I’m doing a quick poll and you can cast your vote by posting a comment at the end.
QUESTION:
If I was to create a piece of software that allowed you to give away a PDF that you’d created, and then allow your affiliates to re-brand it, directly from a web page, WITHOUT having to download any software, would that be of interest to you?
Oh, and it would also work with links in any PDF, without having to do any fiddly setup stuff.
Post a comment below, saying either “yes” or “no”.
And, if you post “yes”, let me know what other features would make this more attractive to you.
UPDATE: Lucid Rebrander BETA Test is now available HERE
Brian Standly
December 22, 2008 at 6:12 pm
I’d be very interested in such a product. Let me know more in the future.
Peter Hube
December 22, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Hey this is a really good idea and I’m looking for some time for such aproduct.
I’m just creating a new website and looking for a useful tool to include a link.
I would appreciate to automate this process and produce a Video for download and install.
peter
secret marketing links
December 22, 2008 at 6:24 pm
yes it’s a good idea to create an online search and replace pdf tool.
Source of the pdf, URL inside pdf, REPLACE with affiliate URL
David
Steve
December 22, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Hi David
Yes, I would be interested in a pdf re-branding facility Ease of use is my primary driver (me and any affiliates)
Charles Lamm
December 22, 2008 at 6:40 pm
sounds like a no-brainer – how difficult?
Carl
December 22, 2008 at 6:52 pm
I think Louis Allport already had something like that but
not for PDFs
An online tool would be great, but one we place on our
own sites would be better.
Then anyone who needs to rebrand, must visit our sites.
Skip Nusbaum
December 22, 2008 at 6:58 pm
I agree with what Carl says! Make them come back to our site!
Gail Trahd
December 22, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Love the idea!
Gail
Wordpress Plugins
December 22, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Hi,
Yes, good idea. Was going to do it myself. Current model available for $97 so plenty of wriggle room. Regards Allen
Calvin Brown
December 22, 2008 at 8:55 pm
I’m not sure I understand your proposal.
There is already Viral PDF, where the rebranding software is “wrapped around” the PDF document. It is very easy to use, and there is no software to install, since the software used to rebrand is downloaded as part of the PDF file itself.
I could understand if an affiliate was forced to install completely separate software in order to rebrand the file, but since they are not, I don’t see the difference between that, and what you say – “directly from a web page, WITHOUT having to download any software”.
So are you saying that instead of downloading a PDF file and rebranding it with a script that is part of the PDF file itself, you want to create a system where the person has to visit a webpage to rebrand and download the PDF file?
The other side of the issue is making it as easy as possible for the affiliate to rebrand the file, so I understand it might be faster and less complicated for the affliate if all they have to do is visit a webpage, enter their links into a few forms, and then download the PDF.
But then, we have the script that Harvey Segal calls Ultimate Rebrander, and is pretty much based on the html2pdf script, only he has added a few more bells and whistles.
Ultimate Rebrander does have it’s problems, but it already does very much what you propose, in terms of making it easy for affiliates to rebrand PDF files. What it does NOT do, is rebrand links already in PDF files.
In order for the Ultimate Rebrander system to work, you have to make your document into a webpage, put “tokens” where you want the rebranding to take place, and then tell the script where it can find the page. The script turns the HTML page into a PDF file, automatically replacing the tokens with the person’s affiliate links.
This is probably what you were talking about when you mention “without having to do any fiddly setup stuff.”
But the Ultimate Rebrander does have the advantage that a person only has to visit a webpage to get their rebranded PDF. So, a little more work for the publisher, and a little less work for the affiliate.
I did a bit of research on what is available in terms of rebranding PDF files, because I set up a system for affiliates to promote opt-in pages, where the “incentive” is a free report (PDF). However, I have tried to remove even the need for an affiliate to download the PDF, or even do most listbuilding activities themselves.
Thus, I wanted the opt-in page to automatically insert the affiliate’s Clickbank, Paydotcom, and Rapid Action Profits ID’s into the opt-in form. The autoresponder takes that information, and uses it to automatically rebrand the “free report” PDF with their affiliate links.
Now, not only does the affiliate get their links into the PDF automatically, but the subscriber is rebranded with the affiliate’s ID’s. So any promotions made to the email list in the future, will automatically be using the affiliate’s ID’s, and generating commissions for them.
Since this system is asking only for a person to send traffic to opt-in pages using their affiliate link, and everything else is done automatically for them to continue generating commissions into the future, I ended up setting it up using the Ultimate Rebrander.
With that said, it is some effort to set up each “opt-in page/rebranded PDF” system, due to having to create an HTML file for every PDF I want to rebrand.
If you were to create something that I could “plug into” my current system, where the PDF rebranding could be done automatically, and I would not have to do any “fiddling” then I am very interested.
Other than somebody with my specific needs however, I do not see any major advantage of what you propose versus a person using either Ultimate Rebrander, or Viral PDF.
Unless you are going to give it away for free?
David Congreave
December 23, 2008 at 10:18 am
Carl & Calvin
I had Louis Allports script that used fpdf (I think it was called) to convert html into pdf. It worked, but MAN was it fiddly to setup and figure out the first time around.
Plus, getting the HTML exactly right so it converted to PDF without messing up was a nightmare. One wrong tag, and the PDF ended!
It also meant placing limits on how you were able to make the PDF look.
Even when you got it right, it took AGES to create the HTML.
Now what I’m talking about, is a system where you can create your PDF any way that you like (Google Docs, official Adobe software, etc), and place it behind a web form, ready for your affiliate to re-brand.
The enter their affiliate link… hit “Submit”… and the re-branded PDF appears, a few seconds later.
David Congreave
December 23, 2008 at 10:24 am
Oh, and Viral PDF is a great piece of software, but a web form with a “submit” button, has got to be easier for affiliates – and faster – than downloading a piece of software.
What I have in mind, isn’t intended to replace Viral PDF, it’s simply offering an alternative way of doing PDF re-branding.
And, YES, it will be something you can install on your own site.
And, YES, it will be dead easy to setup.
And, YES, it will cost less than $97.
And, YES, it will bring about world peace.
One of the above statements isn’t true
Terrance Charles
December 23, 2008 at 2:10 pm
I’d be interested in that, the less effort to rebrand, the better viral capabilities…
Terrance Charles
http://www.thesimplecode.com
Gail
December 23, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Yup for sure – Noobs are all thumbs when it comes to rebranding, so they don’t!
David Congreave
December 23, 2008 at 7:45 pm
I’ll be unveiling a demo of my re-branding script… tomorrow
Look out for my next blog post.
Dave Ward
December 23, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Sounds good to me David ,certainly of interest.
Mike
December 24, 2008 at 6:39 am
I guess the proof of the pudding will be in the eating.
If you’re speaking (or should that be “writing”?!) about a script we can add to our own websites, I would be very interested (so too would a number of my colleagues).
If you’re looking at running it from a website (whether or not it’s owned by you – who we trust) I’m not so sure I or my colleagues would be that interested.
Let me know when the pudding is ready to be tasted / eaten
David Congreave
December 24, 2008 at 10:07 am
Version 1.0 will be a script you install on your own website – so no worries there. For later versions, I’ll be looking to create a hosted option, so we can cater for the technically nervous.
It really isn’t difficult to use though. I’m thinking of doing a “timed” test video for the sales page. See how quickly I can set a new re-brand page for an existing PDF.
I reckon I could do it in less than 90 secs (maybe 60), including the time needed to upload the script onto the server
Terrance Charles
December 24, 2008 at 10:26 am
David, I like the idea… I’ll be a beta tester for you and help you out on getting it out there. I was looking for a tool like this the other day for couple of my reports, the easier the better…
Terrance Charles
http://www.thesimplecode.com
David Congreave
December 24, 2008 at 1:46 pm
I’ll be making about a dozen copies of the script available to buy for a special intro price. And out of those, anyone who sends feedback and suggestions for improvements, will get free upgrades to future versions.