E-Junkie Reviews - Shopping Cart Software Review

I've been using e-junkie.com as shopping cart software for my site FunnyEmployeeAwards.com for six months. After doing extensive research on shopping cart software, I chose and have stayed with e-junkie primarily for the following reasons:

• ease of implementation into my current site,
• ease of delivering downloadable products (ebooks, software, etc),
• low price (only $5/month for up to 10 products).

E-Junkie Pros

As a little background, I already had a robust site in place for a year before I had any products for sale. My first product was a digital download, an eBook entitled Funny Employee Awards: Your Complete Guide to Organizing a Humorous, Entertaining, and Rewarding Recognition Ceremony. Just click on the link and choose "Add to Cart" to get a quick look at the e-junkie shopping cart.

As far as I can tell, e-junkie was developed for selling downloads. It really excels in this area, making it as easy as possible to integrate a simple shopping cart onto your site. You simply create an account, upload your digital files, add in the product info, and then e-junkie gives you the code to install the shopping cart buttons onto your site. As for payment, it seamlessly integrates with Google Checkout, PayPal, or Authorize.Net.

When someone buys my eBook, e-junkie delivers the file and payment gets routed to my bank account. I don't have to do anything.


Recently I've decided to sell a tangible good on the site, Funny Trophies. This has been a breeze, as well. E-junkie integrates with the USPS shipping calculator to make calculating tax and shipping via USPS Priority Mail extremely simple.

E-Junkie Cons

However, there are some notable drawbacks for potential e-junkie users. Most notably, e-junkie generates a thank you email for every item sold. I currently sell my trophies in a pack of 10. If I offered them individually, a buyer would receive a thank you email for each individual trophy. So if they bought 6 trophies, they'd get 6 emails. Cleary, that is not ideal. The user forums seem to indicate a change is coming, but no timetable is offered.

And unlike some other more robust offerings, e-junkie does not automatically generate packing slips, invoices, or receipts. PayPal offers some good resources, provided that your customers check out using PayPal. I offer both PayPal and Google Checkout as options, and I'd say 80% or more of my customers use Google Checkout, which as far inferior to PayPal as far as post-sale resources.

E-Junkie Verdict

So what's the final verdict on e-junkie.com? If you have multiple tangible products for sale, you may want to look elsewhere. But as the owner of a site that sells only 3 products, I have been extremely satisfied. E-junkie is absolutely perfect if you have software, an eBook, or other digital download for sale. Try e-junkie today!

Converting VHS to DVD to YouTube

Throughout the mid-1990's, I toured across America with sketch and improvisational comedy group Selected Hilarity. We became friends largely through Student Television (STV) at the University of North Carolina before forming the group and hitting the road. Between our collective years at STV, our 500+ shows in 35 states, and various behind-the-scenes projects, we amassed a large collections of videotape - specifically VHS tapes. I've started the process of converting the tapes to DVD then on to YouTube. It goes something like this:

• Convert VHS to DVD (real time)
  
• Import DVD into Adobe Premiere (real time)
  
• Convert Premiere clip into MPEG (slow)
  
• Convert MPEG to FLV (surprisingly fast using Riva Flash encoder)
• Post FLV to YouTube (slow)
  

Is there a better way? If so, please post your ideas in the comments section. In the meantime, enjoy the fruits of my labor here: http://www.youtube.com/user/selectedhilarity