Delivery Method for Info

Your secure members area idea seems to be a good one. Go with that idea.

Do you want people who download paid stuff for free on forums, as customers?

No. You don't.

So what have you lost, really?

Loss of income? For a weightloss product with great information?

Already you have a scarcity mindset, and you haven't even created the bloomin' thing yet.

If it's a PDF then deliver the PDF.

If you have videos too, then yes, prob'ly a good idea to have a members area.

Not everyone is a thief online. Besides, aren't your customers looking to lose weight, and NOT start their own online business? Would a person buying a product to lose weight, be interested in plastering the product on forums?

Doubtful.

And even if there is a chance your groundbreaking information product gets stolen, who cares? Hopefully you're not filling your email list with a bunch of shifty, back-street hacks.

Play to win. Focus on YOUR best customers (prospects) and NOT the dirt-bags who steal.

Hey Brian,

I'm with Declan on this one.

People who illegally download your PDF were never likely to pay for it in the first place. So you didn't really lose any income, because they were never going to buy it from you anyway.

And who knows (NoOneKnows )... Someone who stumbles upon your PDF might just say "hey, this guy has good stuff" then they might end up at your site paying for your premium content.

That could be a customer who never would have found you any other way (just make sure you include a watermark and your website link throughout your PDF)


The reality is, the only way to completely prevent people from swiping your content is to never put it out into the world.

Coincidentally, that's also the exact same way to be sure no one ever buys it.

You could try a membership subscription site people will be encouraged to keep up their subscription if you are continuously adding new content.

I learned this lesson from Alex Jeffreys years ago.

He would always put his product delivery on a random unprotected page. The course videos, the bonuses, all of it was delivered right there.

And I was always asking myself, "why the heck does he do that? won't people just share the URL or request a refund but keep access???"

Answer: it didn't matter. The percentage of people who were going to do that was probably around 1-2% and those types of people would have found a way to do EVEN IF he had put it in a secured members area.

And what does that cost him in potential sales? Almost nothing.

So why bother?

He was busy making six-figures in sales from each of those product launches and growing his business, rather than wasting time trying to find a way to keep all the cockroaches out.

End result? He dominated the IM niche and now has an INC 5000 company. The cockroaches who did steal his stuff or share with others? They're still all broke cockroaches.

I'm definitely NOT saying that members areas are not a good idea.

I'm just saying, don't sweat the small stuff too much. Sweat the big stuff.

In fact, the above lesson is one of the reasons I offer a "keep the product" guarantee/refund policy on almost everything I sell.

As what Declan mentioned "Not everyone is a thief online. Besides, aren't your customers looking to lose weight, and NOT start their own online business? Would a person buying a product to lose weight, be interested in plastering the product on forums? "

It makes a lot of sense.

Since it doesn't exist yet and you really don't know how well it will sell. Do you really want to go through all the trouble of setting it up the way you are talking about and then find out it doesn't sell that great?

If it's just a PDF file, I would just make it available for download on the thank you page.

Then later on if you're killing it and you want to make it more secure you could.

20 I agree with the rest of the respondents here. That worrying yourself about who is pirating your work will just kill you my brother. Microsoft programs have been pirated on a mega scale but it has not stopped him from making billions out of them. In fact, trying to protect published work by disabling copying and pasting is a waste of time. Writers can be hired to copy the job into word and you will be shocked to see it going viral.

I'm going to be a contrarian and say that those who're brushing off your concerns of piracy aren't really putting themselves in your shoes.

As a content creator, I can tell you that piracy is a real thing -- any great product is bound to be duplicated and shared. And it would take a saint of a human being (basically against human nature) to not download the free version vs. whatever you're planning to charge for your course.

I'd say look into a few course platforms and see what each of them offers in terms of piracy protection. Most offer a members' area and also pay-per-view.

I can tell you from a person, not a colleague, that most people will come in and download the free version. This is human nature. I agree Medon that Microsoft programs were pirated, but Bill Gates didn't stop earning millions from it)