MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - suggestions for a 'do-it-yourself' website service

Alyssa Miranda · 07-09-2013, 08:52 AM

This is a follow-up to Greg Bell's post on May 29th, following which, in seeking to establish a "do-it-yourself" website he decided to go with GoDaddy in preference to WordPress. Meanwhile I have also been struggling to establish a do-it-yourself site, but have stuck with wordpress.com despite its lack of an e-commerce capability, as noted in a previous post. The most daunting problem has been to find a way to download content to the customer in the various file formats (in my case, PDF, and EPUB and MOBI via calibre), and to the various devices (again in my case, limited to the Kindle and Nook).

To see how other sites have addressed the problem I looked at Smashwords (which I assume is the most prominent of the non-Amazon, non-BN, non-Apple sites), and found, in the FAQ section, two full pages of downloading/sideloading instructions in small type, this in contrast to the convenience of the wireless capability of the major sites, where, after clicking to purchase it the content appears literally moments later on your device, ready for reading. To me at least, this difference appears to limit non-wireless transmission (sideloading) more or less to the techie community - a vastly smaller market than the reading public at large.

It may be out there, but to date I haven't found anything better than the hoops the customer must endure (i.e., those noted above for Smashwords) to obtain content non-wirelessly. If there were such a service, ideally it would:

1. Allow storage of the author's content on his/her website, i.e., hard drive, flash drive or server;

2. Provide a link to the downloading service which would, once he's there, ask the customer what book he wants and what device he wants it downloaded to; and

3. After payment, convert the requested content on the fly to the format appropriate for that device and transmit it to the customer wirelessly.

While this would be the service's core capability, it could also provide such bells and whistles as accounting services (tracking sales, etc.). Is any of this possible with GoDaddy? Or another service?

07-09-2013, 08:52 AM	#17
Alyssa Miranda Connoisseur Posts: 59 Karma: 1121282 Join Date: Jun 2013 Location: New Jersey Device: Kindle and Nook	I know it's early, but how are things going with GoDaddy? This is a follow-up to Greg Bell's post on May 29th, following which, in seeking to establish a "do-it-yourself" website he decided to go with GoDaddy in preference to WordPress. Meanwhile I have also been struggling to establish a do-it-yourself site, but have stuck with wordpress.com despite its lack of an e-commerce capability, as noted in a previous post. The most daunting problem has been to find a way to download content to the customer in the various file formats (in my case, PDF, and EPUB and MOBI via calibre), and to the various devices (again in my case, limited to the Kindle and Nook). To see how other sites have addressed the problem I looked at Smashwords (which I assume is the most prominent of the non-Amazon, non-BN, non-Apple sites), and found, in the FAQ section, two full pages of downloading/sideloading instructions in small type, this in contrast to the convenience of the wireless capability of the major sites, where, after clicking to purchase it the content appears literally moments later on your device, ready for reading. To me at least, this difference appears to limit non-wireless transmission (sideloading) more or less to the techie community - a vastly smaller market than the reading public at large. It may be out there, but to date I haven't found anything better than the hoops the customer must endure (i.e., those noted above for Smashwords) to obtain content non-wirelessly. If there were such a service, ideally it would: 1. Allow storage of the author's content on his/her website, i.e., hard drive, flash drive or server; 2. Provide a link to the downloading service which would, once he's there, ask the customer what book he wants and what device he wants it downloaded to; and 3. After payment, convert the requested content on the fly to the format appropriate for that device and transmit it to the customer wirelessly. While this would be the service's core capability, it could also provide such bells and whistles as accounting services (tracking sales, etc.). Is any of this possible with GoDaddy? Or another service?