How To Upload And Protect A PDF
Do you have a squeeze page for a Free PDF or a digital product and want to know the fastest, simplest way to upload and protect it?
A customer of mine asked me that question today and I thought it would make a good newbie topic. I covered a download page before in this post, but this is slightly different.
First, I’m going to assume you have your own domain, and do actually know how to upload. Either via FTP or Cpanel.
Let’s use a PDF as an example.
Step 1. You’ve got a squeeze page and you want to give those who enter their name and email address a free download.
The first thing you should do is “Zip” the PDF for storage online. You don’t want to upload a “.pdf” file to your domain because Google can index it.
So locate the PDF on your hard drive and right-click it. Then click: Send To > Compressed Zipped Folder
This will create a zip file with the same name as your PDF.
Step 2
Open up Notepad and save a blank file as “index.html” (change Save as type to: all files)
You need this so your visitors can’t see all the files listed in your download directory.
Step 3
Create a folder on your domain and give it a unguessable name..
Like dl239×41tu
Step 4
For extra protection create a robots.txt file
This is a file that’s stored in your public_html folder and tells search engines not to index certain files and directories.
In Notepad again paste:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /dl239w41tu/
Save as: robots.txt
This blocks the search engines from indexing anything in that directory.
Step 5
Upload the robots.txt file to your public_html folder
Upload index.html and your Zip file to your dl239w41tu folder
Once you do the above your zip file will be located in a folder like
http://yourdomain.com/dl239w41tu/filename.zip
And it will be protected as best as possible without using any other scripts and coding.
I really think this article is great for anyone that is looking to increase their optin rates and increase the amount of traffic into their campaign. It was very detailed and clear. I will definely apply these tactics in all areas of my business. I really look forward to seeing more of your secrets. Thanks a ton!
Jesse Doubek
I don’t understand why you make a blank index.html document. What is that for? Won’t directory browsing already be turned off?
A lot of people don’t know how to set directory browsing to off, and on many webhosts it’s not an option, nor set by default.
Uploading a blank index is just a quick fix which works for everyone.
Creating the blank index.html file for these directories is definitely a simple and useful approach for the newbie. Thanks, Dan!
I agree with the premise of this article whereby you may want to prevent downloading of your PDF in order to encourage optin into your mailing list.
However, if your PDF provides valuable content and includes links to your product offers and various websites, allowing Google to index it seems like a good thing. I have started to upload ebooks over at Scribd and while people who read or download it are not being added to my list, I have noticed a consistent building of traffic from links i have embedded in the ebooks.
I guess it comes down to determining what your primary objective is, and then optimizing your strategy to achieve that goal.
Ron,
Yes, it’s all about the goal.. this post was just to help those looking to only give their pdf to those that have purchased or opted in… the giveaway model is good too. I’ll look at Scribd.. Thanks..
Dan
Awesome! I’ve been looking for a way to do that. Thanks!
Hey there…..
Can I disallow more than one folder within the single robot.txt file?
If so would it look like this:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /dl239w41tu/
Disallow: /3423mng544/
Disallow: /etc./
Disallow: /etc./
??
Bret… yes.
Cheers Dan….
Can you also hide a page in the main directory like this ie.
User-agent: *
Disallow: /dl239w41tu/
Disallow: /3423mng544/
Disallow: /se45vg4.html
Disallow: /etc./
Many Thanks!
Yes
You made me realize just how much I love internet marketing! Thanks and looking forward to more!