Leaving source code viewable or not?

[profitgenie]

Hi all

I have recently released my own product and have set up the payment system through paypal. Checking out my stats with stat counter I can see several exit links going through to my paypal account.

But no payment, which could mean they decided not to buy at the last minute. My question is in letting people view my source code can they somehow bypass paying for my product and get to download page.

Not sure if that is possible just after some expert advice if possible, is it better to always hide the source code on your website or does it not really matter?

Anyone know a good free program that can hide the source code?

PG

[garciabogard]

put a robots.txt and disallow your download page/directory for search engine bots
and keep changing your download directory so if someone purchases your product and they give out the link in public...it won't work for long.

[Danny Turner]

You can't hide your source code - thats what the browsers read to display the page
make sure your paypal button is encripted
if you want to be sure invest in DLGuard - Download page protector, create expiring download links (highly recommended)
or there is a free one Automated Digital Delivery and Protected Downloads with SmartDD
cheers
Danny

[GrantFreeman]

I think what you're saying is that you're wanting to hide your buy now button code? If that's the case, Danny has good advice for a solution.

Also check LinkLok PayPal:
Linklok Paypal secure download delivery using IPN
(not an affiliate link)

Both hide the location of your download files and allow you to set time limits on download link availability.

Grant

[stevenh512]

Originally Posted by garciabogard

put a robots.txt and disallow your download page/directory for search engine bots

Bad idea. A robots.txt file is "human readable" and easy to find. If you use a robots.txt to disallow your download page for search engine bots and I wanted to "steal" your product, I could easily download your robots.txt file and find your download page that way. It's better to use a meta tag in the head section of your download page like this:

<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">

Even that doesn't completely protect you.. but it's a start. A couple other ideas to protect your download page are to always use either an encrypted or a hosted PayPal button when possible (so people can't get the return URL by viewing the source) and always use IPN to verify a transaction before allowing anyone to view the download page.

If you don't want to fool with the "techie" things like IPN yourself, a few of the suggestions listed here will do it for you (DLGuard, SmartDD and LinkLok). Out of the three I've never used LinkLok myself but I have used DLGuard and SmartDD and can recommend them both as simple solutions to protect your download page. Personally I prefer DLGuard, it's a bit more pricey but the support (from the author and several customers in the forum) can't be beat.

[profitgenie]

thankyou all for the quick response. will try them out now.