22 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}
22 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}

How To Protect Yourself From Copycats?

by Monthy
18 replies
Hello all,

I am a Clickbank affiliate but currently only own and run one website related to a single niche. I do well, but want to expand my businesses to other areas/niches and thus need to start new websites soon.

I wanted to ask you whether you know of a way to protect yourself from copycats and idea stealers. I don't want anyone to be able to figure out who the owner of all of these sites is and what my marketing methods are. In other words, I don't want anyone to see how I pick my niches and that all the websites which I'm going to own belong to the same person (me).

What I plan to do is set up a redirect on my site when linking to the vendor's sales page, probably use the Pretty Link plugin for this purpose, as I run on Wordpress anyway. My plan is to hide my Clickbank aff id this way so no-one can make a search on Google for "hop=affid" on clickbank and find all of my sites this way. I don't know if this is sufficient protection but it's some. I'm open to ideas if you know of a better way to protect my business from "reverse-engineers".

I also have Whois guard protection for my current site and I'll have it for all of my future sites, too. I don't know if it can be overcome, I think a "creative" and "resourceful" person could do, but I do believe it provides some protection, too.

Is there anything else I can do? A friend of mine told me to place every website on a different host so no-one can spot me by name servers, but I don't want to do that, I want to stick with my Hostgator account.

Cheers,
Monthy
#copycats #idea #protect #steal #thiefs
  • Profile picture of the author Burton Lancaster
    The best protection is doing 100% the best possible job you can do and leave little room for improvement. Make it so hard to duplicate the value and complexity you are providing that it is not worth the time to duplicate.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8519556].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Like many security measures, about the best you can do is make things tough enough to a) keep the honest folks honest and b) make your sites a less attractive target for thieves.

      Kind of like having deadbolts on your door and a security system in place. If someone really wants in, they can get in. Otherwise, they'll go looking for the house with the door or window unlocked and the alarm not set.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8519588].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Monja
      Originally Posted by Burton Lancaster View Post

      The best protection is doing 100% the best possible job you can do and leave little room for improvement. Make it so hard to duplicate the value and complexity you are providing that it is not worth the time to duplicate.
      I totally agree with this statement. Don't worry about copycats, do your very best
      Signature

      Free Business Class on Skillshare:
      http://skl.sh/2bvH8nS

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8522335].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Monthy
    How about protecting yourself from content thieves, i.e., people who just come to my site, copy the content of my articles and post their own website? Actually, I don't mind if they do this with a link to back to my site in the last paragraph of the article intact, that's what is what I want them to do anyway when I post my articles to EZA, but is there a way for me to find out thieves who post the content without the links to my site?
    Signature

    Free thanks to anyone who replies to me. :)

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8519603].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Like I said, if someone is really determined to steal, they'll find a way. Heck, if they want it bad enough, all they have to do is open a wordor text processor and hand-type your content. If you allow humans to see your pages, there's no way to stop that.

      As for tracking who uses what, I set up a couple of Google alerts. One is a ~10 word excerpt from the middle of the article, spanning two sentences. The other is the link from my bio at the end, which helps me locate potential syndication partners who do things the right way.

      If you do find a copycat thief, drop a DMCA notice on them, with a naked CC: to their webhost and domain registrar. They might ignore one sent privately, but the CC: usually gets pretty quick action.

      Even this isn't foolproof, as some content thieves operate in countries which have a history of not honoring intellectual property rights. Think much of Asia and the former Soviet bloc...
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8519710].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Meharis
      Originally Posted by Monthy View Post

      How about protecting yourself from content thieves, i.e., people who just come to my site, copy the content of my articles and post their own website? Actually, I don't mind if they do this with a link to back to my site in the last paragraph of the article intact, that's what is what I want them to do anyway when I post my articles to EZA, but is there a way for me to find out thieves who post the content without the links to my site?

      Monthy,

      Here's a link that may help you: How to Use Copyscape: 5 Steps - wikiHow Not Affiliate

      Meharis
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8520619].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Monja
      Originally Posted by Monthy View Post

      How about protecting yourself from content thieves, i.e., people who just come to my site, copy the content of my articles and post their own website? Actually, I don't mind if they do this with a link to back to my site in the last paragraph of the article intact, that's what is what I want them to do anyway when I post my articles to EZA, but is there a way for me to find out thieves who post the content without the links to my site?
      Again, nothing to worry about. Google "knows" where the content is published first so in the eyes of the search engine you are save anyway.
      Signature

      Free Business Class on Skillshare:
      http://skl.sh/2bvH8nS

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8522336].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author fortony
        Originally Posted by Monja View Post

        Again, nothing to worry about. Google "knows" where the content is published first so in the eyes of the search engine you are save anyway.
        Unfortunately, I do not think you are right about that. Often, they do not know. I dont have the links right now, but I have seen studies that prove that.

        But yes, I think all you can really do is make the best content possible.
        Signature

        Give your glass products the strength of 9H tempered glass with Dglass Coat. https://dglasscoat.com/

        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8522622].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        Originally Posted by Monja View Post

        Again, nothing to worry about. Google "knows" where the content is published first so in the eyes of the search engine you are save anyway.
        As I understand it, the only thing Google knows is the date a piece of content was first indexed by Google. Which isn't necessarily the same thing as where the content was first published.

        That's one reason so many of us recommend publishing content to our own sites first, and waiting to be indexed before syndicating.
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8522652].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author jasondinner
    Focus on providing a ton of value to your markets and don't focus on being ripped off.

    Who cares. it's gonna happe and all the energy you waste trying to protect yourself will be for nothing.

    Take it as a compliment and keep working on improving.

    I get ripped off a lot and people dont even know they're ripping me off. I don't care. It means I'm doing something right and worth emulating.

    Thats how I recommend you approach it.

    Unless of course they blatantly stole your content your web pages, and eveyrthing else, then you may have to get all legal on them.
    Signature

    "Human thoughts have the tendency to transform themselves into their physical equivalent." Earl Nightingale

    Super Affiliates Hang Out Here

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8520932].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author jasondinner
    Focus on providing a ton of value to your markets and don't focus on being ripped off.

    Who cares. it's gonna happe and all the energy you waste trying to protect yourself will be for nothing.

    Take it as a compliment and keep working on improving.

    I get ripped off a lot and people dont even know they're ripping me off. I don't care. It means I'm doing something right and worth emulating.

    Thats how I recommend you approach it.

    Unless of course they blatantly stole your content your web pages, and eveyrthing else, then you may have to get all legal on them.
    Signature

    "Human thoughts have the tendency to transform themselves into their physical equivalent." Earl Nightingale

    Super Affiliates Hang Out Here

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8520933].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author joseph7384
    Originally Posted by Monthy View Post

    What I plan to do is set up a redirect on my site when linking to the vendor's sales page, probably use the Pretty Link plugin for this purpose, as I run on Wordpress anyway. My plan is to hide my Clickbank aff id this way so no-one can make a search on Google for "hop=affid" on clickbank and find all of my sites this way. I don't know if this is sufficient protection but it's some.
    Using Pretty link will not hide your hop link.
    Signature
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8521002].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Monthy
      Originally Posted by Meharis View Post

      Monthy,

      Here's a link that may help you: How to Use Copyscape: 5 Steps - wikiHow Not Affiliate

      Meharis
      Thank you, Meharis, I totally forgot about Copyscape (haven't used it in a long time). Thank you for the reminder.

      Originally Posted by joseph7384 View Post

      Using Pretty link will not hide your hop link.
      Hi Joseph, actually I believe it will do, but only on the sites themselves. Of course, if someone clicks through such a link, they will see my aff ID in the URL of the sales page, but that's not the point, I don't mind this. The aff ID won't appear on the sites, because it will be nowhere in the source code for the webpages that will rank in Google, and that's what I'm about. I wouldn't want anyone to see a link to a vendor's sales page on one of my sites, then go to Google, type in "hop=myid" and discover all of my sites, all of which would have this "hop=myid" somewhere in the source code and therefore would get found by Google. They won't if I use Pretty Link or a similar way of redirecting my links, I believe.
      Signature

      Free thanks to anyone who replies to me. :)

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8521924].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author sidneyng
    Agreed with JohnMcCabe - providing value is the best way to go...
    I think putting a bit of personality in your products also helps - that's something nobody can steal from you. Having a certain style in presenting stuff.

    As they say - it's the singer not the song ;-)
    Signature
    13 Things I Wished I Knew When I First Started Out...
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8522315].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author dgiles63
    If you pay for privacy on your websites, and you put measures into making them secure, that should be enough to with keeping keep most people from hacking your ideas.

    Your website content will be copied and syndicated--it is what the internet is all about. For your website content make sure your content is full of cloaked links so that anyone copying your content gets the links also.

    Focus on driving people to your email opt-in pages, and make your sales from email.
    Signature

    Dean Giles
    Instant Profit with Step-by-Step Books
    Or Profit with
    Google Keyword Planner Exploited

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8522715].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Kevin242
    There is not much you can do if someone wants to duplicate it because anyone can easily take the idea, rewrite a bit and resell it. But if you have a rather unique concept that offers a service that is hard to duplicate and only you can offer the service, than you will have a unique product that is hard to duplicate.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9104362].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Don Grace
    This is a prime example of human nature... "Most people will work much harder to keep someone from stealing 10K from you than to earn 10K"

    Man you're creating a major distraction and time suck for yourself. Sure, there's some idiots that might try to rip you off... SO WHAT. That life in the business world.

    If you're authentic NOBODY can ever copy that and you'll win in your market. Approach your biz like this quote a very wealthy marketing friend of mine said a day ago... "How can we become the company that would put us out of business"
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9104706].message }}

Trending Topics