Password Protected 'Promo'

[dereks14]

Hi guys- My first Forum post in a long time here. I have been pretty good at finding what I need by searching the forums. This one I have yet to accomplish... a little below.

I'm a dry cleaner. I have a new post card mailer that will go out to residential mailboxes. The post card will offer "$100 FREE in dry cleaning services". It will direct traffic to my site, whereas a postcard recipient will "claim" their "$100 in dry cleaning cash" by entering a code (printed on the postcard).

* I was thinking to publish an additional page, through a "Special Promotion" link from my front page

* This page needs to be accessible to ONLY the recipients of the postcard with the special offer code (freecleaning)<--for example.

How can I make this work? I am open to ideas from you other guys out there. Do I use 'single page protect' in Inserts? Do i spread that across the page in the builder? I need the detailed page of this "Free dry cleaning" explanation to be accessible only to those who receive this postcard....

Any takers?

Thanks!

[Vasili]

Re: I want to add a &quot;Special Promotion&quot; link, with &quot;passcode&quot; HELP!

RE: www.BelmontCustomCleaners.com?? Actually, your site can only be reached as www.BelmontCustomCleaners.com/newindex.html
This site needs major re-design due to serious Page Name errors and all the dysfunctional Navigation issues (some evidenced just by the above improper page links)!
You've asked about this multiple times over the last 3 years, but I'll outline in detail the Solution here again:

THE METHOD

Use FILE MANAGER to create a new Directory ("Folder") in cPanel, and then using BlueVoda an "index" page for that new directory that has all the information you wish to promote (and protect). Once you have published an "index" page to this new Directory, you will use cPanel to apply Password Protection to it. You can provide a link from any page of your main website to this "protected directory" (which can look like www.belmontcustomcleaners.com/promotions/ -- if you choose to name this new directory "promotions") and you should create this Link setting the TARGET to "_blank" so it opens in a new browser Tab/Window in which a Logon Dialog Box will appear prompting Visitors to enter a valid User Name and Password.

You can advertise the Logon User Name as "preferredcustomer" and the Password as "freecleaning" so those customers can access whatever page or promotion you present in this Password Protected Directory ... which is simply another website that is access-restricted (meaning you use the same protocols, including the first page being Named, Saved, and Published as "index").

Once Visitors access this Directory, they arrive at the "index" page which should be designed specifically for this promotion, and which should have a Prominent Link to a Coupon they need to print out and bring in to take advantage of the offer (requiring a Coupon to be presented is the easiest way to actually track and measure the success of each promotion which has been specifically worded and has specific Terms). You should create these "printable" Coupons as a universally viewable -- across all OS, browsers, and device types -- PDF Download (Tutorial: How to Create a PDF Download in BlueVoda), which offers the option to print once the Visitor clicks on it.

TECHNIQUE

* You can Save any Word or Publisher created document (the Promo Coupon) as a PDF by selecting that option from the SAVE FILE AS Drop-Down Menu.

* Without going into detail about Navigation integrity, just do not provide any Links on any Protected Directory pages to the Main Site -- keep the protected site separate and entirely unto itself -- this way Visitors can simply "close" the protected page (the open browser Tab/Window) after printing out the Coupon.

* You can create and Password Protect as many Directories as you want, which makes it easier to track multiple promotions or promotional success of different areas. You can see how this is simple by looking at how you might create your different Directories:
www.belmontcustomcleaners.com/promotion-nov2013/
www.belmontcustomcleaners.com/promotion-dec13/

https://www.belmontcustomcleaners.com/promotion-jan14/

www.belmontcustomcleaners.com/promotion-group8/
www.belmontcustomcleaners.com/promotion-assoc4/
www.belmontcustomcleaners.com/promotion-route7/
www.belmontcustomcleaners.com/promotion-cityname/
www.belmontcustomcleaners.com/promotion-event3/ ... and so on.
The success of this method of creating individual Directories is only limited by however many you wish to create, or how much effort you invest in creating and tracking your promotional efforts.

* Be sure to properly create "nofollow" Rules in both your robots.txt and sitemap.xml files to prevent the Search Engines from indexing your Password Protected Directories .... you do not want to defeat the purpose of protecting your promotions by having them available via Search, right? And, it is important to (1) generate and (2) install both the robots.txt and sitemap.xml files only after each time you publish all your [updated] pages so that they reflect the most accurate site version. You should study carefully this core aspect of proper web design completeness as outlined in THIS POST.

Understand? Review the Tutorial below as necessary to grasp the basic concept fully.

TUTORIAL: How To Create a Password Protected Directory