New API and/or Wallet Question

[DougWare]

Will the new API support, or is it planned in the future to support using the API without funding the wallet?

I think it would be better for those of us who are still trying to get off the ground if we didn't have to dump money into a wallet that we can't recover if the business doesn't succeed.

I've given a lot of thought to this, and I believe PayPal would be the way to go. Let's take an imaginary plan with an $89.95 retail price, and $59.95 wholesale price.

The reseller could code their site to accept the payment to their PayPal account. After the payment is processed (for $89.95), their script could pass on the account info using the API, and draft the $59.95 from the reseller's PayPal account o file with RSP (or using the PayPal debit card on file). This would leave the ~$30 in the reseller's paypal account.

The reseller wouldn't have to put a large sum of money upfront to get started with the API, but would still have the ability to use the API's functions (ie Website integration, as well as more than 4 plans).

I would love to hear everyone's input...

[wjleong]

Will the new API support, or is it planned in the future to support using the API without funding the wallet?

I think it would be better for those of us who are still trying to get off the ground if we didn't have to dump money into a wallet that we can't recover if the business doesn't succeed.

I've given a lot of thought to this, and I believe PayPal would be the way to go. Let's take an imaginary plan with an $89.95 retail price, and $59.95 wholesale price.

The reseller could code their site to accept the payment to their PayPal account. After the payment is processed (for $89.95), their script could pass on the account info using the API, and draft the $59.95 from the reseller's PayPal account o file with RSP (or using the PayPal debit card on file). This would leave the ~$30 in the reseller's paypal account.

The reseller wouldn't have to put a large sum of money upfront to get started with the API, but would still have the ability to use the API's functions (ie Website integration, as well as more than 4 plans).

I would love to hear everyone's input...

Good idea,I like it.
With this we are more flexible with our funds.
However,API is currrently not available.I think may be end of the year of even longer.

[Programmer]

@DougWare,
I think it's a good idea and would give additional anonymity (your own order form, no liquid net address).

[Milen]

Will the new API support, or is it planned in the future to support using the API without funding the wallet?

There are no such plans, as far as I know.

The reseller could code their site to accept the payment to their PayPal account. After the payment is processed (for $89.95), their script could pass on the account info using the API, and draft the $59.95 from the reseller's PayPal account o file with RSP (or using the PayPal debit card on file). This would leave the ~$30 in the reseller's paypal account.

If you can implement this, you are welcome to use it. However, I think that the thread belongs to the Web developer's discussion, instead of the Support questions section of the forum.

The reseller wouldn't have to put a large sum of money upfront to get started with the API, but would still have the ability to use the API's functions (ie Website integration, as well as more than 4 plans).

The minimum amount that you need to use the reseller wallet is $45 dollars. It is not a great amount of money (it is less than the price of a dinner for two at a decent inexpensive restaurant or a tank of gas). Although transfers to the wallet are non-refundable, a good web master/developer can always use this amount for a hosting plan or a few domain registrations, even if their web hosting sale efforts turn out to be unfruitful. In most cases, the amount of money that you should “lock” into the reseller wallet would not exceed the wholesale price of your most expensive hosting plan. In case that you manage to net more than one web hosting sale per day (and there aren’t many such resellers), it should not be a problem to place a larger “reserve” into your reseller wallet, should it? Currently, there are plenty of resellers that use the wallet, even without the reseller API. They like the flexibility it offers by allowing them to bill their clients on their own, as well as enjoy the discounts we offer for higher volume transfers to the reseller wallet.

[DougWare]

$45 can be a lot of money to a startup home based business. That could easily be used for promotion, etc.

As I said, my biggest problem is that the wallet is non-refundable.

[Milen]

$45 can be a lot of money to a startup home based business.

I beg to differ about this, especially if one is taking their business venture seriously, but, of course, you are entitled to your own opinion.

[Programmer]

Yeah I use the wallet, even without the using the API.

Milen, we can use the API functionality even when there is no money in the wallet. So if DougWare can implement payment from his paypal to RP paypal account, he could use the API functionality without having to put money in his account. Correct?

[Milen]

Milen, we can use the API functionality even when there is no money in the wallet. So if DougWare can implement payment from his paypal to RP paypal account, he could use the API functionality without having to put money in his account. Correct?

Not quite. Some API functionality such as domain and username availability checking can be used without the reseller wallet. However, all payment operations though the API are linked to the reseller wallet. If DougWare sells a hosting plan to a client and the client makes a payment to DougWare's PayPal account, DougWare could then use his PayPal account to transfer the funds to his reseller wallet to cover the wholesale price of the plan. If DougWare can automate this process, I do not see a reason why he shouldn’t be able to use the API and the reseller wallet this way. However, the hosting plan will not be set up, until the wallet payment for it is made.

[syownet]

Automating this process is the hard bit. I'd love to go down this track, but I haven't as even if I setup the initial account purchase process to go through my own paypal account, and automatically fill my wallet, any of the renewals my customers did would still be via LiquidNet. Because there's no way of controlling the in-control-panel order system, and as we've seen from other resellers who have tried to operate with that renew feature turned off...it doesn't end well as LiquidNet are primarily setup to handle the billing for us.

[Programmer]

Very good point, syownet.