Credit Card Issues - Old Technology Bites Back

The shopping cart software that I use on AudioMysteries.com is now over 5 years old. When I decided to start the site it made sense to buy this particular product which I had customized to work for audio book rentals. Five years later this decision has come back to bite me big time.

A couple of months ago I got an email from the president of my software supplier talking about the great future of the company. I did a quick check and realized that they had gone belly-up and had been acquired by another company. I went shopping for a new ecommerce platform. I was able to pick something very good, much better than what I currently have and totally hosted in one location. So far so good.

I tested the new platform, got a new domain name that will be used when I make the transition, and loaded some inventory. Now I would be faced with moving my entire inventory to the new site - over 800 products as well as building a new business model. That's daunting. But I devised a plan to do it over the next five weeks.

All of this was fine - except my existing software provider threw another wrench in the process. Late this week I got another email - never a good sign - from the new company letting me know that they would be unable to process credit cards for my site starting March 1, 2009. A scant 72 hours from when the email was sent. This meant 1) finding a new credit card processor and 2) integrating their service into an existing site 5 years old.

Old technology definitely bites back. After a frantic 48 hours I found a processor, applied, was accepted and some changes were made. However I have no idea if this is going to work. So tomorrow I might be "out of business".

I think I will have to have a conversation with my new ecommerce provider very soon.

Major Changes for AudioMysteries

With the launch of our used audio book site, UsedAudioBookStore.com, I will be making some significant changes in our rental site, AudioMysteries.com. In the next two to three months the site will be moving to a new eCommerce platform that will provide many customer benefits including:

• Improved menu navigation


• MyAccount customer page


• One screen checkout


• Email notification when an out of stock item is back in stock

To prepare for the change over, we will be removing some of the "dead wood" from our inventory. Most of the sale items currently on AudioMysteries.com will move to UsedAudioBookStore.com. We will also move any items that have not rented in the last two years to the other site. All of these items will be available for sale. You can keep the books or return them at anytime for a 50% in-store credit.

By trimming our inventory we can add more titles for rent as we sell off older, less popular titles.

Audio Book Reviews

One of the changes since we last talked is the launch of our review site. AudioMysteries.net has a variety of audio book reviews of current favorites as well as some titles that have been on AudioMysteries.com for quite awhile. AudioMysteries.net has over 50 reviews including books by James Patterson, Rober B. Parker, Rex Stout, Sue Grafton and J.A. Jance.

If you are interested in writing audio book reviews for the site, please contact me.

New Website

After a long vacation, I'm back with new information about the future of AudioMysteries.com. We are launching a brand new site that will buy and sell used audio books. This site will buy your audio books for cash! www.UsedAudioBookStore.com sells audio books at up to 66% off of the new retail price. You can get an even bigger value break by returning the books for an in-store credit of 50% of your purchase price.