Free list building tip...

by raycowie

Posted: 14 years ago 17 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

If you are building a list by giving stuff away, always be sure to give your download page an undecipherable title.

For instance: Don't name it 'yourdomain.com/download.htm' or 'yourdomain.com/thankyou.htm', because believe it or not, there are unscrupulous people out there who will soon work it out and get your free gift without signing up first.

The solution: Simply add a few random digits instead, such as 'yourdomain.com/djut486gvd9.htm' and that way no-one can 'steal' your wares.

Good luck.

p.s. Don't forget to write it down somewhere safe, so you can refer to it in times of memory loss. Also, you can put 'download' or 'thankyou' somewhere within those digits so you know exactly what page it is.

#building #email marketing #free #list #list building #sales letter advice #tip

AffiliateCashPile 14 years ago

yeah, a lot of people name their page thankyou.html . Take his advice and don't do it. People don't realise how common that is.
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JonnyBalfour 14 years ago

hey thanks mate, thats a great tip never thought of that
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Dietriffic 14 years ago

What if I use Google and type in "site:http://www.yourdomain.com/"

Will I be able to find your page there?
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- paj_mccarthy 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Dietriffic
  
  What if I use Google and type in "site:http://www.yourdomain.com/"
  
  Will I be able to find your page there?
  
  Not if you use this code:
  
  Code:
  
  <html> <head> <title>...</title> <META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW"> </head>
  
  Thanks
  
  2 replies
  
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  BrainCopy 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by paj_mccarthy
  
  Not if you use this code:
  
  Code:
  
  <html> <head> <title>...</title> <META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW"> </head>
  
  You beat me to the punch, I was just looking in hardrive to post it up here.
  
  Best Regards,
  UFG
  
  [ 1 ] Thanks
  
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  Matt Morgan 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by paj_mccarthy
  
  Not if you use this code:
  
  Code:
  
  <html> <head> <title>...</title> <META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW"> </head>
  
  I was going to to say that too,
  
  One step ahead!
  
  Thanks
  
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- Zeus66 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Dietriffic
  
  What if I use Google and type in "site:http://www.yourdomain.com/"
  
  Will I be able to find your page there?
  
  Use a robots.txt file. Put your download page in a folder (yourdomain.com/folder/download.html). Then in your robots.txt file, add that folder with a 'Disallow' line, like this:
  
  HTML Code:
  
  User-Agent: * Disallow: /folder/
  
  It's not foolproof, but it usually keeps the search engines from indexing what you disallow. If it's too late, still add it to your robots.txt file and they'll eventually take it out of the index (again, usually). Make sure to upload your robots.txt file to the public_html directory on your web hosting server.
  
  John
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  CDarklock 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Zeus66
  
  It's not foolproof, but it usually keeps the search engines from indexing what you disallow.
  
  However, rule #1 of seeking "private" downloads is to start right there.
  
  http://www.darklock.com/robots.txt
  
  Do you have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that http://www.darklock.com/seoforever/members might have cool stuff in it?
  
  Ooh, "HTTP 401: Authorization Required" - damn, it's password protected.
  
  Now, here's what you want to do with that... first, turn off directory browsing. In your httpd.conf or .htaccess file, add the line:
  
  Options -Indexes
  
  If you have a line that says "Options Indexes" already, you can just stick the "minus" sign in there.
  
  If you use CPanel instead of raw Apache configs, click on your Index Manager and select the folder, then select "No Index" and hit save.
  
  Now go to that folder and put an index.html in it. Doesn't matter what you put in it. If you're lazy, just make an empty zero-byte file. If you're polite, redirect to your main site, or say "sorry no unauthorised access" or whatever. If you're rude and obnoxious like me, put some really disgusting porn or a big picture of a middle finger or something.
  
  And now here's your recipe.
  
  - Put that folder in your robots.txt file as "Disallow" so search engines don't look there.
  
  - Make a new folder underneath it with some weird name like 2xg1de0h9g7h0h1jk2g98734 or something.
  
  - Add your "thank you" page in that folder.
  
  Now, when someone is being a jerk and tries to search for your "thank you" page, the location of that page is not listed on the search engines and not available from your web server. If they search your robots.txt, all they get is your index file.
  
  There are more secure ways to do this, but now something over 99.9% of the people looking for your product URL aren't going to find it. So unless you have several thousand people looking for it, you're probably safe.
  
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petelta 14 years ago

For people that are looking to bypass your sign up process, I say good riddance with them. I would rather not have them on my list anyways. They are a waste of a subscriber.

You're always going to have those that look for your freebie the wrong way. Include some links to your sign up process just in case it gets passed around the horn and there are actually those interested in what you have to say.

Travis
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johnyeo90 14 years ago

Yap raycowie, i totally agree with you.. A lot of people hate to opt-in because worry that someone may spam their email.. that why they trying to skip the page and go straight directly to the download page..i think the best way is to put your download page with another domain name..is that right>??
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Charleskidd 14 years ago

I will remember that because I have seen ways around signing up to other peoples list to get the goods.
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ArticlePrince 14 years ago

I make sure that none of my landing/download pages get indexed, I had several products stolen :-)
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RaymondRigney 14 years ago

I agree with Travis

If they try and bypass your squeeze page then they aren't worth being on your list. They would be the unresponsive part of your list. As we all know it costs money to have an autoresponder. The more people you have on your list the more it costs you. So why let them be on your list to cost you money instead of just letting them bypass it and get your free gift? Cause as marketers we all know if the free gift is a viral book then please the more the merry even if you don't get them on your list.

So i must say I disagree with raycowie. You want your viral free gift in as many hands as possible.

Raymond Rigney
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RaymondRigney 14 years ago

Also if you are giving the gift away free, why don't you just email it to them? I truly don't understand what the confusion is here. It's a free viral ebook. Or at least it should be!

Now your product that you sell is a whole different story. The download page for that should defiantly should be protected.

Raymond Rigney
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- sylviad 14 years ago
  
  My free stuff, I put it inside a separate folder with a bizarre number/letter name. If it's something I only want certain people to have, I put a password on the folder and give that password to those select people. It doesn't really matter if they pass it on, but at least it prevents others from getting it.
  
  My paid stuff used to go through DLGuard, until I got too confused to use it... must be getting brain-fried or something. So now I'll use the tips you have provided, ie: using the robots file along with the separate folder with blank index page.
  
  Just one thing to the person who said he puts something rude inside that file. If someone comes to your site and takes the stuff off the end to get to the root domain, they will get that page (if that's how you set it up). I've found such pages simply because the page I got didn't have what I was looking for. I thought the root domain would give me the right link. I've either landed on a blank page, or a polite statement saying "you are not authorized to access this page" or something to that effect.
  
  I'm not so sure putting rude comments and images on that page would appear very professional to those who find it by accident.
  
  Sylvia
  
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deannatroupe 14 years ago

OMG! This has been a very useful thread. I didn't even think about people trying to figure out how to get my paid product for free. I'm heading over to my site right now to make some tweaks!
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Davy Norton 14 years ago

hey great post really helpfull i never thought of that im gona change that now

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Davy
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