In today’s video, I want to show you how can add HTML pages to your website that are outside of your WordPress blog, using CPANEL to add the files.
If you don’t care for video, I included text below.
Watch the Video:
How to Add HTML Pages Outside of WordPress from Bonnie Gean
The Request
Someone asked how she could set up download or confirmation pages for her Aweber mailing list and she didn’t want them associated with her blog.
I’m going to show you how to get this done, but you’ll need to download the ZIP file I provided for you.
Download Mailer.Zip
Step 1: Login To Your Cpanel
- Login to your hosting account CPANEL through a browser.
- Look for the tab labeled Files.
- Click on the File Manager folder and hit GO.
This will take you into the File Manager for your hosting account.
Step 2: Create Your Mailer Folder
You need to create a directory to hold the mailer.zip file I provided. On the left panel, click the + symbol next to /public_html/.
Make sure it’s highlighted and then at the top of the File Manager window, choose New Folder. You can name the folder whatever you want, but I named mine mailer.
Once you’ve chosen a name for your new folder, click the “Create New Folder” button. You should now see the mailer directory listed under /public_html/. If you click your new folder, you’ll notice the right pane shows a blank directory.
Step 3: Upload the Mailer.Zip File
It’s time to upload the mailer.zip file. To do this, go to the top of the File Manager window and click the “Upload” link. A new screen opens; click the “Choose File” button.
Locate the file on your computer; highlight it and hit enter. The file manager will immediately start uploading the file into your new folder. Once the file is uploaded, click the link on the screen to return to the mailer folder.
The mailer.zip file should be inside your mailer folder. Highlight the mailer.zip file with your mouse and choose “Extract” from the top of the file manager menu.
This will open a box asking if you want to extract the files inside your mailer folder. That’s exactly what you want to do, so click the “Extract Files” button. Once it completes, click the “Close” button.
You should see all the files inside the directory, including the mailer.zip file that you can either keep or delete.
TIP: You might want to leave it there so you have a copy of the original mailer.zip file – just in case you make a mistake and need to extract the files a 2nd time.
Here are the files I provided:
index.htm – this is your confirmation page. After a subscriber subscribes to your list, you’ll send them to this page that tells them to check their email to click the confirmation link.
thank-you.htm – once the subscriber has clicked the link to verify they really do want to be on your list, they will get sent to the thank-you page. This page will tell them to check their email for your welcome letter and download link.
download.htm – once the subscriber clicks the download link provided in your welcome letter, they are redirected to this page. This page holds your free goodies used to entice the person to subscribe to your list.
TIP: Bear in mind, the thank-you and download HTML pages can also hold “affiliate offers” if you want to try and make a sale.
Step 4: Add Your Information to the HTML Pages
Before you start using these pages, edit them to reflect your personal descriptions – including links to a disclaimer, privacy policy, and contact form.
You can easily do this through CPANEL, using the built-in editor. First, highlight the HTML file you want to edit and click the “Edit” link at the top of the File Manager window.
Inside the HTML files you will see placeholders (named code, etc.) that show you which changes are needed. Once you’ve made all the changes, click the “Save Changes” button; then, click the “Close” button to return to the mailer folder.
I did not provide a privacy.htm or disclaimer.htm in the mailer.zip as I believe this is something you should acquire on your own (or you should already have them). Privacy policy and disclaimer pages are not a one-size fits all.
That wraps this video up, so if you have any questions or need additional help getting the files to work for you, simply ask!
Related Post:
Your turn… Did this video help you? Leave a comment below and let me know!
Thanks for reading,
– Bonnie
P.S. Did you enjoy this message? If so, please share it with your friends so they can benefit from schmoozing. Then, if you want to get more messages like this one, connect with me via my social links below or hop aboard my notification list. I would like to keep in touch.
InfoGraphic Template – Sneak Peek
I am so ignorant. When you say, “http://www.your-domain.com/your-directory-name/index.htm” are you talking about the cpanel in my hosting account?
These tutes are awesome. I am trying to learn some basic code so I can do these things myself. I like it.
I used to build computers, and now occasionally do something inside a laptop, but it’s all hardware. I know nothing about the rest of it.
Thanks.
When I say http://www.your-domain-com I am talking about the main root location of your domain name that you’re going to install these pages on. In your case, your domain name would be http://www.ruth-clark.com
When the tutorial starts (and you’re inside your cpanel) File Manager, I ask you to create a directory inside the /public_html directory. I named my directory mailer. If you name yours the same, then your path would be http://www.ruth-clark.com/mailer/ for the main directory that holds all of files from mailer.zip
Likewise, once you extra the mailer.zip file into the mailer directory, you then have 3 pages to add to Aweber. Those pages are now located at…
http://www.ruth-clark.com/mailer/index.htm for the confirmation page.
http://www.ruth-clark.com/mailer/thank-you.htm for the thank you page. AND
http://www.ruth-clark.com/mailer/download.htm for the download page.
Does this help you, Ruth? If not.. let me know!
This looks REALLY simple to do… and that says a lot girl!!
My son’s still working on undoing the Gateway tech people’s damage to my computer (working on a temporary machine till then), but am going to add this to my stuff as soon as i can get back onto MY computer!! 🙂
I just uploaded the PART 2: How to Add HTML Pages to Aweber.
So, once you’re done putting the HTML files on your website, you must go back into Aweber to point to those pages. You’ll find part 2 here:
http://www.bonniegean.com/how-to-add-html-pages-to-aweber/
Let me know when the time comes if you need any other assistance!
Bonnie thank you. You must have read my mind. I always get confused between the thank you and confirmation pages on Aweber. I’m going to upload these as soon as I get a few spare minutes.
I just posted a new video.. and currently am writing up the instructions to let people know how to add these file names to Aweber, too!
So there’s no guesswork! I’ll upload the video by the end of the night! 🙂
HI Bonnie
Thanks for this. It looks great. Only managed to get to it tonight. Now to take action on it – hopefully by tomorrow as the weekend is chaotic at this stage!
Will let you know how I get on.
Just let me know how it goes and if you need additional videos. 🙂
My first thought is – how did you make those things that you have kindly given us to download?
Where do I direct my aweber to to find the forms?
I hand-coded those HTML forms. I used to write forms way back in the day when I built websites.
You need to point to those forms from your aweber account.
There should be videos over at Aweber showing you how to do it, but if you need extra help – let me know.
I created a new tutorial, Tamsin.
How to Add HTML Pages to Aweber
http://www.bonniegean.com/how-to-add-html-pages-to-aweber/
Once you follow the first video and get the files on your hosting account, and then change them to hold your information, this 2nd video will show you how to update your Aweber mailing list to point to the files.
Enjoy!
My son is my IT guy, and I usually defer all my trickier stuff to him, but I’m going to bookmark your blog in hopes that someday I can do the tricky stuff! Thanks Bonnie!
Hi Amy,
Yes, there are times when I like to outsource my trickier stuff, but I like to get in there and see how stuff works. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by!
What simple and easy to follow instructions. Thanks for sharing this tutorial. Dropping by from UBC.
Hi Corinna,
I’m so glad the instructions are easy to understand! That’s one of the things I like to do (i.e. bust through the myths that this IM stuff is hard). 🙂
Thanks so much for this blog. I have signed up for your updates. Your tutorial was very easy to understanding.
Hi Leslie!
Thanks for stopping by. I’m glad the tutorial was helpful! 🙂