How To Add Download Links in WordPress – 3 BEST Ways

Looking to add download links to WordPress? This is the video you should watch whether you’re selling images, pdfs, offering them for free, collecting leads, or even create a digital goods online store.

Read the written guide here 👉🏼 https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-add-a-download-link-in-wordpress/

✅ Checkout Optinmonster – https://optinmonster.com/
✅ Checkout EDD – https://easydigitaldownloads.com/

–Top Resources–

⚡Use Promo Code WPBVIP⚡

►Best WordPress Contact Form Plugin https://wpforms.com/wpbeginner
►Best WordPress Analytics Plugin https://www.monsterinsights.com/
►Best Lead Generation Plugin https://optinmonster.com/
►Best WordPress SEO Plugin
https://aioseo.com/
►Best Theme Builder for WordPress https://www.seedprod.com/

–Related Videos–
►WordPress Tutorial – How to Make a WordPress Website for Beginners https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvbFBxKcORA
►WordPress Gutenberg Tutorial: How to Easily Work With the Block Editor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjfrzGeB5_g
►What is SEO and How Does it Work? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjfrzGeB5_g
►How to Install a WordPress Theme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIPQRQLAz90

If you liked this video, then please Like and consider subscribing to our channel for more WordPress videos.
https://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=wpbeginner

Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/wpbeginner

Check out our website for more WordPress Tutorials
https://www.wpbeginner.com/

#WPBeginner #WordPress #WordPressTutorial


Do you want your users to have the Ability to click a single button on your Site and download a file in WordPress Well in this video I'm going to cover Three different ways on how you can do That create download links in WordPress Now you might be wondering why three Different ways well three different ways Can cover three different scenarios the First scenario can be where you just Want to create a single download link Button on your website you just click And download nothing else happens the Second method is for users who want to Generate leads on your site so if you Want to collect email addresses from Your clients or for potential clients Then you can do use method number two And the third one is where you're trying To sell products on your site which are Digital so maybe you're selling courses Maybe you're selling downloadable Content maybe you're selling photographs In that case you will still create Download links but you won't also have The ability to manage those downloads or Give users the ability to manage Downloads also provide payment options And all that good stuff right here Inside WordPress and all three are Possible easy to use and simple to Follow if you watch the video till the End so let's start with method number One

So let's talk about method number one to Add download links to our WordPress Websites the easiest way possible I have This post open up right here and this Poster says download now but your post Can be completely designed using the Block it time the process will still Apply to your website as well and what I'm going to do is add a block on the Page a special kind of block and what Block is it it's called the file block So I'll type in forward slash I'll type In f i l e which will open up this Option right here I'll click this and This will up uh it add the file block on My page right now now what I'm going to Do is add the file block or add a media That I want to include in the file block So I'll go to media library right here Go to the media library and I have Couple of sample uh files uploaded just For a demonstration so that you can Understand how different files will Behave so I'll click this button right Here and this is simple image that I Want to include on my page so I click This and as you can see the focus chart Is the name of the image that I uploaded And the download button is showing up Right here and if I click this option Right here then all these options that I Have available to to customize the block Are also visible right here so for so For options link to media file or the

Attachment page I would recommend that You keep it to media file because Attachment Pages can also be redirected So if let's say you change that setting At a later date then this option might Be broken so keep it to media file keep It simple open a new tab I would Recommend that it's much easier show Download button settings so if you want To include the download button that's Completely up to you or you can just add It as a link as well so I would Recommend keeping download blink right Here and once you're done just publish The page and once the page is published We can now open it up in a new post or New tab let's open it up And the pale post should be open up Right now and it's open right now let's Click the button and see what happens So as you saw it all instantly created Or instantly uh opened up the image Right now in the browser Tab and Unfortunately for some reason maybe it's A caching issue the new tab didn't work So it opened directly the image right Now so what now users can do is directly Just right click and save this image to Their computers and just go about their Day and this is the typical Behavior With images if you add any kind of image To the site this is typically what you Can expect now let's change the media to Something else so that I can again give

You an example of what kind of behavior Expectation or behavior you can see when You upload some different file instead Just of a JPG or PNG file so I'll click The replace option right here open media Library once again and the media library I have other just PDF example file Uploader here so I'll select this option Right here and once this is open in PDF You'll see additional options in the Blog right here so first of all WordPress will try to load the entire PDF file right here on the page and if You don't want that you can do this or Disable this option show in line embed This will disable the preview right here It's also a good way to let users Preview the file if there just it's open To download so you can enable this Option but I would ensure or I would say If you have a large file then I would Keep this disabled because it takes it So system resources you saw right here Even just uploading or I'd say just Demonstrating or just previewing the File here was taking a lot of time so Keep the disabled unless your file is Really really small then again you have The option of link to media file I just Already covered that open a new tab show Download button same settings we'll Update the post once again and we'll Open the post once again in a new tab Just to see

Post is now open let's click the Download button and see what happens And instantly you see the download I'm Using a download manager that's why you See this kind of window right here but On a normal computer where there's no Download manager installed on the Browser this will instantly download the PDF file to your computer and this is The expected Behavior right this is the Simplest method create a download link Add an image file add a PDF file if your Website supports zip files you can Actually add them as well and whatever File you have apart from images will be Directly downloaded to your visitors Computer when they actually click the Download link and as you saw you have Some sort of control as well on how to Control the behavior of opening up a new Tab or previewing something depending on The type of file you are including Behind the download link right so that's The easiest method the quickest easy Method to add a download link to WordPress method number one let's also Talk about method number two where you Can generate leads for your business Using download links let's go So let's talk about the second method to Add download links to your WordPress Website now as I mentioned we'll be Looking at a method where you can Generate leads for your business as well

So capturing maybe email addresses phone Numbers or whatever information is Relevant to you using this method now One thing I would like to emphasize is That if your business can help or Business can grow with the help of the Leads that you're trying to generate From your website then you should also Use a tool or a software which helps you Maximize the leads you can generate from Your website and the tool I recommend is Opt-in Monster now why do I recommend Opt-in monster it's one of the best Tools out there that you can use to Generate leads on your website convert The traffic and help you in in numerous Ways to start generating leads not just Adding download links and once you Realize the power of opt-in monster then You'll understand how powerful it can be For any kind of growth when it comes to Generating leads on your website there Are a bunch of options out here lighter Boxes floating bars but I'm not going to Go into a lot of details it's not Explainer video about opt-in Monster but What you need to do is first go to the Pricing option pick the plan that you Like create an account inside and once You've done that you'll be able to Follow along what I'm going to do right Now because I already have done that I'm Not logged into my account right now but Once I'm logged in you'll see all the

Details right here so make the purchase Go to site check it out or just follow Watch this tutorial see what it can do For you and after you watch this video I'll leave links down in the description To opt-in monster you can go check it Out right there all right with that I'll Log into my account I'll go to my WordPress website once again and I'll Start the process of connecting opt-in Monster and then creating a campaign Where you'll be able to add download Links to our WordPress website easily All right let's go So as you can see now I'm logged into The admin area of my website and in a Different type of I'm also logged into Opt-in monster right here I'm already Logged into my account to connect opt-in Monster service to our WordPress website What we'll do is we'll install the Opt-in monster free plugin available for WordPress and what I did was just going To the plugin section right here go to Add new right here go to opt-in monsters Go to the search Tab and search for Opt-in Monster and the plugin started Showing up instantly I'll install the Plugin activate it and I'll show you how To connect your website with your opt-in Monster account and then we'll create a Campaign where we'll be able to add Download links to our WordPress website So let the plugin install and we'll

Continue after that So as soon as I activated the plugin This is what I saw directly on the Screen connect your existing account so Because I already have an account you Can claim your free account if you want But you since I already have an account And I'm also logged in directly what I'll do is connect your existing account I'll click this button right here which Will open up a pop-up right here I'll Bring it on on the screen right here Connect to WordPress and this will check If I'm already logged into the opt-in Monster account just take a couple of Seconds and once this run I should see a Success message right here So site connected successfully and I'm Already automatically redirected to the Campaign creation page now as you can See there are a bunch of options right Here now all of this whatever you see Right here can also be created on the Opt-in monster website so you can use Whatever interface you like if you like WordPress you can do it right here or You can also do it on the opt-in monster Dashboard once you're logged in so now You have a bunch of options to start Collecting leads now when I'm interested In right now is creating a pop-up on a Link click so we'll create a download Link which users will click and they'll Pop-up will open up and on the pop-up

Itself users will have the ability to Enter their email addresses and click The link and that's how they'll be able To download the file that you want them To download right so I'll go to the Pop-up option right here which will Start creating a new campaign and on the Pop-up itself you have you can change The type of campaign if you want but on The bottom right here you see all the Different kinds of templates available So you don't have to start from scratch So you have bunch of different design Schemes color schemes but let's say we Use the basic one if you want to preview How it will look like just click the Preview button which will open up the Preview right here so so let's choose This one what we'll do is use template And what we can name the campaign so Let's say free report start building And you will be taken to this screen After you have named your campaign now What you don't see is that this is Actually opt-in monsters website so what Happens is as soon as you start creating A campaign you're automatically Redirected to opt-in monster website Because that's where you can customize Your campaign so now let me just Simplify uh the process of creating this Entire process or creating the entire Download link and whatever we want to do So right now we have a page builder like

Interface to customize what you we want To add in the pop-up so as you see right Now the pop-up has some text on it and a Button on it I don't want to add the Buttons I want to add a email address Field so what I'll do is click this Right here I'll delete this section Right here And on the blocks right here I'll see I'll find the option to add the opt-in Fields which is right here so what I'll Do is click and drag it on the screen Oops I think I misclicked I'll click it Drag it right here and leave it here and What this added was enter name here and Email address this is what I want to do So once this is done what I'll do is go To the next step which is display rules And of course you can do all sorts of Custom functionality here you see there Are tons of options for changing display Settings customizing cosmetic changes All that good stuff is right here Available so if you have very strict Brand guidelines you can do everything You want right here but I'm keeping it Simple keeping the tutorial to a more Reasonable length so I'll go to the Display settings right here display Rules now this connects or this controls When the popup is actually displayed you Have bunch of options you can have time On page so if you just spend more than a Minute page targeting that means on

Specific Pages physical location Returning visitors what we want to do is What we want to do here right here is When you just click a specific link on The page so I'll select the monster Click or Monster link which which is an On click event that you can utilize to Have the pop-up appear on clicks so I'll Click this right here which will open up This interface which is the rules Segment or rules Creations interface now You can customize the rules uh all Together you can add create and Conditions or conditions but what I just Want to do right now is just keep it Very very simple so if visitor click the Monster link Current URL path is any page you can Even delete this that which what this Means is it will run on every page on Your site so I can also delete this if I Like but what I want to do to do before You proceed is copy the monster link Code right here which will be adding to Our page that will add the pop-up on so Once this is done we can go to the next Step And then we can again do a lot of uh Details here we can customize the opt-in Page customize the effects that the uh The pop-up will actually appear with and You can also even add sound effects but To keep it simple let's move to the Integrations tab which is where we

Connect our uh campaign to email Providers of course if you want to start Using email marketing to grow your leads Or as a grow your business or convert Those leads to customers then you need To add uh any kind of email service Where the email captured the captured Email will go to so if you click the add New integration option you'll see a Bunch of different or let's say most Popular email providers out there now I'm going to skip out this step because It can become complicated I'll have to Go into the API keys and connect them But just keep it simple I'm just giving An idea that all of this is actually Possible right here so regardless of What email provider you use you can Create a pop-up and as soon as a user Submit this information it will Automatically go to your email service Provider so after this you also have Options of doing a lot of customization Options but let's go to the analytics Where you'll see analytics once the Campaign is pushed live after this after All this is done we'll go to the publish Segment right here and what you can do Is now after we have created the Campaign again I just I'm trying to keep It simple we created the design we Created the campaign created a design Created some sort of rules where the Campaigns will start showing up on the

Site we also integrated with email Provider now we can publish the campaign So out of this page we go to the public Status we'll go to the publish section Right here and we'll save our settings And once the setting is saved we'll Click the cross icon right here which Will again take us back to our website As you remember this is happening on the Opt-in monster site which automatically You were redirected to so I'll close the Campaign right here and we'll go back to Our website in WordPress once again And what you'll need to do is also Enable the campaign right here in WordPress so you can see the status Pending so just do this go to published And save your changes and again I'm Skipping over all these options right Here inside and a lot of these options Because I just want to keep this Tutorial as simple as possible so now The campaign is live but now we have to Add the actual link that will trigger The pop-up to one of the pages and I Already have a post open up my website So let's head to the post I'll add the Link there and I'll show you how it Works on your site So I've created this simple post on the Site which just says download your Report completely empty page but yours Page can have any kind of content that You like and what I'm going to do is to

Add that URL or add that link right here I'm going to add the HTML block on the Page so forward slash HTML HTML custom HTML and once the block is open I'll add That URL that I copied right here as you Can see you have all this right here now You don't need to understand how this Works but let's say you want to Customize the call to action what is What it says on the screen just Customize this text right here subscribe Now instead of this I'll just say Download your report Right And this will just change the anchor on The actual battle that will show up or At the actual link that will show up Right just to keep it simple let's Publish the page and once the page is Published I'll open it up again in a new Tab And as you can see now the page is now Open and you can see the link right here Download your report now if you click This link what will happen let's find Out Boom so as you saw as soon as I click The link the pop-up is now triggered and Your users or your visitors will also See this they can enter their email Addresses they can enter their uh names As well and once they've done that those Emails will be collected now one thing You might be wondering is where is the

Download file right how do I actually Make sure that users have the ability to Download the file that I want them to Download when you can do it in multiple Ways once you've done this you can Redirect users to a different page on Your site you can actually send the Download link directly in the email or You can send the email file if it's a Small file they can configure campaign Inside your email provider where you can Directly attach that file as well so Regardless of what method you use you Will be able to share the email or share The file with your users using their Email address and once they're on the on Their list you can start communicating Communicating with them and do all sorts Of good stuff nurture them make them Into customers and that my friends was The second method to add download links To your WordPress website using opt-in Monster make sure to check out opt-in Monster I'll leave links down in the Description of this video which is just Below the like button you know what to Do and of course this was method number Two let's also talk about method number Three so let's talk about method number Three to add download links to your WordPress website and as I mentioned We'll be trying creating an online store Or online shopping kind of experience For digital products in this method so

You'll be or users will be able to Browse products on your site they'll be Able to claim free products purchase Products if you configure your products In a way that they can actually pay for It and also they'll be able to create Accounts log into their accounts and Check out their purchase history and You'll be able to check out some Analytics on your site as well what Products are being claimed or what free Products have been purchased what paid Products have been purchased Revenue all That good stuff that comes with kind of Having an online shopping experience and The way we'll be doing this is by using A plugin called Easy Digital downloads Now you might be wondering hey you if we Created an online store experience why Not just use woocommerce I've heard it It supports digital products as well and You are correct but I want to clarify Here that woocommerce will be an Overkill if you're just trying to sell Digital products it's primarily designed For physical products and of course Woocommerce is also resource hungry if You have a very small server and you is Creating a handful of digital products Woocommerce will definitely cost some Performance issues I have first had an Experience with this on your website as Well so if you're just trying to sell Digital products Easy Digital downloads

Is also a great solution I'd say it's a Better solution in this case and the Best part is that it is also a freemium Product just like woocommerce so let's Check it out on the side I'm going to The or I am already in the plugin Section on my website add new section I Search for Easy Digital downloads and I Already have the free plugin come up Right here let's install the plugin and Most of the things that I described will Are or most of the things I've described Right now are available in the free Version of the plugin as well right you Can actually check out the premium Version have some extensions or purchase And extension but that's completely up To you let's install the plugin and We'll see how to create download links And add files or create digital products On your website So I installed the plugin and also Activated it on my website you can see Easy Digital downloads is now activated And as I mentioned you can also set up Payment gateways to accept payments for Your products and you see that notice Right here stripe Plugin or stripe is Now natively supported just enable Stripe and you'll be able to start Collecting products but that's not the Point of this video Let's disable this What we'll do is now create a kind of a Digital product in our easy digital

Download store so what we'll do is go to The download section right here go to Downloads And as you can see it's completely empty Right now let's create a new product so We'll go to add new right here And the block editor in WordPress opens Up the interface is very familiar let's Type in the name of the product let's Say I'll name it lens check That's it and of course I can add more Content here as well this is a block Editor you can add more content but just To keep it simple I'm not going to do That right now let's go to the options Inside Easy Digital downloads so Download prices pricing options do you Want to enable variable pricing you can Enable this and you will have multiple Variations you can create for digital Products so let's say you're you're a Photographer and you want to sell higher Resolution then you can have high Resolution products created as variable Products as well let's keep this simple And let's keep the download as free Right now the price is zero download Files product type operations or the What is the kind of product you're Selling is it a single product or is it A bundle you can also create bundles of Products right now I'm just going to Keep it simple just one single product I'm going to click this button right

Here which will open up the media Gallery or media library and I'm going To choose this file which is a JPG that I want to sell on my site what I'll name It is as lens check And I can also add some download Instructions so I can say Print in 300 DPI or more All right so product information has Been added but there's some additional Options that we can uh confirm or Customize to have a more control over Our downloads which will you will see Right here in the documents or download Settings right here so we go down right Normally you would see the settings that You see on our WordPress post uh all Opt-in monster settings are also here Because it's already installed but apart From this you see the download settings Right here you'll have some settings you Can configure here so file download Limit leave blank to use global settings Or until 0 for unlimited if you want to Restrict how many times people can Download a certain image let's say you Are a photographer and you're selling One individual license for one uh use Then you can set it to one or yesterday You have any kind of other digital Product where uh unlimited downloads is Not a problem you can set it to zero Then you can also Define the refundable Status if you want the product to be

Refundable or not and you can also do This hide purchase button and after After somebody purchases you want them To add the product to cart or instantly Take them to the like checkout process You can also customize that and you also Have this shortcode right here using This you can actually create any button On your site with which will replicate The behavior of users purchasing the Site so let's say you create a landing Page or you have some other operations Where you want to just use this button Or use the operation of easy digit Downloads to encourage users to purchase This product you can have this shortcode Right here and now you have product Reviews as well which is not something That we are interested in right now Let's publish the post right now publish And the post is live let's open it up in A new tab So this is the product page let's try And purchase this product and see what The experience is like I'll click this Button right here Go to checkout And this is checkout page let's add the Email address it's already here let's Add the first name right here I'll add My first name Let's click free download And the order is now placed if you go Down here we can actually click this and

The download will be initiated on the Site let's also check it out And this is the file that's downloaded I Can also click it and open it up okay Whatever so as you saw just a single Click and the file is now downloaded to My computer using Easy Digital downloads Creating an entire store experience for You with this so easy to use and if you Combine the power of opt-in monster and Easy to digital downloads you can start Collecting leads grow your digital Goods Business and of course you can collect Payments as well so simple to set up Completely free to use Easy Digital Downloads check out the link will be in The description of this video just below The like button and that's it for this Video if you have any questions or Suggestions or feedback leave that in The comments and of course all the links Are in the description just below the Like button if you like this video make Sure to leave a like and if you enjoy Watching this these kind of video Tutorials simple to follow along simple To learn from WordPress tutorials don't Forget to subscribe to our Channel Wpbeginner you'll learn a lot and have a Lot of fun I'll catch you in the next Video take care

You might like