Oh how I hate this topic. I prefer to concentrate on the more positive aspects of Internet marketing. Unfortunately, there are thieves in this world…and quite a few of them. Think your stuff isn’t all over the place where it shouldn’t be? Think again. There are actually sites online setup for the sole purpose of hosting these pirated treasures…and nobody does anything about it. Well, this article is going to show you the best ways to keep your stuff safe. It’s not fool proof, but it’s a start.

The first thing you want to do is invest in some good software like Download Guard, or as it is more commonly referred to, DLGuard. This software, in a nutshell, makes it so that your product can only be downloaded by people who have gotten to your site through a secure script. No, it’s not going to stop these people from giving your product away after they buy it, but it will at least stop piracy directly off your server.

The next thing you want to do is change your download URLs often, at least once a month. This way, if anybody finds out what it is and shares this URL with others, that old URL will only be good for a very short period of time. This won’t completely stop thefts but it will cut down on the number of thefts.

Another thing you want to do is make sure that your download pages are not indexed by the search engines. You can easily do this by adding a meta tag to your HTML designating nofollow and noindex. Again, this won’t stop people from trying to guess your download pages, but at least they won’t be out there for everybody in the world to see.

As for the products themselves, put them in zip files, especially if they are PDF files. PDF files do get indexed by the search engines but zip files don’t. This will at least keep your product from being indexed.

As for naming your download pages and zip files, come up with a long name that will be difficult for people to guess. You want to make it as hard for these thieves as you possibly can. Using long and complicated names is one way to do this.

These are just a few of the little things you can do to keep grubby hands off your products. Like I said, none of this is fool proof, but every little bit helps.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim
Tired of getting your stuff stolen? Check out my review of the best digital protection software ever made at http://dlguardprotection.blogspot.com/2008/09/protecting-your-business-download.html and stop thieves dead in their tracks TODAY!