When you build a website – what is your goal? Most of us want to get visitors and provide a product that our readers and visitors will enjoy. One of the ways you can add some value to your website is to offer downloads. These downloads an be pretty much anything you want them to be – the goal of course would be having something that people want.
So whatever that download is you certainly want to keep track of it and see how many people are finding value in your provided download.
I am currently using the Download Monitor plugin from Mike Jolley and it provides me everything I need to setup my websites downloads and keep track of them easily.
Once you have installed the plugin from the WordPress Plugin directory – head into your Admin panel and activate the plug in.
You will now find a menu option at the bottom of the left hand column that looks like this:
Click on the Downloads button and get the Downloads specific menu:
- Edit – Work on any downloads you have already setup
- Add New – This is where you would start setting up new downloads at
- Add Existing – To add a file that is already uploaded or remotely hosted
- Configuration – Main config page
- Log – Tracks downloads, dates, times, etc.
Edit Downloads Page
Add New – Use this page if you need to also upload your file.
Add Existing – this is the page you need to use to setup a download that is already hosted on yours or a remote server.
Main Configuration Menu
Download Categories – Create categories to help your visitors identify downloads they want to peruse.
Custom Output Format – Create and format your own output using shortcodes or use the default format.
Custom Download URL – Use either a URL with the filename or the download ID number.
General Options – Set your public and members only redirect pages here.
Recreate Download Database – Always back up your data when your working with databases, etc.
Main Admin Menu – Logs. Shows when and where (IP address) your files were downloaded.
Bottom Line: This plugin is easily customized to your liking with tons of options or left at its defaults settings (the way I use it) and it gets the job done as advertised. For detailed instructions on customization I highly recommend you head over to Mike Jolley’s documentation web page for this plugin as he provides perfect instructions for putting this to work for you the way you want it.
I love this WP plugin, the author has improved it a lot and the new features are just so cool. i would recommend this to all, you won’t be disappointed.
I really need a plugin like this that has an option to require an email address for downloads. I have a good standalone script, but something more tightly integrated with WP would be awesome.
Hi Daniel,
you can make it just have the download link to members only which means they have to register as an user.
Do you think this plugin could replace PodPress’s download statistics for each episode? That’s really the only reason I use PodPress instead of just using the WP Audio Player.
This plugin will track any download you link to it – so yes POD Casts should work as well.
Great Plugin for Sure! Adds great value to both the user and administrator – thanks M. Jolley!
I’musing this plugin as well but i’m having a hard time figuring out how to customize the output.
Hi,
go to the configuration option and then go to ‘Custom Output Format’
My examples are:
1. Name + Hits: {title} ({hits}) {size}
2. Name + Hits + Size + Description: {title} ({hits}) {size}{description}
If you need help then you can visit my site and check the downloads section and see what happens.
Basically, you define the output using the ‘custom formats’. They let you write the html for the link, but you insert small tags like {title} and {url} which get substituted for the real data when parsed.
So for a link, you define it in html but also add the {url} tag which will be different for each download:
<a href="{url}">{title}</a>
That example will show a download’s title as a text link.
I tried this plug-in about 8 months ago and could never get it to work properly. It would not display the counter information correctly which made me think it wasn’t keeping accurate track of my downloads, so I uninstalled it. Thanks for the review, I will try it again.
Glad to help out – maybe one of the interim updates since then has fixed that issue in your situation.
Hi, I have one question: Is it possible to use this plug-in to monitor the downloads I offer in my blog if the download link is an image? I’ve seen it work with a text link, but I can’t see it working on an image…
Thanks in advance, marty
You can use an image (or any html for that matter) in the custom formats you define.
(hoping this outputs correctly)
e.g. <a href="{url}"><img src="yourimage.jpg" alt="{title} – {hits}" /></a>
I have asked Mike Jolley, the developer of this plugin, to come over to these comments and answer your questions about specifics with the customization and usage.
Just wanted to say thanks to Mike for coming in and helping out – very much appreciated.
Thanks for the info about this plugin – looks like it could be very handy.
The plugin looks very useful for managing our pdf downloads, any idea how cpu hungry the plugin is, have read quite a number of cases lately where plugins have had to be disabled due to complaints from users hosting companies for excessive cpu spikes, so am quite cautious installing new ones.
Khaled – I could not tell you a specific number but I have had this plugin runnning on my website for at least three months and have never had a complaint from my hosting company.
Wow! Great plugin ! Massimo