I Am Going To Steal Your Ebook!
Posted on October 24, 2009 by Melvin
Disclaimer: This is not a post teaching you to do this evil thing. I, myself HAVE NEVER EVER stolen any eBook. I don’t need to, I make enough money to live. Just look at this post as a guide to have a basic understanding on how this process works and how you can protect yourself when you do selling eBooks.
Internet Marketing in whatever niche you are, involves a lot of selling. And 90% of the products is what we known as info products or eBooks. But do you know that most of the eBooks that these people are selling are usually just ripped off for free? Or do you know that a lot of people have a ton of good quality eBooks they don’t even pay for? Well I’m sure you, as a reader of this blog are selling ebooks, or have plans of doing it, so this post can be a good read for you.
So most people do sell ebook via Clickbank. In selling, you are required to do two pages. First is the salespage itself, where you would pitch your offer and the second is the thank you page, a page where a paying customer would be redirected once they have made the payment. The problem that I see most of the time is that any user can easily access the thank you page!
One good example is the sales page Problogging BluePrint. So the main page is the index page while the download page is just located in /thanks.html part. Fortunately the link is broken (and its unfortunate for paying customers!). The surprising thing is that most salespage function that way! They have their download page accessible almost by anyone! I mean the usual locations are the ff:
- /thanks.html
- /thanks.php
- /download
- /download.html
- several variations
That’s why Im not surprised that a lot of info products just leak like crazy. Another bone head mistake most marketers do is make use of robots.txt. Oh my god! I mean yes you can tell the search engine to hide your download page but have you forgotten humans can read it? So if you guys want to steal someone’s ebook all you have to do is try to go /robots.txt and see the page that they disallow, LOLS… Another problem is the noticeable increase of PDF search engines. It’s surprising that a lot of popular eBook shows up on sites like pdfsearchengine. So altogether, it’s an uphill battle to combat eBook fraud and many people so far fail to do it!
How Do I Protect My Ebook?
Well this post is not really a guide on info product protection but since we’re here Im going to give you some brief explanation of what I know. If you’re a clickbank merchant, make sure to have a third party plugin to protect your download page. One that I came across through is DlGuard. Since I have never done any clickbank thing I would suggest you to do your own research as to what the reliable third party plugins are.
If you’re just selling a product yourself, using e-junkie is the smartest thing. E-Junkie is one of the leaders in terms of handling info product automation, payment and delivering the product itself. So far I haven’t heard any issues about using it and even the top marketers like Darren Rowse is using it. $10 per month is a reasonable price for the protection that it gives.
Lastly, always do a simple Google check for your eBook to see if some asshole is sharing it. Use the query “title of your ebook” filetype:PDF, and then scan the search results THOROUGHLY. It’s because sometimes you protect your download page a lot that you forget the file itself. Again some morons do buy it only to share it to other people while other people accidentally (or not) stores it on their server only to leak when someone does a search. Just consider doing this like a maintenance thing.
It can also be a good option to use the PDF search engines we mentioned earlier to your advantage. Search for your eBook, then if you find it, contact the site owner and tell him to remove it (or send him a DMCA notice). Obviously when someone shares it, he knows it’s illegal so he’d just more likely laugh at you when you contact him. The best thing to do is send the notice to their hosting provider by doing a quick whois on the site that distributes your copy illegally.
Conclusion:
Selling eBooks is a big and still growing industry and unfortunately not a lot of people are techy enough to protect the hardwork they exerted. Protecting your own info product can be really hard but there are ways. Im not saying people are evil but put yourself in their situation. You are craving for some expensive info product and you see a flaw that would make it free for you, are you not going to download it? The obvious answer is the answer for 98% of us!
I don’t know about you but if you’re just letting your product leak like waterpipes, then I think your product and you deserves to be ripped off for free. After all security is part of any business model both online and offline that should never be neglected. I would really love to have your opinion about it. Or maybe you can share your own tips that you implement yourself!
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Discussion: 40 Comments
40 Responses... What Say You?
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BlogBuzz October 31, 2009 - 31st Oct, 09 10:10am
Edward Palomo
- 24th Oct, 09 01:10pm
Nice read. I’m actually facing this kind problem. Not that I sell ebooks but I made a page that I wouldn’t want spiders to crawl.
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taranfx Reply:
October 25th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
Interesting fact is Barnes and Nobel’s new Nook eBook Reader let’s you share ebooks with friends for 15 days, free of cost. I reviewed that awesome thing today.
no more stealing
taranfx´s last blog ..Review: Nook eBook Reader
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SW@Social Bookmarking Service Reply:
October 27th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
Hey taranfx
This is just to let you know that your blog is not opening.
Have a look.
SW@Social Bookmarking Service´s last blog ..Social Bookmarking Service
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taranfx Reply:
October 27th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
yea, that day I had a surprise gift from my Hosting provider, a Big down time.
Sorry for that. You can check now.
taranfx´s last blog ..Why Alexa Rank is Irrelevant – How Alexa Works
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S.Pradeep Kumar
- 24th Oct, 09 02:10pm
Really worthy tips..
After reading the title.. I thought you will tell me how to steal an ebook !
S.Pradeep Kumar´s last blog ..Movies Based On Robotics And Machines 
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Melvin Reply:
October 28th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
But indirectly I actually did.
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Automated forex trading Reply:
October 30th, 2009 at 10:37 am
yes … lol
didnt knew about those ways, but i personally read ebooks which are available FREE. and mostly interested in SEO and MMO ebooks and those things are shared on pro blogs all time.
But good article for ebooks sellers as to be aware of such people
Reply
SW@Social Bookmarking Service
- 24th Oct, 09 02:10pm
Wow I do not think that any one have posted about this topic in such details with which plugins to be used and all. You mentioned cost as well.
I got one important thing from this post and i.e., PDF search engine. Now let me see whether this one is working or not.
SW@Social Bookmarking Service´s last blog ..Social Bookmarking Service
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Sahil Kotak
- 24th Oct, 09 06:10pm
Nice posts and that I am sure that will help to the guys who are selling ebooks but still I am not selling it, So I am Safe
Sahil Kotak´s last blog ..30 Plugins That Can Change Your WordPress
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Penny Stocks Reply:
November 4th, 2009 at 9:31 am
yea this is helpful for both, ebook sellers and also newbie sellers who are not aware of such scammers or hackers
this will help many to be on safer side but also somehow this post is helpful for scammers as well, lol
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Tom - StandOutBlogger.com
- 24th Oct, 09 07:10pm
I have seen a lot of posts about how to take advantage of these glitches. I am really glad you went down the other route and showed people have to protect their products.
Tom – StandOutBlogger.com´s last blog ..Weekly Blog Review 2: Blogussion.com
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taranfx
- 24th Oct, 09 08:10pm
This is a kind of Piracy only DRM can prevent. Thought that is also not successful.
taranfx´s last blog ..How to Install Windows 7, XP using USB
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Karl Hadwen
- 25th Oct, 09 01:10am
Just what I have been looking for, thanks melvin. I’m not going to release my ebook until I can find some email marketing software that doesn’t require a credit card. Any suggestions would be great!
Karl Hadwen´s last blog ..Incorporate Your Passion Within a Blog
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Melvin Reply:
October 28th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
why don’t you get a credit card?
Or beg your parents to use theirs.
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Mr. I
- 25th Oct, 09 03:10am
Interesting read. Well, that’s one more reason to not use Clickbank. E-Junkie is really good service and handles the transactions well. $5 for 10 products is very reasonable.
I have not yet launched a e-book but when I do, I will use E-Junkie.
Mr. I´s last blog ..10 Things They Don’t Teach You About Productivity
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SW@Social Bookmarking Service Reply:
October 27th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
So Mr I you got the solution of your future projects at here.
On which niche you are going to write your ebook.
SW@Social Bookmarking Service´s last blog ..Social Bookmarking Service
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Mr. I Reply:
October 28th, 2009 at 1:40 am
Yes, I have go the solution. Most probably, the niche will be Blogging or WordPress.
Mr. I´s last blog ..Sweet ‘n Simple HTML: Helping Html to Escape
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Dana@Online Knowledge
- 25th Oct, 09 03:10am
Great advice! The big hindrance of digital selling such as ebook is security because it is so easy to hijack it and share it for free. I hope that someone can bring better way for securing digital product in future.
Dana@Online Knowledge´s last blog ..Backup WordPress Database
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taranfx Reply:
October 27th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
DRM is the answer
taranfx´s last blog ..Why Windows Mobile is Microsoft`s Vista
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Agent 001
- 25th Oct, 09 07:10am
Protecting ebooks. I was totally unaware of all this. May be because I have never sold ebooks.
Thanks for this buddy.
Agent 001´s last blog ..Upgrade to WordPress 2.8.5 and Check Out the Upcoming WordPress 2.9 Beta Version
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Gambling Wordpress Themes
- 25th Oct, 09 10:10am
Quite interesting, I have plans on selling my ebook a year ago but decided to just give it away for free. I realized that people who I trusted to give the ebook for a review had distributed the ebook
Gambling WordPress Themes´s last blog ..Gambling WordPress Themes Launch Contest
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Melvin Reply:
October 28th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Hahah lols. I guess thats how the backend really works.
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Cynthia Wunsch
- 25th Oct, 09 06:10pm
I want to thank you for a very informative post. I’m writing a book now that I plan to distribute first as an e-book and this information is very timely for me. I’ve bookmarked the page and I’ll be back when I’ve completed the book (which for the moment has grown out of control).
Cynthia Wunsch´s last blog ..Saturday, October 24, 2009
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Melvin Reply:
October 28th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Im glad you found this article useful.
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George
- 25th Oct, 09 07:10pm
Im afraid this aint enough to protect your ebook from being stolen. It’s “unavoidable”, just like how music sharing is, and they spend more money on protecting their stuff than the infoproduct industry.
Someone could still buy the product and then share it elsewhere.
The best method is to find the place where they share it. Socialize with the people a bit, become a valuable member and kindly ask them to not share your product. Cuz if you choose to go violent nothing will happen and your product will still be shared.
Reply
Melvin Reply:
October 28th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
That’s a good point and you hit it right with the music industry. But I think it’s also the fact that stealing info products is just 1/4 of how big the piracy in music industry is it’s kinda still controllable.
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David Shaw
- 26th Oct, 09 08:10am
Interesting Article!
I am sure many people will try to protect themselves now!
David Shaw´s last blog ..Saturday Link Love
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Rahul
- 26th Oct, 09 11:10am
I also agree with George. Its impossible. I myself know some sites from where you can download e books of well known writers.
Anyway nice post.
Thanks
TC
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Melvin Reply:
October 28th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
For the internet marketing/make money online niche, the site you’re pertaining is wickedfire..
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George Reply:
November 18th, 2009 at 7:53 am
No, that’s not the only site that shares internet marketing products. There are bigger sites and warez forums that shares ALL internet marketing products old or new(some products are even shared before launch date) even $2000 products. Some places are private some are public.There’s a crazy world of hackers and sharers out there.
But as Ive said, protecting your info product from being shared is impossible. There are a lot of private torrent sites and warez forums out there. You’ll just go crazy trying to prevent it from being shared, because you can’t. But will this cause you to make less money? No. Some people will still buy your product anyway. P90x(a popular fitness product) is shared so many times in different sites, in fact when you google it you will even see the torrent links before the actual sales page.
Piracy in a way is a form of flattery. If people shares your product, it means its useful and actually helpful, when no one asks for it then you already know what it is.
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izzat aziz
- 26th Oct, 09 12:10pm
simple mistake that could cost everything,
if people can get it for free its okay..
but if people pay but can’t get the product.. that truly disaster.
izzat aziz´s last blog ..Trust your instinct
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book hotel
- 27th Oct, 09 12:10pm
Many thanks for your good article. I would really like to connect and see if you would be interested to write an article for our blog
your website I got from Problogger.com
book hotel´s last blog ..North Norway Cottages
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hokya
- 28th Oct, 09 01:10am
you ‘re right…
money is the best protection against rob
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elmot
- 28th Oct, 09 10:10am
I never thought that e-books could easily be stolen…What is pisses me off is that there people who does not want to sweat it out and would just want to get easy money from the hardwork of other bloggers. That sucks!
elmot´s last blog ..Sex Education with Paris Hilton. What about That?
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Walter
- 29th Oct, 09 02:10am
I’m planning to make my ebook in the future and as early as now I’m gathering the important information to protect it. I’m glad you have written about this because this will add up to the knowledge I have gained lately. Thanks a lot.
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Rajesh Kanuri @ TechCats
- 13th Nov, 09 08:11am
Really worthy tips..
Rajesh Kanuri @ TechCats´s last blog ..WordPress 2.8.6 is Available: Update It Now For Multi User Blogs
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loans buzz
- 30th Nov, 09 04:11am
this tips will help while robbing a ebook
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hokya
- 4th Jan, 10 11:01pm
nice there, by the way, why don’t you use Google Docs instead for protecting eBook ?
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d3so
- 19th Apr, 10 08:04am
Honestly, I learned more about stealing ebooks than prevention against it
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