How do i security protect an ebook

[bluefilla]

Hi guys, i am new to IM and am just writing my first ebook ....Budget Online Business Startup Guide(might still change the name). Sounds like a mouth full, but its been doing the business offline. I am no techie and i would like to find out how i can security protect my ebook.

[Phil Weslow]

I am no tech expert either, but one thing you can do is to change the location of your ebook periodically, say weekly. For example if your ebook is currently at http://www.yoursite.com/xyz then next week you might want to change it to http://www.yoursite.com/yfg.

The reason for this is so that one person does not just buy the ebook and then just email the link to all their friends. Keep in mind you will have to come up with some sort of customer service policy to handle customers who can no longer access the link.

Also please make sure that you the page that your site is on, "no-follow" so the search engines do not index the page, since then search engine users could just access your ebook without paying.

I'm sure there are other more advanced strategies, but hopefully this helps with some of the basics.

[Loren Woirhaye]

Well, first of all you ahould have links embedded in your ebook
so even if it does get shared around you'll have the opportunity
to make back end sales.

Ultimately publishing your real book as an ebook will devalue it
to pretty near zero eventually. Real books stop selling too
so it's sort of parallel. Beginners guides seem to have "legs"
though because newbies don't know how to get information
for free on file-sharing sites, etc. I've seen beginner guides
that sell steadily for 3-4 years or more.

You can use something like DLGuard - which another Warrior
wrote. This controls downloads but it doesn't stop people
from sharing your ebook once they have it.

You can put a password on the ebook too with your PDF creator.
This can stop unauthorized users from opening the ebook - but
it's kind of annoying.

You can also use a solution that hosts your ebook online - basically
like a membership site... and if your buyers want a refund or you
track the ebook getting looked at from several IPs with the same
unername/password you can shut down the account. Setting it up
this way is somewhat secure but also highly annoying to your buyers
who then have to be online to read it.

The best strategy is to have your links in your ebook so you can
make sales and build your list on the back-end... after all - if a beginner
got your guide for free and liked it so much he wanted to buy other
stuff from you that wouldn't be a bad thing, would it?

[kj95100]

Originally Posted by bluefilla

Hi guys, i am new to IM and am just writing my first ebook ....Budget Online Business Startup Guide(might still change the name). Sounds like a mouth full, but its been doing the business offline. I am no techie and i would like to find out how i can security protect my ebook.

The best solution I have found for security protecting your ebook is through a site called Secure-eBook (just do a Google search). This option may seem extreme to some, but if you truly want to protect your ebook from copying and being passed around for free, Secure-eBook is the solution.

Check it out...

Kelly

[nair]

Here's something I downloaded a few months back called EZ download page protector.

link: http://marketingentity.com/downloadi...dprotector.zip

Just PM if you want to know how to use it. It's pretty basic, but effective if you don't want to spend much.

[Vin_J]

send a physical copy. Outsource if you need to (so you don't have to mail it). Plus you can charge more

[FitJerk]

Originally Posted by AnarchyAds

You don't need to worry about keeping people from seeing your product FREE.

You need to be worried about people NOT seeing your product.

Foucs your energy on writting and promoting, not protecting.

If it's well protected, that means there will be compatibility issues
with people who do pay for it. Eg. If they dont have the latest
version of whatever, it will screw-up ... and they'll seek refund.

The only way around it is to run a membership site where the content stays on your server.

I could not agree more. STOP worrying about your book, I know you put some hard work into it but a few steals here and there WILL happen.

If your book becomes popular there WILL be shared versions, but so what. The advice given here is solid, put some links into it to a product page where you have more higher end products or WILL have higher end products.

From experience, here's a little DOS and DONTS of protection... note I have the paying customer in mind.

DON'T:

* Password protect your .pdf so you have to enter a password everytime you want to read it
* Host it on an expiring web page that 'self destructs'. In case something goes wrong or they lose their net connection, they should be able to DL what they paid for
* Put more than 1 hoop that they have to jump through to DL their paid product. The only thing I personally ask before they DL my book is their email address so it gets added to a seperate opt-in list from the MAIN optin list on my page. This also lets me know who to give product support to and who NOT to.
* Host your product on the "thank you page" as clickbank calls it. Make that page for the optin and make it so that they have to click a button and then can dl the book on the next page
* Have a predictable page name like: (yourwebsite).com/thankyou.html

DO:
* Change your download page every week and blast out an email to your paid customers incase they need to Re-download
* Have insanely long downloadpage names like (yourwebsite).com/book_bo_now1010934872htaclaiwe_tytyty_ty.html
* Encrypt your page source so no one can see your page source by right clicking
* Change the name of your thankyou page every week or month.


There you go. In the end, focus on creating a solid product and providing great content and the minor sharing of your book copy wont even affect you. Infact the hardest part is to get your eBook to a level of popularity where everyone is TRYING to find it in torrent sites or Limewire or whatever else they use these days.

Cheers!

-Sahil M
FlawlessFitnessBook.com

[Anthony J Namata]

I tend to agree with Loren Woirhaye. Embed your ebook with links. Get some back-end sales!

[Daveone]

Stop worrying about protecting your book and concentrate on writing it. No matter how protected your ebook is, there will be some steals here and there. But I will recommend DLGuard or e-junkie if you want to protect your download link so that your buyers won't be able to pass the link around.

[UnityinAustralia]

I tried protecting my ebook (and 3 of my client's ebooks - I am in web design), using a variety of methods and software.

Some of the above methods are manually intensive (changing location of ebook on your server repeatedly, for example).

I only consider solutions that are hands-free and no maintenance once they are set up.

I tried a number of free scripts that encrypt the download link, or expire after a certain time.

Ran into problems with those - the scripts proved to be faulty (perhaps why they were free in the first place?)

A while ago I was using EbookPro from Internet Marketing Center - Learn How to Make Money Online

Expensive solution, and irritating sometimes to the customers, because they need to download a special program to view the ebook. But it could lock up that ebook so tight that there was no way they could flog it.

[crissbert]

All great suggestions here. I totally agree with the suggestion that if you put links in your ebook to sell other products you will make back some sales you lose if your book is "stolen."

[TheRichVillain]

I agree with metalslug, he's got several good tips. Focus your efforts on the back end, develop follow-up products and services that will keep you customers coming back to you. Its easier to up-sell a current customer than to acquire a new one.

Good luck!

[Deji]

Changing the location of your ebook on your server really does not achieve anything much if done in isolation.This is because the page is still indexed by the search engines so if you know how to play withe the search engines,it will display the download page for you-you wouldn't even need to guess it.
If you want to use this option however,make sure you make your pages "no follow" so that they wouldn't be indexed by the SE's.
A much better method is to use htaccess.You should be able to acces this through your webhost's Cpanel if they offer the option.
DLGuard is also very good if you can afford it.
Finally,you could use a shopping cart that offers timed downloads so that once a customer downloads your purchased product,the download link will time out after a specific period of time.
The most important thing however is to focus on getting your products into as many hands as possible as others have said as digital products are very easy to pass around.Just make sure you include enough back-end offers

[kishorem]

how about corey rudl's ebook pro?

[Jim M]

The best thing you can do is protect the download location - for hands off hassle free use it has to be DLGuard.

When it comes to protection of the book - there are lots of 'locking' type products available - but they can be a pain - for example, many will only work on the computer you initially open it on, you have to be connected to the internet etc.

In my case, I use a main system, a laptop and a Sony ebook reader and may want a pdf file on all three - so I wouldn't be buying a book I couldn't pass around in my own systems.... in fact some of the few refunds I have requested over the years have been for products like this which were wrapped so tight it made them awkward to use.

Just my tuppenceworth.... good luck with your project.