Protecting your information product

by Neil Morgan

Posted: 15 years ago 12 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

This question relates to information products such as ebooks, but not software.

I'm interested to know how Warriors publish their information products. I'm sure many people reading this would like to know what methods are available.

PDF?
Some kind of ebook creator?
Something else?

More importantly, how do you protect it and the revenue it generates for you? I'm not talking about protecting your download link because that's easily done with something like DL Guard.

How do you stop people simply passing your product around?

How do you limit it to the customer who bought it?

Or maybe you don't worry about that.

Comments welcome.

Cheers,

Neil

#information #product #protecting

Daniel Deegan 15 years ago

If your willing to use an eBook creator that outputs an executable file instead of a PDF there are a few options that allow you to require registration and disable ebooks from people who refund. I Think Armand's eBook generator has this feature. Also Russel Brunson has a product that has the same functionality. Is using and exe over a PDF worth it...I don't know. Another option is to password protect PDF's. Also I'm sure Adobe will soon implement a feature to allow remote enabling and disabling of PDF's.
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- Neil Morgan 15 years ago
  
  Also I'm sure Adobe will soon implement a feature to allow remote enabling and disabling of PDF's.
  
  That's interesting. Have you heard that they're planning to do that?
  
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Neil Morgan 15 years ago

I had look at Ovis PDF and you can protect it with a password. But what if someone makes the thing available along with the password. Not much good, right?

Cheers,

Neil
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Kneb Knebaih 15 years ago

You can always go to a freelancer site and post your project (exactly what you want and how)...

There many talented coders (and hackers) that can build for you the perfect solution.

Heck! You can even offer your new solution later for sale as your new product...
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Neil Morgan 15 years ago

Hello Kneb

Actually, I'm not looking for a specific solution for myself although I do have an idea that could work.

I opened the discussion to flush out the currently available solutions. There are 2 or 3 other threads currently discussing ebook theft so it's certainly an issue that's close to many Warriors' hearts!

Cheers,

Neil
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Daniel Deegan 15 years ago

Well Adobe has a rights management system using something called LiveCyle, but it's mostly used within organizations to control PDF access. I think I have read about them implementing something similar for publishers who want to sell PDF based products but maintain usage controls.

I'm not %100 but I'll try find what I read. As for PDF's that are password protected they are pretty easy to crack using off the self software and as you said they could just give out the password.
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- Alan Petersen 15 years ago
  
  I use PDF's for my info products. I use DLGuard for the DL protection but once they have it there isn't much I can do to prevent them from passing it around or posting it on a site somewhere. Even if it's password protected they can pass that along as well. The majority of people are good so I don't want to put my customers through that hassle to protect against a small minority that are theives.
  
  If your download links are protected and your product server is protected you'll zap out the bulk of the problem. The only ones left are actual paying customers who are passing it around. I don't like it but not much can be done to prevent that. Maybe someone will come up with a way that an ebook is attached to an IP address so if it's accessed from anothers IP address or computer it won't open.
  
  Even that isn't theft proof. There is a thread by Dana about how someone stole her ebook by copy and pasting the whole thing as posts in his blog. I don't think there is any software or trick to prevent that. About all you can do then is hire an attorney but the ROI on that won't be worth it. But it might make you feel better.
  
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Curt Dillion 15 years ago

I think using .exe books would be self-defeating, in that many would be reluctant to purchase.

Pdf is probably the most acceptable format for purchasers. You can put 2 passwords on the file, which makes is more difficult to break.

I think the best solutiion is to just make sure you've got plenty of links in it that lead back to your own site and products. Happy day! Just let others pass them around, as they will do it anyway. Consider it as advertising.
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- Neil Morgan 15 years ago
  
  I think using .exe books would be self-defeating, in that many would be reluctant to purchase.
  
  I bet Mac and Linux users love .exe files. Not!
  
  Because, of course, the beauty of PDF's is that they're cross-platform.
  
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  Neil
  
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- Loren Woirhaye 15 years ago
  
  There are a few methods out there and they are all likely
  to be annoying to your customers.
  
  Unfortunately protecting your ebook is pretty hard to do
  without making things hard for your customers.
  
  Other solutions:
  
  - self-publish it in paper and mail it. A "sharer" would have to
  be highly motivated to scan and upload it to the 'net.
  
  - embed the ebook in a custom software program that does
  additional functions described in the ebook. The ebook
  will be a lot less interesting to copy if the software isn't
  included. John Reese did a version of this with TS2 -
  integrating the info-product with software.
  
  - write it better and self-publish as a real book.
  
  - build a back-end into the ebook so you make can make
  additional sales from unwitting sharers. Think of the
  ebook as your "front end"
  
  - put a link to an opt-in page where readers can get
  the latest information. Once they are on you list YOU,
  as the authority, are in a position to sell coaching services
  or whatever.
  
  INFO products - especially ebooks, are doomed to getting
  devalued on the internet as competing informations surfaces
  or the product gets widely shared.
  
  If your product is useful to people it will get shared around.
  Plan for this - use it to create credibility for yourself and
  future sales of new products you release.
  
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Shane Bryan 15 years ago

Protecting info products is about the same as anything else, someone motivated enough will find a way around it.

Personally, from a customer's point of view I really hate it when someone password protects an ebook. I have a lot of stuff on my hard drive. A password just means one more thing to keep track of if I want to use the ebook. The harder you make it for me to access the information the less likely I am to use it, or buy from you again.

I am all for securing the ebook however. If someone wants to rip it off and use as content on the web let them work for it.

I think the best thing to do is accept the fact that a few will pass it around and hope that most people are in fact good (I believe so). As someone above suggested, put a few links in the book so you are making something even if it gets passed around.

These are my thoughts on the subject.

Hope they help.

Shane
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imaddict 15 years ago

Originally Posted by Neil Morgan

How do you stop people simply passing your product around?

I've been pondering over this lately as well and I'm having my programmer write a script that does the following:

1. Customer purchases
2. Shopping Cart Data is passed to the script
3. Script inserts customer's info into the PDF

- Full name
- Address
- Phone Number
- Email Address

Preceded by a statement: This eBook is licensed to (data above) - unauthorized reproduction/distribution is blah blah blah. If you are not (said person) please contact xxxx and you may be entitled to a cash reward.

Of course, a hacker could easily get rid of this but the average user will think twice before posting the ebook on a torrent site if all their contact information is on there. I was even thinking of inserting credit card info but that might be going overboard.

If someone is PHP savvy, please feel free to 'steal' this idea and create a good (and affordable) product we can all start using
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