One of the most important aspects of building a contact list is what you will offer your Website visitors in return for their name and email address. This may be as simple as taking one of your instructional blog posts and formatting it into a downloadable PDF file. PDF files are permanent document files that cannot be edited or copied. This is most often used for transferring legal contracts to others, training materials, and eBooks since they are all larger documents that you do not want corrupted or modified from their original form.
There are a few ways to set the ability for people to download PDF files on your Website. In this post, I will discuss how to do this for your smaller eBooks or files that you want to allow people to download via a PDF document. Please see the post entitled, “Using Zip Files to Decrease Bandwidth and Data Transfer Costs Associated with eBooks” to learn how to set up a large downloadable file using compression technology, sometimes referred to as ‘Zip” files.
Like I said, the best way to transfer PDF files to your Website visitors is using a ZIP file for the sake of saving on bandwidth and data transfer costs; however it requires a little more work than most would like to do. I would recommend that once you get the hang of setting up PDF file download links using the following tutorial that you take a little time and familiarize yourself with using Zip files in order to save you some money on bandwidth and data transfer costs.
The following tutorial will help you get yourself up and running in about 20 minutes if you have no experience at all in doing ‘technical stuff’ – but if you are like me, a techno idiot (that’s why my programming staff gets paid the big bucks), it may take you about 30 minutes your first time through.
1) Save the file (your eBook or Report) that you want to offer as a PDF file. Prior to doing it, make sure you have double checked it for spelling, grammar, and layout. Ask yourself the question, “IF I were to download this file, would I think that it was professionally done and that the person I was downloading it from knew what they were doing?”
2) Upload the PDF that you want to allow others to download to your Web server. This is where you have your Website files (your file repository on your hosting account).
3) Confirm that the URL for its location works. This means making sure that you know where the file is in your Websites files. Test the full URL in your browser window to confirm that you can get to it through the folder location that you placed it in. It would look something like this in your root directory: /documents/ebook_title1.pdf.
4) Go to the page in your page editor where you want the link to be available. It will be the ‘landing page’ for your offer where you might have a short video thank you for opting in, with some instructions (both in the video and written underneath) on what to do next.
5) Once you determine where you want the link to be, add add a standard anchor link to the document. It might look something like this:
Download Your Free Copy of this Ebook by Clicking here!
6) Add the instructions for how to download that tells your readers what to do next. An example might be something like:
“Here are the steps to download your free book!
Please right click the link in order to download your book,
then choose the ‘Save Link As’ options to save this
document to your computer.”
OK! That is really all there is to setting up a link to deliver your eBook using a PDF file. I recommend that you offer PDF download links through only hidden pages on your Website, and if you use a membership and/or subscriber plugin or tool, to consider making the opt-in offering a part of a membership registration so that only those who opt in can find and download the eBook you want to offer. WordPress has more than a few plugins that are ideal for this sort of need that you can downlaod for free from the back office of your WordPress blog control panel.
In some instances, there may be individuals who are like most of our clients – technically challenged. If you need help or assistance in setting up any technical aspect of your Website or WordPress blog, please do not hesistate to contact us at either coachme (at) sdward.com or visit our sister company ITfamilyGroup.com. ITfamilyGroup can provide you with competitive rates on all of your design, programming, implementation, and Website administration needs.
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25 Responses to Delivering Your E-Book Using PDF Document Download
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Nice how to on setting up a download option for a PDF file on a website. I always learn when I visit here. Thanks again for all of your help with our website!
Simply the best post on this subject that I have found. Your website has so much free knowledge that I wonder how you even make money giving so much away. I am glad you do though. I am excited to learn more about making money online and hope that when I have chosen my domain name that you will be able to assist me in getting my website up and going. Thanks again for sharing so much valuable info here.
There are some good tutorials and tips here. Very useful site.
Great articles and tips! You blokes know your stuff. And thanks for the tip on GVO hosting! The marketing tools are worth ten times what they charge for hosting, and they are all free! You got me sold! Cheers!
I was getting all kinds of problems with my computer until I started to implement the things you are talking about in these two articles! Great stuff and I can vouch for it being accurate! Thanks for the reminders on some stuff that I totally overlooked.
It’s hard to find good content online nowadays. Everyone just posts C*** to fill their sites. Your site is different. Great posts and its obvious your writers know their stuff. Thank you for being a ‘real’ coaching site!
Very good information. I have a book idea that i want to publish online and this cleared the air for me on how to go about it. Any suggestions on how to collect money if I want to sell it?
Yes Greta. If you use WordPress for your website, download ‘s2members’ plugin. It is a great tool and provides you with a PayPal payment option that is easy to set up once you have your PayPal account. We do have a two hour tutorial on this plugin that we teach if you are interested. Just write to coachme(at)sdward.com and add to the subject line “s2members class interest” and your email will get to the write individual who teaches this course.
Good read. I appreciate you sharing it with all us up and comers in online marketing. I am looking forward to having my site up soon and being able to start promoting my own eBook. Thanks.
Great John! Let us know if we can help you with your eBook publishing or editing. We have two people that are fully dedicated to that aspect of copy writing.
Thank you for another superb blog. Where else would i go if this site was not here. you always give us good information that we can use.
You are very welcomed Edward. We are glad you find it so helpful. We are definitely for YOUR success!
Excellent blog! I definitely love how it’s easy on my eyes and also the details are well written. I am wondering how I can be notified whenever a new post has been made. I have subscribed to your rss feed which should do the trick! Have a nice day!
Hi Marcia, I am glad you like our website. I notice that you have the link for smartgirlsmakemoremoney.com as your website. Are you a member of that community? I know the owner of the site. Very cool lady. She is definitely headed for the big time.
thanks for your help. you all rock! i’lllll be bauk!
How does someone go about getting linked to your website or exchanging links. I would love to be affiliated with yuour Website if that is possible.
Just did a google search and found your site. This weblog post is really great! Just what I was looking for. I have noticed that you have a lot of websites that have this similar post. Are they all yours? I was wanting to know if you teach a class on how to set up websites for online marketing success. At any rate excellent read again. Great info.
I was researching information on how to publish an e-book when I ran across your blog. Thanks for giving away so much free information. Your website always has great content!…Sean
Thanks for sharing this. How did you know I was looking for this? LOL You guys are the best!
I found your site on del.icio.us today and really liked it. Lots of free informatoin that others charge for. Thanks!!!
Thanks for this! I’ve been searching all over the web for the facts.
I was just about to pay someone to show me how to do this, and you are giving it away for free! how do you make money giving everything away for free!!! thanks as always :-)
This is exactly what i needed. Thanks again! This is great stuff. Do you have any affiliate program that I could participate in to send clients your way who need coaching?
Your site always has articles that are what people really need. No fluff. Real content! Great stuff. Thanks!