Are My Ideas Good?

Copyrighting to Protect Your Niche

Can I really copyright something I have identified as a Niche? Absolutely, as long as it is truly unique. And you should protect it if your idea is good. Without copyright protection your great idea will become common place rather quickly. The US Government Copyright site (http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html) will give you additional insight into the process of copyrighting your efforts. The process is very simple and if you have a Niche that meets the requirements, you should apply for a copyright.

Why is copyrighting your Niche important? It identifies ownership. In other words, when you create something that is truly unique and register it as copyrighted material, you set the rules on how your created work can be used. No one else can come along and use your Niche without your permission. Admittedly this is an over simplification, and somewhat hard to enforce, but I think you get the idea.

How does a copyright keep others from stealing your work or idea? It doesn’t. You have to take other steps to prevent that from happening. For instance, there are several things you can do to keep your work safer:

If your Niche involves a e-Book:

• Use the e-Book Publication Tools.
• Disable textual copy capability.
• Password protect the document so that access is limited to those who have legally purchased it from you.
• If you have affiliate links, make sure that you mask the link to the affiliate site (More on this in Mask Affiliate Links).
• Rather than listing the site URL in your e-Book, use a generic name to describe it that is not close to the URL name. For instance, if you have an affiliate link to a site with a URL of www.your-e-book-source.com followed by your affiliate code, in your e-Book you would use a description like The number one source for e-Books and provide a masked link to the site. In this way you will still get credit for your affiliate referrals, even if your work is stolen and distributed.
• If your Niche is worth protecting at all costs, you will want to control 100% of its distribution. A lot more work for you, but you can provide special web access, password protected areas, time limitations on access, etc. You have to be careful here though as the harder it is for people to access your information, the less attractive it becomes. Since you will likely have a website devoted to your Niche that requires this level of protection, a monthly subscription access may be the best approach. This works well for lots of sites that specialize in everything from Search Engine Optimization to Advanced eBay Research Tools.