"How To Set Up Your E-Book Web Site"
Copyright © 2001 Milana Nastetskaya
milana@firstbusinesswebsite.com
WORD COUNT: 1015
WRAP: 65 characters
PUBLISHING: May be published free
of charge with
the resource box intact. Would love
to know if you
do publish.
ARTICLE BEGINS HERE
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So you have written an e-book. The hardest part is over.
Now it's time to start making money with it. How do you do it?
This article will teach you the mechanics
of selling an e-book,
step by step.
1. Web Site
First, you need a web site.
To find out how to set up your
very own web site, read this free
book called "The Absolute
Beginner's Guide To Starting a Web
Site" at
http://www.firstbusinesswebsite.com/Guide.html
2. Credit Card Payments
You need to figure out a way to accept
payments online -
after all, it's an e-book and when
people are ready to order
it, they want a fast and easy way
to do so. The easiest and
most cost-efficient way to accept
credit card payments is
through a third-party processing
company such as
ClickBank.com, iBill.com, and OrderButton.com.
All you do is sign up with one of
these companies, set up
your preferences such as the price
of your e-book, web address
of your "thank you" page where your
customers can download it,
and how you would like to be paid
for your sales.
Most companies send you a check every
two weeks, though some
may give you an option of direct
bank deposit.
3. Uploading E-Book
Now you need to put your e-book on
your web site. You
upload it the same way you upload
any other file - via
an FTP program such as WS_FTP
or CuteFTP. Once it's
on your web server, you have to
link to it from your "thank you"
page so customers could download
it.
Linking to an e-book is the same
as linking to any web
page. You simply specify where
your e-book is located (URL),
as shown below:
<A HREF="http://www.helpingfoot.com/ebooks/profitsbook.exe">
Click To Download
Book</a>
This code will produce the following link:
The above example shows the location
of an executable file.
When your customers click on it,
they will be asked where
they would like to save it on their
computer.
If your book was created as a PDF
file, you might want to
tell your customers to right-click
on the e-book link and
choose "Save Target As" (MAC users
can simply drag the link
on their desktop). This will
allow the book to be downloaded
instead of online viewing, which
can be quite slow.
4. Protect & Deliver E-Book
One of the biggest e-book authors'
concerns is protecting
their books from public downloads.
You put so much work and
time into creating it, that you
really want it to be profitable.
You don't want it to be downloaded
by hundreds of not-paid
users.
You must password-protect your e-book
which can be done
in many different ways. Let's
look at the most common ways
of protecting your e-book.
a)
One password protection. This is done via your hosting
company control panel (my host,
Pair.com, offers an
incredibly easy interface for setting
up a password) to
protect the files or the directories
you want.
You can also install a CGI script
that will allow you to do it
from your web browser. See the link
below for free
password-protection scripts:
http://cgi.resourceindex.com/Programs_and_Scripts/Perl/Password_Protection
If you have never installed a CGI
script before, then you might
greatly benefit from a "How To Install
and Troubleshoot CGI Scripts"
tutorial at http://www.installcgi.com.
The above method is quite secure,
but there are still some
pitfalls. For example, a customer
who purchased your e-book
can send the location of your "thank
you" page with the
username and password on it to 20
of his friends.
You might want to manually change
the URL of your "thank
you" page and the password on it
every 7-14 days, for better
protection. In fact, some
people prefer manual changes to
automatic set up because it gives
a much better control over it.
The protection methods outlined below
make an attempt to
create better and more automated
security for your
info-product.
b)
Multiple-User Protection. If you
would like to allow each
customer to have their own password,
then this is the method
you should use. Again, you
can do it through your host's
account control panel if available,
or install a CGI script
to manage users and passwords.
At the link below you can
find a great wealth of such scripts,
free or fee:
http://cgi.resourceindex.com/Programs_and_Scripts/Perl/Password_Protection
c)
Armadillo software protects EXE files. It is a powerful
license manager and software protection
system. It can
generate keys for you, just like
those you see on Microsoft
CD-ROM disks.
http://www.siliconrealms.com/armadillo.htm
d)
Account Manager Lite will automate the multiple-user
protection and user approval. Each
person will have their
own login information, and you will
be able to track the
number of downloads made from each
account. There are
many more excellent features in
this program that will
help you automate some time-consuming
tasks.
http://www.cgiscriptcenter.com/acctlite
e)
Activ E-Book Compiler can be used to create limited and
full editions of your e-book.
It allows your customers
to download your e-book before making
a purchase. If they
like it, they can order a full version
from you. You will
then send them a key that "unlocks"
the complete features
of your e-book. I was very
impressed by the number of
useful features this software offers.
This program
creates EXE files which can only
be viewed on a
Windows system computers.
http://www.ebookcompiler.com
- !!!
f)
DigiBuy allows you to set up a small web site and sell
downloadable software and e-books.
They create a temporary
URL for each customer. This
URL will disappear after 24 or
48 hours to keep people from sharing
the URL with others.
DigiBuy also handles the entire
transaction and sends you
a check each month. This is
the safest and most convenient
way of selling digital products,
in my opinion.
http://www.digibuy.com
Remember, whatever protection method
you choose, make
sure your customers can easily access
and download your
e-book. Sometimes people get
so obsessed with securing
their product that their customers
have to jump through
hoops to get to it - not good for
somebody who just
sent you their credit card number.
So, now that your web site is set
up, online payment system
is in place, and your book is in
a safe location, it's time
to start spreading the word about
it.
But that's another article :-)
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Milana Nastetskaya is a full time
web and the author of
two books: "Create Your First Busines
Web Site in 10
days" and "65 Instant Web Design
Answers".
http://www.firstbusinesswebsite.com
http://www.instantwebanswers.com
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