WordPress iSell is an easy to use WordPress plugin to sell digital downloads from your WordPress site (for free). This plugin is designed to do one thing only but do it really well, which is to sell digital downloads from your WordPress site via PayPal.
WordPress iSell Plugin Features
- Sell any kind of digital downloads - sell ebooks (PDF files), sell photos, sell music (mp3), sell videos, sell podcast etc.
- The plugin instantly delivers the digital download to the customer after purchase by sending an encrypted download link via email.
- Very secure file downloads using an encrypted file download system. The real location of your digital download is never revealed.
- Sell digital downloads via PayPal (the money from the sales will go right into your PayPal account)
- Create unlimited products
- You can also create custom orders
- Ability to upload large files for products (this plugin has a file uploader)
- Manage products and orders through standard WordPress User Interface (UI)
- The user interface is very easy to use
- WordPress iSell is a developer friendly plugin and very extendable (it has many hooks that you can use to extend the plugin)
- You can customize your Buy/Purchase button image. This is handy for using it on a landing page
Download the WordPress Sell Digital Downloads Plugin
You can download the WordPress iSell plugin from here.
WordPress iSell Installation
- Go to the Add New plugins screen in your WordPress admin area
- Click the upload tab
- Browse for the plugin file (sell-digital-downloads.zip)
- Click Install Now and then activate the plugin
WordPress iSell Setup
Go to Pages->Add New on your WP dashboard and create the following pages:
1. Thank You – One Thank You page thanking the customer for the purchase
2. Transaction Error – One Transaction Error page with the following shortcode embedded in it:
[isell_errors]
If something goes wrong with the transaction your customer will be able to see the errors on this page.
3. Product Download – One Product Download page with the following shortcode embedded in it:
[isell_download_page]
This page will be used to serve downloads to your customer after a successful transaction.
Once you have created those pages you can now move on to the WordPress iSell settings.
WordPress iSell Settings
Go to iSell on your WP dashboard.
It will take you to the Settings menu of the plugin.
There are various options that you can configure here.
PayPal Email: Your PayPal email address where the payment will go for each transaction.
PayPal Environment: You can either do the transaction in sandbox mode or live mode. Make sure to set this option to Production when your site goes live.
Currency: The currency that will be used to accept the payment.
Directory: The directory that will be used to contain the downloads. The plugin automatically creates the directory when you install it. It gets created in the root directory of your site. If the directory doesn’t exist you may need to manually create it. Make sure that the directory is both readable and writable (0755 permission).
Max Downloads: The number of times your customer can attempt to download a file.
Error Page: Select the Transaction Error page that you created earlier.
Thank You Page: Select the Thank You page that you created earlier.
Download Page: Select the Product Download page that you created earlier.
Use fsockopen or CURL: Select the method that will be used to validate IPN (Instant Payment Notification) with PayPal. If your server doesn’t support either you need to contact your hosting provider and have them enable one for you.
Click on the Save Changes button to save all the options.
WordPress iSell Product Configuration
Now that you have the settings configured you can start creating new products. Go to Products->Add New on your WP dashboard.
Enter a name and price for the product.
A Buy Now Url for this product will be automatically generated for you. You can use this as a destination URL for your Buy Now button image (It means when a user clicks on the button image they will be redirected to PayPal to make the payment for this product).
In the File section there is an option for you to upload your digital file. First, select the file on your computer and hit the Upload File button. Alternatively, you can upload the file via FTP and specify the URL in the File URL field. If you are using the default download option (Enable Simple Download unchecked) you need to also set a custom name for your file in the File Name field. Your customer will see this name instead of the actual file name while downloading the file. Click on the Publish button to save the product.
You are almost done with the setup. Now all you need to do is create a new post/page (Posts->Add New or Pages->Add New) and insert a text link, image or a button. It’s totally up to you what you want to use. You just need to make sure that the destination URL (The URL where the user will be redirected to once clicked) is set to the Buy Now Url of that specific product.
Once a user makes a successful transaction they will receive an email containing the digital download link.
You can always view the details of a transaction from the Orders menu.
That should be it. You are now ready to sell digital downloads from your WordPress site using the WordPress iSell plugin.
If you have any questions please feel free to share it in the comment section below.
Hi,
I would like to know if this plugin come with french translation!
Thanks in advance for your response
@Stephane, currently there is no option for the french translation. But we are planning to add this option in the future.
Hi! I have problems when i try to upload the files to “Products”. I created the directory in ftp folder, but when i upload a file this message appears: Failed to open output stream. The directory has the same name as the directory in “iSell”, and permissions 777. With 755 this message appears: Failed to open temp directory.
What I’m doing wrong?
I get this warning:
Warning: include(/home/hopevv/public_html/wp-content/plugins/sell-digital-downloads//views/custom_edit_icons_style.php) [function.include]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/hopevv/public_html/wp-content/plugins/sell-digital-downloads/inc/functions.php on line 312
It goes away when I deactivate. What’s this about?
Hi, It’s just a warning. It will not affect the functionality of the plugin. However, we are working on fixing this issue.
Hello,
Having some issues with orders being placed and the link going to error page “Transaction ID is invalid”.. You did some customization to this plug-in for me previously.. I have not updated from Version 1.3 as instructed… It doesn’t seem to happen on every order… the most recent order had the error.. [garygulman.com/?page_id=548&isell_error=1]
Please advise,
Steve
Hi, We have released another update. You shouldn’t see the warning anymore.
How does the customer get the downloadable file he just paid for?
The plugin automatically sends the download link via email. However, on some servers the email may not get sent out due to restrictions. In that case, you will need to manually send the download link.
I installed the plugin and like the features a lot… however, after installing, the settings menu (shown in your screenshot under orders as “iSell”) is NOT showing up in my WP admin menu. I can’t get back to the settings now to change my payment gateway from sandbox to live. Help!
Did you log in as the admin? Do you have the “editor” permission?
Thanks for this plugin….I am just looking for a good way to make digital downloads of high-resolution photos available to press and other interested parties, but for free, so is there a way to configure this plugin to allow the downloads for free, and without having to activate the store/paypal functionality?
scott
Unfortunately, It’s not possible to offer free downloads with this plugin.
Hello, I installed the plugin but not download the digital file … even if the amount charged. Only rarely have been downloading, but the file without extension low (epub).
Thanks and merry Christmas
everything appear to be working but the buyer does not get a link to download the file where did I go wrong?
Stupid question: I’m wondering if this plug in keeps people from being able to share the file. When you say encrypted, is that what you mean?
Hi,Thankyou for this plugin.I Have installed but I have some questions.
I created a product,its ok but how to include into the post?Need to make it manualy?
Hi, a “Buy Now URL” is automatically generated when you create a product. You can use that URL in a text or button image. When a user clicks on that image/text they will be redirected to PayPal (it works just like a buy now button).
Hi, that plugin sounds great. Can you use it for selling ePUB files, too? In the description only PDF is mentioned for ebooks.
@sundi, you should be able to sell any type of digital file.
when I create the Thank You, Download and Error pages, they show up on my WP site main menu, how do I prevent this? If I make them private, they do not appear in the dropboxes on the iSell config page.
@egnola, It’s probably because your theme automatically adds recently created pages to the navigation menu. WordPress also has a custom menu option that allows you to select the pages that you want to show on the navigation menu.
Dig the plugin. One question. The checkout process on paypal asks for your shipping address but since we’re doing a digital download, is there any way to turn that off?
@Benjamin, unfortunately there is no option to turn that off in the plugin since the checkout form is displayed by PayPal.
Hi, I have set this up exactly as instructed, everything is working except that the customer is not receiving any download link after purchasing
Please help,
Regards,
James
@james, you will need to manually send the download links after the purchase.
Is there a size limit to the files I upload? I’m trying to put some larger mp3′s up and it keeps saying “undefined”. But everything’s been working fine with smaller files (small mp3′s and pdf’s). Great plug-in overall!
@chugo, What is the size limit for your WordPress uploader?
It seems to cap between 5MB and 6MB. Is there something I can do to fix that?
I generally have been uploading files on Cyberduck; that lets me upload as big a file as I want and is how I usually upload files. But for this I’ve been using the iSell interface and I’m inexperienced in uploading directly into WordPress. Is there something I need to do to my WordPress site then?
@chugo, you might need to increase your Maximum upload file size
I want to sell art lessons. Is there a way instead of uploading my video lessons to my website but having them hosted from another site like Vimeo? Once they’ve paid for the lesson a link and password would be sent to them or it would show them the download link on the current page they bought it from.
@Marc, currently you can only sell products that are hosted on your site
Hello, I think this plugin is the one that I need to sell my product, but right now I’ve got an issu with it.
I configured everything like shown just above but when I test it with the “sandbox” from Paypal nothing works.
The link is not given on the “product download page”, no email is sent, and nothing appears in “orders” in the wordpress board.
i probably miss something, so if someone has some idea, feel free to help me !
@Mathieu, have you updated to the latest version of WordPress and the plugin?
Yes, I’m working with wordpress 3.5 and 2.1.1 for the plugin
I like the plugin, but I’m running a membership site and I like to keep from Arther on down from getting at the Products and Orders menu’s in there dashboard or limiting it to admin only.
Is there an easy way to do this or point me at the section to drop in a user level code.
@Dave, hi currently it shows menu to the users who have the permission to edit posts.
I’m selling larger files–over 1GB each. When a customer tries to download them, the download terminates after only 82.4MB have been transferred. Is this an issue with the plugin? With WordPress? With my web host?
At first the download link was not being sent, but changing the method from CURL seemed to work.
I am currently testing in PayPal sandbox and trying to figure out how the download link is working.
The customer completes the transaction and returns to the Thank you page. PayPal shows a receipt email for the customer and a notification of payment email for the buyer. Because I am using the sandbox I can’t get an email with the download link, is that right? Also if I wanted to re-send the download link to the customer, the only place it is available is in orders. However, the input box where it is displayed is disabled and I can’t copy it from there. How would I find out what the link is?
@David, You won’t receive the email in sandbox mode. However, you should be able to find the download URL from the order menu. So go to “Orders->All Orders” and select the order you want to edit (click “edit this”). You will see a “product info” box which has the “Download URL” field.
Hello, I am working on a store for a customer and I need to upload a massive file, I haven’t even tried yet but I know it’s going to cause problems with the filesize limit and such, is there other ways of uploading giant files (+3Gb) Is there a way of uploading the files via FTP and inserting the URL somewhere?
There is a new update for the sell digital downloads plugin. Users should be able to upload files via media uploader or FTP now. If you are having issues with downloading large files simply switch to the “Enable Simple Download” option.
Thanks for the add URL function, I found it very useful and I’m uploading the file via FTP right now, however the new update disables the “insert image/insert gallert” function in my Wordrpress. I am not sure if I am the only one but I tried everything else to fix this issue. The only way I can get it to work is by disabling the plugin. Is there any work-around?
@ReDCroW Design, we are looking into this issue.
Thanks a lot!!
Hi
When creating the following pages:
1. Thank You –
2. Transaction Error –
3. Product Download –
do we publish them, pending review or draft
@m, you need to publish those pages
when I publish them they simply show up as pages in the blog visible at all times to viewers.
Publish them.
is digital media secure? Can folks hack and steal the media?
TIA for your response!
@Doug, the images are rendered from the WordPress Gallery. It’s a core feature of WordPress so the plugin is not responsible for making them secure.
HI! I am running into an issue that may be indirectly related to the plugin (which I was able to implement easily and is the functionality I needed
. I am using WordPress version 3.5.1, and when the plugin is activated I am unable to insert media into my blog posts. When I tried deactivating this plugin, all worked normally. I have also tested with multiple themes. Do you have any thoughts on what may be causing the issue or where I can look to troubleshoot? Has this been an issue for anyone else? Let me know if any additional information is needed and thanks ahead of time for the help and all your hard work!
Hi, we just released an update to fix the “media uploader” issue.
Whoo hoo! Beautiful.
We have a realy big file (10gb) and we never succeeded to finish the download!.. (it stops downloading, sometimes at 10-15Mb sometimes at 1-2Gb.. What can be the problem? Any ideas?
Hi, have you tried the “simple download” option? It has been recently added to the plugin. So if you don’t see this option in the Products menu you might need an update.
yes we did. It has only worked once! i also want to ask you if our custommers can use download managers? if so do we have to increase max number of download field? (because they use multiple simultaneus connections) May be there is a “time out” option that we cold not see!.. I don’t know.. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks..
I also heard that we may need something called Xsenfile support. Does your plugin have such an option?
Is the download link delivered right after redirection to the “Thank you” page or should I wait until my paypal transaction is completed?
Hi, the download link is provided via email and will only be valid after the transaction is complete
Is it possible to use this plugin to sell one custom digital product to one customer only?
@Michelle, Unfortunately it’s not possible with this plugin.
Is there an option on the sales page to ask the customer where they heard about your products for market research? A drop box of radio box…..
@Julie, the plugin doesn’t have any template for the sales page. It’s something you need to do manually. However, there is a “call to action” shortcode that comes from the plugin for each new product you create. You just need to use that shortcode as a “Buy Now” link (it could be an image/text). But it’s totally up to you where you want to embed it.
hey, I set up iSell products by ftp’ing the files (zipped) to a folder on my host. I created products by linking to the URL in the creation page and published. I did some test transactions and received email notifications (both admin and customer) I was also redirected to the “Thank You” page.
I received an email notification with the download link. I went to the page and clicked download now link. I received a “Error Page Not Found” page with the actual file path to the file listed in the browser URL. I tried with an mp3 I uploaded through the create product page. Everything worked as before, but when I clicked on the “Download now” text, I was taken to a page (with the file path to the mp3 in the URL address) with the mp3 that I could play but not download or save. I right clicked, file save, and everything else I could think of. what’s happening and why is the download showing the file URL. This opens the system up for exploitation!
@Doug, do you have the “simple download” option enabled in the “create product” page?
Hi,
I just installed iSell and no directory was created in root. Also. there is no field in the settings to set a directory. Am I missing something or have things changed with updates?
Lou
Was me. Too much coffee. Thanks. Sweet plugin. I’m sure there’s good things coming.
Lou
Hi..
Does this plugin have a mp3 playing to listen to snipptes of the song before purchasing?
Thanks
Hello,
I’m interested in your plugin but I have some questions:
1) Can I create static purchase links? (I’ve already my order now image button and want the users click on them)
2) I have an Italian account and want to create purchase links for people from US in english…so having a paypal page in Italian is useless. do your plugin can handle this paypal purchase page customization (country/language)?
Thx
Hi,
Thank you in advance for the plugin.
When I try to install the plugin, the Dashboards return a message saying that it can not be activated due to a fatal error. Any sugestions?
Ok. I’ve double checked everything, but when I hit the Buy link it just refreshes the page I’m on even though the link clearly shows the product ID link created when adding the product. It does not go to PayPal. Any ideas?
Thanks,
Lou
I did everything the tutorial said but it didn’t create the “directory” on the settings page. Now it can’t find the file for downloading.
Please, what should I do now? Thank you.
Am having the same issue. Receive the mail with link which goes nowhere. Have created the directory, set the permissions to 755 and installed the file there, but still no workie.
I have just written an eBook and wish to sell it from my website. Inside the eBook, I have a link to a separate page where I outline some substantial discounts for customers who wish to purchase additional copies. I don’t want these discounted prices to be seen on the main purchase page.
Will I be able to set up the first sale, a normal PayPal purchase action on one page and then use the plugin on the second purchase page for the discounted prices? If the plugin cannot accommodate this, could you suggest a way that I could do what I want?
sincerely,
Graham Segal
I am having just a little trouble with this plugin, I have two questions.
1) wordpress wouldn’t allow me to upload this file because it was too big, so i used filzilla to upload it to my FTP server. now that i have it on my server how do I access it to use with this theme?
2) is there a simpler way to do this for large files?
Thank you
I have installed this on my site, but i never get the customer or admin e-mails from the plugin.
What can i do?
Hello! Thank you for your plugin! It’s great!
But I have one question: how can I change sender name from WordPress to another?
If buyer receives download by email, how can he read it in a reader?
Do I have to put the WordPerfect file in some other format?
Hi,
I am still having the problem-when I create the 3 pages, they show up on the website itself as a normal page, viewable to users at all times. Am I missing something here?
Hello Admin
is it possible to use an affiliate system with the isell plugin?
regards
Hans
Hello, awesome plugin. It was surprisingly simple to setup and implement. I don’t really have a problem, just an inquiry. I have your script on my site and everything is working well, I just wanted to know is there a way to change the email that sends the info? For example right now it says wordpress@mysite.com. I would like the e-mails to be sent from sales@mysite.com. I didn’t notice anywhere in the setting to change this. Is there a code “work-around” you can give?
TIA,
-Skipp
Hi! Can I upload the files to Amazon S3 and then link to them for the download?
Thanks!
Hi, yes you can. But you will need to use the simple download method.
Hi, can I upload two files ie MP3 and PDF in the same product? I need the PDF to explain the MP3.
Thanks for a great plugin.
Hi, May be put them in a folder and zip it.