Trade a PDF for someone's email address
This is the one to get exactly right, because it's also the classic trap. "Enter your email for my free glaze-recipe PDF" looks like a small, harmless form — and it's exactly where a lot of websites quietly cross a line: making the file conditional on agreeing to a newsletter nobody actually asked for.
The two things this form does, kept strictly apart
- Delivering the PDF is a straightforward exchange. Someone asked for a file, you send it to the address they gave you. That needs no tick, no agreement, nothing — it's not marketing, it's fulfilling a request. The file arrives whether or not they tick anything else on the form.
- Marketing is a separate ask, offered as its own optional box underneath, starting unticked, saying plainly what it's for — "Email me when I publish a new recipe. You can unsubscribe from any message." If they tick it, that's real permission for real marketing. If they don't, they still get their PDF.
Why all three conditions matter
A marketing checkbox on a form is only lawful if it's unbundled (its own box, not folded into "submit" or into the terms), optional (the file is identical either way), and starts unticked (agreeing takes an actual action, not forgetting to say no). Miss any one of the three and it isn't really a choice — it's a trap dressed as a form, and it's exactly what the law around unsolicited marketing exists to stop.
Ask Bernard to build it
Tell Bernard what the PDF is and where you'd like the form. It writes the form with the delivery and the marketing box kept separate as above, reuses your site's existing secure-download plumbing so the link can't be passed around forever, and puts it up as a draft for you to approve before anyone sees it. Anyone who downloads appears in Where do the people who buy, join or ask end up? — with a note of whether they also said yes to hearing more.
The prompt
“Add a form to my site that gives people my [PDF name] when they enter their email. The file must download whether or not they tick the marketing box — the box is separate, optional and starts unticked, saying [what they'd be signing up for].”
The [bracketed] parts are yours to fill in. First time? Connect bernard to your AI over MCP — a one-time setup in bernard → your site → Use your own AI — then paste the prompt above.
Questions people ask
- Does someone have to agree to my newsletter to get the free PDF?
- No — and this is the one rule that matters most. The PDF is what they asked for, so delivering it needs no agreement at all; it arrives whether or not they tick anything. If ticking a box changed whether they got the file, that wouldn't be a real choice, and it isn't allowed.
- So can I ask for their email at all if it's not conditional?
- Yes — asking for an email to deliver the file is completely normal and needs no special permission, because it's a straightforward exchange: they asked for something, you send it to that address. What needs a genuine, separate yes is anything *beyond* the file — emailing them again later about your other work.
- Why does the marketing box have to start unticked?
- Because a form isn't a sale. A pre-ticked box is fine at your shop checkout, where someone who's already bought from you is being given a chance to say no. A form is different — nobody's bought anything yet, so a real yes needs an actual tick, not a box they forgot to un-tick. Same-looking checkbox, opposite rule, because the reason it's allowed is different.
- What if nobody ticks the marketing box — did the form fail?
- Not at all — it did exactly what it should. They get their PDF, and nothing is recorded about marketing because nothing was agreed. That's an honest outcome, not a broken one. Every draft form Bernard builds waits on your approval before it's live, same as any other change.