Digital Delivery - The Short Version
Once you have SmartDD installed, there are just a handful of things you need to do to get it delivering and protecting for you.
The Short Version
1) Go to the emails section and edit the emails to your personal taste
2) Upload a product file by FTP to your server e.g. valuable_ebook.zip. Then create a product in the inventory section that’s linked to that file.
3) Create a saleable item in the items section, and select the inventory product you just created (in step 2) from the drop down. Make sure you select the correct currency and set a minimum price you’re willing to accept for the item.
That’s it! As long as your eBay or website item has the same title as the saleable item in step 3, AND the price and currency check is okay, SmartDD will deliver it.
Note the title on eBay or in the PayPal button must match EXACTLY the title in the SmartDD database, even one extra space will mean a mismatch.
So it’s best if you always use the built in PayPal Button generator when creating buttons for your website. More on that later…
Click the following links to download the help docs as PDF files - right click and choose “Save as”.
SmartDD Installation Instructions
SmartDD Usage Instructions
You’ll need Adobe Acrobat reader to view them - it’s likely you already have it but there’s a link below to the Adobe site.
The following two links both open in new windows, so if you use a popup stopper, you may need to suppress it (usually by holding the Ctrl key down) when you click them.
Entries (RSS)
Hi, I’m testing the free trial on my site. Installation was ok. However, when i went to my site and did a test, i bought the item from my site via buynow which is already integrated to my site, i did not pay the item yet, and on my site system the item status is sold and taken out from listing . I noticed that there is no effect or changes on my smartdd panel relating to the item i bought. No email sent to admin i.e pending for payment or item sold awating for payment. It still showing active on item and inventory as if nothing happen to the item. Please tell me how does this buy it now from my site affect the item on my smartdd cpanel? My site have has a built in buy it now and selection of payment gateways.
Thanks,
Regards
Hi Ben,
SmartDD uses PayPal’s Instant Payment Notification (IPN) messages and acts on those.
What’s happening in your case from what I can tell is you’re already using a shopping cart of some kind which probably also uses IPN. The shopping cart IPN message is overriding the default IPN message that would normally be sent to SmartDD.
If you weren’t using a shopping cart, or you had a single item on a sales page, or you were using eBay to sell through, then your test purchases would work fine.
Try creating a new product in SmartDD and then linking it to a new product. Then use the built in button code generator to create a 1-line email link and paste it into your web browser address bar and click go.
You’ll then go off to PayPal where you can purchase the item. I suggest using your personal account to buy the item from your business account and then refunding afterwards.
You’ll then find that without a shopping cart taking control of the transaction that it will all work as you expect it to.
All the best,
Frank.
Since I plan to sell many ebooks, audiobooks and software products, I really need a shopping cart (PayPal would work fine, I already have a verified account). It gets very annoying for a buyer to have to pay for each item one at a time and go through the time-consuming process of having PayPal reload for every purchase and go through its whole routine.
It is, in fact, a terrible sales killer!! Why don’t you include PayPal shopping cart capabilities?
Is there any way to cloak the PayPal or affiliate links. Affiliate and product link theft is a growing problem. I have a PayPal Lock Generator (don’t recall the exact name, but it encrypts the PayPal codes). Will this work?
I need answers before I would actually upgrade this product.
Also, what happens to the license if we change web hosts? Can the existing setup be backed up and transferred to the new host with the rest of the site?
Hi Jim,
Yes, I sent out an email today to my mailing list saying we were adding a shopping cart to the next version due out in just a few weeks.
Maybe you’re not on the list?
Cheers,
Frank.
Hi again Jim,
You may or may not know this, but I also have a bit of software at:-
http://www.SmartLinkCloaker.com/
which cloaks affiliate links. If you have the full version of SmartDD, you can edit a config file which allows you to place a cloaked link in the emails that SmartDD sends out instead of the default affiliate link.
If you change web hosts, the licence will still work as the licence is generated against the domain not an IP address. Well, it *should* still work!
I use cPanel hosting, and I’ve just moved servers and all my SmartDD installations still work without me having had to change anything.
Cheers,
Frank.
Hi Frank,
I just couldn’t recall where I read on this site how to cloak SmartDD affiliate link.
As I remember you’ve advised to change smartdd/_structure/config/cProductConfig.php file after Powered by.
I have a framed webpage to redirect to your site with my affiliate link.
Unfortunately this new page address does not show up in the emails, but still shows the affiliate link.
I couldn’t figure out what is wrong.
Thanks,
Ildiko
Hi Ildiko,
It’s in the troubleshooting section.
Amend line 25 of the config file you mentioned, and put your own message and URL in instead.
And this is the bit where it’s probably going wrong. Remove your affiliate link from the System manager in the SmartDD admin panel.
If you don’t do that, SmartDD uses the next variable in the config file, which overwrites your cloaked affiliate link.
I hope this helps.
Cheers,
Frank.
Frank,
I’ve read through a good number of the pages on this site and am excited to see all the capabilities of SmartDD. However, one capability that I haven’t found (yet) mentioned is the ability to set up a Free ebook download in the SmartDD system.
Do you recommend that I do that? The ebook will be free, and have affiliate links inside it.
What are your thoughts on this?
Thanks,
Charles “StayHomeDad”
Hi Charles,
That’s one of the features that’s high on our list. We’re about to release a new version just before Christmas, and we wanted to include free sign up - that was our intention.
We then found that if we did it properly (which we like to do), it would take a lot more work to do than we thought. We want a flexible method of adding in any autoresponder service, and not just limit it to Aweber.
Rather than delay v2 of SmartDD any longer (it’s very late), we decided to bump that part of the release until the end of January / beginning of February in a mini-release.
At that time, we’ll also be including one time offer functionality too.
Watch this space.
Cheers,
Frank.
Hi,
I downloaded the free version of SmartDD, and I like what I see, but as ever there is something that I don’t understand that might well be covered.
I know that from time to time I might want to have promotions on certain products, but I can’t see how to do that in smartDD other than laboriously going through the item list and chaning them. Is there a better way?
Also I want to group together products. Now I know I can just zip them up, b ut my customer might prefer to downlad them one at a time over a couple of weeks. Is there a way of doing this?
kind regards
Rob
Hi Frank,
still testing the free version of SmartDD. I’ve found the code generation tool, but one thing that comes to mind is that I like to show the original price as well as the discounted price when I construct an offer. Can I do this?
Hi Rob,
Would you clarify by what you mean with promotions? Do you mean temporary discounts?
For grouping products together under a single saleable item, version 2 will do this. We’ll be releasing it in the next 10 days or so, and all current full version owners will get the upgrade for free.
Cheers,
Frank.
Hi Rob,
I just read your second post…
No, there’s no easy way of doing this at the moment I’m afraid, but I’ve dropped your idea into the suggestions folder.
-Frank.
Hi Frank,
What if after someone buys an ebook from me, let’s say on eBay, I don’t want to send him the download link directly, but rather a link to a download page. The link to the actual file would be on this page, along with other offers.
So the process is: the guy pays, gets an email containing a link to a dowload page, and he gets the books from that page and maybe buys something else there.
Can I automate this process with SmartDD?
Thanks,
Zsolt
Hi Zsolt,
Yes you can. Just use a URL as the product. You can read about that here:-
http://www.smartdd.com/help/digital-delivery/digital-delivery-the-long-version-part-2/
Additionally, I’m just about to release version 2 in a day or so that allows you to create your own secure download page and link multiple files to a single saleable item.
That would solve your problem and also keep your products secure.
-Frank.
Thanks Frank.
I am looking forward to v2 of SmartDD. Looks like it’ll have some exciting new features.
Is there any update on the release of the 2.0 User manual? I have installed the upgrade successfully, now I would like to learn the new stuff about it.
Frank,
I have some pieces of product that I want to distribute *FREE* what is the best and easiest way to do that and still let them dl instantly?
Barry:
I’ll get to it in a few days. I wanted to make sure there were no larger problems being unearthed before explaining how the rest of the new features work.
-Frank Haywood.
Robert:
I’ll shortly be releasing an updater that adds in FREE delivery functionality. Hang in there.
-Frank Haywood
Frank,
Is there any kind of shopping cart integration available. Where a customer can add multiple items from a sales page?
I am looking at EW Business Portal and they seem to have that capability. That would be a nice feature.
Thanks
Tom
Frank,
Here are some of the Features that would be nice.
* Automatic File Delivery
* Encrypted Download Links
* Paypal Shopping Cart
* Seemless eBay integration
* Issue Manual Links
* Expiring Download Links
Hi Tom,
I’m sorry for not replying to this sooner, your posts got put in the spam box for some reason, and I’ve just rescued them.
The latest version has all of the above features, including the shopping cart.
As I write this, it’s still not been “officially” announced, and is hidden, although at least one person has found it and has been experimenting with it.
When I add SmartDD v2 Free Trial to the members area, then I’ll also announce the shopping cart and all of the other features, and update the docs, videos and sales page.
All the best,
Frank Haywood.
Frank,
Still looking for more information and usage instructions for SmartDD v2.
Any Idea when we can expect the Docs, Videos and Sales Page?
Is there a support forum or user’s forum somewhere where I can get additional information and exchange ideas with other users?
Thanks
Tom