How To Add A Direct Download Link To Blogger Posts

....This post was updated on February 8, 2018 - due to changes on Google Sites I am now using Google Drive to share direct download links....

When I started out with this blog I wasn't so sure about what kind of information I was going to share with my readers, but one thing was clear, I wanted to come up with weekly freebies for my readers. Of course sharing free downloadable stuff is a nice idea, but when I wrote my first freebie post I got to the point where I actually had to upload the files for the freebies to my blog post in order for my readers to be able to download them. Oops... didn't think of that before.

I've managed to find out how this works, and while I used to us Google Sites to make this work, I am now (as of September 2018) using Google Drive to create direct download links. So let's see how this works!

 

STEP 1 - CREATE A ZIP-FILE WITH THE FILES YOU WANT TO SHARE

In this tutorial I will upload files for a printable planner to a Blogger blog post in such a way that the readers of that blog post can easily download these planner files by clicking on the download link in the post. But of course we will start at the beginning: gathering the files we want to share and putting them into a zip-file. You can see the zip-file as a shopping bag with a zip on top so that nothing will fall out. You put your files in the bag, zip it and then hand it over to the downloader. He or she can unzip the bag and take out the files again on his/her own computer.

Let's make a zip-file for the printable planner files I want to share in my blog post. For that I am going to the place on my computer where I have stored these planner files. I'm now going to create a new folder to store them in. Right click on screen with your mouse and choose the options to create a new folder:

 

 

 

 Give the new folder a name and then drag the files you want to share into the folder.

 

Turn the folder into a zip-file by right clicking your mouse button on it and then selecting the 'copy to' option and the 'zip folder' option:

Your zip-file is created now.

STEP 2 - UPLOAD YOUR ZIP-FILE TO GOOGLE DRIVE

Before people can download anything from your blog post you have to upload the files somewhere online. And the place where you have to do that is Google Drive:

• go to your Google account
• click on the little 9-square icon in the upper right corner of the screen
• then you select the 'Drive' option

 

 

 

You will end up on the Google Drive homepage which looks like this:

 

 

 

 

 

To upload your file, do this:

• click on the 'New' button on the left side of screen
• then select the 'File upload' option
• and select the file from your computer that you want to upload

 

 

 

 

You will see a message in your Google Drive screen that lets you know that the file is uploading to Google Drive:

 

 

 

 

The zip-file has now been uploaded to your Google Drive, the last step is to create a shareable link for this file and place that in your blog post. Let's do this!

STEP 3 - ADDING THE DOWNLOAD LINK TO YOUR BLOG POST

Before you can add a link to your blog post you need to retrieve that link from the file on Google drive. This is how to do it:

• click with your right mouse button on the uploaded zip-file on Google Drive
• select 'Get shareable link'
• in the small pop-up screen that opens up click on 'Sharing settings'
• in the next screen that opens up, copy the link from the link box

 

 

 

 

 

Now that you have copied the link of the zip-file it's time to put that link in your blog post. This is how you do it:

• go to the Blogger post you are writing
• select the piece of text you want to turn out into a clickable link
• then click on the 'Link' button at the top of your screen
• in the small pop-up screen that opens paste your link
• check the 'open in new tab' box
• and save - your link has now been added to the text

 

 

 

 

If you hover over the text you will now see a line of text appear that shows you the connected link:

 

 

 

Once you publish your blog post your readers will be able to click on the download link and it will take them to a page powered by Google Drive. They will be able to download the zip-file with the download button (see images below).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope this tutorial was helpful and I wish you lots of sharing fun on your Blogger blog. Your readers will thank you for it!