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.
A few years ago I had been writing ebooks and seeking out the best ways of publishing and selling them online. Using the online ebook retailers provides a lot of exposure (and potential sales) but I was concerned about the products marketing on these sites and the inability to capture customer emails during the sale (the retailers hold onto this). Only through selling from your own site can you retain this control so after reading a DLGuard review about its use in software sales online I gave it a try.
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 sole task that may take some time is the optional activity of customizing the checkout pages to blend in with your site. This could be outsourced (the code is scripted with the flexibility to do this) or you could just stick with the defaults.
It really starts to automate your ebook business after a sale is completed (payment processed). DLGuard automatically emails the customer with a unique link to their ebook (residing on your server) for them to download.
Securing this download link is critical to protecting your intellectual property by unscrupulous people sharing the link. DLGuard can be configured to limit the download attempts and set a validity period for the link which will halt a lot of lost sales for your business.
Once the software is setup then it is merely a case of adding new ebooks to its inventory of products each time you wish to sell a new book. The sole point where you need to intervene is when refunds are requested. In this case the DLGuard customer tracking data can be used to refund genuine customers and highlight those who are merely scammers (repeated refund requests from the same individual is a sure sign they are skimming your inventory for their own purposes).
If your site is getting sufficient traffic then it is worth selling from your own website, and DLGuard can ably provide this functionality. If your site receives low traffic volumes then you may be best advised to combine selling from your own site along with putting your ebooks on major online sites (to leverage their traffic in the initial stages).
If you enjoyed reading this DLGuard review, then be sure to visit our website for articles on writing ebooks and software and selling them online