DL Guard time limit - how much time is good?

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I assumed that most people would buy something, then download right away so I set the time limit to 24 hours. As it turns out a large percentage of people are writing in and asking for more time. I do have a large video download, so a few of them kept failing and retrying, thus running out of time, but many simply didn't try to download until days later. Is this normal?
#main internet marketing discussion forum #good #guard #limit #time
  • Hi Scott,

    I personally feel that 24 hours is too short, particularly for a large download, taking account of the fact that much of the world still use dial up services.

    Take the hypothetical example of someone on the other side of the world ordering from you at mid night their time. They may prefer to download after going to bed for the night. In the morning they go to work and only the following evening will they have the opportunity to download. That does not leave them with many hours grace.

    Just my thoughts.

    Regards,
    Jeff Henshaw.
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  • Hi,

    I use DL Guard and I also have my download time limit set to 24 hours. I have a few audio files and e-books to download but I've only experienced a few problems and never felt the need to change it.

    On one of my websites I'm adding extra products and increasing the amount of downloads. I'm going to keep the core product protected by DL Guard set at 24 hours and include a zipped pdf file with a download link to the remainder of the downloads.

    I accept that this will not be protected by DL Guard but it will give my customers ample time to download. I will also place links on this download page to my main product sales page and a few other things - eg - opt in form, affiliate links, similar products etc.

    My main product is still protected and I have a download page that I can market from in the future.

    It's probably not a perfect idea but I hope you find it useful.

    Chris
    • [1] reply
    • I think it all depends on the product, for a monster download I would probably give it 3 days or so (give or take).

      But I have things like 2 MB downloads with a 2 hour limit and I haven't received a single complaint from my customers after thousands of purchases.
  • Hi Scott,

    As the other guys here have already said, it really comes down to what kind of product you're offering, how big it is, and who your market is.

    Similar to Daniel, I have a 2 hour download limit when I sell my products, and hardly ever need to reset a download counter.

    But my product is 1.7mb, and my customers generally download straight away.



    With the larger files it's better to have a longer access time so that if people have download issues they can come back later and try again.

    Try extending it until you no longer recieve download timer complaints.

    If you set your download attempt counter to something like 5, this will also help to protect against link sharing within that time.

    cheers
    Sam
  • I allow 3 days and say that right upfront with the download link, and I've never received a complaint.
    • [1] reply
    • I use a 72 hour window, and I still sometimes get people that email me and tell me that the link has expired. not often, but it does happen.
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    DL Guard time limit - how much time is good?

    I assumed that most people would buy something, then download right away so I set the time limit to 24 hours. As it turns out a large percentage of people are writing in and asking for more time. I do have a large video download, so a few of them kept failing and retrying, thus running out of time, but many simply didn't try to download until days later. Is this normal?