- Image by Funchye via Flickr
Hopefully you’ve made some progress with your free report. Heck, maybe you’ve even finished it! Now it’s time to figure out how to share it with your readers.
How to Upload Your Free Report
If you are using your free report to build your list you’ll be sharing it via your autoresponder. However, before you can do that you’ll need to have it hosted somewhere.
This means you’ll need to upload it to your hosting account. When you upload it to your server you will then get a url that points to your report. It’s the url you’ll share in your email to your readers. They will be able to go to that address and see the report ~ as well as download it to their machine.
It’s a pretty simple process. You’ll need to open your ftp client (fireftp or whatever you’re using). You’ll have to find the domain the report goes with. (if you have more than one domain on your hosting account.)
For example, the Blog 2 hours report I did I wanted associated with this site, so I had to go in and find the folder for THIS site (as apposed to all my other sites).
Once you find the appropriate domain folder open it up.
** Alternatively you can create a new folder/directory in your root domain where you keep free reports and other things like it. I have a “loves” folder. That way when I put things in that folder it will look like www.internetmarketingformommies.com/loves/freereport.pdf
It makes it easier to stay organized and find things when you get a lot of things going.
To create a new directory log in to your ftp client. Find the domain name folder you want it to be associated with. Right click and choose create directory. A box will show up for you to name it. You can then open that directory/folder and follow the rest of the directions below.
Find your report on the left hand side (your computer files) and click it to highlight it, and then click the arrow to move it over to the server side.
That’s it. 
It will now have an address you can use in your email. It will be www.yourdomainname.com/yourreportname.pdf or if you put it in a folder it will be www.yourdomain.com/foldername/reportname.pdf
** Tip**
When you are naming your report don’t put any spaces in the name. It will make your url much easier to deal with. When you have spaces in your report name they will be filled in with symbols that will make the url very tough to remember.
Sharing your report with your readers:
Once you’ve uploaded your free report you can share it with your readers in a number of ways. You can also use it to drive traffic.
- If you’re going to use it to build a list you’ll want to go into your autoresponder and create a campaign. You’ll put the url to the report in the first message of your new campaign. (we’re going to go over this piece in detail next week)
- You can share it in a blog post as a freebie bonus for your readers.
- You can upload it to sites like Scribd where people will find it and share it.
- You can tweet the link and give it away on twitter.
- You can link to it and give it away on facebook.
- You could have a contest and give copies away for people tweeting about it. (www.twiveaway.com)
Free reports are an excellent way to create value and drive traffic, so consider creating free reports regularly. You don’t really want to do ALL of the above with the same report ~ you want to have a free report for each of these activities.
Get your free reports uploaded ~ next week we’re going to learn how to add an opt in box, set up your autoresponder and how to do a squeeze page. Busy week!!
Don’t forget to go back to the blog challenge post and leave a comment when you get your report done and uploaded!
If you have any questions about uploading your report feel free to ask in the comments section, and I’ll do what I can to help you.
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Once you upload them you will have an url you can use to send people to get the report. You will give people the new url to get it.
You don’t need text to tell it where to go ~ you open the specific folder you want it in and then move it to that folder.
Jackie
After the files are uploaded how do you transfer them to your blog/website? When you click the move file button what is the text that will direct where your file is to go?
You do a great job !
Thank you,
well I hadn’t really thought about it all that much. It’s just pretty much what everyone does and so that’s what I did. Also it’s easier to load a zipped thing to e-junkie which is what I use for product delivery.
It’s weird. I thought about it after I asked, and yea, I guess I do feel just a little let down if I pay for even a single ebook and it comes unzipped…strange huh?
Online or off, I guess we like to “open the box”. lol
.-= Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..New Updated Long Detailed Comment Policy Coming very SOON! Among Others… =-.
Alyssa,
I’m not sure I’d say I like getresponse better ~ it definitely works well ~ however, as Tom pointed out I think the prices are pretty much even now. Here’s the spin though ~ I DO USE get response, so all the tutorials on this site will use getresponse as for images etc. So if you want extra pictures and walk throughs that match what you have I’d go with GR.
.-= Jackie´s last blog ..Too Many Good Books =-.
So you like getresponse better than aWeber? I had an aWeber account for while a while.. but it was expensive and a pain to use!! Off to check out getresponse before reading some more of your very helpful posts! thanks!
Jackie,
Thanks so much for sharing all of this information. You have a knack for presenting a new (to me) thing just when I’m mastering one thing and my brain is getting ready to start understanding something new. I’m getting some ideas for a campaign now, but I’m going to simmer it awhile until I know I can follow through. Meanwhile, I’m bookmarking all your blog posts.
Nancy
.-= Nancy@Cat Supplies´s last blog ..Unique Cat Trees =-.
Awesome Nancy ~ glad I could help! We’ll still be here when you’re ready.
.-= Jackie´s last blog ..What’s in the Kitchen? Ham. =-.
I may be getting ahead of some here, but do you have any cares either way on whether it should be open or zipped?
.-= Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!!!!!! =-.
If it’s just a free report I just leave it in pdf format. If there’s more than one thing in the giveaway I’ll zip them together.
If it’s a product for sale I zip it.
.-= Jackie´s last blog ..What’s in the Kitchen? Ham. =-.
Interesting…
Free and by itself, unzipped – Paid and by itself, zipped?
I assume this has something to do with a buyers Psyche and perception of value?
.-= Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..If You’re in a Contest, Subscribe to the Blog. =-.
Julie ~ congrats!! We’re going to talk about this later ~ but I’d suggest you move your opt in box to the top of the sidebar ~ to the wide sidebar so it’s the first thing people see. It is not above the fold on my screen.
.-= Jackie´s last blog ..What’s in the Kitchen? Ham. =-.
Well hot damn…it worked! All I needed to do was UPGRADE! *bonk self* Thanks Jackie
.-= Julie´s last blog ..Clutter Busting – Where Next? =-.
Julie:
What a beautiful website! Is this the “Lifestyle” template?
Jackie:
As always, thanks for a well written and informative post. I’m glad to read you have fun plans for the weekend.
.-= amber@indoor herb gardening´s last blog ..Windowsill Herb Garden: Which Herbs Are Best? =-.
Thanks Jackie!
I have my .pdf ready and I have getresponse.com but I’m having difficulty getting it to work on my website. I created the opt-in form but when I go to test it, I get the message from getresponse saying I should check my e-mail, but no e-mail ever comes. Furthermore, I don’t have any new subscribers showing up either.
Anything you can suggest?
.-= Julie´s last blog ..Clutter Busting – Where Next? =-.
where is your opt in box? I don’t see it on your site? Check your spam folder for the email ~ that’s possibly where it’s gone. If you tell me where your opt in box is I’ll subscribe and see what happens.
I took it down because I didn’t want to anger any of my blog viewers when it didn’t work. It’s back up now. Let me know if you have any luck and thank you!
.-= Julie´s last blog ..Clutter Busting – Where Next? =-.
something’s wonky with the opt in box ~ the submit button isn’t showing up for me.
Try it again..I forgot to copy the entire code
sorry!
.-= Julie´s last blog ..Clutter Busting – Where Next? =-.