Before we get into uploading your product, we need to look at what your goal is for it.
- Are you going to give it away as a virual marketing tool.
- Use it for an opt-in to build your list.
- Sell it.
Lets take a look at each option.
If your going to use it as a virual marking tool we want to upload it in what I call the clear, what I do is just upload it as a PDF to the root directory ( if your using cpanel that would be public_html directory, if your using WA hosting its the http directory)
I also will upload a zip copy to the same directory, the search engines love PDF's and Zip files and it will get index pretty fast, when someone clicks on the PDF url it will open online, if they click on the zip url it will open a dowload window.
Its important that when you name your PDF that you use a good keyword, here is what the url would look like for my e-book http;//1affiliateanswers.com/100-dollars-a-day.pdf and http://1affiliateanswers.com/100-dollars-a-day.zip if I was going to use it as a virual marketing tool.
If you are planning on just giving it away then I recommend when you creat it that you use inline text links and mylinker or some other link tracking software, this way you can change where you send them from one loaction on all your PDF's even if they have already downloaded it. I use something like this in the PDF link for more information on affiliate marketing click here, and not something like this: check out how to make 100 dollars a day, using the first one lets me change the product I send them to.
Does virual marketing work? it's another free way to generate traffic here is a screen shot of my tracking software I started giving this report away just before the end of 2009.
I have blanked out all the product names, the guide in zip format has been downloaded 1,353 times and the PDF format 1,254 times for a total of 2,607 times and has generated 2,940 clicks to the different vendor landing pages. I submitted 10 articles to one directory and placed 2 ads on free add sites, I have not done anything to this site since I put it up, but it keeps producing because of the power of using a virual report.
Next if your going to use it for opt-in to your list or sell then you need to add some protection for your download link, so you need to put your zip file into its own folder, and give it a random name like aC27.,e;n3P5_c so someone can't guest the dowload name this is not great protection but it's better than none, so now my download link would look like this http://1affiliateanswers.com/aC27.,e;n3P5_c/100-dollars-a-day.zip I could also go into my hosting account and password protect that file, then when they signup to my list I send them the password, user name and download link.
In your cpanel control just click on the Password Protect Directorirs it will open a new window.
Click on go and it will list all your files just pick the one you want to password protect and add your password and user name to it.
Just follow the above instructions and you will be good to go, you can also buy programs that will create expiring links and protect your download page but they are not cheap but can make you money by limiting the number of people stealing your work.
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