Free HTML Email Template: “Download”
By Bob Ricca October 29, 2008
After the positive response to our last free HTML email template, “Welcome”, I set out to create more HTML email templates to suit specific common types of emails you send.
Today, I’m happy to share the newest addition to our family of functionally themed email templates…
The “Download” HTML Email Template
Use this template to share files with your subscribers:
It comes in 3 different editions:
PDF (perfect for ebooks, whitepapers, free reports)
Download The Zip File (all 6 colors)
Audio (podcasts, interviews and other audio files)
Download The Zip File (all 6 colors)
“Other” Files (anything other than a PDF or audio file)
Download The Zip File (all 6 colors)
Each one is available in 6 different color schemes – the same ones from the “Welcome” template.
How Can I Attach A File To This Template?
The short answer: you shouldn’t.
I’d really like to stress the point that its rarely a good idea to attach a file directly to an email that is being sent out to a large list of people.
Instead, have your web designer upload the file on your web space and provide you with a direct url. Then simply replace the link in this template with the direct url to your file.
Here are a two reasons why this is beneficial:
- It allows you to track how many people download your file.
- Attaching a larger file directly to your email may cause some deliverability issues with corporate email filters and other stricter systems.
AWeber Customers:
Log into your account to try out 18 different variations of this template when you create a new message:
Have a Theme Idea for a Future HTML Email Template?
I’d love to hear some feedback on the templates I’ve created and what kinds of HTML email templates you’d like me to pursue in the future.
Share your thoughts on the “Download” template, and ideas for future ones, below!
Pushy Hamper
10/29/2008 6:39 pmI think this is a great template as a compainion to the welcome later.
I’m actually giving away a PDF for my new subscribers so this perfect for me.
I’ve not switched to templates myself yet but with more and more offerings, I’m certainly tempted.
Thanks in advance as I’m sure I’ll be switching soon.
Terry Retter
10/30/2008 11:10 amI like these new additions and have thought about how I can use them for future newsletter issues.
Not being fully HTML literate, I do struggle with some formatting issues with the templates.
I like the two column format but usually have more that two main articles for the left column and always have more than three items for the right column. Plus I would like to add a text box in the left column with a different background. I have not figured out how to add all of this stuff yet. So it would be terrific if there were a template where we could specify the number of "boxes" we need for each column as configuration input and the template would create then such that we could then cut and paste content (including images) into the boxes.
Too much to ask for?
Jeff Davis
10/30/2008 2:37 pmWow, this changes everything!
What a wonderful development!
Thank you so much, I really
heart aweber!
Best Wishes,
Jeff Davis CEO
http://fungamestore.com
Eleanore
10/30/2008 3:27 pmI love this new template!
But I am having a hard time figuring out how to use it. How do you add the link to the PDF? Is there a tutorial or some instructions on how to fill it in?
Thanks!
Gary
10/30/2008 3:34 pmA great template to create would be a featured video.
Allow a space for a video thumbnail and a description.
and make a variation for a video tutorial series… part 1, part 2, etc.
that would be great!
Thank you for creating these new templates I can’t wait to figure our what to offer my members!
Chineme
10/30/2008 4:08 pmHelp! I am a complete technophobe and do not understand what this email template (Download) is about!
Do I download what you have provided to find out more info? Or is this a tool that is to be used to allow others to download stuff from me? And, if so, how??
Any clarification will be much appreciated.
Brigitte
10/30/2008 5:48 pmAwesome!
great idea, but I can’t help but to wonder,
can one set up the downloads, wherein,
they can receive payments from thier list before the downloads
are distributed.
In addition, I love the 6 color schemes, but would love to see
the color pink amonst theme 😉
Thanks
karen Swain
10/30/2008 5:49 pmI am not sure how to access this template or what to do with it.
Is it for email messages?
Do I copy and past it into my program that I make emails templates and web site pages with?
Tobias Fransson
10/31/2008 3:21 amExcellent!
I have been waiting for more of this.
One thing I would love to have added is the
Forward to people that may benefit
Was this forwarded to you? subscribe at…
Thing you have in the right part of your email’s or had.
Other then that keep em coming!
Gobala Krishnan
10/31/2008 4:20 amThank god for Bob. We love you Bob.
Bob Ricca
10/31/2008 9:58 am@ Terry
Your feedback is much appreciated and I’ll definitely keep it in mind when creating future HTML email templates!
Although this particular template is not directly applicable to a newsletter design, you might want to check out some others in your account.
To name a few:
Vegas
Modern
PureType (2col)
Simple
Tech
Water
All of which sort of lend themselves to a newsletter design, having multiple "sections" per column.
So far I’ve created a "Welcome" template and now this "Download" template both sharing the same theme to carry over design consistency within your subscribers mailbox. A newsletter edition might be just around the corner 😉
@ Eleanore
I’m glad you commented on this. I’ve actually added a section to this post to aid people on what to do regarding attachments. Although I don’t recommend it, if you still feel strongly about attaching a file you can follow this knowledge base post.
@Gary
You beat me to the punch! An email template focusing on video/podcast content is something we’ve been kicking around the office for a few weeks now.
Amelia Brazell
10/31/2008 12:35 pmThis should makes things so much easier to share content.
Thanks so much.
Tammi
11/1/2008 3:14 pmHey Bob,
So I could load a video to YouTube and then place it in the html template to send out to my list to view?
…..Or I could create an audio through Audio Acrobat to place in the html template to send out to my list?
Just want to make sure I’m "on the same page" here!
Doug Bauknight
11/2/2008 7:37 amI too have PDFs that I send out in my 7 Day Quick Start Guide and this template would be perfect. I have attachments each of the 7 days but this brings it to the forefront. (Many new subscribers don?t see the current attachments.)
This would also be perfect for the bi-monthly Leadership Calls we host. I record each of them and now host them on my own server.
One question and this is somewhat off topic. (sorry)
Many of my Newsletters are loaded with graphics and links and while writing them in A-Weber, it slows down the more I load it up. Do you have any recommendations on a program which enables me to write off-line, and then copy and past the source code (HTML) into A-Weber?
I?m looking for the same functionality of A-Weber program when writing, with WYSIWG and HTML formats, just off-line.
Thanks and love the template!
Bob Ricca
11/5/2008 10:08 amSorry for the delayed response… just got back from the "Future of Web Design" conference in NYC. Pretty awesome stuff!
@ Tammi
If you plan on using YouTube as a place to host your video, I’d recommend changing the call to action in this template to say something along the lines of "Click here to watch" and then change the link location to go to the URL of the YouTube video. Make sure to use the "URL" location and not the "Embed" code when copying the code within YouTube’s interface.
@ Doug Bauknight
Depending on your knowledge of web design and HTML code you can really use any plain text editor. Although regarding editors with a WYSIWYG built in, this article immediately comes to mind:
25 Useful WYSIWYG Editors Reviewed
One thing I will worn you regarding a majority of new code editing programs:
In the last few years there has been a strong push to standardize the way code is written for the web. Email, on the other hand has not be standardized to this point.
Taking this into context, the way I would code an email today is similar to the way I would code a web page 5 years ago. Therefore using a modern code editor will embrace the new way of doing things, which could possibly cause your designs to break within various email clients.
Good luck and you can always hit me up via email if you have any more questions!
Hans Henrik Appel
11/7/2008 6:51 amHi. I really like this new template, but there seems to be a problem with the File Version zip-file…
When I download, the package only contains one file – file_version. This file has NO extension… 🙁
Then I renamed it to file_version.zip (so I had a zip file inside the original zip). That solved the problem. I could now unzip both files and get to the .html files…
Just wanted to let you know, since others could experience the same problem.
Bob Ricca
11/11/2008 9:39 am@Hans Henrik Appel
We have been getting some minimal feedback from customers having trouble unzipping the files. Unfortunately, this is an error we are having trouble duplicating and therefore its hard to figure out how to fix it. Now that we’ve unzipped and rezipped these files on multiple machines and operating systems without any issues, our suspicion is now leading us to believe wordpress might be the culprit corrupting the files.
In the meantime, if you or anyone else reading this comment is having trouble with the zip files… please feel free to drop us an email and we will be more than glad to send the files to you. 🙂
Bishop
11/18/2008 9:02 amI noticed someone asking how to get paid before the person gets the product download email.
That’s actually very simple… follow this flow…
1.- Person goes to your sales page.
2.- Person buys
3.- your thankyou page for that product is your aweber opt-in
4- person ‘registers/opt’s-in to receive their purchased product.
5.- aweber delivers the confirmation email
6.- person clicks the link to confirm.
7.- when the person does this, two things happen…
7a.- Another email is triggered from your aweber account (your product delivery email)
7b.- A web page is opened (confirmation page)
8.- Create an upsell product page to use as your confirmation page.
End result – the person opts into your ‘buyers’ list, the person receives the product he purchased via your autoresponder, and the person is presented with another chance to buy another product from you via the confirmation page.
See? Simple as simple can be…. and yes, very profitable too!
Steve
11/22/2008 9:01 amHi
great product but, and I’m probably asking to much here, is there a way to limit the number of times a pdf/file can be downloaded from the email template. Either something clever within the template or the aweber back-end?
Thanks
Bob Ricca
11/24/2008 11:23 am@Steve
Unfortunately at this time we don’t offer that sort of functionality. What I would recommend is talking to the person that set up your website and maybe they could come up with a solution that best suits your needs.
pavan
1/25/2009 1:36 pmwow dude awesome man ……..gr8 work
Imran
9/6/2009 4:55 amThanks a lot for sharing this clean template. Its really hard to find good email templates.
Excellent HTML Newsletter Templates – Best Of | Tools
11/4/2009 8:36 am[…] DownloadThis is a great email template to use when sending over a note asking someone to download a file. This template also comes in 3 flavors – one for PDFs, one for audio, and one for any other files, as well as 6 colors – so youre able to easily customize your readers download experience. […]
Visitor
7/26/2010 4:07 pmPolitically-themed templates would be useful!
fabk
12/21/2011 4:58 amThanks for the template, i have downloaded it, i am new to this field and this really helped me a lot in building my content, keep posting more stuff.