Hot Topic: SOPA/PIPA

Many of us may not have even known what was going on until Wednesday when the online industry responded to SOPA/PIPA, including many popular websites shutting down, or blacking out in protest.

These actions prompted many not directly involved to ask, what exactly is SOPA?

It’s not soup, as the Spanish translation indicates; nor is it a sopapilla, the delicious pastry dessert served at many of our favorite Mexican restaurants.

SOPA stands for the Stop Online Piracy Act, a bill on the United States Congressional floor to stop online piracy.

Okay, so what exactly is PIPA?

No, PIPA is not the Royal Princess’ younger sister; it is the Protect Intellectual Property Act, another bill for consideration on the United States Congressional floor to stop online piracy.

But will the SOPA and PIPA bills actually stop piracy?  No.  Pirates will always find a way to do what they do best, so why limit the Internet for the rest of us?

If these bills pass Congress, the Internet will change drastically from what users are accustomed to today.  The Internet will be strictly censored and online economic growth fractured forever.  Sites like YouTube may even become non-existent.  The government would have the legal authority to swoop in to situations where, for example, the movie industry accuses a blogger of pirating, and the government would have the right to shut down the site and effectively put the blogger out of business – a blogger who was only reviewing said project.

It seems extreme, but it could happen.

The next obvious question when researching the SOPA/PIPA is who actually supports these bills?  The answer is primarily “big business” with large or unlimited revenue streams that can support the lobbyists fighting on their behalf, including:

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)
The Music industry
Pharmaceutical companies

Which leads to the next question, who opposes SOPA/PIPA? Basically the Internet community that we have grown to love over the years opposes these bills; the websites we rely so very heavily on every single day for news stories, information, social networking, and laughs, including:

Google
Yahoo!
YouTube
Wikipedia
LinkedIn
eBay
AOL
Facebook

Congress plans to bring the SOPA and PIPA bills to a vote next week, January 24^th.

Where do you stand? Have you contacted your Congressman or Congresswoman?  We’d love to hear from you.

We’ve included a few other news articles and resources discussing the hot topic of SOPA/PIPA for our readers.  Enjoy!

SOPA, PIPA:  What you need to know via CBS News.

Google’s More About SOPA/PIPA.

CNN’s Lawmakers withdraw support of anti-piracy bills after online protest.

Mark Zuckerberg publically Talks Sopa, Pipa via zdnet.com.

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Thanks for reading and remember if you have any questions give us a call or submit a support ticket and we’ll be there to help.

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Ringing in the New Year with Resolutions

With the New Year comes many promises we make to ourselves.  Some call these promises resolutions, while others refer to them simply as goals.

Regardless of the terminology, it all means the same thing:

How can we better ourselves and succeed personally, professionally, and sometimes even spiritually over the next twelve months?

For instance, as writers, we may set a New Year’s resolution to self-publish at least one e-book before the clock strikes midnight and the New York City Ball drops on December 31, 2012.  Perhaps we want to self-publish two e-books, one every six months (because let’s be honest, we’ve all heard that self-published authors find more success when they have more than one title to their name available on the web).

The same can be said for musicians– the more music, whether it be individual MP3 digital downloads or complete compact discs for sale, the better our chances at making a name for ourselves in the music industry.

Artists too – the more digital photographs, digi stamps, or pieces of art available for point of sale, the better.

In order to get started, or get our feet wet (so to say), Digital Content Center is offering a 30-DAY FREE TRIAL.

Remember, DCC offers a variety of services:

• From converting manuscripts to all necessary forms of e-books (Kindle, Nook, i-Pad, and .PDF),
• To assisting with account set up to sell with Direct Sale Vendors,
• To programming and coding personal websites to sell our products via shopping carts,
• And to offering different levels of subscription services.

For information on how to take advantage of the 30-DAY FREE TRIAL, contact us here.  Complete the form and tell us in the message section which of our services you are interested in to take full advantage of our free trial.

Good luck with all of your New Year’s resolutions and goals!

Thanks for reading and remember if you have any questions give us a call or submit a support ticket and we’ll be there to help.

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Customer Spotlight: January

Happy New Year!

This month’s Customer Spotlight showcases KennyKdownloads.com.

KennyKdownloads.com is an online shop featuring professional illustrations ranging from fun, sexy, and sassy cartoon-style digital stamps, also known as digi stamps.   The term “digi” derives from the traditional method of using handheld rubber stamps and an ink pad to transfer images onto paper allowing artists to color, cut out, and glue onto homemade crafts and cards.

The beauty behind KennyKdownloads.com is that these digi stamps are not physical stamps; instead, they are medium size coloring book-style black and white line art images (JPEG or PNG) that a user can print directly onto his or her home computer.

Founder, creator, and illustrator Kenny Kiernan’s team of professionals provide card makers, designers, and hobbyists everywhere hundreds of digi stamp thumbnails that they can personalize for their very own purposes.  Customers simply make a purchase via Paypal from the Digital Content Center shopping cart on KennyKdownloads.com, and are immediately sent an email with a Zip file containing links to their new images to download, and are available to download as many times as the customer wishes.

“Our experience with DCC has been great – the system is straightforward, very reasonably priced, and it’s simple to add, remove or edit content. We’re expanding our offerings to include additional downloadable content this year, and look forward to the same ease of use in accommodating our new product line.

“Key to our regard for DCC’s service is the fact that all of our technical questions and inquiries have been handled by the same guy, our pal Art – who patiently listens to any issues or requests, and who responds quickly and gives thorough answers and quick solutions.  DCC’s concern for the customer’s satisfaction comes across.  This level of personal service is a huge plus in my book – we’re very happy with DCC!” ~Kenny Kiernan, Creator and Artist

Be sure to check out KennyK’s latest release – Valentine’s Day digis and 4 new Anime/Manga style designs, available January 8th at KennyKdownloads.com!

To learn more about KennyKdownloads.com, visit their website.

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Is Free Always a Good Thing?

We all know that the age of the e-book has arrived.  Once writers have decided to forgo the traditional publishing route, they then waiver back and forth as to what value they should assign to their e-books.  By value, we mean price.

$9.99? $7.99? $4.99? $2.99? $0.99? 

What about for free? 

This question raises another controversy in the digital world, although nowhere near as potent as DRM (Digital Rights Management). 

Using Twitter as a form of blog research, we found that multiple sources become wary when an author gives away his or her e-book.  Others stated that they associate free with sub-par writing and they are no longer interested in reading the material. 

Some suggested that a temporary sale of an e-book, offering a promotion, or giving away e-book certificates to a limited quantity of winners as a more appealing offer. 

On the contrary, we received other responses that indicated once they read a few free e-books, they immediately jumped online to purchase the prequels and sequels from the authors.

We decided to ask Digital Content Center client and author Jillian Dodd what she thinks about giving away free e-books.  Jillian self-published her book, That Boy, earlier this year, and she plans to release the sequel, That Wedding, in early 2012.

“I worked hard on my book and I plan to make a living via self-publishing.  I am big on value, and I personally don’t even look at free e-books.  I figure that if an author doesn’t think their book is worth paying for, why should I?” ~ Jillian Dodd

Jillian does, however, believe in giveaways.  Recently, she completed her first blog tour with That Boy, and she awarded each of the hosting blogs a free copy of her e-book for their reviews and time.  She also allowed each host to offer discount codes to their readers. 

Throughout the year, Jillian has offered special prices and other promotional events.  Additionally, she plans to offer That Boy at a discount once she publishes That Wedding to incentivize readers to buy both books together.

And has she been successful? Yes!

What do you think?  Do you read free e-books or do you run the other direction?  Writers, have you given away your e-books and seen success?  We’d love to hear from you in the comment section below.

Thanks for reading and remember if you have any questions give us a call or submit a support ticket and we’ll be there to help. 

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Hot Topic – To DRM, or Not to DRM

The digital world has increased worries of copyright infringement for both individuals and companies.  Attempting to give control back to the seller, Digital Rights Management emerged.

What is Digital Rights Management (or the more commonly used term DRM) besides a very controversial topic today?

By definition, DRM is the control of digital content (and some devices) after the point of sale.  This technology prevents the buyer from unauthorized use of content.

How is DRM controversial?  Some say Digital Rights Management is necessary, while others insist DRM is too restrictive.  This controversy affects authors, musicians, producers, as well as other industries.

For example, self-published writers usually use DRM to protect the future sharing of the e-book:

• Adobe DRM technology protects ePubs and PDF documents
• Apple DRM technology protects the i-books
• Marlin Trust Management Organization protects Android products

There is also the E-DRM (Enterprise Digital Rights Management) to protect Word and PDF documents, as well as emails and web pages.

But many are opposed to DRM, or feel the technology isn’t as advanced as it could be.  These same people feel that such advancements might actually decrease the numbers of individuals and organizations that argue DRM violates buyer’s rights.

Because so many people oppose the current DRM technologies, many artists and companies advertise their digital content and products as DRM-free.

Recently, we read Charlie’s Diary (blog hosted by Charles Stross) and his post titled, “Cutting Their Own Throats.”  In this post, Mr. Stross discusses the Big Six in publishing and how they do not publish e-books without DRM.  This makes sense; they don’t want the books they publish pirated.  But Mr. Stross also claims that the biggest threat to the traditionally published e-books by the Big Six is the online giant we know today as Amazon.  He continues by stating that by Amazon locking their e-books down with DRM, the company is in essence locking buyers into their Kindle format.

We can see obvious pros and cons emerge with this one example:

Pro: DRM protects the writer, the publishing company, and the e-books from unlawful sharing

Con: Buyers may be limited to reading particular e-books using only certain devices

For a very interesting conversation piece, check out Charlie’s Diary and read the hundreds of comments.  We also found this Slashdot post continuing the discussion.  DRM is obviously a very heated debate.

Let’s look at digital content in the form of video for a moment.

Comedian Louis C.K. doesn’t use DRM to sell his direct downloads.  Simply put, he used his own money to convert his own comedy show digitally to make available to his audience for the low price of $5 via a personal website.  This allows the buyer to stream the video and download a minimal number of times.

By doing this, Louis C.K. has made it less expensive and more about the material with the hopes he can continue to do this risk free.

Comments left on a TorrentFreak.com article criticized Louis C.K. for doing this, calling him dumb to not expect people to watch his video for free.  But others still applauded him.

While it’s safe to say that some people will inevitably rip or steal a video or music online regardless of the securities in place, Louis C.K.’s experiment was a success.  According to this Geek.com article, he made his money back in a matter of days.  He proved that selling digital content without DRM can work, but at what consequence?

Maybe none.

Many of the large online music industries are now DRM free, including: Amazon MP3, iTunes, and Napster.  This wasn’t always the case.

Is it because some have called DRM nonsensical?  An invitation to pirate?  A convenient strategy for reducing the e-book?  Self-defecating?  These are pretty harsh statements.

What do you think?  We’d like to open up the comment section to hear your thoughts.  Please, keep it clean.

Thanks for reading and remember if you have any questions give us a call or submit a support ticket and we’ll be there to help.

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Remember to follow us on Twitter @DCCservices, “Like” us on Facebook, and connect with us on LinkedIn.

Keeping it Organic – A Few Great Marketing and Social Media Links

Organic advertising and marketing is spreading like wildfire, so in keeping with our earlier messages of providing valuable content and promoting others, we wanted to take the time to share a few of our favorite blogs with everyone. 

Heidi Cohen publishes fantastic blog articles multiple times a week.  Yesterday’s post is a prime example of her expertise – Do You Know What Gets Attention on Twitter? 

HubSpot Blog focuses on Internet marketing and provides Answers to 31 Social Media Questions we’re too shy to ask, as well as 7 Epic Marketing Uses of Linkedin. 

Jeff Bullas teaches us How to Video Blog this week, and better yet, this message is for beginners on a budget! 

WordServe Watercooler talks Keywording 101 for SEO Success.  Search Engine Optimization is crucial for organic marketing, isn’t it? 

Dan Zarrella, also known as The Social Media Scientist, provides a Viral Marketing Campaign Checklist. 

Few of us are all that familiar with Google+, and even less familiar with the new Google+ Business Pages.  Here are a few blogs that answer our questions about the new social media platform. 

Amber West talks Google+ Basics and the advantages of adding Google+ to our social media to do list in Yet Another Google+ Post. 

Heidi Cohen lists 62 Must Have Google+ Resources. 

ReelSEO discusses Using Video with Google+ Pages for Business. 

In honor of our first attempt at mashup greatness, we want to take this time to thank author Jillian Dodd for mentioning Digital Content Center in her blog post this week.  Jill is preparing to self-publish the sequel to That Boy, titled That Wedding, and she offers her readers a sneak peek here.

Which blogs to you like to follow to stay on top of organic marketing and the high-speed chase we know as technology and social media today?   Leave a comment below, we’d love to hear from you! 

Thanks for reading and remember if you have any questions give us a call or submit a support ticket and we’ll be there to help.===

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Remember to follow us on Twitter @DCCservices, “Like” us on Facebook, and connect with us on LinkedIn.

Selling Digital Content as a Subscription Service

When selling digital content online, there are two ways to monetize our material: 

1. Offer our products as a one-time download (i.e. e-Books)
2. Offer buyers the opportunity to purchase a subscription service to our content 

A subscription service allows buyers to view and download our digital content on a monthly basis.  These services are ideal when our product evolves, or changes consistently.  

Prime examples of evolving material include: newsletters and online video, audio, and downloadable files (i.e. “how to” guides).  

Musicians, artists, photographers, and software engineers also benefit from selling subscription services to buyers if they provide new material on a monthly basis (similar to new mp3 releases, recent photo shoots, new sketches and paintings, and new software, applications and games). 

Subscription services allow buyers to purchase our material via recurring charges, thus creating consistent revenue for the seller.  After initiating the subscription, users then create a username and password to log in monthly to access our new products or content.  

Digital Content Center offers its clients the opportunity to monetize their digital content via personal websites with the Content Shelf Subscription Service. 

The Content Shelf Subscription Service provides, but isn’t limited to: 

• A customized subscriber area for text and/or images
• An automated recurring billing system
• An automated subscription suspension for unpaid accounts
• The ability to track subscribers
• Detailed Reports
• Multiple price subscription models including Bronze, Silver, Gold, and even free services
• Protection to eliminate file sharing between non-subscribers 

Bottom line: if we make new products available to the online market on a monthly basis, subscription services are just what we need. 

Considering a subscription service but want more information?  Find out How It Works here!  DCC’s Content Shelf Subscription Service works with many website platforms including Wordpress.

Thanks for reading and remember if you have any questions give us a call or submit a support ticket and we’ll be there to help. 

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Customer Spotlight: December

This month’s Customer Spotlight showcases AudEscapes, Inc and its SnorEraser products. 

Founded in 2008, AudEscapes, Inc. provides peaceful sleep to the millions of people suffering from the sounds of a partner snoring, dogs barking, sirens screeching, and other noises inducing insomnia.  These distracting sounds decrease our quality of sleep and increase our stress levels, therefore directly affecting our health. 

AudEscapes, Inc.’s state of the art audio escapes offers previously untapped methods to reduce or eliminate these stressors by way of digital content.  Each of their flagship SnorEraser products offers 60 minutes of uninterrupted, peaceful sleep. 

Anyone with access to a common digital media device (cell phones, computers, iPads, etc.) can now gain access to the best snoring noise defense products available today, including: 

• SnorEraser Original
• SnorEraser Original Sleepwaves Enhanced
• SnorEraser Extreme for harsh snoring
• SnorEraser Extreme Sleepwaves Enhanced
• SnorEraser Multipurpose (bestseller)
• SnorEraser Multipurpose Sleepwaves Enhanced 

AudEscapes, Inc. continues to strive for excellence improving their unparalleled digital audio applications to assist those of us hoping for a good night’s rest, and uses Digital Content Center to make the SnorEraser products readily available for digital download.  

 “After careful consideration and comparison, we decided to entrust DCC with our initial product launch and ongoing content distribution. We could not be happier with the personal attention that we have received from DCC over the last two years. 

“Key people at DCC remain actively involved and accessible to us, listening to our needs and concerns. It is a pleasure to see improvement from suggestions that we have made in the past become a reality in the DCC system. 

“DCC is a dynamic company, constantly improving on an already stand-out service. I give them an A plus!” ~ Brian McKenna, President 

To learn more about AudEscapes, Inc.’s SnorEraser, visit their website.   

To order a digital download of SnorEraser, click here.   

AudEscapes, Inc. invites everyone to take advantage of the special Digital Content Center promotion running the entire month of December.

Simply enter DCCROCKS in the coupon space provided at checkout to receive an instant 20% discount on the entire purchase!

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Interested in having your business and products showcased?  Let us know!   

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Selling e-Books via Direct Sale Vendors

Kindle

Over the past two weeks, we have discussed converting our manuscripts to electronic formats beyond PDF including Kindle for the Amazon Kindle devices, as well as ePub for the Barnes & Noble Nook and Apple iPad (via the iBooks Application). 

That’s all nice, but let’s takes it to the next level:  Selling e-books via Direct Sale Vendors. 

Direct Sale Vendors sell e-books for a percentage of the sale. Who are the top three Direct Sale Vendors? 

• Amazon Digital Text Platform (Kindle)
• Barnes & Noble ePubit Platform (Nook)
• Apple iTunes Connect Platform (iPad) 

By setting up an account with each of these Direct Sale Vendors, our e-books can be found on all three of these platforms.  But does a buyer find our e-books?  

It’s quick and easy… Search, Buy and Sync. 

For example, while a buyer uses his device (for instance, the iPad), he searches the respective application (the iBook app) for our story.  Once he finds our title, he can simply purchase the e-book, loading it directly to his device. 

iPad

Another concept to consider is to sell our e-books in all of the electronic reader formats via a personal website.   

Two great examples of authors leveraging a personal website to sell all e-book formats include: 

Jillian Dodd and G. Daniel Huff

Jillian and Dan not only sell their e-books on all of the Direct Sale Vendor platforms, they also offer all of the electronic reader versions directly on their websites. 

Selling e-books through a website and through Direct Sale Vendors provides us with the best of both worlds when it comes to distribution and maximizing our revenue. 

One might ask, “When a buyer buys a Kindle e-book from my site, how does he/she load it to their Kindle Device?”  It’s easier than one might think, and most people can do it in a snap. 

Nook

We’ve included a few guides below that Digital Content Center has put together that will not only explain how “syncing” is done, but how we can use them on our websites to sell all of the e-book formats. 

Kindle Sync Guide

iBooks Sync Guide (iPad, iPod & iPhone)

Nook Color Sync Guide  

For more information on selling with direct sale vendors, please check out our Getting Started with Direct Sale Vendor Guide – Click Here 

Thanks for reading and remember if you have any questions give us a call or submit a support ticket and we’ll be there to help. 

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Converting Manuscripts to ePub Formats

Last week we discussed converting manuscripts to the Amazon Kindle, the leading e-reader on the market.   But this conversion is just one process for an author when self-publishing. 

Today we’re taking a look at the ePub (electronic publication) format, which can be used with the iPad through the iBooks Application and the Nook by Barnes & Noble.

Introduced in 2009, Barnes & Noble released its own brand of e-reader utilizing the Android operating system to compete with the Kindle – the Nook.  Since its inception, new and improved versions including the Nook Color and the Nook Simple Touch have hit the shelves displaying color touch screens and providing Wi-Fi access. 

Selling an e-book using the Nook platform is simple and only requires a properly formatted e-book and an account with the Barnes & Noble ePubIt Service. 

Keeping up with the Joneses, so to say, Apple Inc. introduced the iPad in 2010.  The Apple technology, like most of their devices, continues to improve and has two versions available today:  the iPad and the iPad 2.  Mirroring the popular features of the iPhone, the iPad operates via a touch screen with LCD (liquid crystal display) and has Wi-Fi compatibility.  The iPad offers more features and allows the iBooks application for the iPhone and iPod Touch as well, reaching beyond the competition. 

Selling an e-book on the iPad requires two things: a properly formatted e-book, and an iTunes Connect account.  Writers can also sell iPad converted e-books directly to the Apple iBook Store once registering their work with the Apple Certified Aggregator.

How does a writer convert his or her manuscript to the proper iPad and Nook formats to sell e-books at the Apple Store and Barnes & Noble? 

Option One:  Writers can use a do it yourself script off the Internet.  Most of these scripts are free or require very little capital to use, but remember we always get what we pay for.  Most writers find that these scripts do not convert properly because of the complexity of formatting for all types of electronic readers. 

Converting a manuscript on our own can be a very daunting task.  If we’ve attempted to convert our e-book and it’s just not working, why not explore other options? 

Option Two:  Writers can have a manuscript professionally converted by Digital Content Center.  DCC offers professional iPad and Nook conversions & formatting services. 

The Digital Content Center conversion process for the ePub formats includes:

1. Converting all of the text of the manuscript to HTML Format (Hyper Text Markup Language).  This allows the e-book to be read almost like a website.
2. Manually integrating visual items such as images, graphs, and charts with the HTML.
3. Manually applying text formatting such as italics, bolds, and indentations.
4. Reviewing the e-book on the actual device by a human, not a computer program.
5. Correcting any and all necessary adjustments to the e-book once read on an iPad and Nook.
6. Repeating Steps 4 and 5 until the e-book renders properly within the ePub devices. 

Ready to convert to ePub format for the iPad and Nook?  Want a quote to convert a manuscript to the ePub formats? Click here.  Note: DCC will need a Word and pdf version of the manuscript to perform a quote.

Thanks for reading and remember if you have any questions give us a call or submit a support ticket and we’ll be there to help. 

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