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Setup / Software for Videos / E-books

by jamiedolan
3 replies
HI;

I hope this is the right place for this, I'm looking for help / suggestions with what kind of software setup would be best to sell videos / E-Books on my own server. I'm working on a project where I have multiple items to sell: E-Books, Online(live) classes, and Recorded Videos.

In the past, the E-books have been sold via a PayPal setup with manual delivery and that now needs to get automated. The videos and online classes are a new addition. I can self-host the videos.

I had been thinking of using something like E-Junkie or Digital Content Center's services to manage this all, but they both seem strong on the E-book side of things are not on the Video / Site access side.

Now I'm thinking some kind of setup directly on my web server would be better. (Likely some kind of commercial PHP driven system) I started looking at membership software like Amember, Wishlist, Easymember Pro, etc. and they in general all seem to do well with managing membership sites, but from what I can tell, E-Books don't seem to be their strong suit.

Are there any good software packages that would work well for both the automated E-Book sales and the Membership site?

I'm using Wordpress / Thesis for the main site right now. I would likely use the same for the membership area to start with, perhaps eventually integrating a VBforum. Currently would be accepting PayPal payments, but would very likely add on an authorize.net type of account to accept payments directly, so that would need to be possible with whatever setup I choose.

I know I could put the E-books on a page on a membership site, but I am concerned that this is overly complicated for many people. I would like the e-book deliver to be as easy as possible for users (i.e. E-Book gets e-mailed to them upon confirmed purchase).

Bottom line is I am looking to make this easy for customers and to have continuity. I'm reluctant to force people to use 2 entirely different systems, i.e. Member ship software on my server for membership and a 3rd party for E-Book sales.

Thanks in Advance for any ideas or suggestions.

Jamie
#ebooks #setup #software #videos
  • Profile picture of the author Mbullard
    Paypal lets you redirect people to a thank you page after purchase. Put the ebook file there and that's all set up. As for videos, put them on Youtube and set them up as 'unlisted'. Then put them on a hidden page either on Wordpress or elsewhere. That's the cheap, easy way of doing it.
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  • Profile picture of the author CoMpUtErGoD20XX
    Originally Posted by jamiedolan View Post

    HI;

    I hope this is the right place for this, I'm looking for help / suggestions with what kind of software setup would be best to sell videos / E-Books on my own server. I'm working on a project where I have multiple items to sell: E-Books, Online(live) classes, and Recorded Videos.

    In the past, the E-books have been sold via a PayPal setup with manual delivery and that now needs to get automated. The videos and online classes are a new addition. I can self-host the videos.

    I had been thinking of using something like E-Junkie or Digital Content Center's services to manage this all, but they both seem strong on the E-book side of things are not on the Video / Site access side.

    Now I'm thinking some kind of setup directly on my web server would be better. (Likely some kind of commercial PHP driven system) I started looking at membership software like Amember, Wishlist, Easymember Pro, etc. and they in general all seem to do well with managing membership sites, but from what I can tell, E-Books don't seem to be their strong suit.

    Are there any good software packages that would work well for both the automated E-Book sales and the Membership site?

    I'm using Wordpress / Thesis for the main site right now. I would likely use the same for the membership area to start with, perhaps eventually integrating a VBforum. Currently would be accepting PayPal payments, but would very likely add on an authorize.net type of account to accept payments directly, so that would need to be possible with whatever setup I choose.

    I know I could put the E-books on a page on a membership site, but I am concerned that this is overly complicated for many people. I would like the e-book deliver to be as easy as possible for users (i.e. E-Book gets e-mailed to them upon confirmed purchase).

    Bottom line is I am looking to make this easy for customers and to have continuity. I'm reluctant to force people to use 2 entirely different systems, i.e. Member ship software on my server for membership and a 3rd party for E-Book sales.

    Thanks in Advance for any ideas or suggestions.

    Jamie
    Jamie,
    I am in a similar conundrum as you are. I am working on setting up a new website where I sell or giveaway an ebook but also offer purchasers access to video tutorials (12+) , eBook downloads, audio files, and more.

    My current plan is to integrate ClickBank (payment processing & affiliate manager), WishList Member, Aweber (email list joined after sale), Amazon S3 (storing video & other files), S3 Flowshield (encrypts all download links and protects S3 files from being shared to non-paying members).

    I deliver a few eBooks right now using my AWeber auto-responder. To do this I simply direct people that make a purchase to my Thank You page. The Thank You page contains an aweber sign-up form which joins these customers to a special list. After confirming their subscription to my list they receive the download links automatically in the email. This is very simple but it works.

    In the case of setting up my new site though I will setup the single eBook purchase as its own membership level. After paying the user would be directed to a page that has a download link for the ebook. The customers login could even expire after a set time frame (ex, 90 days).

    Other membership levels would all them to access to a page that contains the embeded videos you mention. The only note I have for you here though is that I would high recommend NOT hosting these videos within a shared web hosting account. If you have a lot of visitors you will kill the load speeds of your site.

    I wish I had more info to provide to you but I don't have my site setup finished yet. I am hoping to have everything done by the end of December.

    If you have any questions please let me know.
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    • Profile picture of the author jamiedolan
      Originally Posted by CoMpUtErGoD20XX View Post

      The only note I have for you here though is that I would high recommend NOT hosting these videos within a shared web hosting account. If you have a lot of visitors you will kill the load speeds of your site.
      I am hoping to have everything done by the end of December.
      If you have any questions please let me know.
      Thanks for the information. I too hope to get this all figured out by the end of Dec.

      I do host some videos up on S3. My sites are on a high end VPS. I might test out RackSpaces CDN at some point.

      Thanks, if you think of it, please let me know your progress.

      Thanks
      Jamie
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