This DLGuard review covers how this shopping cart software can administer download sales in an ebook business. The product is not limited to sales & distribution of PDF format files as it can handle any digital file format that can be transmitted over the internet.
After writing some ebooks in 2007 I was searching for shopping cart software to look after sales and distribution (by email). DLGuard was recommended to me by a colleague who was using it to sell software online.
The DLGuard scripts can be installed into most web servers and instantly provide the web pages for a shopping cart and checkout process. These can be configured easily to match your site design. Next step is to add your ebooks to the inventory database and ‘buy-now’ links on your web site pages.
The checkout has the standard features you’d expect (managing multiple products, promo money-off coupons, etc) and the back-end processing is capable of verifying payment with Paypal, Worldpay and several other processors.
The power of the product, for me, was the automation behind sending customers the email with the download link for their purchase. You can customize the email template and, crucially, DLGuard secures the download hyperlink by putting a cap on download attempts and providing a time-out period after which the link is deactivated. This is key to protecting your ebook business from illegal sharing of the link and subsequent file downloads.
After the initial set-up and customization DLGuard runs on auto-pilot for you, handling sales and distribution. If customers request refunds, or don’t use the download link in the allotted time, then the products reporting and tracking data lets you analyze is any misuse of links occurred.
If maintaining control of ebooks sales and capturing customer data (for cross selling) is paramount to you then DLGuard is a secure & simple way of distributing your digital downloads that leaves you plenty of time to market the products.
