How to FTP directly to httpd directory

I'm running Mandrake 6.0 with Apache 1.3.6. I want to be able to FTP
into the httpd directory and upload files as user nobody group nobody.
I've tried creating a dummy user and setting it's home directory as the
httpd directory, that didn't work. Still didn't have permission to
upload files.

What I want to do is create a user like 'webmaster' and set it to use
group 'nobody', same as the web server. That's no problem. Is there a
way I can have the new user I create masquerade as user 'nobody' so I
can FTP right to the httpd directory and upload files? I think you can
do somthing like this with root; have a program owned by a regular user
but run as root.

If I could do this with the user nobody would there be any security
risks? The only thing user nobody has access to is the httpd directory
anyway.

This is a home machine that I want to be able to ftp into the httpd directory, otherwise I have to upload to my regular user account then go to my Linux machine and move everything over, then chmod and chown everything to 'nobody' again.

Thanks for any info on this,
Warren Bell