I’ll use Thursday for this post to keep up with the momentum from yesterday.
We saw last time how to create our autoresponder. Now we need to upload our file that contains our free gift to our web space, and create an autoresponder message that provides a download link. You should also create a few more messages that are helpful, to start to build trust with your subscribers. I’ll leave that part up to you.
Uploading The File
You’ll upload this the same way you upload anything to your web host. You’re uploading a single file, so you could use the file manager on Cpanel pretty easily. A couple of things to watch for:
1) Don’t put the file someplace obvious. For example, at /gift/MyGiftName.zip. Otherwise people might be able to guess the location and get it without signing up for your list.
2) Put an index.html in the directory with the gift file. This prevents someone from seeing all the files in that directory. The index.html can just be blank, or can contain a link to your opt-in page, or whatever.
Creating The First Message
Make sure you know what the direct download link for your gift file is. If you put it in /gifts/MyGiftName.zip, it’d be http://www.example.com/gifts/MyGiftName.zip. Log into your Traffic Wave area and get back to the autoresponder you created, so that you’re viewing the Campaign Profile.
From the menu across the top of the profile, choose Letters and Create New Letter
You’ll get to the letter composition screen. The first bit to enter is the subject. Just beneath the subject edit field is a button that will allow you to add in the recipient’s name (at least, the name they entered when the opted in to your list) to the subject. I recommend using that to personalize this email a bit.
The body of the email is created using a typical WYSIWYG editor. One of the controls allows you to add in the recipient’s name, which I recommend doing for personalization. It’s the one that is labeled Custom Tokens.
When you click that you get a screen with various things you can add in. Most opt-in forms only ask for their first name and email, so Name is usually what you’ll want to add to personalize the message.
Type in a welcoming message to the new subscrber, and don’t forget to include the download link! Then click on Save This Letter, across the top of the editing window. You’ll end up on the screen that will eventually show all the letters you’ve written, but for now only shows the one. As the message across the top says, your new letter has been put into the Held area. These are letters that are not sent out as part of the normal autoresponder sequence (typically letters you broadcast to everyone at the same time, telling them about an offer, or new information, or whatever).
But you want this letter to be sent out immediately, so put a 0 in the # Days Delay edit field and click Submit Delay Changes.
Your letter is now all set to be automatically sent to subscribers as soon as they click the confirmation link!
Next we’ll look at getting the thank you pages created. We do that before the opt-in page because Traffic Wave needs those pages to exist before it’ll create the skeleton of the opt-in page.