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.

Three years ago I had been writing ebooks and looked into the ways to sell ebooks and software online (i.e. digital downloads). Using large online sellers to promote and sell your ebooks is great for gaining some additional sales & traffic but you lose out on collating customer data at the point of sale. Selling from your own site aids this so after reading the positive DLGuard reviews I integrated it into my site.

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 one initialization task that can take some time, depending on your coding skills, is customizing the shopping cart pages to match your website. This could be outsourced (as the scripts can facilitate this) or you could just use the default design.

Where DLGuard really begins to power your ebook business is after a sale is made (and the software has processed the payment with Paypal/Clickbank/etc). It auto-replies to the customer with an email containing the download link to their purchase.

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.

Using DLGuard does not preclude the use of large online ebook retailers. Where it provides value for you is by adding another sales channel for your ebooks along with a wealth of customer data - something that can be used for cross-selling on later publications.

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 product is a set of scripts that cover all the functionality required of a sales management tool. This includes inventory administration, providing on-site purchase links, interfacing with Paypal (and other payment processing companies), etc.

The majority of sales online fall into 3 categories, and DLGuard can handle each. At the simple end of the spectrum it supports individual product sales and multiple product sales. At the complex end, it can handle membership sales whereby customers are signing up to monthly membership costs to specific areas of your websites.

I started using the product in 2007 to good effect selling eBooks online and plug-in software applications (I sell software online for products such as Cubase). I set up the sales links on four websites that all complete the checkout process on a single installation of the product (residing on a separate secure server).

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.

More recently, I have been looking into using the membership sales management on the site for providing a forum on writing plug-in software along with members free software downloads.

In hindsight, I could have opted to use some of the large websites on-line for selling ebooks and software, but I was put off by a couple of factors. First was the commission that I’d have to pay and secondly there is the problem that it is not possible to compile a customer email database during the checkout stage (the third party vendor retains this information).

The sole problem with the product is the 2 domain license limit. In my situation the workaround was to run DLGuard on a single server to handle the checkout and sales from my 4 websites. This did mean the page design for the checkout stage had to be kept neutral rather than matching the color schemes of the 4 sites.

Using DLGuard has completely automated the sales and downloads for my digital products, freeing up my time for writing ebooks and plug-in applications. The sign of a great application like this is that it administers the sales without needing much intervention on my part and still has advanced features like membership site management that could broaden the appeal and potential of my websites.

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

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

Writing ebooks is one of the simplest digital products that just about anyone can create. So long as you have the kernel of an idea for a book and the will to create or source content then it is technically quite an easy process to produce an ebook. This article will step through the technicalities of getting your idea out of the concept stage and into a PDF file.

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.

It is now time for the implementation phase - writing the content of the sections/chapters. Some ebook authors choose to outsource sections of writing (for example, to experts). Start this process early and agree the file formats of the content you wish to receive (so that you may more easily collate the content into one single file).

As you write, or compile the copy received in from other writers, you should safeguard the work by saving versions of your master document to an external drive or some other format. Use the auto-save function available on most processors to periodically save your work as you write.

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.

For added impact, don’t forget that the ebook will probably be read on a monitor/laptop screen/ebook reader so traditional page formats can be toyed with. Some great ebooks have been written with relatively little content but they have added impact through strategic use of images, varying font sizes to emphasize important points and using color to highlight/structure content in a pleasing manner.

Lastly, to create a PDF file you simply export the file (or use ‘Save As’ in Microsoft Word) a copy of the ebook in PDF file format. Other alternates to Word include the Open Office Suite word processor. So, by using little other than a word processor it is possible to create a PDF ebook ready for distribution.

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

Explaining how to write an ebook effectively involves two main actions. Find out what your readers want and then give them what they want. If this sounds like sales & marketing theory then you’d be right. Regular book publishers have known this for centuries and it is the reason behind the proliferation of book genres (crime/romance/drama/etc) which target the needs of the customer.

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.

There are only a lucky few writers who can safely saw they know exactly what their customer wants. Most writers can benefit for a little research to establish the core themes that their readers will hopefully be interested in. Luckily Google have a research tool that can help.

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.

The power of this for an ebook author is that you may enter a phrase relating to the ebook you wish to write (e.g. digital photography) and discover the array of phrases that web users search for relating to this term. In doing so, you could discover niche areas (e.g. wildlife digital photography) which could then form the core theme of your ebook.

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.

Don’t rush this research phase. As the saying goes, an inch is better than a mile in the right direction. Bring together a list of terms and phrases that appear to be popular (according to the tool) and have a close relevance to the subject area you wish to cover in an ebook. Try to focus in on just one phrase that you consider using as the core theme of your ebook. This key concept forms the main thread through your book along which you can introduce related concepts (perhaps using the short list of key phrases from your research to guide sub-concepts).

The single key phrase should also be used in the main title of your ebook. Doing so helps your chances of the book being targeted by your readership based on their search terms, which are after all an insight into their needs. You can use variations of the phrase in the title and reorder the word so that the title reads well.

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

Writing Ebooks, and books in general, is something that doesn’t come easily to everybody. The truth of the matter is that authoring requires hard graft to put in enough hours each day to build up the word count. Keeping the head down working on chapters does have the potential for losing sight of the eBooks’ core goal.

Therefore, treat writing ebooks with the same approach you would create a physical project (e.g. building a wooden chair). With this approach first brainstorm as many ideas as you can, focus in on ideas that interest you and prototype them. Prototyping ebook ideas can be as simple as white-boarding as many ideas as you can, delving deeper into the ones that interest you and coming up with a story line or chapter guide for your book.

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.

Establish the goal of your eBook.

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.

Break down the writing into sizeable chunks.

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.

Planning to use a personal assist to do some research for your book? Intending interview some industry leaders to add some real world insight? Well, then you’ll need to front load booking their time and add this to your list of jobs/schedule.

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.

This completes the planning phase. You now have a list of tasks, with estimated level of effort. Add these to a diary/spreadsheet/calendar to establish what duration your writing project will have. Use any tool to visualize the plan that you are comfortable with - the tool is primarily there to help gain a high level view of the plan. Factor in holiday time and other work commitments. You now start writing, finally!

Work the plan.

As you start to write your eBook, refer back to your planned list of jobs (on the whiteboard/diary/PM software) and track if you are on time or falling behind. Deal with setbacks/changes as they arise and use your contingency if needed.

Report milestones.

To keep your motivation levels up, work to attaining minor milestones when writing eBooks that could include completing chapters, completing research, finishing formatting, etc. The prospect of writing a 300 page eBook is much more daunting than sprinting through a 10 page chapter.

Keep going until all tasks are complete. Congratulate yourself and run a review of your plan.

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 or software and want to sell them yourself? Then read my review of DLGuard review - the one-stop solution for selling digital downloads.

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.

The eBook business is different from the music industry though as eBooks are a result of the software sector rather than the book publishing sector. Consequently, written eBooks have incorporated innovation in DRM from the early days to protect the eBook’s contents.

Previously, software vendors such as Adobe pioneered the PDF format for writing eBooks. Their software can inhibit the functionality of PDF readers. Most notably, a protected PDF can be configured to disallow copying of the eBook text or even disallow printing the file. This is DRM in action.

Most PDF creation applications now have this functionality (for example, Adobe Reader and Microsoft Reader). Microsoft added the options of imprinting PDF files with the purchaser’s meta-data (information) to discourage the customer from sharing their PDF purchase and facilitate hunting 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/).

In parallel with the hardware producers firming up the DRM security, software publishers are also including functionality into their PDF publishing tools to include the ability to disable an eBook remotely if a customer uses fraudulent credit card details or is seeking a refund (two traditional means of obtaining PDFs at no cost). For most authors writing eBooks, protecting their PDFs through simple configuration of PDF creation software is an ideal 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 distribute them online? Read Robert’s DLGuard review and get your software or ebook business online today.

Distributing and selling software online has become increasing popular with the recent rise in popularity of open source software and smart phone applications. An industry has developed to support the ways of distributing these applications online. This guide details the two business models in widespread use today. Each has control, security and cost implications that could either suit or not suit software authors and sway their preferred choice.

Third Party Distributors

This is the most widespread and familiar approach to most people as the prime example in today’s marketplace is Apple’s app store. It is also the model used for distributing other free/open software, shareware and other commercial digital products for PCs and Macs.

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 customers purchase the software, the download link security is managed by the distributor. This entails controlling if the hyper-link for the software has a time limit or if there is a limit on the number of download attempts that can be made.

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 & Distribution Tools

This involves installing a sales and download management application to your server to handle the shopping cart process, download link security, passwords and mailing list capture. There are many open source and commercial available on the web.

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.

The cost of such an approach includes the ticket price on the sales software (though free open source versions are available, and widely used), the commission to the payment processor and the human resource cost of installing and administering the sales software.

To conclude

If you are creating software that could benefit from the network effects of a large company (e.g. developing iPhone Apps) then you should go with the third party vendor/distributor business model. Your commission will be lower but the sales volumes will be higher. As the saying goes, it is better to have a smaller piece of a bigger pie.

If you wish to sell software online and retain control over marketing and customer data then installing your own sales management and distribution software solution will provide the benefits and control you seek.

If you only have one software application to sell, don’t wish to capture purchasers in a mailing list and want zero involvement in the set-up, marketing and sales of your software then using one of the many online vendors would be the option for you.

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

In order to achieve success with his newest e-book project, any writer must think about the business side of things before he starts creating. For finishing a quality ebook is not an easy or uncomplicated job. And assuming that he is not just into writing for the thrill of it, he must carefully take into account different royalty models before he goes on.

The general idea behind the concept of “royalties” is of course that it is a measure of the amount of money you might make from the sales of a certain product. However, when you are evaluating a royalties contract you should also weigh in other factors — factors that could be even more important for you to ponder. Such factors could be, for instance, your ability to end the contract prematurely, or the question of the exact time of the payments.

Here in this article, however, I will limit myself to an account of the total amount of royalties a writer can expect to generate when using different types of royalty deals. For brevity’s sake, I shall only list four royalties models, although there are other types of arrangements as well.

1. Publisher’s “List Price Percentage” Royalties

The first model that is seen at major publishing houses is the “List Price Percentage” model. This is probably the easiest one to calculate, since it only involves two factors: the list price and the author’s percentage. In such a model, the author typically gets between 10 and 20 percent of the e-book list price.

An illustration: An e-book sells for $20 and the contract says that the author will make 15 percent of the list price from the sale of every e-book. So the author can expect to be paid a royalty of $3 per ebook (0.15 x 20).

Big publishing houses such as Random House and Simon & Schuster have previously used this type of arrangement for contracts with ebook authors. Nowadays, however, these and other publishers are moving on to the second model, the “Net Receipts” model.

2. Publisher’s “Net Receipts Percentage” Royalties

Another type of arrangement is the “Net Receipts Percentage” model. Just like the previous one, this model is (or has been) used at many major publishing houses. This model is increasingly popular among publishers, and probably will be even more so in the future. As of now, Macmillan, Random House, and Simon & Schuster are using it.

In this royalties scenario, the net sales of the ebook is the chief number around which the calculation of the royalty amount revolves. The percentage number most frequently used in this type of arrangement is between 10 and 25 percent.

For example, assume that an ebook sells for a list price of $18. Also assume that the publisher arrives at the net sales figure as 60 percent of the net proceeds. If now the author has an arrangement where he gets 15 percent of the net sales, then he would, in this example, look at something like $1.62 per ebook (18 x 0.60 x 0.15).

3. Self-Publisher’s “Flex-Price Net Receipts Percentage” Royalties

The third option would be to publish your ebook all on your own, but nevertheless use one or several retailers and distributors to promote and sell it. For example, you could use distribution channels such as Lulu.com.

Here, the author should receive a certain percent of the net sale of the ebook, and in that way it is pretty similar to the second model. However, with the “Flex-Price Net Receipts Percentage” royalties system, the author’s percentage per book will be noticeably higher.

Another benefit for the author when comparing it to the second model, is that he might get more control over the product development. Not only will he be able to have more power of the editing and design, but he will also, most importantly, be able to set the list price himself.

4. Self-Publisher’s “Full List Price” Royalties

The fourth model is built on the idea that the author not only publishes the book himself, but also markets it himself. So in this particular model there are no external distribution channels or external retailers to worry about.

Even though there may be no distributors or external retailers to be concerned with, the author may here need more technology to set up some kind of e-business solution. Note, however, that the technical aspects of selling products online may not be as overwhelming as many think. Relatively simple-to-integrate payment processing solutions such as PayPal.com work well.

At any rate, the amount of royalties to be projected from this fourth arrangement is fairly easy to estimate, as you will keep all the proceeds for yourself. Naturally, though, depending on the particular solution you are using, you may wish to adjust the figures, in order to properly account for costs related to services such as the site or blog hosting or your payment processing, etc.

Conclusion

It may not be entirely easy to determine which scenario suits you the best. One issue is, for example, how interested you are in marketing. If you are very interested in promoting your own ebook or ebooks online, then royalty scenarios 3 and 4 may very well be good for you.

However, if you are mainly a writer, and not so keen on internet marketing, it might not be a bad idea to aim at the first and second royalty models. The downside with these two models is, unfortunately, that it is not so easy to get published; but if you don’t get lucky, you can always try models three and four as your plan B.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Johnny Jones is currently a contributor to the EbookBrothers.com website, where he shares his thoughts about ebook marketing, and on individual topics such as ebook royalty etc. For a free subscription to the EbookBrothers.com Newsletter (with free tips and articles on how you can succeed with your own e-book marketing), visit Ebook Brothers immediately, before the free offer expires.

When you are building your eBook business funnel do you want to have an inventory of unrelated products? Absolutely not! That is an inventory, not a funnel. The purpose of a funnel is to use it to lead your customers through your marketing process so that they slowly begin to build trust and a relationship with you and your business.

The end goal with everything that you do marketing wise, whether sending out emails, pay per click advertising, social marketing, etc, should focus on moving more customers through your funnel. Like a physical funnel, it gets smaller and smaller as you go through. This is why you want to have a number of lower priced, lower commitment products at the entry point of your funnel. Your higher priced products should be in the middle and your highest price; highest customized products should be at the end.

Do not feel that you have to restrict yourself to a certain product type. For instance, I sell the same product in 3 different formats. I sell it as a physical book, an audio book and an electronic book. I sell it at three separate prices and they all sell well.

An important part of your eBook business funnel is your email newsletter. This is the key to unlocking success in a real online business. The reason why is because your newsletter is your primary method of building rapport and increasing the trust level between you and your customers. Without it, it is difficult, if not impossible to move people through your funnel.

The other thing my marketing funnel does is it eventually allows me a platform of communication for my ultimate mission. My ultimate mission is to proclaim the name of Jesus Christ to everyone that I meet. By teaching families how to create an income from real home business opportunities, this allows them a vehicle for God to be a blessing in their lives. If it also allows me to make money in the process, that is just great as well!