PayDotCom?
First, I respect the marketing genius of Mike Filsaime. This is not a personal attack of anything like. Just my honest opinion … everybody’s entitled to one, right?
Now, here’s what I think about PayDotCom. I feel that some info about it is kinda misleading. When you read information on their website, you see that PDC is comparing itself with 2CheckOut and ClickBank. Those two are credit card processing company. They can accept payment online on behalf of you. But here’s the thing — PDC is not. For payment processing, PDC will still use Paypal and StormPay for that.
So what is PDC?
To me PDC is an affiliate management system. Some similar products or services are like the ones listed here. PDC is like MyAffiliateProgram or GroundBreak or any other affiliate software.
So why is PDC comparing itself with 2CO and ClickBank?
Frankly, I don’t know. Maybe it’s a positioning thing. Maybe that way, they’ll have a better chance.
What bothers me is that they compare costs side by side with ClickBank and 2CO. At a certain level, maybe they are at the same class … but in a whole, they are not.
What would make a better comparison is if you combine PDC and Paypal, and then compare it with ClickBank. You can’t even compare it with 2CO because 2CO does not have affiliate management. So I add in Plimus, which I am using right now with DIYeBookCover.com and BlackBeltJVBroker.com. And yes, Plimus has affiliate feature like ClickBank.
| PDC + Paypal | ClickBank® | Plimus® | |
| Sale Price | PDC, Paypal | $1 + 7.5% | See here |
 |
|||
| $10 | $1.59 | $1.75 | $1.00 |
| $20 | $2.88 | $2.50 | $2.00 |
| $47 | $4.66 | $4.53 | $4.70 |
| $97 | $6.11 | $8.28 | $6.79 |
| $197 | $9.01 | $15.78 | $9.85 |
**NOTE – for PDC costs, I am using the standard costs. 25% discount available when you purchase $100 credits up-front. For Paypal, fees varies according your merchant status and type of transaction. I am using the standard fee for cross-border transaction for this comparison.
It seems that it maybe wise to go with PDC if you are selling high-ticket items. And what if you are selling products ranging from $5 to $30? Are you suppose to use something else for that? Well, to me, you should just go with the one that you are comfortable with. It’s not that economical when you are juggling 2-3 accounts just to accept credit card payments.
I go with Plimus because of its wide range International support. While Paypal is great, you are limited to sell to people from only a few countries. I am not very sure about StormPay. I have no experience with them.
Anyway, this post is not really to say about which you should go with. I just thought there are somethings that need to straighten out. Just want to get the facts right for you guys.
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Comments
Juan Pablo
Honest Review, thanks.
I have walked the same road, and finally decided the at benefits don’t justify the trouble (at least in my own case, and at this point in time).
The biggest problems, for me where:
- You have to pay the affiliates.
- Not clear how refunds are handled.
- Poor integration documentation.
Dennis
The only review I could find by far that mentions Plimus :). I have recently switched to Plimus in hopes that it will bring me some affiliates for my website http://www.urgentdetective.com/ – very hard to find affiliates for your product even if it’s really converting one.
I experience the same problem that Juan – paying your affiliates yourself would be a big headache. So we use Plimus so far.
Dennis
The only review I could find by far that mentions Plimus :). I have recently switched to Plimus in hopes that it will bring me some affiliates for my website urgentdetective.com – very hard to find affiliates for your product even if it’s really converting one.
I experience the same problem that Juan – paying your affiliates yourself would be a big headache. So we use Plimus so far.
Kidino
Yeah … I think like what Juan said, one of the biggest headache with affiliate marketing is having to pay your affiliates. That’s why people go with ClickBank and Plimus.
But when it comes to searching for affiliates, you can’t just wait for affiliates to join. You have to be proactive and go search for them.
One thing about Plimus is that you have to manually approve all affiliate application. I wish there’s an auto-approve setting that you set in your account. That’ll make using Plimus a lot easier.
Oh yeah, since we are talking about Plimus, I like their collaboration with SwiftCD where you can also deliver your products in CDs or DVDs. I’ve done that and they were very helpful.
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