Preventing Digital Asset Theft

I put together some electronic guides for my clients, sold them, and now someone is distributing them for free. How do I know who has copies of the PDF, how can I keep them from giving it away? -- Pete Daniels

I've seen a number of industrial manufacturers, technology trainers, and trade associations digitize large training manuals for distribution. Some of these sell for more than $7,000, now in a single digital document. Piracy costs our industry millions a year.

Because having such a file is beneficial, you'll find people want to share them. Many do not understand copyright or digital rights laws, much of the sharing business is unintentional. All the same, much of the technology available to prevent theft makes this format more difficult for legitimate users.

Understand that digital content theft is going to happen. I understand the frustration (I've had the same thing happen with my high-end training materials.) Have no fear, there are some things you can do to make this work to your advantage.

The best thing I learned was to put in better bounce back offers, add an up-sell at the end of the book, and bonus materials mentioned in the book that they could only get in membership. Any reader of your publication is a prospect for your services, give them a chance to buy.

Use link tracking to know who is clicking which link, you'll also want to make sure your website address is clearly available on the footer of each page. Link tracking also lets me adjust links in the document independent of the original digital file.

Even if the reader prints a single page, you'll need to clearly show your copyright and website address so they can find you in the future. I've seen some include a phone number in the footer, every page has some way of contacting you.

In the front of your file, include a statement telling the reader how to get a legitimate copy of the publication and that the file is not intended to be shared. Most people are honest and will tell you where free copies are available (while they may not tell you if THEY got a free copy.)

With all this extra mark up, your materials still need to be good and have value on their own. These tools just does everything it can to get the reader to contact you for something else. You'll build your list and make legitimate sales.

Some of the people downloading those digital files don't know they are stealing (many know exactly what they are doing), however, if you have solid bounce back offers you can at least capture some of the readers in other systems.

Think about it, at least now you know your publications are worth stealing, now close the loop and make this work in your advantage.

© 2008 Ask Justin Hitt, All rights reserved.

Justin Hitt helps technical and industrial businesses create profits through measurable marketing. For digital marketing solutions, get started at http://HittPublishingDirect.com/