By larry on

I found the newly added mecommerce.module http://drupal.org/project/mecommerce and I was intrigued. I have been tinkering with the idea of handing out affiliate blocks to site members rather than simply links. Those blocks would contain content much like google adsense, but of course, would have content from my site. So in essence, it allows each site owner to have a pseudo google adsense of their very own, only it's not google that get's credit but each respective site owner.

All of this was, of course, just an idea. I thought maybe it's been done already or someone was working on it.

Then I saw the Mecommerce.module and I see they have taken this idea a few steps further to include a payment system and order form from their assigned blocks. Cool idea.

My question is, does anyone know how they did it? goodstorm.com is a drupal site and they have patents pending for their technology. But, I wonder, is the code base simply a rewritten affiliate.module, googleadsense.module, amazon toolkit modified to death, all integrated with the paypal infrastructure or something along those lines?

I know I'm grasping here but I'm very impressed with what they've done and very curious to know how they did it.

Any ideas?

cheers,

larry

⋅ Categories: Drupal 4.7.x

Comments

yobie’s picture

yobie commented

MeCommerce has been out for only a week and there has been much speculation about the design of the system. The first mistake is looking at MeCommerce as a system.

MeCommerce is really a business model rather than simply a technology system. The first foundation of MeCommerce is not technology. GoodStorm has worked hard to consolidate what would have been hundreds of suppliers ~ record labels, book publishers, distributors, manufacturers, game publishers, on-demand printers and many more into a single consolidated view accessible by any blogger or web site owner.

We do not use Amazon, iTunes or Buy.com. We have built our own data view so that everyone could be given the ability to sell any one of the items we carry and still make a meaningful margins for themselves. The main reason we can afford to give 50% of topline profits away is because we control, pick, pack and ship our products. We are not an advertising model.

We have build a new model called Product Serving . This means a blogger can present products they care about, endorse or use and NOT present meaningless and annoying ads.

On a more technical answer, we will be releasing a robust yet simple to implement MeCommerce API set for the Drupal community. The API will expose multiple elements of our inventories and SKUs to allow people to build their own MeCommerce enterprises. If you are interested in out beta test, please sign up at: mecommerce.goodstorm.com.

The beta test is limited so please sign up soon.

Yobie Benjamin

larry’s picture

larry commented

Hello Yobie,

Your answer is appreciated, although is does not directly answer my question as far as the technology used is concerned. However, your idea is very interesting. If I am viewing this correctly, you have created a vertical platform (i.e. integrated manufacturer/supplier, billing/payments, and pre-arranged shipping) and created product views. These views will be available to bloggers/website owners on their respective sites from your site. Your blocks/views will be unobtrusive interfaces to your site's backend (without those placing orders knowing it...very slick) that in turn will handle order selection, placement, and billing without leaving each user's respective site...very nice. This vertical integration allows you to save costs, offer one price, and allow profit sharing using your 50% margin model.

May I play devil's advocate for a moment? From what I see, and I am just writing out loud not being a smart-aleck, there are three primary differences from your model and that of, say, the 800lb amazon gorilla.

First, when someone uses your blocks on another site to place an order, they stay on that respective site and are not taken anywhere else, which is very nice.

Second, you allow the selection of items to be determined by each respective site owner. You don't force-feed prducts to other sites that use your blocks.

Third, and most notable, your 50% margin which is well above that of others who offer distributed product placement on other sites from their inventory.

While these differences are real and tangible, I just want to put this into perspective, not pee on anyone's shoes. Am I seeing this right? Your model is interesting because it takes affiliate marketing in an interesting direction. However, I must admit I am still curious about the technology used under the hood. In anycase, I admire goodstorm's creativity and desire to "do good". It's very nice to see.

Thank's again for responding.

cheers,

larry

--There are no Kangaroos in Austria--

yobie’s picture

yobie commented

Nothing fancy under the hood... FreeBSD, MySQL, TurboGears and an API (which we will publish openly) we build to cross platforms.

What people seem to miss is MeCommerce is not affiliate marketing. From a strictly business POV, folks who use MeCommerce are GoodStorm partners who can place any item they want for sale. GoodStorm does not push any CD, book, DVD or game. We simply make it available.

GoodStorm strictly speaking does not market anything. Our goal is altruistic. By taking away the need for capital, inventory, etc... the little guy can have a modest ecommerce business. The person who does the real marketing is the blog owner / web site owner, not GoodStorm. Not everyone can be successful but we know there will be people and companies that will be very successful.

The fact is we already know from early focus groups that many bloggers will fail here if they do not actively link the items they sell with their own interests. You can use MeCommerce as a dumb rotating ad tool or you can use it as a focused useful tool to augment your vision, story or mission.

On the 900 lb gorilla. If they come after us, then we all win because our goal is to force people and corporations to share profits in an equitable and meaningful way. So if Amazon copies our model, so be it... we all win.

Our view is GoodStorm is a pioneer in technical philanthropy vis-à-vis financial philanthropy. We use technologies and business models to engage and allow people to help themselves in a world where opportunities tend to be reserved for those who don’t need as much.

Yobie Benjamin

larry’s picture

larry commented

Hello Yobie,

Your POV certainly is interesting. While I agree with what you say about the 900lb gorillas and you're winning despite their market positions (which is also very slick), I'm not sure I understand how this is not affiliate marketing, albeit, an awesome deal for your partners nonetheless.

Once again, I'm only being the devil's advocate, not a smart-aleck. However, you have assembled a vertical network that allows a one-stop view for your partners to adverise on their own sites, who in turn must register with your site in order to access YOUR inventory. While you give great freedom to what someone can advertise on their site, their is an upper boundary for choice. You may have 10 million items to choose from, but the 10 millioneth item becomes the boundary of choice which cannot be crossed unless YOU decide to offer more items to choose from...still a huge selection though.

Why is this important? Because no matter how many items you offer, the choice does have a finite boundary from which your partners can choose, like amazon for example. They then, after choosing what they wish to advertise, place your blocks on their site. While the transactions are done on their site, they use YOUR backend. My question is, how is this not affiliate marketing, although very, very, nice affiliate marketing? What is the difference between a partner, by your definition, and an affiliate, as commonly used on the web?

I'm just trying to understand your model from your POV. No matter what you call it, though, it's a great idea and your motives are very admirable.

cheers,

larry

--There are no Kangaroos in Austria--

soleman’s picture

soleman commented

Hi guys,

I was wondering if there are plans to make the technology / business model available to other suppliers or vendors.

For example as a Vendor I'd love to be able to offer other bloggers or website owners the chance to sell my products on their sites in exactly the same fashion as Goodstrom does with MECommerce. I know I can utalise the hundred of affilicate marketing programmes out there but this is model is lightyears ahead and provides a unquie user experience.

The real growth I feel is going down this path where the blogger or website owner can pick from a range of suppliers and a range of products.

Is it possible MEComerce will be heading in this direction? If so I'd love someone to repsond and let me know as I'm keen as mustard to get involved.

Thanks,

Soleman

larry’s picture

larry commented

Hello Soleman,

I too had thought about that. However, as I had not heard from Yobie for a while after my last question, I assume he longer wanted to discuss it with me. In any case, that was the direction I was going with him.

I've done some investigating and here is my 2 cents worth. First, the mecommerce.module is a third party integration module. That means that it integrates the mecommerce service with Drupal through this mecommerce.module.

The mecommerce service itself is built with Turbogears and not with Drupal. The Drupal site they use is for their t-shirt business and to advertise the mecommerce service.

Turbogears itself is the technical backbone of the mecommerce service, however, they have made deals with suppliers and shippers to offer a one price solution. Also, they are a non-profit organization which helps the negotiating process with suppliers and shippers.

What they offer is very cool, very clever, and well thought out. However, as they now have it, I do not believe Drupal would be capable of being the technical backbone as Turbogears is.

Before others come in and beat me down for saying "Drupal can't...", I say that I am no expert on Drupal, although reasonably advanced. I also believe Drupal could be made to do it, there would just have to be interest.

I hope there is interest. Just imagine every drupal site being able to offer their own mecommerce-like service. It would really make not only other CMS's take notice, it would put pressure on affiliate programs like Amazon and Google Adsense. Truthfully, I don't understand why such a project for Drupal isn't already underway, it would really give Drupal users ALOT of advertising power.

larry

--There are no Kangaroos in Austria--