Does anyone have experience selling downloadable/emailable items online? If I want to set up a website for people to buy ebooks what is the best/cheapest/easiest way to distribute them? I know they can deposit funds via paypal or clickbank, but how to I get the items to them after payment is received without alot of manual stuffing around? Is there free software out ther that will make the job easier? Thanks.

Sam, gimme a day or 2 to contact a friend of mine who has done some very nice websites, he can give tips, or you two can talk and maybe have him just set up the site for you.

You can do it just like we do the automatic Cadre memberships. Go to paypal and look up information on Instant Payment Notification. It gives you a way to verify with paypal that you've received payment before you give them the item. The second step would be to make a one-time download utility for your items.

The question is, how do I "make a one-time download utility for your items"? Is that done via paypal? This isn't for my site BTW it's for someone else, not that it should make any difference.

The idea is that once you have verified that the person has paid you there should be a way to let them download the item in a controlled way (to avoid the "secret link" that could easily be compromised. If I were to do it I might consider having the script email the item to them if it isn't too big. Otherwise, you could copy the item to a temporary filename on the server and let them know where to download it. Later just delete the old copies of the file.

A more complex system would have usernames like here on caedes. You would just keep track of what books they had purchased and let them download the purchased books when needed. I think that the downside to usernames is that it would create an unnecessary hurdle for people wanting to give you money (bad thing).

lol. Sam doesn't want to write a script… Sam wants to know if there is a pre-written script he can use to do it.

Well he still needs to know what kind of script to look for. =p