the premises, etc)." Even if you don't check the fingerprint, the browser should save the certificate and warn you if it changes in the future.
When you go to a website using just plain old HTTP, the browser should pop up a warning (unless you are using IPsec authentication) saying: "Warning: This website is using an unauthenticated connection. Third parties can monitor, intercept, and manipulate any communications between you and the server."
I get a warning saying the certificate is invalid as well, but i make a habit of not going to sites my browser doesn't like :3 would you consider uploading the video to something like megaupload.com? or www.multiupload.com which then uploads them to many share sites
If I were a merchant and sold something with a 20% gross margin, I would like you to convert 80% of the BTC I got into USD and keep 20% of them as bitcoin. So why not offer the choice to your client? If only black or white choice, as a merchant, they will get running-out-of-working-capital problem if keep all the money in the bitcoin they get paid.
If you offer the partially-exchange offer to the merchants, it will easily get them to keep some of them. later, They will spend more time to know about bitcoin and may try to use bitcoin themselves. This will make it a more widely accepted currency.
If you offer the partially-exchange offer to the merchants, it will easily get them to keep some of them. later, They will spend more time to know about bitcoin and may try to use bitcoin themselves. This will make it a more widely accepted currency.
Yes, I agree...we are initially offering either BTC or USD payout, but merchants will want more flexibility than that. The hard part is doing it in a way that doesn't thoroughly confuse people. That's a great point you make about it enabling merchants to dip their toes in the bitcoin pool so to speak.
You would be surprised, I have been working with e-commerce clients since around 2000, most of them don't even understand interchange rates. You want big adoption, make it easy to integrate into the major shopping carts. Make a wordpress plugin that will allow purchases with bitcoin. There are a ton of people (quite a few adult sites - especially single girl sites/cam girls) that cant or dont understand how to setup a merchant account. Open the door to these sites and you will start to develop an undercurrent that while isnt mainstream will have tons of mainstream users. No matter your stand on adult entertainment, it has pushed innovation on the web since the beginning.
For a start-up, I think it's already very very cool audio, it's enough for attracting early users, but better one is need for earning average merchants' trust.
I can send the mp3 audio file to anyone that thinks they could clean it up? Are there any good audio editors out there who want a challenge?
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