Proven Ways To Protect Your
Digital Products From Thieves
©2002 Robert Key
The Internet today is absolutely flooded with digital products
of one sort or another. Whether they are reports, white papers,
case studies, ebooks, software, or dozens of others. Digital products
offer a ton of advantages including instant availability, immediate
downloads, ease of emailing, and so on. The one drawback, however,
that many authors are finding hard to swallow is the inability to
protect your sales from pirates.
The constant wondering about how many products are being pirated
or shared with others illegally can drive a person absolutely mad!
Notice I say “how many” not “if.” Unfortunately,
almost every digital product provider will have this happen at one
point or another. It’s a fact of Internet life.
So the question remains, “What do you do?”
Here are three easy-to-use and proven methods to protect your products
and your sales.
Change Your Download Link Regularly
If you currently use a payment service such as PayPal or ClickBank
that requires you to create your own download page, you’ll
want to be sure to change the URL for that page on a regular basis
(weekly or at least monthly). That way those who download your product
can’t copy the URL and share it with others.
Simply create your original download page. Then – either
weekly or monthly – save that page with a new file name. When
you do this BE SURE TO MAKE THE APPROPRIATE CHANGES WITH YOUR PAYMENT
PROVIDER so that legitimate customers can still access the page.
Use Passwords and Change Them Regularly
Passwords can be used with the product itself, with a .zip file,
or in order to gain access to the download page.
If using Acrobat or Microsoft Reader, use the password feature
to create security within your product. When customers purchase
the product, email them the password (or use a script to do this
automatically). The same idea applies to .zip files. These too can
be protected using passwords.
If you password protect the download page and change the password
regularly, you decrease your chances of having pirates accessing
your product.
Use License Coding
Most of the “damage” is done after a person legally
purchases a copy of your product. This person then begins to share
it with others, or even resells it illegally and keeps the profits!
There is only one solution I’ve found that will give you control
when this happens.
Overall, “license coding” is probably your best bet
for digital product protection. License coding gives you the ability
to insert a piece of code into your product (ebook, software, whatever)
that allows you to actually see how many users have your product.
If you find users on the list that have not paid, you actually have
the ability to deactivate their copies of your product. If you have
customers who request refunds, you can immediately disable their
products when you issue them a credit.
License coding is quick and easy and requires less time than some
of the other protection methods mentioned.
While you can’t stop the process of a person buying your
product and then sharing it with others via email, you can help
to alleviate the theft by taking action after it happens. You might
choose to use one method, or a combination of methods, to protect
your sales and your profits. That’s entirely up to you. However,
doing nothing at all is a sure bet that you’ll lose money!
Robert Key is a successful
Internet entrepreneur specializing in helping online
business people protect themselves and their digital
products. Let Robert show how to protect YOUR digital
products. Visit http://clicklocker.salestipz.com
today! |
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