| If you sell digital products online, you are probably | | | | 1. Prevents download link sharing, as in our forum |
| already familiar with the growing problem of your | | | | example referred to earlier. Each download link |
| e-books, etc. being stolen. This is how it works | | | | can have a expiring time limit as well as a |
| and how you can prevent it. | | | | maximum number of download attempts. This |
| A visitor to your site buys your product; for | | | | means that you can give your customer, for |
| example an e-book. Soon after downloading her | | | | example, 2 hours to download your product with |
| purchase, she visits a forum and supplies the link | | | | a maximum of 3 download attempts. Even if your |
| to the page containing your download information | | | | customer posted their own real download link on |
| to all the members. Before you know it, | | | | a public forum, the link would become useless |
| thousands of people are downloading your e-book! | | | | before real damage is done. If your real customer |
| These people are stealing from you and you are | | | | doesn't have time to download their product |
| unaware of your loss! | | | | within this time frame then you can easily reset |
| Many of these would have bought your e-book, | | | | their timer or download count. You can make |
| so you could have lost hundreds of dollars! | | | | your security as tight or as loose as you see fit |
| Or take another case. You set up your sales page | | | | for your customers. |
| using PayPal. Now your simple PayPal button script | | | | 2. Ignores insecure thankyou/download pages: A |
| is visible on your sales page if someone bothers | | | | common form of "hacking" is by simply searching |
| to "View Source". They can see where to | | | | for insecure download pages via popular search |
| download from and bypass the Payment page. | | | | engines. The term hacking is used loosely, as |
| Now PayPal will let you encrypt the button so only | | | | there is no skill in searching for insecure download |
| gobbledygook shows up in the source. But I have | | | | pages, but the effect can still be devastating. You |
| found a problem in that you cannot include | | | | could lose thousands of dollars. Google includes |
| redirect and thankyou pages inside that script, so | | | | PDF files in its search results. |
| you can force people to pay you, but then the | | | | If your download page or e-book is not secure, |
| supply of their goods is messy and involves email | | | | then people could be actually READING your |
| back and forth and so on. | | | | e-book without even realising they're stealing your |
| In another case I have seen, the PayPal page | | | | product. With the download guard in place, even if |
| was encrypted to prevent access to a download | | | | the whole world knows the URL of your |
| page, but the payment amount could be changed, | | | | thankyou page, they won't be able to download |
| so an expensive item could be purchased for 1 | | | | your products. The system checks to make sure |
| cent! | | | | a successful payment has been made before |
| Fortunately, there are ways to prevent this | | | | allowing access to the download area. |
| download theft. The simplest method which I | | | | Marketing tests and successful business owners |
| have come across recently involves using a third | | | | tell us time and again that to maximise profits you |
| party that provides an encrypted script that | | | | need to create a loyal customer list. This can be |
| secures your PayPal or other payment links and | | | | difficult or uneconomical by using customer signup |
| download information that you copy onto your | | | | forms as a large percentage of your customers |
| website. | | | | won't signup. First you need to convince them to |
| All your downloads are managed using a secure | | | | buy your product and then you need to convince |
| and automated process, There is no need to | | | | them to signup to your mailing list As part of the |
| confirm orders and send download links to | | | | download guard, they automatically add your |
| customers in email manually. On top of this, the | | | | customers to your mailing list after a sale is made |
| system will send you a confirmation email each | | | | and keep tracking records and file reports for you |
| time a successful buyer downloads your products. | | | | on who has downloaded your product. The |
| This is excellent for your record keeping; you will | | | | DLGuard services is not free, but is affordable |
| know how many people actually downloaded your | | | | and well supported if the users forum is any |
| products. Your confirmed customers can | | | | indication. |
| download the product within minutes of ordering it! | | | | What are your alternatives? |
| They don't have to wait for you to send them | | | | * Keep changing the location of the files every |
| emails to receive a download link or go to page | | | | month or so, as part of your website |
| after page to confirm their order. Just 1 step for | | | | maintenance. |
| them! | | | | * Keep renaming your download page frequently. |
| There are two such systems which I have | | | | * Provide download from a different domain. |
| investigated, but I am not affiliated with either. | | | | * Use encrypted pages that prevent right clicks |
| One is provided by This system is free to use | | | | and drop-down menus from revealing source |
| and easy to set up. What they will do is give you | | | | code |
| an ID and a successful payment page URL which | | | | * Do not link to your download pages from any |
| your customers will see when they have paid for | | | | other page and manually provide the site to your |
| your products at PayPal. This is a specially | | | | paying customer. |
| designed page that has the potential to check | | | | * Keep your download page more than 3 levels |
| who is on the page and then display content | | | | down in your web space. (Like domain/directory1 |
| accordingly. | | | | directory2/directory3/file). This may prevent |
| If someone just arrives at your payment page | | | | search engines from reaching your files as they |
| without paying, it will display in one way If | | | | mostly scan only 2 levels down. |
| someone just paid at PayPal for something you | | | | * Send your e-books with Acrobat pdf |
| are selling, it displays something else. Then it | | | | If deciding to use .pdf files, you could make all of |
| confirms the order and sends the appropriate | | | | your material data image files which are called into |
| download information to the buyer and a | | | | the file from a protected web location. I am |
| notification email to you that this particular person | | | | aware that Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Pro has |
| just downloaded your product. Best part it's all | | | | collaboration features available, which can be used |
| free. Get complete details at | | | | in conjunction with document encryption and |
| The other is a more comprehensive service | | | | password-locked features. Using the collaboration |
| provided by Sam Stephens called DLGuard. This is | | | | features, you could maintain an access log, sort |
| a powerful, script that you simply upload to your | | | | of like a check-in/check-out process for the file(s). |
| website. | | | | Remember if using any of the "product |
| DLGuard supports the three types, or methods, | | | | protectors" available on the market for wrapping |
| of sale on the internet: single item sales (including | | | | the pdf file(s), you are in effect making them |
| bonus products), multiple item sales and | | | | non-MAC friendly, as they become .exe files. |
| membership websites It also has the advantage | | | | Remember you may not prevent theft entirely; |
| of being fully integrated with PayPal, ClickBank, | | | | you cannot prevent anyone from sending your |
| 2Checkout, Stormpay, PayDotCom, Ebay, EA | | | | product to a friend or reselling it on their own site |
| Script and even tracks your free product | | | | illegally, though most people will not go that far |
| downloads. | | | | and there are remedies you can take with their |
| This service protects your products from the | | | | web hosting service and legal action. |
| most common forms of theft: | | | | |