Are you thinking of buying digital content on TidWiT? Before you do, you may want to read the following buying tips, because unlike other widgets that are bought on other global marketplaces, content has special characteristics that will affect how you can use what you are buying. If you have a question that is not covered in these tips, please be sure to contact us at customer.service@tidwit.com or access communities in order to get advice from other TidWiT members.
1. What is digital content?
2. What type of digital content can I buy on TidWiT?
3. What does it mean to buy digital content?
4. How do I protect the intellectual property I am buying?
5. What differentiates the content being sold on TidWiT?
6. How do I search for Content?
7. How can I make sure the content I buy is worth it?
8. Is TidWiT content available elsewhere for free?
9. How do I determine the content price on TidWiT?
10. How can I pay for my TidWiT content purchases?
11. Can I return, exchange, or get a refund on my TidWiT purchases?

Digital content is any form of data or information in digital form (i.e. an electronic file). It can be anything from a simple poem to photos, graphic art, research papers, articles, reports, statistical databases, business plans, engineering designs, e-books, multimedia (music and movies). In other words, any type of content that can be turned into a digital medium, stored, and transferred between computers on the World Wide Web and elsewhere. To access more information about digital content, and how it is different from printed or other types of off-line content, please go to What Is Digital Content?

As TIDWIT is a global content marketplace that anybody can access and search free of charge, you can pretty much buy on TIDWIT.com any electronic content that someone out there has posted for sale. This includes articles, research papers, e-books, pictures, poems, business plans, engineering and architectural designs, graphic art, music, movies, etc. The most important aspect of buying digital content on TIDWIT is that you are only buying the right to use what you buy. Intellectual property rights remain with the original author or provider of the content.

Unlike buying physical objects, when you buy your content, you are essentially buying the right to simply use what you have bought (read it, play it, print it for personal usage, or present it). However, unless agreed to otherwise, the intellectual property rights remain with the content provider or seller; and you as the buyer may not be able to reproduce the content for resale or reprint without the strict and written consensual approval of the content provider or seller.

The simplest way is for you to save what you download from TidWiT it a safe place, making sure what you have bought does not get misused, improperly cited, or illegally copied and distributed.

While TidWiT realizes there are many different ways utilized to abuse Intellectual Property, we depend on your honesty and fairness as buyers as well as those of sellers to make sure that the TidWiT community remain respectful of the Intellectual Properties of those interacting on its site.

Everyone knows that the Internet is full of content. So what is so special about TidWiT's content? There are several important differentiators.

First and foremost, we like to think of ourselves as helping the small guy (or gal) anywhere in the world to publish whatever they have worked hard at creating and deem would be worth something to someone else. While the Internet offers millions of websites full of free content, many potential sellers who cannot get published and cannot afford owning a web site end up not posting their valuable content. This is a great loss because some potential buyers somewhere may be needing this content for their own purposes- be it for research, musical interests, talent searches, or for any other reason. TidWiT is a digital content marketplace that allows buyers access to a world of information from a worlds of sellers at a very affordable cost- with ample content selling for pocket change. TidWiT also creates a community where content buyers and sellers can interact with one another, review content, discuss issues, and share interests.

Another great advantage that TidWiT brings is the possibility of searching for different content types in one single place. The Internet has some places selling music, others selling books, others selling images, etc. A buyer looking for multiple content types, may very well end up needing to buy this content off of disparate web sites. At TidWiT, though, buyers can lookup any kind of content that one or more authors may have posted- for instance a musician may be selling her book, her album, and her videos in one place- and then can do one single purchase- seamlessly. In addition, the TidWiT Pocket change feature is a great way for buyers, browsing for content, to leave a token of appreciation for those who are giving away their content. At TidWiT, Wouldn't it be great if a buyer had the chance to leave say a Dollar or two to a software programmer in India from whom he had downloaded an application that he used to kill an unusual virus.

Yet another key TidWiT difference is that the content you have paid for and downloaded, can remain

TidWiT members and non-members alike can do searches on TidWiT-listed digital content. There are three ways that one can search for content on TidWiT's web site: Simple Search, Category Search, and Advanced Search.

Simple search is the search that is found in the header of every TidWiT page. Just type in the word you want to search on and click on GO, and TidWiT will return a listing that references the keyword you had entered.

Category search is one where the user starts his browse at the highest level by choosing the document type (Text, Visuals, Sound, Film, or Software), and then the subcategory, and then the subject area. Once the user gets a listing within the subject area, the user can then browse the content items- one at a time. The category search can be accessed from the home page by clicking on any of the category buttons or the subcategories that appear on the left-most column of the home page; or alternatively, it can be accessed by pressing on advanced search and then clicking on the category search.

A third type of search is the Advanced Search, where the user can enter the exact fields he wishes to search and then clicking on the "Search Now" button. TidWiT will conduct this search using Boolean logic and return the resulting listing for the user to choose the content items from.

TidWiT buyers are recommended to know what they are buying before they buy and pay for it. For example, if the content buyer found a report that they need, it is recommended that they take a look at the Table of Contents or Bibliography (which are usually offered for free by the sellers). Buyers should also look up the rating of the content, and the rating of the seller- if available. Last but not least, be sure to contact the seller if you have any particular question that wish to ask.

Also, once the purchase has been made and the content viewed or played, be sure to leave a rating so that others such as yourself can benefit from your experience in buying this piece of content from this particular content provider.

What you will find on TidWiT is unlikely to be found for free elsewhere. If it is, it may mean one of several things. It could mean that others are violating the IP rights of a TidWiT seller, or vice-versa. In either case, please contact our copyright violations department about it at violationsandabuse@tidwit.com. But, it could also mean that the TidWiT member has added some value to otherwise public domain information, which as a potential buyer we recommend that you clarify by contacting the TidWiT seller directly.

The price you pay for your content will depend on the pricing method set by the seller- which could come in one of four methods: Fixed price, Haggled Price, Pocket Change, or auction.

The easiest and most straightforward method is via a fixed price.For example, you may buy and download a music album by the TidWiT Rockers for say US$10.99. All you need to do in this case is add it to your cart, check out the cart, pay the US$10.99 price, and download. There are no shipping charges, no sales taxes, or other fees. What you see is pretty much what you get.

The second pricing method may be through a haggle. In this the seller posts a starting price- say a collection of 36 slides of Tibet for US$36.00; and the item appears in the listings with a Haggle iT logo. You may offer the photographer in this case US$15; and after the haggle reach a compromise on US$25.

A third method is via TidWiT's Pocket Change. In this case, a seller posts his content for US$0; and you as the buyer have the option of leaving the Pocket Change you wish-if any. Pocket Change items appear in the listings with a specific icon, and can be added to the shopping carts like any items. You may decide to leave Pocket change when you check out the item, or at a later date, or you can just delete it from your shopping cart.

Buying content via auction is unusual and applies only in cases where the content is exclusive and time-sensitive (breaking news footage...). This as a feature, however, is not yet available in TidWiT and will be forthcoming in the near future.

There are two ways you can pay for your content on TidWiT. One way is to simply use your credit card. Our credit card processing facilities are secure, and your credit card information will not be saved unless you so request. The other way is for you to use your Paypal account if you have one.

As provided by the site agreement http://www.tidwit.com/Agreement.asp, TidWiT is only a venue on which transactions are conducted and is in no way responsible for the content being traded on the site. TidWiT's responsibility, rather, is to make sure that the transaction is secure and transparent between buyer and seller. This said, due to the nature of content and the fact that a buyer gets immediate access to a piece of content as soon as they purchase it, TidWiT also acts as the financial intermediary, receiving payment from the buyer (via PayPal or Credit Card), and as soon as it clears sending it to the seller. Since TidWiT is only a venue, and since content could be accessed immediately after purchase, returns or exchanges are typically not allowed on TidWiT except for extenuating circumstances, which are rare, and are looked at on a case by case basis. The reason this policy is in place is quite simply to protect content authors from having their content downloaded, used, and then returned- something which would not be fair to authors- particularly those with high value content (research reports, software, video, presentations...). The policy has worked fine so far for both sellers and buyers; and TidWiT has not had any community complaints. Indeed in the handful of cases that TidWiT has seen, post-purchase issues get resolved directly between buyer and seller without TidWiT getting involved. This said, and in order to avoid any potential misunderstandings or problems, content buyers are advised BEFORE making a purchase to look at the content's previews as provided by the author- for instance the table of contents, some sample pages, or images, or even sound bites, as well as the author's biography and ratings. This should help them set the proper expectations with respect to the content they will be purchasing. As for sellers wanting to make sure they price their content reasonably so as not to receive complaints or bad reviews, they are advised to either look at similar items being sold which would give them a better price-point feel. Alternatively, authors can enable either the "haggle" pricing option on TidWiT where the price is actually negotiated between the buyer and seller; or the pocket change (R) (Donate) option, where the item can be placed for a minimum price (could be even zero), and then whoever is buying it can come back and put in any price they deem fair (kind of like pocket change in an underground metro).