Today I looked at the sales page for the WP Instant Pay Plugin which is touted as a “split-pay” affiliate program payment system for wordpress.
At first glance, it looks really cool. But then if you take a step back….you remember WordPress is OPEN SOURCE! Generally its a very bad idea to integrate any type of payment system within and open source script or program. We hear stories all the time about someones OSCommerce, ZenCart or other open source shopping cart system getting hacked so I wonder how hard it would be for a hacker to hack a WP plugin? Skilled hackers could manipulate the payment process, manipulate the price or worse yet…even gain access to your customers information.
They liken it to Digiresults, however Digiresults does not function in the manner in which they state their plugin does. Digiresults, ties itself to the sellers Paypal account, collects the purchase payment and then automatically makes a payment from the sellers Paypal account to the affiiate. And….the process takes place completely within Digiresults secure servers, not on an open source script website. I haven’t seen too many people buying SSL certificates for their blogs or implementing some sort of method to utilize it.
The other thing that bothers me is they act as if “instant payments” to affiliates in “real time” is exclusive to this plugin and if you get the plugin you are going to “outsell the competition” because of this feature. Well, Rapid Action Profits is instant payments to affiliates in real time…..Digiresults is instant payments to affiliates in real time…Warrior Forums’ WSO/Warrior Plus is instant payments to affiliates in real time…..and the list goes on. Oh!! And……none of these others are a plugin on an OPEN SOURCE platform!
I am guessing in the end, WP Instant Pay handles the payments in the same manner though I am not sure why they feel it necessary to show the breakdown of the different people the payment is split between even though it happens after a single payment. Personally I think it would appear “abnormal” the to average user and may deter sales rather then drive them. Another consideration is those who’ve been online for a while that may confuse it for those old scripts and programs of yesterday where they would pay one user and then make another seperate payment to another user. It’s all in the perception, but I think it will prove to be more of a negative one.
Now the developer claims that this plugin has been tested and approved by Paypal, yet offers no documentation which frankly I would be interested in seeing first myself. Though I don’t think too many people would make this claim were it not true.
What would concern me more is what measures are in place to insure security when integrating a payment processing plugin within an open source script. Any reference to THIS is woefully missing from the salespage.
My personal opinion is that this could be a really great plugin, but I think I would ask a few questions about security and documentation from Paypal that this is an approved method of using their Adaptive Payment API before I laid out the $67 for it… Oh, and while you are at it….if you get an email from any marketer promoting this via an affiliate link and they makes claims like “they have it and it works great” or “they got their copy”……call their bluff……ask them if you can signup as an affiliate on their plugin to “try it out”…….we’ll see if you get a reply…
Remember, this isn’t just another plugin that does this or that, this is dealing with customers secure information and you don’t want your online business wrecked over some hacker exploiting WordPress.
I am sure I will get a flury of negative comments from those that are quick to jump on bandwagons (or maybe just quick to promote an affiliate link) but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to warn about the prospects of a product that handles payments/payment processing without first doing your due diligence.
Hopefully someone more experienced than I can comment and give some answers to what I think are valid concerns…
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