anonymous download in exchange for user's email address

Posted by Bacteria Man on January 5, 2009 at 12:22am

I have a need for what is effectively a lead generator.

My client (running Drupal 5.x) wants to provide a series of free PDF downloads to anonymous users in exchange for their email address.

After some extensive searching I was only able to find a feature request for the Quickfile module. However that module does a whole lot more than what is needed in this case.

I'm kind of surprised that someone hasn't already developed a module specifically for this type of lead generation. In the beginning the email address format would only have to be validated. Email confirmation could be added later along with an optional "do not contact" checkbox. The files would also need to be private.

Before venturing off to create my own custom module does anyone have any recommendations? Maybe I overlooked an existing module (?)

Comments

slightly different approach

Posted by Bacteria Man on January 13, 2009 at 8:18am

I'm now considering a slightly different approach from my original post.

I'd like to allow anonymous users to see private node attachment links, but when clicking on a link they will be redirected to the login page (which would include appropriate context messaging.) The idea is to entice users to become members.

I checked the file management module list, but didn't see anything that provides this functionality. The closest thing is Upload Permissions Per Content Type, but it's missing the aforementioned "look, but don't touch" feature. It's possible this feature could be rolled into that module.

Alternately, I am considering creating my own module. Each attachment would have an additional checkbox to indicate whether or not downloading requires authentication.

I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has ever thought about this feature.

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"If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed;
if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed."
-- Mark Twain

further consideration

Posted by Bacteria Man on January 13, 2009 at 8:36am

This snippet provides a partial clue for handling attachment access for anonymous users.

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"If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed;
if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed."
-- Mark Twain

Also interested in collecting emails on download

Posted by eff_shaped on July 10, 2009 at 11:13am

Bookmarking this thread.

Bacteria Man, did you ever find a simple solution (without programming)?

I found: http://drupal.org/project/email_download Email download module - but only for Drupal 5.

I just want to get an email from anonymous users when they download a document. I'm using Drupal 6.

still pending

Posted by Bacteria Man on July 10, 2009 at 3:58pm

For your needs the module you mentioned (albeit for D6) looks suitable. You might submit a port request to the maintainer (or add your name to the list of existing requestees.)

I have been considering developing a more sophisticated module where custom fields could be associated with each download to collect additional demographic information. Eventually if the user downloads all the available document you would have a complete profile. For example:

Download 1, Email
Download 2, City, State
Download 3, Age
Download 4, Income Level

and so on.

that would be awesome!

Posted by eff_shaped on July 17, 2009 at 3:08pm

Please consider doing it for real. :)

My vote is already there on the port to D6 issue...