Delivery Methods
[private].[/private]There are many, many different ways or “methods” for delivering your digital products. I am going to cover two of the more popular methods and also introduce a few ideas you may choose to use with your next project.
The most important questions you should ask yourself before choosing a digital delivery method are:
- What method will be the best fit for my particular payment processor?
- Is this method going to offer protection from thieves who know how to steal digital products?
There are a lot of great products out there that have been created just for the purpose of addressing these exact issues. At the end of this section, I will include links to the products that I know have only the best reputations.
After you read through this section of PFG, you’ll see that it’s quite easy to setup your product for digital delivery and, if you’re willing to sacrifice security a bit, then you can set it all up by yourself in just minutes! The only drawback to setting up digital delivery on your own is that, unless you’re an experienced programmer, it will be quite easy for unethical people to steal your product…
All that being said, let’s get technical as I describe your many options for delivering your digital products to your paying customers.
Let’s Get Technical – Working With .ZIP Files
.zip files are an easy and convenient way of delivering your digital products. You have most likely worked with .zip files before, but in case you have not ever “zipped” or “unzipped” a file we’re going to cover that right now!
First, you will need a program such as Winzip or Winrar to work with these .zip files. Windows also has a free utility for unzipping files, but I highly suggest using Winzip or Winrar – they are both free downloads.
Visit Download Dot Com and simply do a search for winzip or winrar and you’ll see how to download these two great tools. I and simply do a search for winzip or winrar and you’ll see how to download these two great tools. Personally, I use winrar, but I know both programs are extremely popular and quite easy to get for free.
Once you have installed one of the programs mentioned above, you simply right click any folder or file you wish to “zip” and choose the appropriate option. For example, if you have a .zip file you want to “unzip”, then just right click and choose the extraction option and choose where you’d like to save the unzipped file. It’s not difficult and you can figure it out quite quickly by just getting a little hands on experience with the applications.
Another example, is if you have a folder or file you’d like to “zip” up. You would simply right click the folder or file and, if using Winrar, all you would do is select the “add to archive” option and choose the .zip format. Here is a sample of what the menu would look like and which option you would choose:
The Thank You Page Method (AKA The Download Page Method)
The most common method of delivering a digital product to your customers is known as the “thank you page” method. The way this works is quite simple in theory and seems to be the preferred method for new marketers since implementation takes only minutes.
Once your product is created, all you have to do to take advantage of the “thank you page” method is redirect your buyers to a separate page known as a thank you page after their order and payment have both been completed. This method is used with several major payment processors and merchants such as Clickbank, PayPal, and more!
eBay even has a digital delivery option for digital product sellers that uses the “thank you page” method.
If you are selling your digital products via Clickbank, you can follow through the Clickbank setup instructions and simply enter your thank you page URL into your account settings. If you are using PayPal it is a little trickier and requires a bit more manual labor as you setup your payment button, but either way the concept is the same.
Here’s the way the process will work for your customer:
Step 1.) Customer reads your sales page and decides to purchase your offer.
Step 2.) Customer is redirected to payment screen (could be on your site or taken care of by your payment processor depending on which one you decide to use) and submits their payment
Step 3.) Customer is returned to the thank you page on your site where they will be provided with download instructions and a method of actually retrieving/receiving the product they ordered.
Advantages…
- Some of the advantages of the thank you page option are that after the sale you can encourage your customers to sign up for a “customers only” opt-in list by telling them they need to “register” their product or “sign up for important updates and news” regarding their purchase. The great thing about having a separate customers list from the opt-in list you build from publicly accessible pages on your site is that you will now have a list of BUYERS, or in other words, people who you already know are comfortable buying from you and are willing to spend money on digital products.
- Lists of buyers are always the most responsive and not to mention the most profitable type of list you can possibly have!
- Another great thing about the “thank you page” method is that you can also put affiliate offers or advertisements for your other products right on the thank you page.
Disadvantages…
Redirecting customers directly to your own thank you page right after the sale is easy to implement yet very insecure. Anyone who is remotely familiar with how websites are setup and run can easily find your thank you page by simply doing advanced searches on Google. For example, by going to Google you can enter in:
Google will return every page that is known to be on the site INCLUDING your thank you page! While that is just one very basic example of how someone can bypass your checkout and access your product, there are dozens of other more advanced ways to do just this.
Most potential customers will not waste their time trying to figure out a way to steal your product. I have heard the argument that it’s more productive to spend your time figuring out how to increase sales rather than spending your time trying to prevent people from stealing what you’ve got! I agree with that argument.
However, it’s not good business to make it easy for people to steal from you. By using one of these other options I’m about to mention below or securing your thank you page, you will be able to sleep easier knowing that you at least took some positive action towards safeguarding your hard work.
Third Party Delivery Method Options
Let me start off by saying that I have never used a third party option for digital delivery. I usually use a script hosted on my site or implement some sort of protection on my own thank you page. If you’d like to use a third party to manage your digital delivery, it’s a great choice because you protect your downloads from thieves and do not have to worry about eating up bandwidth or anything along those lines.
Here are a few other delivery methods that come highly recommended from digital product retailers whom I’ve worked with over the past few years:
In addition to these third party companies who will help you protect and manage your digital products, there are also a few great “scripts” out there that you can add to your website that will let you protect your digital goods from these internet bandits:
Highly Recommended: DL Guard by Sam Stephens
I have personally spoken with Sam several times regarding DL Guard on a popular forum we both frequent. I know Sam provides top notch support for DL Guard and frequently updates the script to make sure it meets all of the latest security requirements.
I hope after reading this section you have the knowledge needed to prepare your digital product for delivery to your customers!
