In this DLGuard review the applications ability to automate the distribution of ebooks to buying customers is put to the test. The software is not limited to the ebook business (it can distribute any digital file types) but it is in this sector where it has become most popular.
It is nearly two years since I first looked into using DLGuard within my own site. I was drawn to how this shopping cart/checkout application automated product distribution.
The product consists of a set of scripts that are integrated within your own web server to provide standard checkout pages (with the accompanying promotional coupons and integration with payment processors).
After a sale is verified the application auto-replies to the customer (using the email address captured at checkout) with an email containing a completely unique download link to their ebook PDF. One point to note is that the emails are captured at the time of sale so provide a ready-made mailing list for marketing campaigns as your ebook business expands.
Securing the download link is crucial to stopping the link being shared and your ebooks mass-distributed/mass-downloaded. DLGuard has some great configuration settings to limit this by allowing you to set the links validity period and maximum permitted usage attempts. This is a proven way of securing the link. The link time-out can catch out genuine customers but the software can track this and easily let you reset the link when it occurs.
As entry level sales tools go DLGuard has all the shopping cart functionality you’d expect to see on any similar product. As digital distribution tools are concerned, it requires little in the way of initialization to quickly establish your ebook inventory and once it is running only requires manual intervention for handling refunds and resetting timed out links. If your website has enough traffic then it is an economical way to sell ebooks/other products without incurring the commissions of selling via third party websites.
