The DLGuard shopping cart/checkout application has been helping web-based entrepreneurs for several years to integrate a secure checkout system into their own websites. This DLGuard review focuses on the products use in running the sales administration & digital downloads of an ebook business.

Back in 2008 I was writing ebooks and looking for an independent way of selling ebooks online. From my experience, using the large online sites results in the loss of control over the products marketing and a lost opportunity to capture customer data at the point of sale (essential for cross-selling and mailing lists). So I tried DLGuard.

DLGuard is a set of scripts that provide all the web pages and back-end logic for setting up a shopping cart on your own website. Installation was relatively simple and configuring your inventory of ebooks for download is quickly done.

The application is written with customization in mind so that the pages can be altered to match your site’s web design. If your coding skills are not up to scratch then this can be easily farmed out to a web developer or simply go with the default page design.

DLGuard really begins to shine after a sale is made – especially for automating your ebook business. It automatically emails customers with a link to their purchased ebook that is secure, traceable and unique.

This download link is the critical failure point in ebook publishing as it is essential to keep this link secure to avoid it being shared and your ebooks being downloaded my multiple individuals. What DLGuard provides is the ability to configure the links validity period (how long it stays active/alive) and its maximum download attempts. This curtails the huge bulk of hacks that can occur.

So once the page customization is complete, inventory established and hooks to the cart added to your site there is very little maintenance required with DLGuard. If someone requests a refund then it is a simple task to query the products tracking data and reimburse the customer.

DLGuard is a great shopping cart with all the standard features you could hope for and is certainly perfectly suited for starting an ebook business, large or small. Many users will combine it with selling via a large online ebook retailer to get some extra sales and exposure as the two are not mutually exclusive – rather they should be seen as complementary sales channels.

If you enjoyed this DLGuard product review, then be sure to check out our site for articles on writing ebooks and software and selling them online

The DLGuard set of scripts allow anybody with their own web server to sell digital products over the internet through providing secure download links after administering the checkout and handling payment processing of sales. This DLGuard review principally highlights the products use in selling ebooks online, but the product can handle any digital file type that can be uploaded.

The application is primarily a PHP script with functionality to protect on-line sales. The script covers a multi or single step checkout process, handling the secure payment processing with the majority of the large providers and also inventory administration.

The checkout phase in DLGuard is able to handle a number of possible sales types. The simplest sales type is the sale of a single product or item. If your ebook business follows a publisher style business model then the application facilitates customers with a shopping basket to store items before checkout. Lastly selling website memberships (monthly sales) can also be managed. If you have free downloads then you could also use the single-item sales approach (omitting the payment step) in order to capture customer email addresse.

My initial use of the product was intended purely for selling ebooks online on four separate websites. I have also used it for providing free download links to small software applications. Note that the product license has a two domain usage limit so the initial configuration I used had DLGuard installed on one server which handled the checkout stage for all four sites.

Installing the product took less than a half hour to complete. Setting up my inventory of files to make available for download took a little longer. As did adding buy now hyperlinks to 4 of my sites. Within a few days DLGuard was already fully managing the checkout process, dealing with Paypal and sending customers their download links.

The functionality that comes with DLGuard is impressive and is flexible enough to facilitate advanced users. In particular, the membership sales functionality is something that I will look into using this year. Any forum posts on the web indicate that maintaining membership subscribers is a good way of creating a steady cash flow from your websites.

Originally I looked into selling ebooks through one of the large on-line distributors. My objection to this was that I not be able to create my own customer sign-up lists during the checkout process. Having to pay a sales commission also made the deal a little one sided.

From my analysis, the one constraint using the product is the 2 web domain license limit. This states that the product can only be installed on 2 servers from the one product purchase. In truth though, any sales made will pay for a license quickly enough as the product is quite competitively priced.

In summary, DLGuard ticks all the boxes for the functionality most users would require from a download sales management tool. Its ease of installation and use means I can spend less time administering my websites and more time writing ebooks. The addition of the membership sales feature is one web trend that is definitely worth further investigation.

Writing ebooks and want to sell them yourself? Then read my DLGuard review – the one-stop solution for selling digital downloads.

categories: writing ebooks,ebook business,selling ebooks,dlguard,ecommerce,software,ebooks,internet,small business,product review,publishing,sales

These days, anyone can publish and sell ebooks online quite simply so long as they have a great concept that they can effectively convey to the reader. This article clears away an mystery that may exist about how to get from the germ of an idea to a PDF ebook.

There is nothing worse than a rambling book that doesn’t maintain direction so step 1 has got to be establishing the fundamental objective of your book. Jot down your rough concepts on paper or any format on your computer – really anything that is quick to compile.

As the book’s concept takes form start to design the structure that the book is to take including the chapters/sections that should be covered. Delve down into this into sub-sections if desired. Restructuring the book is often easier at this point than after content has been written so take your time and achieve the structure that flows well for you.

Depending on the type of book you are writing you may intend farming out some of the writing, possibly to researchers or experts in the chosen field. Contact these other writers once the book structure is set and start commissioning their work in a file format of your choice. If you are writing the content yourself then pick your favorite word processor (Open Office/Microsoft Word/etc) and start writing the chapters.

On the subject of formats, most word processors can save or export files to alternate file formats so don’t get hung up on being restricted to one. As you write/compile the content then make regular copies of your work that should be versioned and additional copies stored on disks/thumb-drives for safe-keeping.

Decide upon the look and feel of the ebook. You could pay a graphic designer to create a template (of the header, footers, fonts, etc) or choose one of the freely available templates from the internet. This may be overkill if your ebook is purely textual, in which case a simple format and font will complement the content.

In design, realize that ebooks are read on-screen traditionally with few if any people printing out the book to read. For this reason your page design can be a little more individual. Also, the digital format permits the use of hyper links in the file so make sure to include hyper-links to your blog/website/email address along with any additional content you wish to direct people too.

All that is left to do is to use your word processor to export the file in PDF format (Microsoft Word users can use the ‘Save As PDF’ option). Ask some colleagues to proof read your book and once the final fixes are made then the ebook is ready for publishing on-line.

Writing your own ebooks or software and want to sell them yourself? Then read my DLGuard review online – the one-stop solution for selling digital downloads.

Writing can generally be a fluid creative process but it is easy for this process to spiral off track and out of control. It is fine to allow creative license but this should be contained within the overall process and overall goal of the eBook you are writing.

It is far easier to treat your eBook business like creating a tangible product (such as a car). In doing so, the ‘product’ should have an early prototyping phase where ideas, ideation (the creation of more ideas) and innovation (the commercializing of inventions) can be nurtured. Prototyping eBook ideas can include activities such as creating mind-maps, drawing up story line arcs, writing rough drawing storyboards (high level chapters or stages of your book), etc.

Once you have focused in on core ideas for your book it is time to move on to the implementation phase – writing your ebook. The following goal-oriented stages define a project plan for how to write an ebook to schedule while never losing sight of the book’s goal.

Define the books goal/objective.

Set the goal or goals for your book. Don’t try to muddy the waters with a multitude of goals. Think of any of your favourite books and they probably have a small amount of objectives and one central goal.

Specify all the tasks involved in writing the book.

Starting with the chapters to complete is a good starting point. Add in tasks for design, proof-reading, research, interviews, etc. Define rough estimates for how much effort each will take (down to a minimum of a half-day). If a task takes over 5 days then split it into smaller chunks (it is easier to track this way).

Highlight those jobs that require external help; source and schedule their time early on.

Using external researchers, book designers and arranging/completing interviews for your book all take time and are dependent on other people’s (busy) schedules. Contact these people early on and get this work progressing ahead of time.

Sum up the level of effort and add in contingency time.

Add an extra ten to twenty percent to the overall duration of your project for those unforeseen things which may arise. The percentage will vary and only experience can guide the individual into knowing their own contingency level.

So by this point, you have all the tasks and some idea of how long they will take. Next you wish to schedule these out in your diary, wall calendar, spread sheet or project plan (e.g. using MS Project). What method you use is up to you. The very action of planning what work gets done, on which days, lets you visualize the volume of work and how each day’s work incrementally progresses the books completion.

Keep on top of things as you implement your plan so that you always know if you are on track.

Writing ebooks involves the daily graft of putting in the work producing X words per day. Revert back to your plan each evening to establish how the day went, any contingency that was used up, unforeseen issues that arose and the plan for the following day.

Report milestones.

Any project plan should have natural minor and major milestones. These can be chapters/sections/paragraphs. Work each day with a goal of the next milestone to keep motivation levels up. It is easier to think of only have 1,000 words to an end of chapter milestone, rather than the ominous prospect of 20,000 words to the end of the book. Track these milestones in a simple report/document.

Pat yourself on the back for a job well done. Last thing to do is a post-mortem.

You’re done! Now you have completed your plan, take a look back at what was done right/wrong and how accurate your estimates were. Note down items you had not planned for which affected your time-lines (delays with research/other work commitments/etc.) so that your next eBook will have more predictable time-lines of delivery. Gauge what direction your own eBook business is taking and if there are smarter ways of creating your content.

Writing ebooks and want to sell them yourself? Then read my DLGuard review – the one-stop solution for selling digital downloads.

Knowing how to write an ebook that customers will wish to purchase involves using the age old marketing maxim of finding out what they want, then giving them what they want. This applies just as much for authoring ebooks as it does to the traditional book publishing industry.

To sell ebooks online the ebook author should take on board this marketing approach and effectively research the core theme of their book prior to sitting down and writing a single word. This article details one effective approach to research using the internet.

Google have made a freely available on-line tool that any author can use in their research to help garner some insights into the key themes that their audience are searching for on-line and/or writing about on websites.

The Google Adwords Keyword Tool is able to collate information from Google’s indexes of the vast array of websites on the internet (find it by running a web search for the tool name). The tool allows you to enter either (a) words or phrases or (b) a website URL, and returns results of key words that users search for relating to this phrase/website.

For anyone authoring an ebook it should be apparent from the results it returns that this tool can give you an insight into people’s needs. If a large number of people are searching for a specific phrase then this informs you that (a) there is a market and (b) what specific sub-areas of a subject people are interested in. The results often show popular searches for sub-areas you may not have considered writing about (e.g. ‘taking better holiday pictures’).

If your book is going to target a specific group of people (for example, amateur photographers) then you could use the tool to enter a website URL for a web forum. Doing this provides a profile of the forum showing key terms that are regularly used. For example, the term ‘photography lighting’ might appear popular in the tool results, so if this is something which you feel that you are an authority on then it would make an ideal ebook concept.

Spend some time researching the phrases and websites of subject area you wish to cover and build up a short list of words/phrases that appear popular. Choose one phrase (or two maximum) that you believe you could happily write a good ebook about. This keyword dictates two elements of your ebook. The first obvious point is that the phrase has got to become the main theme of your ebook. You can introduce related themes but avoid at all costs using unrelated areas (this will irritate readers causing possible refund requests and discourage loyalty sales on future books).

Lastly the phrase should be incorporated in some manner into the title of your ebook. This improves the book’s chances of being found in web searches relating to the phrase. Use the exact phrase if possible (i.e. if it reads well) or embellish it so that it attracts in readers. For example, the photographic term used earlier could be incorporated into a title such as ‘Photography Lighting – From Beginner to Expert’.

Want to securely automate how you sell your ebooks online? Then check out my review of DLGuard – digital sales & download management software – at http://www.sellebooksandsoftwareonline.com/ebookbusiness-writingebooks-and-sellingebooksonline-using-dlguardreview

Digital Rights Management (DRM) is one area of publishing and the eBook business that should be of particular interest to any author who wishes to protect their written work when using digital formats.

DRM relates to protecting creative output in digital media formats (CDs, DVDs, eBooks, etc.). DRM technology attempts to stop your written eBook being resold or duplicated without your permission. The music industry was slow to react in protecting their music in digital formats, meaning tunes were widely available on the net without the music publishers profiting.

In the case of the eBook business, rights management was built in from the early days of computer engineering as eBooks are a product of the computing industry, rather than having started out of the regular hard-copy book publishing industry. This key differentiator means eBooks have used technological innovation from an early stage to protect the text and content of eBooks.

Historically, it has been software producers such as Adobe who pioneered the PDF file format for writing eBooks. Their software can be configured to constrain/restrict certain functionality of PDF readers. You may have seen this before where you receive a PDF book but are perhaps unable to copy/paste any of the text. It is possible to even restrict the user from printing out hard-copies of the document. This is DRM in action.

Most PDF file creation software now has this functionality (e.g. Adobe Reader and Microsoft Reader). Microsoft went a little further by stamping PDF files with the purchaser’s information in order to facilitate tracking down file sharers.

What does the future hold for DRM? Perhaps the future is already here! Devices such as the Kindle Reader can communicate back to servers if eBooks are being illegally shared. It is then up to the publishers/vendors (e.g. Amazon) to decide what to do. Could they remove the PDF? Yes, apparently, as detailed in one recent case (2009), Amazon remotely removed PDFs from customers’ Kindle Readers (http://mashable.com/2009/07/17/amazon-kindle-1984/).

And it now seems that even software houses are putting similar functionality into their PDF creation/publishing applications including password protection on PDF files combined with the ability to disable the eBook from a remote computer in the event that a customer has provided a false credit-card or is seeking a refund. For a lot of authors writing eBooks, protecting their PDFs through a simple configuration of their publishing software is an optimum solution.

These developments in the eBook business may be too late arriving for the millions of written eBooks that are already available online (these still have copyright protection on their intellectual content; Just no technological means to protect them). Future developments in PDF copy protection should make it even more practical for authors to start writing eBooks and begin profiting from selling eBooks online.

Writing ebooks or software and want to sell them yourself? Read Robert’s DLGuard review and get your software or ebook business running online today.

With the increasing popularity of bespoke applications online for computers/phones/etc., there has been a stream of different ways to distribute your software to the masses. Here is a quick guide to the two main options out there along with the pros and cons of each. Understanding the two business models has implications regarding security, control, and cost that either will or will not suit each individual software publisher.

Third Party Vendors/Distributors

This is a scenario that should be familiar to most people who have seen online sites listing thousands of applications (freeware/shareware/commercial purchase).

In this business model, the creator of the software uploads their software to the distributor’s site for them to take control of promotion and sales of the product in return for a commission on each sale. Most iPhone application developers like this approach as they can leverage the Apple brand and sales pipeline. Developers of other software (e.g. for PCs/Macs/etc.) may wish to be less dependent on a single distributor and seek out multiple sales channels to spread the sales potential and reduce the risk of a single distributor failing to market/sell their product adequately.

The distributor manages the full shopping experience online (including the shopping cart and payment processing) which some software owners will be happy not to administer in spite of not being in command of the marketing of their product on the distributor’s site.

When a customer buys the software, the download link security is controlled by the distributor to the extent that the link can have a time limit placed on it along with restrictions on the number of download attempts that are possible.

Given that the software creator has no access to the purchaser’s details they cannot build up a listing of customers for future reference. This could affect you if you plan to publish multiple applications and want to benefit from loyal customers.

Sales/Download Management And Distribution Software

This approach provides a more independent approach that will suit many software creators. In this scenario, the software creator installs the software to manage sales and downloads on their own server. This lets them administer their own online shopping cart, secure download links and mailing list data. There are many open source and commercial available that can provide this functionality.

As the software publisher, you retain access to the customer mailing lists and can control how long the download links are to be available for.

After the cost of the sales application, your only cost on each software sale is the commission to the payment processor (e.g. Paypal), and the only operational overhead is the installation and ongoing administration of the sales tool.

In Conclusion

If you are developing applications for which you wish to tie in with the network effects of a large corporation (e.g. developing iPhone Apps) then leverage the third party vendor. You could try going it alone but you will be competing against the advertising and marketing strength of a huge organization.

If you sell software online and want to keep control of the product’s marketing and customer base data then setting up your own sales management and distribution solution will give you the control you seek.

If you have only a single application to sell and want no involvement in the sales and marketing of your digital product then using an online vendor/distributor would be the wisest option for you.

Writing ebooks or software and want to sell them online? Read Tony’s DLGuard review and get started in software or ebook ecommerce today.