How to Handle (expected) Piracy

If you are a person who sells digital products of any kind (eBooks, video tutorials, mobile apps, etc.) odds are the thought of your product being ripped off and pirated has crossed your mind.  Face it, it’s pretty disheartening to put so much time and effort into a product only to have it stolen by some jackass looking to illegally distribute your product just to make a cheap buck off your efforts. Grrrr… Sadly there is no way to stop piracy, but there is a way to let the pirates help you.  Yes, read that again… let the pirates help you.

A few years ago while reading a book called ‘Free Marketing’ the author commented about how one person who at the time sold ringtones implemented what he called “a plan for piracy”.  Basically the strategy went like this, instead of chasing the pirates he included instructions about how people could donate to him.  Those instructions were found within the manual the pirates were stealing.  As the pirates stole from him over time he made over $15,000 from instructions he built into his product.  To that I say– well played sir.  Pure brilliance!!

So if you are a person who is selling digital products and looking to keep them from being stolen odds are this tactic would be awesome to implement.