According to the blog post, there are only a few steps necessary to get up-and-running with Google Checkout on your site, a process they claim will only take "a matter of minutes." (That may depend on how much inventory you sell, however.)

After signing up for your Google Checkout Seller Account the next step is to list the products you want to sell in a Google Docs spreadsheet. The process couldn't be easier. Google provides you with a copy of their template spreadsheet. When you click the link, you're prompted to click on another link reading: "Yes, make a copy." Doing so copies the template file over to your own Google Docs account where you'll see a basic spreadsheet that features columns for title, content, price, quantity, shipping, image_link, option, and option_name. So you'll know what those fields are used for, the spreadsheet also includes some example inventory entries. When you're finished listing your inventory, you simply publish the spreadsheet as a web page.

The final step is to pick the embed location, a list which allows you to choose between a normal HTML web site or one of the following Google-owned properties: Google Sites, Blogger, or iGoogle. Then you choose the size of your gadget and make a couple of changes to the code, one of which is pasting in the URL to your own Google Docs spreadsheet.

The Checkout Gadget is still a Google Labs project, meaning (in theory) that it's still in the experimental phase. Of course, with Google, the same company that left Gmail in beta until just this year, it's hard to know exactly how "experimental" the gadget really is at this point.

Google Checkout Gadget is "Good Enough"

At the end of the day, PayPal may offer more options for configuring web site buttons as they allow you to configure shipping by weight, various tax calculations, and a customized button appearance among other things. Still, Google Checkout is doing what Google knows best how to do: provide a simple, easy-to-use service to attract the set of users looking for "good enough" (but not the best). As with many of their other services - like Google Docs and Google Sites, for example - Google's offerings may not be the absolute best in their field, but they're good enough for most users. For example, with Google Docs: to date, Microsoft Office still has more features than Docs and Zoho is by far a more robust online suite, but Docs is straightforward and simple. The same can be said for the new Checkout gadget. It may not be the best, but for small business sellers who don't need complicated setups, the gadget will likely be a good fit.

One of eBay's first partners to release a Selling Manager application - and a good example of the possibilities this platform provides - is UPS. Their WorldShip shipping software will be integrated directly within the eBay Selling Manager so sellers can manage shipments without having to leave eBay to do so. Other applications available at launch time include those from ecommerce developers Terapeak, HostedSupport, ahTEXT.com and Cloud Conversion.

Ebay's developer community, which includes some 87,000 members who have created over 13,500 applications, have been itching for a way to get better access to the 270,000 subscribers of eBay's Selling Manager service, an extra and formerly paid-access only area of eBay which many small-to-medium business sellers use. Now they can.

Why formerly paid? It seems that eBay wants to encourage sellers to check out these new offerings available within Selling Manager, so they're making the service free of charge. This is a win-win for all. Developers get greater access to sellers and sellers get access to better tools from the developers. 

The new Applications platform was built using theOpenSocial gadgets specification. Developers join the beta and begin developing their own apps by visiting http://developer.ebay.com/products/selling-manager-applications.

Affordable Film Distribution On Any Site, Any Social Network

MeDeploy is a new digital media distribution platform that just launched last week at DEMO. With this solution in place, any filmmaker, whether a big Hollywood studio or small indie artist, can get access to all the tools needed to manage and distribute their content to any web site, social network, or mobile device. The platform offers features like media transcoding, content management, media storage, delivery, anti-piracy tools, and secure credit card processing. Films can be sold as digital rentals, download-to-own videos, or video-on-demand sales.

Instead of offering pre-made templates or store-widgets, MeDeploy offers a white label solution for sales, marketing, and distribution on any web site anywhere on the web. It provides the necessary tools for doing so in the form of widgetized bits of code. These aren't just simple "blog widgets" functioning as ads, either. The site provides cut-and-paste code for several different types of functions from "add to cart" to "watch trailer" to something called a "balloon widget," which pops up additional info about a title when you hover your mouse over an item, like an image for example.

A Balloon Widget In Action:

The code samples can be pasted into any web site, blog, or social network, including Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Imeem, and other networks on the OpenSocial platform.

Why This Matters

Although some filmmakers may be technical, they shouldn't have to be advanced web developers in order to market their movies on their own sites or social network pages. (Of course, if they are technical, the developer API and documentation are available). By offering a white label solution, customers don't have to leave their current location in order to buy or view the films - the media can come to them instead, no matter which site or social network they're on at the time.

A Social Network Widget for Brain Damage Films

Who knows how many indie films are sitting out there unseen and unknown simply because the filmmakers can't afford to market them. Similar to how blogging CMS platforms leveled the playing field for online publishing, tools like this one from MeDeploy can do the same for filmmakers.

Pricing

Prior to MeDeploy, the only options for distributing paid video content like movie downloads were very expensive enterprise digital solutions that only large studios and TV networks could afford.

MeDeploy's Dashboard

Although MeDeploy was designed to help the indie filmmaker, that's not to say that it can't cater to the large studios, too. The company offers two pricing tiers: MeDeploy Indie ($19.95/mo) and MeDeploy Professional ($199.95/mo). With the Indie account, a filmmaker has everything needed to get started with online distribution. When their catalog and distribution needs change, they can then upgrade to Professional, which is a more customizable and scalable solution ideal for larger distributors, studios, and broadcast networks.

Any filmmakers out there who want to test the waters prior to signing up can get started with a free 30-day trial: just visit www.medeploy.com.

For more information, check out their presentation from DEMO, embedded below:

One thing many sellers are doing, is sticking with eBay. Rather than change horses mid-stream, some sellers are transitioning their auction businesses to the fixed-price model that is now favored by the ecommerce giant. Others are listing their wares at eBay's cross-town (on the web, anyway) rival Amazon.

Online Craft Fairs

New York based Etsy is part of a new breed of online marketplace startups targeted specifically at the needs of independent artists and crafts makers. With more and more people pledging to buy handmade goods, marketplaces like Etsy are taking center stage and becoming important hubs for small merchants. We've even wondered if Etsy might be the next eBay. Be sure to check our lists of Etsy alternatives here and here, as well.

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Classifieds

Craigslist has been accused by some of single handedly sinking the entire newspaper business by doing for classifieds what eBay did for auctions in the 90s -- putting them online and making them dead simple and accessible. Craigslist started as a local events email list for San Francisco in 1995 and has grown to an online classifieds powerhouse serving more than 500 cities in over 50 countries across the world. 40 million people visit Craigslist each month, generating more than 10 billion page views, according to the company. It's no wonder that an ad on Craigslist is an extremely effective way to generate sales, especially in large local markets.

Online Informercial

If you're like me -- and that would be a bummer for you -- you're often awake at 4am. If you happen to flick on the TV, you'll quickly notice that in the wee hours of morning, the airwaves are dominated by a certain variety of program: infomercials. Most of the time, it's hard to wonder how anyone could be suckered into ordering stuff peddled by late night hucksters. But infomercials have inundated the television airwaves since the 1970s, so they must work. Could they also work on the Internet? One company thinks so. Talk Market lets anyone host their own video sales channel on the web. Amazon thinks enough of the idea to have invested in it.

Social Networks

Yes, it doesn't seem that any of the big social networks have yet figured out how to monetize all that traffic. Facebook gave up on Beacon, and MySpace isn't living up to Google's expectations, but that doesn't mean you can't try to sell to your friends, family, and fans via social networks. Buy.com thinks they have the best way, with their Garage Sale application for Facebook. The best part of this option, though, may be the irony of their intro video which calls eBay a "thing of the past" -- apparently Buy.com's top brass didn't get the memo... they closed a huge product listing deal with eBay last month.

Your Own Storefront

Sellers with an adventurous spirit may opt to set up their own storefront. There are a number of free or open source projects, such as osCommerce, that can be used to power an online shop. There are also all inclusive small business hosting solutions, such as Yahoo! Merchant Solutions, that can get sellers up and running with their own stores with a lot less headache. We like Shopify, an all in one hosted ecommerce suite that has become one of the showcase apps for Ruby on Rails (don't worry -- we've never heard of anyone having trouble scaling their store on the service).

How else do you sell online? Let us know in the comments.