Should You Publish in Print or Electronic Format - or Both?

Written by Marcia Yudkin


Once you've decided to create a booklet or special report, you need to decide whether you will be offeringrepparttar text in printed form or as an electronic download - or in both ways. Do not use your personal preferences or values as your sole criterion (e.g., "I like having something printed and substantial when I pay money for something" or "Anyone who doesn't understand that paper is obsolete isn't worth selling to").

Why not? It may turn out that your preferences aren't as widely shared as you think they are. And there may be important practical considerations that you haven't factored in yet. Before making your final decision on this question, consider these points:

* Perceived value may be higher for a tangible item than for a downloaded one, particularly ifrepparttar 106199 product is durably and attractively bound.

* Onrepparttar 106200 other hand, a download may offer much higher perceived value becauserepparttar 106201 information is thereby immediately available.

* Printed and bound information may be less likely to get copied and redistributed than a download that is not copy protected.

* Your target market may not feel comfortable withrepparttar 106202 process of downloading files, or may have so many technical problems opening and readingrepparttar 106203 download thatrepparttar 106204 customer service headaches quickly mount up.

* If you want to provide another kind of item along with text, such as audio or video tapes, a print catalog or an object, such as a calculate-your-mortgage wheel or meatloaf pan,repparttar 106205 print format makes more sense.

* When it would be nice for people to be able to click on Web addresses right from your text, a download may seem likerepparttar 106206 optimal choice.

* Fraud rates for downloadable products are very much higher than for products that get sent by mail.

* You can gather a valuable, valid postal mailing list when selling tangible items to be shipped or mailed, but addresses are less reliable for download sales.

Now let me say a little more about a few ofrepparttar 106207 factors above.

First, fraud is indeed a very serious problem for products bought and received immediately online. Not only doesrepparttar 106208 merchant almost always get stuck with a loss when a customer disputes an online charge, ifrepparttar 106209 rate of "chargebacks" - sales reversed because of customer protest - gets too high,repparttar 106210 merchant can lose his or her credit-card processing account and find it next to impossible to secure another one. Onrepparttar 106211 other hand, established third-party digital download services have address checking and fraud detection procedures in place that may not be as available to individual merchants.

Second, Adobe Acrobat (PDF) files can be copy protected byrepparttar 106212 creator with several security options available. For example, you can set up a file to allow someone to read but not print, read but not copy and paste to another application, download but not create a copy ofrepparttar 106213 file or not allowrepparttar 106214 file to be e-mailed to another computer. However, such restrictions sometimes do more harm than good by annoying or even enraging honest users who find themselves unable to make fair use ofrepparttar 106215 material for which they' ve paid. For instance, they may download a file at work and then be unable to send it to their home computer, which is where they would have downloaded it to begin with if they'd had high-speed Internet access there.

"Protect Your Affiliate Commissions!"

Written by A. T. Rendon


"Protect Your Affiliate Commissions!" by A.T.Rendon © Copyright 2002 All Rights Reserved

We all do it.

We recommend this web site or that software and we have a link that looks like: http://affiliate-site.com/your-user-name.html and by makingrepparttar recommendation we might earn a 25% commission if our referral decides to make a purchase.

Some folks earn several thousands of dollars each month as a result of affiliate links while others, perhapsrepparttar 106198 norm, earn just a few dollars.

Whatever dollar amounts are involved, estimates are that most of us that post affiliate links are losing at least 20% because folks cut us out ofrepparttar 106199 loop by cuttingrepparttar 106200 URL.

For example, instead of: http://affiliate-site.com/your-user-name.html people will cut offrepparttar 106201 affiliate ID and then visitrepparttar 106202 site at: http://affiliate-site.com/. Some sites will ask you forrepparttar 106203 ID ofrepparttar 106204 affiliate that referred you but if it is not entered, then you have just lost your commission.

Other web sites are telling visitors that they MUST enter viarepparttar 106205 referral URL or they can not enter at all. But this is certainlyrepparttar 106206 exception, notrepparttar 106207 rule.

Afterall,repparttar 106208 hosting site does want to have visitors and sales.

Sorepparttar 106209 affiliate can easily lose sales commissions just because someone cuts off his or her affiliate ID fromrepparttar 106210 URL.

Why do people cut offrepparttar 106211 affiliate ID?

Obviously,repparttar 106212 intent is to deny someone his or her commissions. I must plead guilty to this practice. In my own defense, I can say that I only do that when I receiverepparttar 106213 URL from someone that that sent me SPAM.

Sorry, but I do NOT think that SPAMMERS should be rewarded.

I can not speak for allrepparttar 106214 others out there that cut offrepparttar 106215 URL even when it is found on a web site or is delivered via a non spam source such as an ezine or newsletter.

For whatever reason, some people just refuse to allow people that turn them on to a great product or service to be rewarded by receiving a commission if they make a purchase.

So how can you protect your affiliate commissions?

There are two simple solutions that come to mind. The first involves using a FREE Re-Direct URL service andrepparttar 106216 other you can use if you have your own web site.

Here is how you can protect your Affiliate Commissions:

1. Make Use of a FREE URL Re-Direct Service.

By using a FREE URL Re-Direct Service, you can start to advertise a much shorter URL,repparttar 106217 URL your affiliate ID is on will be masked untilrepparttar 106218 visitor is sent off to that web site so that they do not haverepparttar 106219 opportunity to cut you out ofrepparttar 106220 Affiliate Commission.

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