I think most people among developers are aware of the new ‘X’ platform, e.g. adaptive payments, micro payments, which will be great for those of us who are interested in taking small payments for items available online (without, hopefully, the inhibitive fees). There’s a good interview available about the X platform.

However, I have to think that that’s not all there is available in the new PayPal offering. There are a bunch of other API functions which haven’t been fully rolled out, which I have an (extensive!) list of below (some of these are currently available):

RefundTransaction
GetTransactionDetails
TransactionSearch
BillUser
MassPay
BillAgreementUpdate
Encrypted Website Payments
SetExpressCheckout
GetExpressCheckoutDetails
DoExpressCheckoutPayment
DoCapture
DoReauthorization
DoVoid
DoDirectPayment
DoNonReferencedCredit
GMCreatePayment
GMCompletePayment
GMUpdatePayment
GMGetBalance
GMGetAddresses
GMGetFundingSources
GMGetUserDetails
GMAddCard
GMCreateAccount
GMAuthenticatePreapproval
GMConfirmPreapproval
DoAuthorization
CancelPreapproval
ConvertCurrency
GetBalance
GetPalDetails
GMRequestMoney
GMManagePhoneActivation
CreateMobilePayment
GetMobileStatus
SetMobileCheckout
DoMobileCheckoutPayment
DoUATPAuthorization
DoUATPExpressCheckoutPayment
SetCustomerBillingAgreement
GetBillingAgreementCustomerDetails
CreateBillingAgreement
DoReferenceTransaction
CreateRecurringPaymentsProfile
ManagePendingTransactionStatus
CheckIsDisputeAllowed
CloseDispute
OpenDispute
EscalateToClaim
NegotiateRefund
AddTrackingInfo
UpdateDisputeItems
PostDisputeMessage
SetEbayMobileCheckout
SetDPRecurringPaymentFeatureStatus
GetRecurringPaymentsProfileDetails
ManageRecurringPaymentsProfileStatus
BillOutstandingAmount
UpdateRecurringPaymentsProfile
Pay
Preapproval
PaymentDetails
PreapprovalDetails
GetAccountDetails
BMManageButtonStatus
BMCreateButton
BMUpdateButton
BMSetInventory
BMGetInventory
BMButtonSearch
BMGetButtonDetails
Refund

You can of course check out the current API documentation to make sure that I’m not lying. Unfortunately my sources (ahem) weren’t available to provide the documentation on these calls, but they’re interesting nonetheless, especially to people like us at Scrobbld who have to wade through it.

The most ‘exciting’ new calls are definitely the dispute API options:

CheckIsDisputeAllowed
CloseDispute
OpenDispute
EscalateToClaim
NegotiateRefund

But I’ll certainly keep my eyes peeled for any changes Bring it on PayPal! Please let us know if any of these would be interesting in your businesses. One further challenge, if you can guess my sources, we may well also hand out a cigar, or banana.

Obviously you should be signed in for all of this.

1. You need to create an SKU to assign the ebook to. This only works if you have already received payments for a particular item (if you haven’t, try importing your order history from PayPal). You can create an SKU on the inventory page. Add the particular order names (from previous transactions) when prompted to your SKU (An SKU = stock keeping unit, and is useful if you advertise the same product but with different titles).

2. After you have created your SKU, goto the ebooks page. Upload a file, then on the right hand side of the page you can see ‘Add to SKU’. Select an SKU from the list in the overlay.

3. Now you need to enable a notifier (email) to send an email when you receive a Completed payment. Goto the notifiers page. Have a look at the notifier entitled ‘Receipt of Order notification’, and click on the title, which will let you edit the contents of that notifier - so change that to what you want the email to say. I would recommend including the ‘Account Link’ (take a look at the dropdown for all the different fields you can include) — this will include a hyperlink to your customer’s account page and ebook that you uploaded — though you don’t have to, as all outgoing emails include a link at the bottom of the page as well, which is automatically generated. Select ‘Save Changes’. And, finally, on the right hand side select ‘Activate Notifier’.

Then, whenever you receive a payment for your ebook, an email will be sent out with the generated link to your customer’s account page on Scrobbld, which also includes the file.

Of course, if anyone has any questions please don’t hesitate to drop us a line using feedback at scrobbld dot com.

I’m writing to introduce a new way of keeping in touch with your eBay customers, which we’ve just released for evaluation to our existing users, though all you need is a Scrobbld account. It’s a very simple ‘instant messenger’ like interface, which lists all your customers in the main screen - you can then select a customer to see all the conversations you’ve had with that customer, and which items the conversation was related to. Of course, you can also reply to the customer, though you can’t start any conversations yourself.

The software is built using Adobe Air, which installs onto your computer like a regular desktop application. But because it’s built on Adobe’s technology, it works fine in Windows, Mac and Linux, and installs from the browser.

You can add as many eBay accounts as you like, meaning that to keep in touch with your customers on lots of different accounts it’s really not that tough. Also, and we think the best thing, is that it’s completely free, and you may also notice a distinct lack of adverts.

This is the most basic version, and hopefully we will be expanding the functionality in the near future, depending on your comments! I’ll follow this post up with a more detailed look at the features, but if you want to have a go with it, just sign up for a Scrobbld account and click on the banner that will appear in the opening page.

We aren’t going to be sending out any more invitations, as Scrobbld has now opened its doors for business! We decided collectively it was about time to quit with the invitations, especially as we want to start releasing some new standalone features in the coming weeks which I will write about shortly.

I suspect with the new version of Scrobbld that we will also do away with invites. This thinking also has the backing from the CEO of slideshare.com who did suggest that invites weren’t the way to go at FOWA a few years previously.

In the meantime, thanks go to everyone who have so far requested an invitation, and hope all our users continue to enjoy the service. Stay tuned for some more exciting products that we have lined up! The first will be eBay related, and which will be available for those who have linked their eBay account to Scrobbld, which I’ll explain more about in the very near future.

You should login to your PayPal account, then on the ‘toolbar’ hover over ‘History’. At the bottom of the menu, there is an item which says ‘IPN history’, which you should select.

The page looks something like the one below:

The most important column is the one that says ‘HTTP response’. This should typically be a 200 response, (in HTTP language this means ‘OK’). Other codes relate to other things, for example the infamous 404 means the page couldn’t be found, and 501 means authorisation required. So if you don’t have a 200 code in this column, it probably means your database didn’t receive the information.

To resend the IPNs, just select the checkboxes on the left hand side of the page, and click ‘Resend selected’. But remember, don’t send too many at the same time (When I say too many, probably around 5 at a time).

Similar to my previous post on PayPal, we are now looking for users to add their eBay accounts to our beta trial. Fortunately this is much easier than connecting to a PayPal account however, so will take literally 30 seconds, and simply involves logging into eBay after clicking on a link in Scrobbld. As always, to say thanks, we will provide another 100 free transactions, which I’m sure is always welcome for more active sellers.

Just follow these steps:

1. Ensure you have already added your PayPal account from the previous trial
2. Login to Scrobbld using your regular email address and password
3. Visit the trial page (if you’re not logged in you will end up on the Scrobbld home page).
4. Follow the instructions provided - just click on the link which will take you to eBay where you sign in with your eBay username and password.

This time we’re developing a few tools for the purposes of messaging, both in the form of a desktop application and on the website, which should speed up the process of talking to your customers and recording the conversations that you’ve had. Of course, there’s a lot more to it than that, but for the time-being we’re keeping the exact details under wraps.

We’re looking forward to releasing the new tools for general usage, and will no doubt allow those users who have provided their information a sneak preview.

We have now added a banner within Scrobbld which asks our users to give us a hand testing out new features. Though the new version is not yet ready, we need to get some data together to test out the new features that we are adding, and in return we will credit your Scrobbld account with a further 100 free transactions, which will roll over to subsequent months if you don’t use the allowance this month.

We are using the TransactionSearch API call (this looks through your historical transactions in PayPal) as well as the GetTransactionDetails API call (this gets more exact details about a particular transaction). All information retrieved will be kept for testing purposes only, and will not be provided to anyone outside Scrobbld: we take the security of your data very seriously.

If you would like to take part in this trial, follow the step by step instructions below.

1. Login to Scrobbld using your regular email address and password
2. Either click on the banner, or use this link to add your PayPal details (Though you have to be signed into Scrobbld for this link to take you to the correct location, you’ll end up on the home page if you’re not signed in).

Now, it only takes a few minutes to set up the API permissions in your PayPal account, following the instructions below:

1. Log in to your PayPal account
2. Select Profile.
3. In the Account Information column, click Request API credentials, and then click Set up PayPal API credentials and permissions.
4. Click View or Change API Permissions.
5. Click the Add New Permission button, and make the following entries:
   • Enter the Scrobbld API username ‘paypal_api1.scrobbld.com’ (without the quotes)
   • Select Your API Access Level – Select ‘Configure a custom API authorisation’
   • Select the checkboxes ‘GetTransactionDetails’ and ‘TransactionSearch’
6. Click Submit to save your changes and return to the API Permission screen.

After that, return to the ‘Add API Access’ page in Scrobbld (the one linked to above) and enter your PayPal email address. This will then check to see if you’ve added everything correctly, and credit the 100 transactions to your account.

PLEASE NOTE: you require a PayPal Business account to use the API. If you don’t have a business account (maybe you have a personal account etc) then it’s very easy to upgrade, and it’s free! There is a link on the home page of your PayPal account, after you have logged in.

One of the advantages of eBay, or to that matter any online business, is that you can work as little or as much as you like, though of course the outcome is proportional to your efforts. Here I will share with you a few stats I took from “The eBay business handbook” by Robert Pugh. It is a clear demonstration of how much Scrobbld can help you save time on the most daunting task of any online retail business.

The volume of your sales online is limited to your stock, expertise and the time you must spend on scaling your business. That is to say, the larger the volume the more time you need to spend on post-sales activities such as answering email, calls etc. and packaging and postage. The following stats are from Pugh’s book which provide a general picture of the tasks involved:

Although I believe the stats are correct to an extent I think the amount of research and sourcing time depends on your plans. More specifically, if you are planning for undesirable events such as price breaks by competitors and scaling your sales. Please share your stats if you think it differs in your case. Thanks and look forward to some good sales ahead.

In the previous post, I explained postage printing using Scrobbld to speed up the process of dispatching your packages. Although the instructions were specific to UK sellers, they can easily be modified to almost any stamp printing software (such as USPS Click ‘n’ Ship). In this post I want to cover how to automate the dispatch of your parcel or package using Scrobbld and dedicated label printers (e.g. they print labels, and not much else). There are numerous advantages to printing labels using a thermal label printer; it saves paper as there is no paper cutting required, you won’t need to replace expensive inks (since there is no ink - the labels are heated much like a fax machine) and labels often come as sticky papers so there is no glueing involved in the process. Label printers are cheap and labels are reasonably priced. Moving away from A4, inkjet and laser printing will save you a lot of money and time in the long term.

Now if you were going to ask me what label printer to use I would have to strongly recommend the Brother QL series. They work for years without any maintenance, I have used my printer for about 3 years on a daily basis now without any problems, and it forms an essential part of my packaging process.

Brother QL-500 Label Printer

For the rest of this post I will give you some pointers on how to print your order dispatch labels using Scrobbld. From the previous post you can see how to export your orders as a CSV file.

The first step is obviously to purchase the label printer. Secondly, if you bought the QL series, install the P-touch software that comes with the Brother label printer or any other software specific to your label printer (though I haven’t tested others out, I’m sure they are all reasonably similar). When everything’s up and running, goto the ‘File’ menu, and select Connect -> database. Select your CSV file (the one you downloaded from Scrobbld, where you exported your orders) and there you have your addresses imported into P-touch.

P-touch software

The next step is easy; just drag and drop the address fields to your customized location on the label on the top menu. Do this for all the fields that you would like to see in the resulting printed label. Now you are ready to print out all the addresses for that batch, just note that you can save the template for later so this process is only done once. There might be easier ways of doing this so please share your thoughts, and let us know if you are using any other label printers you are happy with.