
‘Honeypot’ pages to try to convert people searching for cracked software - charlieirish
https://successfulsoftware.net/2017/03/10/honeypot-page/
======
jimmies
When searching for the crack, it means someone thinks that the software isn't
worth the value being asked (or they might not have any way to pay). The
honeypot page doesn't provide anything useful to the question. I think scaring
customers who are looking for cracks with "you're sooooo gonna get malware,
stop doing that" sounds a bit cheap and might turn some away. Having that page
sounds like a smug idea to 'outsmart' the customers (which I think is
dangerous). It gives the impression 'ahaha I knew you will do this, caught ya'
\-- you're trying _too_ hard like a car salesman. Best case, they grudgingly
pay for your shit. What probably will happen is that they click back and move
to the next result.

There might be some actual, helpful solutions to the customer given you are
facing a customer trying to save a buck:

1\. Actually giving them a discount: Providing a discounted license. Giving
them a student discount. Providing a reduced/lite mode/ad-enabled license (for
example, powered by... on the printed cards). Providing WinRAR-style
functionality. Extending their trial period. Actually offering them a way to
email you to ask for a free license and explain why they can't afford or pay
for it.

2\. Showing a cheaper (but inferior, possibly) software/solution that does the
same thing as the thing you're trying to sell.

3\. Showing the customer a way to DYI.

After trying 2 or 3 and the customer concluded to themselves "fuck it, it
sucks even more for me to try saving a couple of bucks than to buy this
outright," then there is a chance they might actually be happy to buy it.

~~~
tlogan
I'm not 100% sure what is your experience with others but these kind of people
are pathological customers. At least in my business.

You can test this by adding something like this to your honeypot page or home
page:

    
    
      if you have do not financial needs or you are student 
      please email us and we can discuss how to you can get
      software at discounted rate or free.
    

And you will get just bunch of hate emails. And we even decided: "who ever
writes us an email that email contains "thank you" to "please" phrase (or nice
in any other way) they will get our service for free". Just that: just be nice
and you will get it free. And you know what: you will get maybe two or three
emails in a year which have "thank you" or "please" in the email. All other
emails will be rude emails demanding something. Like "I'm retired I do not
have money to pay for your shit. Give me free or fuck yourself" (actual
email).

~~~
mirimir
What would you say if someone offered to mail cash to you? Or asked if you
accept Bitcoin?

~~~
tlogan
If the email was nice (no profanities, thank you or something) we will just
give it free - just keep it simple.

The point I'm trying to make here is that offering something cheaper via
webpage will attract wrong type of people (patio11 calls them pathological
customers).

I think there was also 37signals post about why they do not offer discounts
for students or similar.

In short, just keep it simple as Veen said: If I offer a service or product to
what I assume are reasonable, rational, intelligent human beings, the deal is
this: you pay me what I ask and you get the service I'm offering at that
price.

~~~
mirimir
Yes, that's fair enough.

But the point is that there are people who would pay you, but can't do so
using credit cards. That's pretty common in parts of Africa, Middle East, etc.

~~~
tlogan
Sure - as you probably know if run a SaaS business you will be receiving
requests for users wanting to pay using alternate methods (Orange payment,
invoices, bitcoin, onecoin, etc.). But not via this email: these were normal
support requests.

------
bborud
Not everyone that is looking for cracked software does it because they
wouldn't pay. Some do it because the vendor is useless at actually selling
them the software.

On 3-4 occasions over the last 7-8 years I have been trying to buy a legal
copy of Windows, download it to my Mac and then install it in VMWare. Every
time this has been a situation where I just needed to OS to run some piece of
software to fix a problem there and then and I didn't have time to wait for
physical medium or there were no shops carrying Windows near by.

For instance when I need to adjust the idle-parameters on the engine of one of
my cars that has a specialty ECU.

I have _never_ succeeding in buying a downloadable Windows in any of these
situations. Not a single time. Microsoft has made such a big mess out of it
each and every time I gave up and then found some pirated Windows that I could
boot for one time use and then throw away.

A couple of days ago I was trying to buy Microsoft Office. The reason was that
I needed to fix a problem in a document and none of the other software I had
would deal with that feature. So I go to the Microsoft website. After noodling
around for 3-4 minutes I'm still confused what product I really want to buy. I
want the cheapest possible alternative that doesn't require me to register for
this and that and which will defecate unwanted stuff all over my laptop.

In the middle of the checkout process a popup asks me if I want alerts when
there are new products or some similar bullshit.

In the checkout process! If there is one place you should take care not to
upset the user it is while the user is handing over his or her money to you.

I am continually amazed at how bad Microsoft are at this. I understand that
Satya Nadella is a busy man, but I would take time out of my day, walk over to
whomever is responsible for Microsoft's online retail and fire the moron
responsible for it.

All the software I use I have licensed. Some of it even though I'm not even
required to license it, just because I want to support those who make it. But
perhaps once per year I use unlicensed copies of software perhaps once. And it
is almost always due to incompetence on part of the vendor.

~~~
kilroy123
Can you not just download and use one of these vms?

[https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-
edge/tools/v...](https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-
edge/tools/vms/)

~~~
mirimir
Are these full-featured Windows VMs, or specifically browser testbeds?

------
arielm
I think the _idea_ of a honeypot page is great because it gives you a chance
to re-engage with a potential user (not necessarily customer).

There's obviously more than one way to style it, but just like every good
marketing how you present it should fit your product/brand.

Personally, I think the page should talk more about the "why" you should pay
this guy (who works hard on it, bla bla bla) and less about scaring you into
paying, because most people who know what a crack is aren't really scared away
by the mention of malware.

~~~
thr0waway1239
I think the software creator is also going to be facing another issue: this
_seems_ only one step away from creating an actual malware version and
releasing it on the internet. That is not an impression you want to leave on
your potential customers.

The second problem is that you might now open yourself up to differentiation
from competitors who can now claim they don't create 'manipulative' honeypot
pages and thus gain attention to themselves in the worst way possible for this
author - by taking a seemingly high moral ground.

------
omn1
I would add a picture of the team behind the software to this page. Makes it a
bit more personal. Also I would place the second paragraph at the beginning
for the same reason.

------
milesrout
>Feel free to make a version of the page for your own product, but please
don’t copy the exact wording. That would be copyright infringement. ;0)

To be honest this sort of attitude is why many people have little or no
respect for copyright. They see people being sticklers for copyright about
things that are completely unreasonable to be copyrighted and extrapolate that
essentially copyright is stupid and should be ignored. Same thing for patents.

Yeah in reality patents and copyright have their place, but every time someone
uses a ridiculous patent or an overly aggressive interpretation of copyright,
it turns people off from the entire concept.

~~~
averagewall
Ironically, he seems to have pirated it himself, which makes the copyright
claim even more insulting.

PerfectTablePlan: "If you like PerfectTablePlan enough to go searching for a
crack for it then why not just buy it? It's a lot less hassle and you won't
risk infecting your computer with viruses, spyware and other malware commonly
disguised as software cracks."

Dplot: "If you like DPlot enough to go searching for a crack for it then why
not just buy it? It is a lot less hassle and you won't risk infecting your
computer with viruses, spyware and other malware commonly disguised as
software cracks."

There's a bit of rewording in the middle but it's mostly copy and pasted from
the other guy's or the common source.

~~~
thr0waway1239
The person who created Dplot seems to have left a comment on that page
clearing the air a bit:

"Mine is a mostly word-for-word copy and dates Aug 2015. But as I recall the
original was Dexter Bell, who offered this up on the ASP newsgroups and
encouraged copying. But as with many other things I may be wrong!"

------
notahacker
I think the threat mentioned in the comments of Google algorithmically
flagging your site as a warez/malware distribution site and downgrading the
main page in search results could be a real one.

Of course the obvious solution to this is to go stick your "cracks are often
malware or don't work, why not buy the real thing for only $xx" honeypot on a
different domain, probably social media.

~~~
eric_h
Putting it on a different domain would likely make the SEO much more
difficult. It's unlikely you could keep it as the first result as no
authoritative sites for those keywords would link to it.

~~~
derefr
Rather than making a honeypot _page_ , you can actually make a honeypot
_crack_ (or pre-cracked app) and upload it to torrent sites. I've seen a few
apps do this.

~~~
popinman322
This is one of the best suggestions I've seen in this thread.

Not only does it let you get the message out, but it also lets you track the
proportion of licensed/cracked software in circulation. If your cracked
versions overwhelm licensed versions, you know that your price is too high.

------
SerLava
>Some stuff to keep the search engines happy: crack, cracks, hack, serial
numbers, keygen, torrent, warez, licence, license, registration codes, full
version download.

Just a note, this might work when you have a very small audience and not a lot
of strong online competition for this topic. PerfectTablePlan isn't exactly
Microsoft Word. The fact that you ARE PerfectTablePlan is also a huge
contributing factor to this page being #1.

But if you try this in a competitive space, the swift hand of Google will come
to crush you.

Basically right now, Google is saying "Okay this page does mention these
words, and their site has a ton of brand authority for PerfectTablePlan, but
Goddamnit they are spamming and if I can put a non-spammer up front, I will."

I really like this as a general anti-warez tactic though.

------
Qwertious
Alternatively, why not have a "honeypot" site that asks for _feedback_ on why
the person is pirating it?

~~~
hermitcrab
Because the feedback would be "I want to use your software, but I don't want
to pay for it"?

------
id122015
Its not about honeypot its about price. Few days ago I saw a page here linking
to a software for simple image editing, I think it was PhotoBulk. I downloaded
the trial, it does what i need, sells for $9. I googled for a serial and it
doesnt exist, except malware websites. I searched for freeware alternatives
and there are so many, Ill have to find some time to inspect which does the
job. Didnt include shell batch scripts, there are dozen of those.

The lesson is: if that software advertised here sold for 1 or 2 dolars I'd buy
it. I could buy it for $9 as well, but I could do that only once. Tomorrow I
cant pay again $9 for other software because this cycle of instaling software
never ends and I dont produce money. I have not been employed for a long time.

So that honeypot page would be useless.

~~~
GauntletWizard
I had the exact opposite reaction. $9? That's a steal. Many pieces of software
are needlessly bloated in price. If I'm going to use it once for a few hours,
$40 doesn't seem worth it. On the other hand, if it saves me an hour, $9 is
totally worth it - it's less than I'd have had to pay a minimum wage person to
do it for me.

On the other hand, I'd love to see more people respect the shareware model.
Give most or all features for free, encourage people to drop $5-10 in a hat to
pay you back. I'm a firm believer in patreon and PayPal tip jars, though I
know that they don't work at present for what I believe are cultural reasons.
People (rightly) don't trust free, assume that there's some ulterior motive.

------
lexap
This works great for coupon seekers for SaaS and eCommerce businesses too.

------
timthelion
Seems that the sentence "For a one-off fee of $29.95/£19.95/€26.95 is it worth
the risk?" should be re-written...

[http://www.perfecttableplan.com/html/crack.html](http://www.perfecttableplan.com/html/crack.html)

------
OJFord
This is titled 'Why you should ...' but the content is just 'You should ...'

~~~
dang
That first phrase has three pieces of linkbait and the second only two.

We changed the title above to representative language from the article.

~~~
OJFord
Thanks - the title here now is much better, to be clear though I wasn't
criticising mods or OP here, since it was verbatim the linked article. :)

------
hartator
> Some stuff to keep the search engines happy: crack, cracks, hack, serial
> numbers, keygen, torrent, warez, licence, license, registration codes, full
> version download.

I think it's against Google TOS to be that explicit. A better alternative will
be "Related Keywords:" without metioning search engines.

------
imode
I don't think anybody is going to pirate your wedding planner software. you
being smug about something you have no control over (re: piracy) is also not
going to do anything either.

------
Pica_soO
Oh, no.. this surely will not be another bad site, where company's upload
virus infected ripped software and torrents to movies in continuously
worsening quality. And surely the reeducation camp will succeed this time.

Is it really so tough to accept the simple fact that entertainment (games) is
like a lot of other industrys (nuclear power, bread) a half socialized
industry - meaning the state will intervene on shortage and pricespikes.
Absolutely noone of those politicians you get to meet as lobbyist at fency
dinner partys has a real interest on reducing tv-show and games piracy.

The day they would close the Consolecolosseum, because those plebeians did not
pay the entrance ticket - there would be a riot to end all riots. Sure you can
turn your back to the bloody show, and preach to the good in man sitting on
the ranks for entertainment.

The industries assembled here have taken alot of those "none"-customers there
jobs. Now want to take there free entertainment and there food, while they
wait for the lifes to drop to zero?

I want it written down into the Pre-Revolution-Chronicles that i did not
support this madness.

