Tips and Tricks HQ

Ruhul Amin

mbrsolution

Josh

Alexander C.

I developed the Simple Download Monitor plugin because I needed a nice way to manage my digital downloads and monitor the number of downloads of my files and documents.
This plugin is very useful for managing and tracking your digital file download counts.
You can password protect your downloadable files and documents too (visitors will require a password before downloading the file when you use this option).
You can configure downloadable files from your WordPress admin dashboard via an elegant user interface. Then allow your visitors to download the files and this plugin will monitor which files get downloaded how many times.
The plugin will log the IP addresses of the users who download your digital files and documents. It will also log the date and time of each download.
It has a very user-friendly interface for uploading, managing, monitoring and tracking file downloads.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Simple Download Monitor Plugin Basic Usage" width="750" height="422" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SjVaanbulRU?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<h4>Simple Download Monitor Features</h4>
<ul>
<li>Add, edit and remove downloads from an easy to use interface.</li>
<li>Drag and drop file and document uploads.</li>
<li>Assign categories and tags to your downloadable files and documents.</li>
<li>Rich text editor for editing your download item description.</li>
<li>Use shortcodes to display a download now button on a WordPress post or page.</li>
<li>Show trackable download now buttons for your files anywhere on your site.</li>
<li>Shortcode to create a direct download link for a file. Useful for hotlinking.</li>
<li>Download counter for each file.</li>
<li>Ability to set a download count offset for each file.</li>
<li>Track IP addresses of the users who downloaded your files.</li>
<li>Track date and time of each file downloads.</li>
<li>Track the usernames of the users downloading the files.</li>
<li>Track the User Agent of the visitors downloading the files.</li>
<li>Track the Referrer URL to see which page the downloads are coming from.</li>
<li>Option to setup secure downloads for your files (the URL of the downloadable file will be hidden).</li>
<li>Option to upload a thumbnail image for each of your downloadable files.</li>
<li>Option to use a nice looking template to show your download now buttons.</li>
<li>Ability to search and sort your downloadable files in the admin dashboard.</li>
<li>Ability to create a search page and allow your visitors to search your downloads.</li>
<li>Track the number of downloads for each of your files.</li>
<li>Track the visitors country.</li>
<li>View the daily download counts of your items in a chart.</li>
<li>WordPress Shortcode for embedding a download link for a file.</li>
<li>Tinymce button in the WordPress post/page editor so you can easily add the shortcode.</li>
<li>You can customize the “Download Now” button text of an item to anything you want.</li>
<li>Ability to add the download now buttons to your sidebar widget.</li>
<li>Create password protected download now buttons. Users will only be able to download the file if they enter the correct password. <a href="https://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/create-a-password-protected-download-file-6838" rel="nofollow ugc">View the tutorial</a></li>
<li>Option to add additional security to your downloadable files with the <a href="https://simple-download-monitor.com/enhanced-file-protection-securing-your-downloads/" rel="nofollow ugc">Enhanced File Protection Feature</a>.</li>
<li>Shortcode to show the download counter of a file. Use it to show off your file download count.</li>
<li>Shortcode to show all the downloads from a particular category.</li>
<li>Shortcode to embed a file tree browser for your downloadable files. The file browser is ajax based and it shows the files structured by categories.</li>
<li>Ability to open the downloads in new browser window or tab. When your users click on a download button, it will open in a new window or tab.</li>
<li>Ability to show your downloads in a grid display. <a href="https://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/show-file-downloads-in-a-nice-grid-display-7273" rel="nofollow ugc">View the tutorial</a></li>
<li>Export all the file download logs to a CSV file.</li>
<li>Ability to reset the log entries.</li>
<li>Ability to trim the download log entries.</li>
<li>Shortcode to show a number of latest downloads to your visitors.</li>
<li>Shortcode to show a number of popular downloads to your visitors.</li>
<li>Ability to disable the download monitoring (logging) for certain items (or all items).</li>
<li>You can also choose to only monitor downloads from unique IP address only.</li>
<li>Option to specify file size info so it can be shown to your visitors. <a href="https://simple-download-monitor.com/how-to-show-file-size-info-of-your-downloads/" rel="nofollow ugc">View the tutorial</a></li>
<li>Option to specify version number info for the download item so it can be shown to your visitors.</li>
<li>Option to show the download published date.</li>
<li>Option to restrict downloads to logged-in users only. <a href="https://simple-download-monitor.com/offering-downloads-to-logged-in-users-members-only/" rel="nofollow ugc">View the tutorial</a></li>
<li>There is an option to show an ajax file tree browser so your visitors can browse all your files and download the ones they want.</li>
<li>Option to ignore download count from bots.</li>
<li>Option to add Google reCAPTCHA to your download buttons.</li>
<li>Option to add Cloudflare Turnstile CAPTCHA to your download buttons.</li>
<li>Option to add Terms and Conditions to your download buttons.</li>
<li>Ability to easily clone/copy your existing download items.</li>
<li>Ability to insert Adsense or other Ad code inside the download item display.</li>
<li>Gutenberg block to insert download now buttons on a post or page.</li>
<li>Option to override the default template by placing a custom template file in the active theme’s directory.</li>
<li>The stats menu can show you the top downloads, downloads by date, country, browser etc.</li>
</ul>
View more details on the <a href="https://simple-download-monitor.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">download monitor plugin</a> page.
<h4>Language Translations</h4>
The following language translations are already available for the download monitor plugin:
<ul>
<li>English</li>
<li>German</li>
<li>Spanish</li>
<li>French</li>
<li>Italian</li>
<li>Russian</li>
<li>Dutch</li>
<li>Portuguese (Brasil)</li>
<li>Hebrew</li>
</ul>
<h4>Simple Download Monitor Plugin Usage</h4>
Once you have installed the plugin, go to “Downloads -> Settings” interface to configure some options
A) Configure Download Monitor basic settings
<ul>
<li>Admin Options: Remove Tinymce Button – Removes the SDM Downloads button from the WP content editor (default: unchecked).</li>
<li>Color Options: Download Button Color – Select a default color of the download button (default: green).</li>
</ul>
B) Add a new download
To configure a new download follow these steps:
<ol>
<li>Go to “Downloads->Add New” interface in your WP admin</li>
<li>Enter a title for your download</li>
<li>Add a description for the download</li>
<li>Select the file from your computer and upload it (or use an URL of the file)</li>
<li>Select an image for the download (it will be displayed as a thumbnail on the front end)</li>
<li>Publish it</li>
</ol>
You can view all of your existing downloads from the “Downloads->Downloads” interface.
C) Create a download button
Create a new post/page and click the “SDM Downlaods” TinyMCE button to insert a shortcode (This button will only show up if you haven’t unchecked it in the settings). You can choose to display your download with a nice looking box or just a plain download link/button.
Example Shortcode Usage:
<pre><code>[sdm_download id="271" fancy="1"] (embed a download button inside a box with other information e.g. Thumbnail, Title and Description)

[sdm_download id="271" fancy="0"] (embed a plain download button/link for a file)

[sdm_download id="271" fancy="0" color="blue"] (embed a plain download button/link for a file with a blue color)
</code></pre>
D) Download logs
You can check the download stats from the “Downloads->Logs” interface. It shows the number of downloads for each files, IP address of the user who downloaded it, date and time of the download.
<h3>3rd Party or External Libraries/Services</h3>
The plugin uses the Google Charts library to show the download count charts in the admin interface (if you use the stats menu of the plugin). You can see more details about this library at the following URL: 
https://developers.google.com/chart/
<h3>Detailed Usage Documentation</h3>
View more usage instructions on the <a href="https://simple-download-monitor.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">Download Monitor Plugin</a> page.
<h3>Github Repository</h3>
https://github.com/Arsenal21/simple-download-monitor
If you need extra action hooks or filters for this plugin then let us know.

Simple Download Monitor

On the WebinarIgnition Demo i use the Simple Download Monitor to hide direct access of the file and even better i removed the opening of PDFs in browser and forced to just download.

nice and it can be used to secure downloads in webinars too

Easily manage downloadable files and monitor downloads of your digital files from your WordPress site.

Arnan de Gans

Track all the stats you need. That’s the goal of Matomo Tracker. And it doesn’t get any more simple than that. 
While other plugins are bloated with all kinds of barely-used features or add bulky dashboards. Matomo Tracker does not.
Easily add the Matomo tracking code to your websites footer in under a minute with only a few clicks. Optionally extend the tracker with some useful features that both help you understand your visitors better and help you optimize the effectiveness of your website, and even SEO.
Matomo Tracker is designed to be barebones but still provide a complete experience for the majority of people. 
Collect all the stats you need via the built-in Matomo tracking code. 
Easily track dead links or in-links that end up on 404 error pages so you can effectively take action and fix those issues. As a result, Google will like you more!
Do you use RSS and Atom feeds? Ever wondered how effective they are? Yeah, me too! 
With Matomo Tracker you can track incoming clicks from your RSS and Atom feeds.
Matomo is a great tool if you don’t want to use Jetpack Stats, WP-Statistics and especially Google Analytics. 
Or simply if you want a second opinion. On my own websites I’ve used both Jetpack Stats and Matomo – Ofcourse I used Matomo Tracker to add the Matomo tracking code to my footer. 
Matomo can replace Google Analytics. If you use their self-hosted solution all data you record is yours without big data watching over your shoulder.
No nonsense, just stats tracking!
Matomo Tracker works with both self-hosted (on premise) and Matomo Cloud installations. 
Check out Matomo here and register for an account on their website: <a href="https://matomo.org" rel="nofollow ugc">https://matomo.org</a>.
Matomo Tracker is not affiliated with Matomo.

Matomo Tracker


Even though the plugin is advertised with "No nonsense, just stats!", it still contains nonsense. In regular intervals, you are bothered with a banner that calls to rate the plugin. Unfortunately, the banner reappears from time to time, even if you have turned it off.



The plugin also contains a functional unattractive feature. When you deactivate the plugin, all settings are deleted. In my opinion it would be better to remove all plugin settings when deleting, not when deactivating.


A good plugin with a little nonsense

The easiest way to track visitors in Matomo. No nonsense, just stats!

Simple Download Monitor vs Matomo Tracker