Don't make spying so easy...try this... (17)
Over the last week I've been doing a lot of comp research - preparing to launch my first adult campaign.
During this "research" period I've noticed many (MANY) affiliates make it easy to find folders full of landers, images, etc.
Here's what I mean:
Using the spy tool it's very simple to locate landing pages.
So if your landing page URL is http://www.website.com/hp1/en/lander1.php all I need to do is visit http://www.website.com/hp1/en/ and I can view everything in that folder. Most of the time the folders contain additional landing pages (probably being tested). Sometimes even huge amounts of images.
You can prevent this by simply creating a blank index.php file in the folder.
That means when someone tries to access the folder...it returns a blank white screen (not the folder contents).
Maybe include some nice text like "F*ck You Spy Get Out of My Sh!t" lol.
It's not 100% thing and some stackers may do it already...but it takes 1 second to setup, and at least you don't make it easy for people to back-track through your campaign(s).
You should just setup your servers to not show files in open folders. You want your "Options -Indexes" set in your httpd.conf file I believe.
Originally Posted by larceny
But index.php can be done by even the most non-technical of marketers.
Either way, no excuse to let people dig through your folders
I was amazed at what I found last week...given the volume in some folders, not all were inexperienced/newbie AM'ers.
Is there anyway you can create ads that can tell what website they are being placed on? That would be insane if you could do something on flash regarding that.
Good tip, I think this is also included in one of the protect your stuff threads a while back.
Personally I don't care if anyone spends their entire day going through my folders, there's very few unique / original landers being used these days, and the new ones I do make get copied within a day or so anyways. The important stuff is what you can't copy that easily, ie, direct relationships / rates, volume, bidding knowledge / strategies or any of the stuff that actually matters in the current state of AM. Landers mean almost nothing these days, if you're running in any sort of a prominent placement, half the industry is going to see it within the day.
Thanks!! Had no clue about this one, Great stuff! 
Now show me how to trick the STM Adult Spy Tool and not have my ads shown there.
Another way is to create a file in /public_html/ and name it .htaccess (with the period in the beginning)
And add this into it:
Also don't name your LPs sequentially like 1.php, 2.php etc or it's still trivial to spy.
Originally Posted by Mr Green
As far as I know that's the only way it can be done without running into crossdomain security roadblocks.
Lol, all of my directories contain an index file containing the text "Fuck Off!!!". You can also turn off browsing of directories.
-Aaron
and to confuse any newer less experienced affs.. you can always use java script to disable right clicks on your landers, and use http://www.iwebtool.com/html_encrypter to encrypt a few essential bits of css or html, obviously anyone with half a clue of firebug will be able to get round this, but stops a few in their tracks.
Solid solutions provided by everyone.
Encryption is very smart. I have someone make my stuff because it takes me forever to create a banner or lander. Will mention ^^ .
It's impossible to hide active landers - battle not worth fighting.
I just don't like people snooping around my stuff or worse hot-linking images and sucking up bandwidth.
Best thing you can do:
http://stmforum.com/forum/showthread...l=1#post105750
As many others said in this thread , if you advertise to a broad demo that's the end of it. Don't even hope you can hide your landers somehow.
If your clients see the real lander than your competition will too , just a matter of time.
I would focus instead of coming new angles in the meanwhile and being a step ahead.
I agree with bbrock32, all the time you are going to waste trying to protect your LPs would be better utilized if you simply came up with more angles/ideas. Stop worrying about what you'll loose and start producing new stuff mate!
I give everything code names, i use .index files everywhere and the next step is installing a script that sends % of the stolen landing pages traffic back to you!
I see nothing wrong with copying creatives.
I did it once, I think. That was in 2008. Someone way bigger than me said "$100,000 day" on icq. So I needed a flog, pronto. So I hacked together a shaky little script. Its final output were the n most popular flogs for le scam du jour. Neatly parsed into templates ready to be A/B tested by my serving system. Bad little doggie?
And no more do I care about being copied myself. And should I succeed in special-serving a less-than top-performing creative to a competitor, there is no spite in that.
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