Microsoft India has introduced something similar to Amazon Web Store for Indian bloggers. You can now create your own online web store and sell Microsoft software and games titles without writing any code.
You also get to customize the design of the web store so it looks like an integral part of your own blog. And like Amazon Affiliate program, Microsoft pays a commission for every sale made through the web store.
To set up your own Microsoft online shop, sign up at buyoriginalms.com and select the software titles that you want to display on your store. They’ll provide you a custom URL something like http://yourname.buyoriginalms.com that you can place in an an IFRAME (see example) and your website is ready to accept orders from visitors.
The site is up and running though not as user friendly as you would expect it to be. This may however become an alternate revenue stream for bloggers especially those who blog in the software domain.
There’s another interesting component - Microsoft specifies an an MRP (maximum price) for every software title while individual partners are free sell at any price that is lower than the MRP (by cutting their own profits). Now as a blogger, you get to pick software titles from different Microsoft partners so your web store will always offer the best price.
Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/internet/tools/microsoft-web-store-indian-blogger-sell-office-windows-software/2271/
web: http://www.labnol.org/ email: amit@labnol.org
Reader Comments
I am not that sure that it is a Microsoft backed initiative. See the whois for the domain name. Sure it sells Microsoft products but I strongly suspect that it is just a great idea (like livedocs), not a Microsoft product.
Written by Desire Athow on 02.12.08