New Software Partner - PowerCONVERTER

Convert PowerPoint Presentations to Flash in minutes....

Two years ago, I was first introduced to an impressive product that converted PowerPoint presentations into Flash movies. Though Microsoft had made some strides in making PowerPoint presentations viewable on the web, PowerCONVERTER from PresentationPro quickly proved to be a winner. Making PowerPoint presentations available online, to a broad audience, was now realistic.

By overcoming the size limitations of PowerPoint presentations and taking advantage of the then fairly new Flash multimedia technology, PowerCONVERTER was able to create significantly smaller Flash (.swf) presentation files that could easily be viewed online by anyone with a Flash player. PresentationPro continues to enhance the converter with new features such as animation, audio, and video support as well as more optimized Flash files.

Back when I first spoke to PresentationPro, we decided to do a trial run as an affiliate by providing a link to the PowerCONVERTER product. I think the link did ok, but I believe we're all learning that it is better to give customers the option to buy immediately from the site they're on versus sending them to another site. About a month ago, PresentationPro approached us with the idea of selling PowerCONVERTER directly. They had noticed the same trend as us that the overall PowerPoint market for templates and add-ons was growing again, and that PixelMill's market share was also growing in this area. This all combined for an easy answer..."yes".

With a few tweaks to the PixelMill site, we are now ready to sell PowerCONVERTER direct to our PowerPoint and Web Template customers.

That's right web folks, this is a very valuable and profitable tool for you also. How many times have you had customers ask you how they can get their PowerPoint presentation online? If it hasn't happened yet, don't be surprised when you start to get a rush of requests. More and more presentors are learning that they can effectively take their presentation, designed for a live audience, and open it up to a much broader, less time-sensitive audience online. Now, all they have to do is send you the PowerPoint (.ppt) file, you run it through PowerCONVERTER (only takes a few minutes), and blammy you have a happy customer and billable time. For only $399, you will more than realize a return on investment. You will see that this product gives you the opportunity to approach your customers with a new and exciting solution to their nagging problem of adding more compelling content to their site. I have been using it for years and have continually been impressed.

Learn more about PowerCONVERTER, and download it today for only $299!
Go to PowerCONVERTER at PixelMill.....

PayPal Website Payments Pro

In June, PixelMill was invited by PayPal to participate in their 3rd-Party Developers booth at eBay Live!. During the conference we were pleasantly surprised to learn that PayPal had finally made the move that all PayPal merchants have been waiting for.

The new PayPal Website Payments Pro appears to have the makings of a valuable online transaction solution for small, medium, and even large merchants. This all-in-one payment solution allows merchants to better integrate PayPal into their transaction system at an overall lower cost than typical merchant accounts. No longer is there a need for your customers to leave your site to purchase with a credit card through PayPal.

Website Payments Pro works almost exactly like a typical online merchant account. Your customer uses your check-out pages to complete their credit card information. When they submit this information, your site will send the appropriate information to PayPal where they instantly provide an authentication and/or charge reponse. Thus, allowing you to instantly respond to your customer with an order confirmation. The actual customer experience is not any different than other online credit card transactions.

Last week we updated our payment options to include PayPal's Website Payments Pro. Overall, we're very satisified with the implementation. We decided early in the process that we would run this new option side-by-side with our existing credit card option. In fact, you will see this option is only available after selecting the PayPal payment option. You're then presented with the choice to use PayPal Express or Website Payments Pro. Running side-by-side allows us to get some real-world tests on their system while providing customers with yet another payment option.

Similar to other online transaction systems, you will need to know how to code with HTML, a scripting language (PHP, Perl, ASP, etc.), and have some experience with SOAP. To learn more about the technical side, visit PayPal's Technical Overview page.

We encourage you to select a PixelMill template and give this payment option a try. When you reach Step 3 - Payment Options, choose the 'Pay by PayPal' option. This brings you to the choice of paying with PayPal Express or completing the credit card form to pay with a credit card. We would really like your feedback on this experience. As compensation for your help, in this early testing phase, we will add $5 in store credit to any customer account that uses the Website Payments Pro option before November 1st.

We also encourage you to learn more about the new PayPal Payment Options. We have long considered PayPal one of the best long-term options for online transactions. We'll keep you posted on our experience.

Coupons and Credits, Easier to Use

With this weeks refresh of the PixelMill store, we have made it much easier to use coupons and credits during the checkout process. Now the coupons and credits fields are easily accessed through the main checkout section of the page versus buried in the right column. We didn't intintially bury these fields the first time around, but customer feedback proved it was hard to find. Thus, we responded with a solution.

Coupons are our way of passing out a gift. We don't often include them as a site-wide discount on the home page. We like to pass them out when you least expect it; for example, we might randomly provide a coupon code in response to a support or sales email, chat, or phone call. We'll also place them at the bottom of some of our landing pages to promote that specific type of product. Or, we'll have a little fun and randomly bury them in the site. It's interesting to see some of the orders come through from people who have found some of these hidden gems.

Account credits ($$) have been available in the site for some time, but only through our PixelMill Refferal Program. Now, we're really going to start using credits to your advantage. We'll leave the mystery on how we'll do this for a later blog, but we'll give you your first chance to earn store credit right now. Anyone who leaves a comment to this blog, with the following information, will receive a $5 credit in their account. This offer ends October 15th, so act fast.

Required Information:

1) Username - Please provide your PixelMill username. If don't have an account, create one now

2) Email address - This will ensure we can find your account and that we can contact you about your credit..

3) List five (5) things you like most about PixelMill.

4) List five (5) things you wish we would add or change.

We will not publish these comments to the blog. We may summarize the responses, but no usernames or email addresses will be published.

Over the coming months, we will be finding more ways to offer different discounts and incentives for using PixelMill. Watch the blog and the site for more details.

PixelMill Blog Returns

After a long hiatus, the PixelMill Blog returns! This step back into blogging marks our return to a coordinated effort of proactive communication with PixelMill customers, and the industry in general.

We, at PixelMill, have been extremely busy over the last year working on a number of valuable additions and updates to the site. These include a new user interface, advanced searching and sorting tools, a growing catalog of standards-based Dreamweaver templates, FrontPage templates and HTML web templates. Plus, new image partnerships with Jupiterimages' properties Photos.com and Ablestock. But, these updates are only the beginning of a series of positive changes you will see in the coming months. PixelMill is well positioned to bring an expanding array of new products, features, tools, and partnered services.

We have received many positive comments, and hope that all of you have enjoyed the changes. Please let us know if you have any suggestions, comments, or product ideas. We're always very interested in working toward valuable web site template solutions.

Related Links:
www.photos.com
www.ablestock.com