2) Add A Product To Your Inventory

 

Go to the Inventory Manager, and enter a product id.  Make one up that suits you, such as ebook_0001 or software_v1 - whatever you feel comfortable with.  You can only use that number once, it must be unique.

Next type in a product name that your customers will see in the email that SmartDD sends them.  This also has to be unique.

Finally you need to enter the location of the file or web page.  You will need to make sure you've already placed the file there in advance, usually by using your FTP program.  I recommend using FileZilla (Windows only) which is free.  Alternatively, if you use FireFox, you could try out FireFTP which runs within a FireFox tab.

There are three kinds of location you can enter into this box and SmartDD will handle them all automatically.

The first kind is a URL to the download location of the file and is the simplest method. This is an unsecure method as it's just delivered directly to the customer, and they can share the link.  It would look something like this:-

http://www.vmanual.com/downloads/10ways_in_10_days.zip

This has been included because there are times when you may *want* people to share the link, for instance with a viral ebook that you want passed around with your affiliate links in.

The second kind of location is also a URL, but this time it may be to a web page you've created with a static link.  Again this is unsecure for the same reason as above.  It would look something like this:-

http://www.vmanual.com/pages/10ways_in_10_days.html

The benefit of this is that you can use the web page to promote other items which you own or have resell rights to, or you may be promoting someone elses products in return for a commission.

The third kind of location is what triggers SmartDD to use protected download links. This isn't a URL, but is a filesystem path on your server.

Here's an example of a filesystem path on a Linux web server running cPanel:-

/home/vmanual/public_html/downloads/10ways_in_10_days.zip

Without going into too much details of how the Linux filesystem works, it's similar to the Windows filesystem, but instead of drives such as C: D: etc., Linux uses /home /etc /usr /local and so on, but it's exactly the same principle.

So in the example above, there's an account on the server called vmanual and the website is stored in public_html - maybe you're familar with this already if you use cPanel.  If not, then you might see the website as httpdocs or www or something like that, so your filesystem path might look like:-

/home/vmanual/www/downloads/10ways_in_10_days.zip

SmartDD works out what your base path to your website is on the server and fills in the box for you to start with.

All you then need to do is create a directory called downloads on your website with your FTP software, and then upload the 10ways_in_10_days.zip - SmartDD will hide the actual file location when it sends the email out, so that no-one will know where it's really kept.

There's always a chance though that someone might be able to work it out and download your ebooks directly by typing into their browser

http://www.vmanual.com/downloads/10ways_in_10_days.zip

it's unlikely but possible to do.  However, there are two ways of securing your files.

[i] If you have cPanel hosting, then you can create a directory on the server that is outside your webspace, and keep the files there.  You may be able to do it with other hosting control panels too, such as Helm for Windows.

So now, for instance you could create a directory called files at the same level as your webspace instead of underneath it, and no-one will ever be able to get to it other than making a purchase and having SmartDD deliver it. e.g. instead of

/home/vmanual/public_html/downloads/10ways_in_10_days.zip

you would use

/home/vmanual/files/10ways_in_10_days.zip

Now even if you tell people where the files are kept on the server, they still couldn't get there with a web browser as the files are stored *outside* the normal webspace underneath public_html.

But SmartDD knows how to construct a special and UNIQUE link per customer / sale / download which delivers the file when clicked on.

This is the best method of protecting and delivering your files if you have an expensive product that you don't want people to get for free.

This little diagram may help you in understanding the above:-

   - ftp.mydomain.com
      - etc
      - files  <================= Put protected files here.
      - mail
      - public_ftp
      - public_html  <=========== This is your webroot.
         - cgi-bin
         - other  <============== This is another directory in your webspace.
         - index.html  <========= Your home page.
         - about.html  <========= Another web page.
         - faq.html  <=========== Yet another web page.
      - tmp

[ii] The second way is for those people whose web host doesn't allow the creation of directories outside their webspace.  You can also use it in conjunction with the first method to make your downloads doubly protected.

There's a box in which you can enter a "Display name" of the file you want delivered to your customer.  This is the filename that your customer will receive when downloading, and can be different to the real name of the file.

So for instance, you could enter a display name of:-

10_ways_to_make_10000.zip

and that is what your customer will receive, because SmartDD renames the real filename of:-

10ways_in_10_days.zip

and sends them a file with the display name instead.  So even if they worked out the download directory on your server, they still wouldn't know the real name of the file stored there.