I sell plants online and would like to write out some instructions for my customers so that I can save time on answering their questions. So I'm thinking of writing a 20-30 page ebook that will cover all of my products.
I'd like to type it up in word so that no one will have a problem opening it but I am scared about copywriting. Is there a way I can set it so they can only read it and not copy and paste any of it?
2007-09-20 03:46:50 · 4 answers · asked by jenny84 4 in Computers & Internet ➔ Programming & Design
There is no mechanism that can 100% protect your content. ( See, for example, the tools at http://elcomsoft.com/ ). All you can do is inconvenience the honest, discourage the idle copiers ( If the people who got copies weren't buying plants anyway, why should you care? ), and you won't stop those determined to exploit your work.
I'd suggest doing the alternative; making your content freely available on your website. That way, not only will your existing customers benefit, but it will draw new people to your site, who you know are interested in gardening, and are therefore great leads for new sales.
As always with online shopping, look to Amazon for example. They got to be number one by supplying the best information before purchase.
In fact, this is a good way to encourage repeat visits to your site... if you have questions coming in all the time, answering new ones in a blog format could draw in a regular readership - you could also add seasonal tips ( It's time to plant xyz... and then link in to your product pages ). ONLY do this if the pace of posts can be kept reasonable - nobody likes a dead site.
Of course, few people want to rest their laptop on a pile of "fertilizer" while they look up what to do next... so printer-friendly versions are a must. Instead of one big book, I'd have a set of files that would print just what I needed to know for a certain plant or task.
2007-09-20 04:19:11 · answer #1 · answered by kirun 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Jonathan is right, that there isn't really any way you can protect yourself form being copied. By default all content you put on the web is copywritten anyway, so anybody copying it will be breaking a law. (don't know the source of that though)
If you are going to put the work in and create an ebook, I would suggest making the same content available on your website. This will attract traffic from search engines like you wouldn't believe and ultimately result in new business. If provide more information on your website than in the ebook, readers of the ebook will keep visiting your website and maybe purchase more.
2007-09-20 04:16:51 · answer #2 · answered by Oliphant 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The usual way to do this is to save the document as a PDF.
PDF files are read using Adobe Acrobat.
Check out this link for more information
2007-09-20 03:56:21 · answer #3 · answered by AnalProgrammer 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Save it as a locked PDF.
You may not be able to stop people from copying it as they can do so from a print out (OCR on any cheap scanner, easy).
2007-09-20 03:54:35 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋