Use a PDF file to let visitors download your eBook in exchange for their name and email address

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.

In defense of some of these ‘bedroom hosting enterprises’ we can say that some have grown into respectable hosting companies; but, the vast majority of these small upstarts have taken the path of what is personified in the automobile industry as the ‘used car salesman’ (nothing personal to you who may have been or are used car sales professions – the founder of our organization did a stent in a cell block of a used car lot himself – and said we could mention it here).

The dividing line between those companies that are respectable and those that feed on the ignorance of the naive and simple-minded of the Internet age is simply this. Hosting alone does not a Website make. A good hosting company offers you more than just the tools you need to build and maintain your Website, and quality customer service. They provide the marketing tools that are a requirement for marketing your Website successfully to the world. There are only a hand full of reputable hosting companies we know of that offer comprehensive hosting services for an affordable price.

Of this hand full, only a few really stand out for the type of customer service commitment that we feel comfortable in trusting our clients to. In the 14 years of being in the business of planning, building, launching, and maintaining Websites for our clients we have found only three companies that meet our high standards for hosting, customer service, and online marketing tools. One of these companies was a sister company of SD Ward & Associates that was sold this past year. Another, while having great hosting, online marketing products, and customer service, the character and integrity of its owners prohibited us from doing business with them. The third hosting company that we have been so impressed with is the company that we have personally hosted over 25 of our own Websites with within a month after they rolled out their full service hosting and marketing tools hosting plan. The name of that company?

Global Virtual Opportunities (GVO), formerly known as Kiosk. Because of its owner’s strong commitment to not only providing quality hosting, but also actively helping every hosting customer become successful in their online marketing efforts, we continually refer our clients to this hosting company. Most of the clients we consult with about online marketing and brand development realize their need for online marketing tools. And while we do offer limited hosting services for new online marketers, and online marketing solutions through our Virtual Assistant program, we feel that one of the absolute best investments a person can make into their immediate and long-term success is to take advantage of the Titanium hosting package that GVO offers every hosting client for free – tools that if you had to go out and purchase or lease them, you would pay between $250 and $400 per month for the marketing tools needed to promote your Website.

Since we try to keep our blog posts here short, let us get to the good stuff. We would like to introduce you to the hosting service that we are using for our clients and ourselves here at SD Ward & Associates. Take a moment and watch this short video introduction, and if it makes since to you to have a hosting service that can offer you all that they do, take another moment and visit the FamilyDot-GVO Hosting Website to learn more.

If you have any questions at all about it or would like to learn how you can get your hosting from us for free, write us at coachme (at) sdward.com. One of our coaching advisors will be back in touch with you momentarily. And as always, please share this article with anyone that you feel would find it informative. Thanks.

This is great news for all the ‘talkers’ out there in Cyberville who are much better at speaking than they are in writing. Although speech to text and text to speech recognition is not new, Google has done what they always do, and put technology to work for them in better building their brand as the premier search engine of choice by most online marketers.

It makes totally good sense to use the technology that many professional speakers and Webinar presenters have used the speech to text technology to generate transcripts of their presentations for several years now. By converting video to text, Google can index the video just like the written copy of a blog post, like this one for instance. It can’t be confirmed or not if Google offers transcripts of video that they transcribe, but it would be a great feature to add to their already success filled basket of online marketing and optimization goodies. I would love to have the ability to access my Google user account and or my YouTube account and be able to grab a copy of my video or Webinar that I might post after a presentation. 

In case you didn’t pick up on what I just implied in all of this, Google can now use your spoken words (spoken text) to categorize and rank your video. For those of you who are still learning about page rankings, this means that when you do a really good video on some subject that is widely searched for, your video could get ranked in top search results, placing you on the first page of Google search results! We did some testing over the ffew months to test this new technology by writing a script on small business finance, and this is what happened in our test:

1)  The first video we did was presented off of the the straight-forward script as written without any research as to potential keywords that might be associated with the subject. Honestly, the rankings were really really bad over the next two weeks and the number of visits to the page were never more than 150 unique hits on any day of the two week period. Most of the higher page hits were in the second week of the two week test. As a part of the test, we implemented a specific channel promotion we use to help promote clients so that we could use it again on our future test videos. In defense of Google, it is fair to say that the video was not written with any keyword or keyphrase research, and we know that this is an important part of the overall formula for getting good page rankings with Google.

2. Our second video was the same content, but we implemented a standardize SEO and SEM practice that we use with our clients on a regular basis. We researched and chose our desired Google keyword and keyphrase choices on the same subject (small business finance). We integrated those Google keywords or keyphrases into our second video on the subject verbatim as listed with Google Adwords listings. At the end of the second week of promoting the second video in the exact same way we did the first video, we saw a dramatic improvement in our video page ranking, and our average daily unique hits were never less than 360 unique hits in the second week of promoting it. We were totally impressed. Just by finding specific Google Adsense keywords and keyphrases, and inserting them into the same script on the same subject, we were able to generate over double the organic traffie to our page. The technology really worked! Very cool!

3) In our third video on the same subject with almost identical content using the Google keywords and keyphrases from video test two, we rewrote our 3 minute video script to include the keywords and keyphrases at the front end of our video as if they were in the first and second paragraph of a written blog post. We used them at the same density of Google keywords and keyphrases in the video, but placing about 75% of them in the first minute of presentation.  The page rankings of our third video were outrageous! In our second week of promoting our third video, again, using the identical promotion we used with video one and two,  by placing the main keywords or key phrases up front we were able to see our page ranking hit in the top 60 pages of Google results using our keywords and keyphrases. Keep in mind that at the time we did this YouTube video, that there were over 130,000,000 results for small business finance. Our number of unique hits increased to over 700 on an average day in week two of the two week promotion with one day being almost 1000 unique hits.  

Our conclusion is quite simply this. Google’s new romance with their new bride YouTube, and Google’s amazing technology and their ability to capitalize on the video search engine market, is a homerun for Google of course. But the big winners will be average people using video in a smart way to promote their personal or business brand, product, service, or cause. As popularity of video blogs catch on, it will be a whole new ball game for the online marketing industry as new services emerge to script effective video for those wanting high page rankings and increased traffic to their Websites.  

If you would like coaching in how to properly script your next video, SD Ward & Associates would be very excited about helping you. Our staff of copy writers are very capable. Write us at coachme (at) sdward.com. If you have found this article useful, please take a moment and buzz it up on Google, Tweet it, or share it on your favorite social network to your followers (spread the wealth). And as always, do leave your comments if you would like to participate in any discussion on this.

Many companies that have been around for several years did not have the benefit of the Internet when they were choosing their company name. The result was that they chose a name that is too long for a domain name, or too awkward to type out correctly. This is especially true when someone is not used to typing out a company name that may be longer than most domain names. When choosing a good business name, always consider the name as a dotcom domain name first over the brick and mortar name.

It is one thing to have a company name hanging outside a building that is rather long, but to have that same name as a domain name is another thing. Seeing a sign in front of a business that says, “Billy Bob’s Best Bar-B-Q in Town” is one thing, but to put that into a dotcom, i.e. billybobsbestbarbqintown.com is really a whole other thing. What this means for most potential online businesses is that they will have to either be creative in their name to find one that no one has already taken, or be willing to purchase a domain name from the owner of it at a premium price that simplifies their company name enough to remember.

An example of an awkward name to type would be Sears and Roebucks. Everyone has heard the Sears and Roebucks name for over a hundred years. It is known as one of America’s first catalog companies. Its past success as a major retail store chain is widely known, but it is obvious that the name as a dotcom is cumbersome to type out and often misspelled. That is why when Sears and Roebucks decided to take their company to its next level as a brick and mortar business as well as online they changed their name to simply “Sears”.

It goes without saying that if you have a good business idea, a plan to market it online, and the product or service that you will offer has a great deal of potential, your best selection for a domain name should be something that reflects the tone of the product or service. A domain name should be as short as possible without giving up the descriptor within it. Ideally, a good domain name is short and easy to remember, howbeit very few of those still remain unreserved by someone.

If you want a name that really does reflect your business and someone has already reserved that name but has not used it for, the only option in those cases is to be willing to purchase that domain name from the owner of it. I have found that with a little time invested, you can find a good domain that meets the criteria you have for the product or service you want to market, but also remember that a domain name does NOT have to reflect a specific aspect or characteristic of your business, i.e. Google, Yahoo, Twitter, etc. These are all brands that are synonymous with their specific identities in what they offer online but do not at all indicate what the company is by description. These names are known for what they do as a part of their branding strategy.

When deciding on a name, be creative. Use Greek, Latin, Spanish or some other notable language, and when you are looking for the perfect domain, consider picking up the same name in other languages for future development. Once they are gone, they are gone. An ounce of prevention instead of a pound to cure… or something like that.

Take FaceBook for example. A college student with a few hours a day in spare time working in his dorm room over a few months changes the history of how people use the Internet and is on track to have a social networking Website that accounts for one sixth of the worlds population by the end of 2010. Most people do not even know his name, but almost everyone knows that within about 16 months after launching his little idea, Mark Zuckerberg sold off a portion of it for well over $560 million dollars. The secret was not in his intelligence or that of even having an original idea. It was in his ability to take action on his idea.

For every one of these success stories like Mark Zuckerberg and his FaceBook idea, there are hundreds of thousand of stories of would-be entrepreneurs that we will never hear about that were shipwrecked as a result of their inability to take action. This lack of action was not for any other reason other than what is known by many in the coaching industry as “paralysis by over-analysis.” Maybe you know someone like this.

People with paralysis by over-analysis may have a great idea, be generally outgoing people, and very pleasant to be around. They could be anyone, maybe even you at times. The symptoms of this paralysis by over-analysis looks something like this. A person is given an opportunity or has an idea that could be huge, or maybe just the thought that they need to do something for someone or a cause, but after they have thought it out, researched, planned, and considered the merits of it, they somehow, and for some reason start repeating the whole cycle again. All along the way they justify the lack of taking action on circumstances, events, schedules, and the tyranny of the urgent. But, still, just the same as always, they think it out, contemplate, re-plan it, and again reconsider the merits of whatever they have in front of them to do, but they never actually act on it.

There comes a time, a day, a moment in our lives when we are given an idea or thought to do something, or an opportunity that could be of great blessing to many, that after we have thought through it, done all the due diligence, prayed about it, talked about it to friends, family, strangers on the bus, and the occasional stray dog or cat in the neighborhood that we feed, that we simply must take action on it. Taking action is the culmination of all you have done to prepare for something all rolled up into a single act; and that act is to ‘TAKE ACTION!” Action is powerful, and without it, nothing significant in life every gets accomplished for good.

Have you made plans, set goals to put your plans into action, but months later, you seemed to be stuck in the planning stage second guessing yourself and your ability to do what you have planned to do? One of the most paralyzing factors in human existence is that of self-doubt. Self-doubt is that of thinking that even though you have a goal and a plan to accomplish that goal, you feel that you are not good enough, capable enough, or smart enough to make it happen. However, there has never been any self-doubting individual that once they took action and began to see the results of their action, who did not find themselves becoming more confident, more sure of themselves, and more capable in what they were doing. Ultimately, again, it was simply the lack of taking action that was missing in their success.

How to Empower Yourself to Take Action

Empowerment is a great feeling. There is just something about feeling that you can do something and that there is nothing preventing you from doing it. If you are at a place in your life where there is something (or some things) that you have been considering that have the potential to bring blessing and/or positive change to your life of the life of others, here are some great tips to initiate productive action in a positive direction.

1. Break out your project or assignment or goal into a list of small incremental steps.
2. Prioritize your list of steps and then set aside 20 minutes in the course of each day to spend on just one of the steps on your list. I call these 20MDs. This sort of approach in taking action on a daily basis towards a desired outcome if only by investing 20 minutes a day towards that desired outcome, will effectuate positive results in accomplishing it.
3. Assign yourself a proposed timeframe to accomplish each small incremental step so that you can govern yourself and your actions within the scope of a personal performance ethic, i.e. timeline.
4. Surround yourself with wise advisors who can give you constructive and objective feedback, and become accountable to at least one of them for your success in accomplishing your goal. This is an important part of remaining motivated and empowered to pursue what you have set out to accomplish, and being able to do so with the confidence that someone is looking over your shoulder and there to assist you if only in providing you with advice along the way.
5. Persistence is powerful. Determine in your mind that even if it takes you a week of 20MDs or even a month of them, that you will remain committed to accomplishing each one of the small steps on your list, one by one, without giving up.
6. Be able to recognize when what you are doing consistently is consistently failing to get the results you are hoping to achieve, and be willing to objectively re-evaluate what you are doing that is not working in the light of what you are wanting to accomplish, then seek help from your advisors in determining what you need to do in order for it to be successful.
7. Set a time aside each week or month, depending on how many 20Mds you choose to add to your weekly schedule, and evaluate your progress in light of your objective, the timeframe you have given yourself, and the cost in time and money and relationships that undertaking your project is costing you, in comparison to the benefits and gains that accomplishing it will bring. Assess, reassess, and recommit to your success continually.

By applying a systematic approach to accomplishing your goals, and making a willful decision to be accountable to at least one individual concerning your goals, you will find that using these seven steps of action very powerful in accomplishing a great many meaningful things in your life.

Is procrastination holding you back from success in what you are now doing? Have you been contemplating a course of action but feel stuck in your decision to proceed? Or, maybe taking action for you is as simple as finding an online business opportunity that is right for you where you can start part time with little or not investment other than your time, but you just need a sounding board to talk through what such an opportunity really entails when it comes to working from home. Sometimes all we need is someone to bounce our thoughts off of about what we are doing or what we hope to do in order to get a crystal clear picture of what we should or need to do in our lives, whether its in a relationship or a business opportunity.

If you want to take a step in the right direction, write us today at opportunity (at) sdward.com. One of our coaches would be excited to help you take a step in the right direction in your personal and/or business success. There is not cost or obligation. We simply love helping people succeed. Write us today with your thoughts and share a little about what you are needing to make progress with. We just might be all you need in order to take the right step in the right direction!

“I cnudolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd what I was rdanieg. The Pneaomhenl pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in what oerdr the ltteres in a word are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is that the frsit and lsat lteter be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and smoonee can sltil raed it whotuit a pboerlm. This is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the word as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! If you can raed this forwrad it on to oethrs you tnihk wlil arpectapie it.”

Just for fun.

The Eordital Sfatf

Out of all the reasons that are most often given for someone’s failure in these sorts of businesses, the one that is last to be mentioned, and hardly ever admitted to, but is most often the very reason alone for someone not experiencing financial success in their marketing business is that of the lack of taking action. The lack of action. At the core of this reason is procrastination. People find every form of excuse and rationale as to why they can’t take action on those things that are important for their success, and ultimately this mindset robs the very people who need a financial breakthrough in their lives the most of the ability to succeed as they were meant to.

If you are involved in either a network marketing business or a direct selling business, and are presently struggling with the lack of daily action in your business goals, here are some immediate action steps you can implement immediately both in your  daily success life, as well as two that you can apply on a weekly basis in your present network marketing or direct selling business. If you begin to implement them into your daily routine in the next week, you will begin to see the tide changing for the better as it concerns your success in your business. The more you apply these action steps on a daily basis, and the two weekly steps on a consistent weekly basis, the greater your opportunity to succeed will become, and you eventually will not be able to stop the ultimate positive affect of their affect on your success.

Monday through Friday Daily Action Steps (2 hours per day)

1. Help one person with a personal need that is totally unrelated to your business opportunity, whether that assistance is in talking to them, listening to them, doing some act of kindness for them, or going out of your way to help them, where your action in helping them will allow them to be more successful in their personal or public life. This builds your personal brand as someone who is interested in more than just making money off everyone you meet. (30 minutes)
2. If you use FaceBook or another social media network, write five of your friends/connections with a letter that is totally unrelated to your business, that focuses on discovering what they do and what their needs are. (30 minutes)
3. Introduce yourself to five new people today and ask them for permission to share what you do for a living with them in the event they or someone they know might be looking for a way to supplement and/or replace their present income by working with you. With upwards of 45 million people out of work or having their hours cut back in America alone, the potential of your contact with five people a day to find at least two or three a week that would be interested in what you have to say is very good. If they say yes, ask them if you could arrange for a time to discuss it in more detail at a time that is convenient with their schedule . (15 minutes)
4. Write, call, or text your top five qualified prospects with at least one reason why your opportunity would be good for them. The average individual who buys is contacted on the average of five times before they make a buying decision. (15 minutes)
5. Share your business opportunity with at least one person face to face or by telephone, and then ask for their help in recommending a few people who they might know that would appreciate the benefits of your opportunity and the financial possibilities of it. (30 minutes)

Weekly Action Steps (4 hours per week)

1. Attend a training meeting whether online or physically to learn from others, and to teach others. This builds depth of understanding in what you are doing by both learning/being encouraged, and teaching/encouraging. (1.5 hours)
2. Plan and do one online Webinar presentation per week for 5 individuals who have not been exposed to your business opportunity, but have said they would like to learn more. These small online meetings are easy and fun to do. The very best tools that I have seen, and that I endorse for online marketers are through familydot.com. They work with GVO to provide, among other tools, a Webinar conference room for free if you host your Website with them. The rooms are very easy to set up and to invite people to, and you can do video, powerpoint, audio, or all three. If you feel awkward in doing your first Webinar, ask someone with experience in your up-line to do it for you and you simply host it by introducing him or her to your participants. This is a great way to learn and to build confidence. (1.5 hours)
3. Plan and do one online Webinar training session a week for your immediate personally sponsored downline on the latest training and recruitment techniques that the leaders in your business are using. The first one you do should be with those you are closest to and work with the most who respect you and understand that you are learning just like they are. It is a great way to lead by example, and a great way to build confidence into the lives of others that participate as you call on them to share their experiences and success stories. (1 hour)

These Action Points listed above are proven and time tested, and used by the world’s most financially successful network marketing and direct sales professionals; and they are not at all difficult to do. The KEY however is to take action on them, whether you ease into it by doing just one of the daily Action Steps each day for a week and then the following week add another, then the next week after that add another, until you are consistently doing all of these on a daily basis. The same goes with the weekly Action Steps.

IF YOU have something that you personally do that you have found helpful and financially successful that has allowed you to break free from procrastination and to take action, please share it with our readers here in the comments section below. And, if you know others in either network marketing or direct sales, and you have the time, PLEASE SHARE THIS ARTICLE with your followers on your favorite social media networks, like Twitter or FaceBook. Let’s help others realize their personal and financial goals together. Thanks!