[Lab] Introducing TugBits.com - a marketplace for makers.

Wed Jun 8 15:55:56 EDT 2011

Hi again Everyone,

After some internal discussion we've dropped our initial pricing to 15% of a
seller's gross revenue.

In the future we will probably switch to a listing fee + smaller % model,
but for now listing items is completely free.  So please please please add
some items for sale :)

Cheers,
Tom

On Wed, Jun 8, 2011 at 3:29 PM, Tom Burns <tom.i.burns at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Jean-Marc,
>
> Yes.  A seller can update their sale file for an item and a buyer can
> re-download the item.  This works today.
>
> In the future, we will add notification services so that if you buy an item
> and it is updated, you will get an email or note next time you log onto the
> website.  We also plan on adding traditional social networking features like
> "following" a seller to see when they list new items as well as "groups" so
> people can find hackerspaces near them and what other locals are up to.
>
> Cheers,
> Tom
>
>
> On Wed, Jun 8, 2011 at 3:12 PM, Jean-Marc LeBlanc <
> jeanmarc.leblanc at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Would a buyer be able to download patches or update the software for free?
>>
>> say I put some source for sale some people buy it later on some one
>> finds a major bug and I fix it
>>
>> Jean-Marc Le Blanc
>> ---
>>
>> "Do you pine for the nice days of Minix-1.1, when men were men and
>> wrote their own device drivers?" Linus Torvalds
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Jun 8, 2011 at 2:38 PM, Tom Burns <tom.i.burns at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Hi Darcy, thank you for your response!
>> >
>> > On Wed, Jun 8, 2011 at 1:53 PM, Darcy Whyte <darcy at siteware.com> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> The site looks nice.
>> >> 25%? You might find that wanting 1/4 of sale amounts will provide
>> >> significant friction to adoption (for buyers and sellers).
>> >
>> > I understand and agree.  Once we are running for awhile we will have
>> some
>> > knowledge of our costs and plan on scaling our cut accordingly.  We'd
>> rather
>> > claim 25% up front and bring it lower in the future than vice-versa and
>> be
>> > accused of bait & switch.  Out of interest, considering the service
>> offered,
>> > what would you consider to be a fair percentage?
>> >
>> >>
>> >> It doesn't have any measures for authenticity (ebay has reviews, web
>> pages
>> >> have in-degree). How can buyers and sellers have as much confidence as
>> they
>> >> have with ebay without those measures?
>> >
>> >
>> > The state of the site right now is "minimal viable product", so a lot of
>> > features are missing but planned.  Buyers will be able to rate items,
>> and a
>> > seller's rating will be a weighted average of their item's ratings.  As
>> of
>> > right now a logged-in user can comment on an item which gives a simple
>> means
>> > to provide feedback, but a lot more is planned.
>> >
>> >>
>> >> If a person were to list a product for sale on their own Web site, why
>> >> would your Web site sell more? Especially given that having a Web site
>> is
>> >> either free or next to nothing and you keep all the revenue.
>> >
>> >
>> > We offer a few benefits compared to doing it yourself:
>> > - We are actively marketing this website.  Our success is derived from
>> your
>> > success, so we are trying hard to drive customers to our site, to buy
>> your
>> > product.
>> > - Marketplace visibility.  You will gain exposure by having your items
>> > listed alongside other similar items.
>> > - Simplicity.  You want to spend your time designing and building
>> things,
>> > not writing PayPal integration code.
>> > - Security.  Items purchased with our service are only downloadable by
>> the
>> > buyer.  The payload content is stored on Amazon's S3 servers and without
>> a
>> > generated download key, access is denied.
>> >
>> >>
>> >> I clicked through to the "Domain Name Finder" product at your site.
>> >> What you've done there is avoided putting the name of the product in
>> the
>> >> Title Metatag. You put your own buyline there instead. You also didn't
>> put
>> >> product name or information in the H1 tag. In fact you have a blank H1
>> tag.
>> >> With that situation, it reduces the chance that someone can google the
>> >> product successfully.
>> >
>> > Thanks!  That is completely a bug.  I've added it to our immediate TODO
>> > list.  We need to fix our SEO, I completely agree.  You should see a fix
>> for
>> > this in the next 48 hours.
>> >>
>> >> So what would be the reason someone would list on your site rather than
>> >> just make a simple site of their own?
>> >
>> > The list I provided above enumerates what I see as our advantages.  It's
>> a
>> > good question!
>> > Cheers,
>> > Tom
>> >
>> >>
>> >> Darcy
>> >>
>> >> On Wed, Jun 8, 2011 at 1:25 PM, Tom Burns <tom.i.burns at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> >>>
>> >>> I'd like to introduce the community to a website I've been working on
>> >>> with a few friends.  I would love to hear your feedback on the idea
>> and the
>> >>> site, http://www.tugbits.com .
>> >>> Our dream goal is to help people quit their desk jobs and pay their
>> bills
>> >>> doing what they love, making things.
>> >>> TugBits.com is a digital marketplace for makers.  You upload your
>> design
>> >>> files, list them for sale, and collect money via PayPal when your item
>> >>> sells.  Likewise, you can use the site to find quality, reviewed
>> designs
>> >>> suitable for printing on your 3d printer, milling on your CNC, running
>> on
>> >>> your Arduino, etc.  Also suitable would be e-books, schematics, source
>> code
>> >>> libraries and tools, etc.  Only after the PayPal transaction is the
>> buyer
>> >>> able to download the files.  There are no physical items sold on the
>> TugBits
>> >>> store, only files.
>> >>> Our goal is to help talented makers easily profit from their hard
>> work.
>> >>>  We do not want to replace the existing "free/open source" model, but
>> we
>> >>> want to augment it. We think that if you can get paid for your work it
>> will
>> >>> compel you to go the extra step and make it that much better.  Market
>> driven
>> >>> innovation.
>> >>> Registering and listing items is free.  We charge 25% of your gross
>> >>> revenue and bill monthly.  Depending on our costs and community
>> feedback
>> >>> this number is probably going to change, but it's similar to the costs
>> >>> associated with putting an app on an app store or a musician listing
>> with
>> >>> iTunes.
>> >>> Currently you can register on the site and list items for sale, which
>> is
>> >>> what I would love for any of you interested to do.  We are in the
>> final
>> >>> stages of getting PayPal to sign off on the site, at which point
>> sellers
>> >>> will be able to collect money and items will be able to be sold.
>> >>> Please visit the site and let me know what you think!  Even if you
>> hate
>> >>> it, please reply to tell me why.
>> >>> Thank you,
>> >>> Tom Burns
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> _______________________________________________
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>> >>> Lab at artengine.ca
>> >>> http://artengine.ca/mailman/listinfo/lab
>> >>>
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
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>> >
>> >
>>
>
>
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