Hello friend,
Recently there was a fairly long discussion inside Earn1KaDay about whether or not it’s worth spending the time and effort to protect your downloads.
Some felt it wasn’t worth the aggravation, because the people you stop from stealing from you theoretically would be too cheap to pay for it anyway, so why ruin your day, waste your time, and get all stressed out, when instead…
You could be creating new products and taking better care of your real customers
Others felt strongly that protecting the downloads was definitely worth the time.
How do you feel?
Regardless, there’s one sure fact in the life of an Internet marketer: you can’t stop a determined thief.
However…
There’s more to the equation than just letting someone who’s too cheap to pay from accessing your files.
There’s also bandwidth (if they’re downloading from your server, or worse yet, from the Amazon S3 site that you’re paying bandwidth charges for).
There’s also support issues (a person who didn’t pay may be bold enough to submit emails or support tickets).
There’s also the feeling from legitimate customers that if you don’t care who gets the product for free, why should they have paid? So they might ask for a refund, or worse yet, never buy again.
… and more.
My feeling is that it is indeed worthwhile to at least make it more difficult for the bad guys to rip you off.
Some of them are just looking for the low hanging fruit, and I want my stuff hanging a bit higher on the tree, so though it might not be impervious to someone determined, it won’t be readily accessible to the amateur, if I have my way.
Presenting: Protecting Your Digital Products From Theft
I’ve put together a 2-part product.
The main part is a PDF report (33 pages) that explains the basics of digital download protection.
It discusses:
- why protect your products
- protection vs. customer experience
- basic level protection
- download protection software
- PDF security
- online delivery services
There are tips and techniques about some of the things that you can do starting today to protect your downloads, from the most basic to software solutions that you’ll have to pay for, including 3 of the most popular packages that are on the market (obviously this isn’t meant to be an all-inclusive list, I wanted something that you don’t have to spend weeks evaluating your choices).
And before you start going “it’s just a book full of affiliate links”, it’s not. The software I recommend links straight to the vendor sites, no affiliate link included.
Those merchants are gonna love me. 
I know, I’m nuts, but I want to emphasize that I have no axe to grind on what’s mentioned, just honest information.
But beyond the report is something else that I’m pretty proud of.
PHP Script Included
Included in the package is a handy dandy PHP script that you can easily install (just modify as little as 2 configuration settings, upload to your server with FTP, and start using it).
The script will secure your Amazon S3 files, and if you’re making the mistake I used to make, you’re in for a treat. Here’s why.
I used to host all my downloads on my server. As the size of my download area started growing, I started to worry about running out of server disk space.
I also started to worry about running out of bandwidth (if you think the server plans that say “unlimited bandwidth” are serious, think again, folks).
I also started worrying about the people in other countries that had slow download speeds because they were in one part of the world and my files were in the U.S.
So I investigated Amazon S3, and liked the idea of the cloudfront, the offloading of the bandwidth at a very low cost, and the unlimited disk space available (truly unlimited).
What I didn’t like was that I couldn’t password protect the download area like I did on my own server.
Enter this script, which was custom written for the Earn1KaDay site, and is now expressly available to you.
Once you place this script inside a password protected folder on your server and tweak the configuration settings, you no longer have to worry about turning the Amazon S3 ACL to Everyone: Read anymore, in order to allow your members to be able to access your downloads.
Even more, someone who knows your download URL won’t really know your URL, because it passes through the script, which translates it to the actual location on Amazon S3, and (assuming the visitor is properly logged in to your members area) will allow the download to happen.
In other words, the download URL appears to be on your server, inside your members area, but it isn’t.
I spent 100’s of dollars for this script, but as a Product Drop member, all you have to do is click “JOIN NOW!” and you will instantaneously get access to it.
But yes, if you don’t have a members area that’s password protected, this script won’t be of immediate use to you, because it’s not meant to protect a folder that’s open to the public…
That’s what the main report addresses, which is showing you ways to keep your downloads away from the prying fingers of the thieves, even if they aren’t totally locked down.
Granted, nothing can deter a determined thief or hacker, but removing temptation from those just looking for low hanging fruit will save you from most theft.
So that you can worry about more important thngs, like putting together your next product, or supporting your real customers.
I’m sure the script will be of use to 1,000’s of people. I know the report will be of use to many more.
And you can get both by simply clicking “JOIN NOW!”
Additionally, as a bonus, for those that haven’t investigated Amazon S3 yet, and decide it makes sense, I’m saving you the trouble of figuring out how to use it, by including a video tutorial on how to get set up.
So the question today is, do you care about protecting your digital products from theft?
If you do, you need this guide, you might need also this script…and it’s all yours for the taking.
But maybe you don’t care, maybe you don’t think that people getting your downloads for free really costs you money.
Let me tell you, in no uncertain terms…
It absolutely does cost you money!
Have a spectacular day, you deserve it!
Dennis Becker
