After a career as a professional musician and band leader in the Miami South Florida Area I decided to see if I could make some money with this new internet thing. After years of trial and error I started to get the hang of it and now I am completely financially independent because of my various online businesses. The goal of this blog is to chronicle my continued marketing experiences. I focus on real examples of what works and what does not work.
Google does not give us a recipe for getting our sites ranked. We have to use our own experiences to see what actually works rather than theory.
I hope you enjoy the blog. Please let us know what you think in the comments area. We appreciate your feedback.
The reason for this is that after running thousands of ads for customers that promoting a squeeze page or landing page with a great offer and simple opt in form is one of the most effective ways to marketing products and services.
Landing Pages Work Much Better Than Big Corporate Pages on Initial Contact
However, many of my customers gives me huge, self replicated, company websites to promote. When you are dealing with a cold marketing these big beautiful sites do not work.
When you catch somebody’s interest for the first time you need to get their email with a clear focused offer, bonus, and compelling reasons for the prospect to give up his email.
Get Their Email First With A Compelling Offer, Bonus, and Email Only Opt in Form. Then Follow Up!
You should also not ask for their phone number, blood type, sexual preference, and for god’s sake do not put a Google Re-Captcha on your opt in form!
Make it Easy for People to Opt In! Do Not Ask for Their Phone Number, Blood Type, Sexual Preference or Put A Ridiculously Hard Google Re-captcha on Your Opt In Form.
You want to make it as easy and compelling as possible for customers to give up one piece of information. That info is their email. And I am talking about their EMAIL ONLY.
The More Info You Ask For In An Opt In Form The Less Opt In You Get. And You Want Opt Ins Right?
Then you need to follow up over and over with your autoresponder messages. Nobody is going to see your big fancy corporate website and just sign up cold. Nobody. They need to get to know you. They need to develop a relationship with you. That is the work of the autoresponder. (For more info on autoresponders see “What is an autoresponder” and “8 Reasons You Need an Autoresponder Now“)
Nobody is Going to Sign Up Cold From Your Big Fancy Corporate Website. Nobody.
Think about it. Don’t you want to ask questions, investigate, learn more about a product or opportunity before you plunk down your hard earned cash? Well, surprise, surprise. Your potential customers feel the same way.
You Generally Want More Info Before Dropping Your Cash. So Do Your Customers. Follow Up.
You see, I want my customers to be successful. But if they give me a crappy website to promote then neither one of us are going to be successful and I find this very frustrating.
So I want my customers to have an easy way to create landings pages and opt in squeeze pages.
Instapage Charges up to $126. Per Month Just to Host Landing Pages. Really? This is Nuts!
When I looked at the company I was recommending I was stunned. Instapage charges $76. per month for their basic package and a whopping $126. per month if you want A/B testing. If you still want to sign up with them please do from my affiliate link but read on for a better option.
Lead Pages is a bit better with prices at $37. per month for the basic program and with A/B testing $79. per month.
Still these are just landing pages. They do not even include the autoresponder system. We are talking about minimum prices of $500 per year just to host landing pages. This is crazy.
I Use a WordPress Plugin Called Thrive Architect Which Creates Stunning Landing Pages for a One Time Free
I use another system called “Thrive Architect.” This is a wordpress plugin which makes fantastic landing pages. It is also and incredible content creator. I just re-did my website www.coolmarketingsoftware.com using Thrive Content Builder (Now Thrive Architecht.)
Beautiful High Quality Mobile Responsive Landing Pages
Work With Any Autoresponder Perfectly
Free A/B Testing Using Google Analytics (Minimum $80 per month to get this features elsewhere)
Unlimited Impressions
Landing Pages Based on My Own Domain Which Looks More Professional Then Sub Domains With on Domains Everyone Else is Using
All this costs me $67 one time fee!
The reason I was hesitant to recommend this option is that it requires that you have your own domain name, and hosting account and that you have an active installation of wordpress.
I thought the Thrive Architect option might be a bit too complicated for my customers. But is it really?
You need the following:
Your own domain name. No big deal. You can get one here for $10. per year. See www.quickregister.us
What about the unbelievably difficult job of installing wordpress and a wordpress plugin. Not a problem. Get the hosting from my affiliate link and the Thrive Architecht from my affiliate link above and I will install everything for you for free.
If You Get All The Above From My Affiliate Links I Will Set it All Up For Free So There Are No Technical Worries At All
So lets compare my Thrive Architect solution with Leadpages.net on the basis of price.
Thrive Architect option:
Domain name: $10. per year.
Hosting $4. per month or $50. per year
Wordpress. Free.
Thrive Architect. $67. One time fee. Not even yearly!
First year costs $127. with Thrive Architect. The following year is only $60!
Leadpages.net A/B Testing Package
$948. are your costs every year with Leadpages
As far as I can see there is no difference in quality. And actually you have more security with your own system based on your own domain because you control your data.
Please let us know if you have other options for creating landing pages that are better than this. We did look and Getresponse.com which is an autoresponder company which is now providing a landing page service.
But when I started to set up a landing page with their system I noticed they limited the number of impressions I could get to 1000.. That will go quickly. You need to upgrade to the pro version to get unlimited landing pages and unlimited impressions.
Please Note We No Longer Recommend Getresponse. They Shut Down Our Account With Nearly 30,000 Subscribers And Are Getting Bad Revews. I Recomend Highly Thrive Architect With An Autoresponder LikeAweber.
No Monthly Fees With Thrive Architect, Unlimited Views, And Great Templates and Aweber is Much Simpler to Use Than Getresponse. Another Alternative for Autoresponder is Mautic which is Free. It is a Self Hosted Solution. Mautic Requires More Technical Knowledge But is Doable. If You Are Just Starting I Recommend Aweber. As You Grow Check Out Self Hosting With Mautic.
Getresponse Offers a Landing Page Service Combined With Autoresponder Service
Keep in mind Getresponse includes an outstanding autorepsonder service with their landing pages. So to have an autoresponder service combined with landing page service and up to 5000 contacts in your autoresponder costs $49. per month with Getresponse.com.
With The Basic Getresponse Plan You Are Limited to 1000 Impression to Your Landing Page. This is Not Enough.
This really is not too bad since you need the autoresponder, Getresponse offers a great autoresponder, and you get the landing pages as well. You can find out more about Getresponse here.
For $49. Per Month You Get Up to 5000 Contacts and Unlimited Landing Pages and Impressions With Getresponse.
I already had an account with Getresponse and upgrading to their pro version would cost me even more money per month so I was more comfortable using the Thrive Architect option. Also the landing pages are much better with Thrive Architecht. Everything Thrive Themes does is absolutely first class.
However, the Getresponse solution is definitely worth considering as a beginning all in one solution.
Your thoughts and comments are appreciated.
Here is Another Way to Create a Landing Page for Practically Free! Old School No B.S. Dirt Cheap and Simple!
