I post regularly in several places here, but quit adding links to my shops as one was getting regularly copied. It's one of my better selling shops and would like to let folks know it's available for affiliates, but want to avoid the lurkers.
How safe is it to post link here? I've added a number of new designs and would love to pick up more affiliate traffic. But don't want latest designs to show up in a few days in someone elses shop. It was a real problem for me for awhile in that particular niche. janelle
No one can answer that. Some have had no problems with that, and others have had their entire shops basically copied by people finding them on the forums.
If you're concerned, you might just post what categories you have and ask for people interested in affiliating you to contact you and go from there.
First of all, I'd like to say that not all lurkers are copycats. When I had a problem with a copycat it was someone who is active in the forums. While I am not a lurker, I still think it's unfari to make that generalisation.
Anyway, Janelle, my answer would be not to wait for the affiliates to find you. Go find them. Contact known affiliates and let them know that you have designs/shops available for affiliation and ask them to consider affiliating your work. That seems like the good way to get their attention.
Janelle, it is kinda how Teesed said, no one can really answer how safe it is. One thing to think about though, your products being in the marketplace are also an invitation to copycats so technically you aren't safe now.
Also keep in mind that sometimes you might appear to have copycats that are only affiliates who have liked your designs and added your shop to their cpshop script or other script so your products are pulled into their site. This may not have been the case with you before but I wanted to throw that out for anyone else reading here. When that happens, they are not copying your designs but are including your shop in their website for their shoppers to find your stuff.
I will get around to actually doing it one of these days. I still have some designs I want to tweak and some other clean up work to do in the shop before I go looking for affiliates.
BZ, I know not all lurkers are Copycats. Didn't mean to generalize. I lurk in some threads too, usually looking for an answer to a question or just gathering info or general attitudes on stuff.
I also realize, you'll never be completely safe from copycats and it's a chance you have to take.
Anyway, just wanted general thoughts from the more experienced folks.
Topic Closed
