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Landing page techniques are changing. Often we hear them called "lead capture pages", "lead generation pages", "opt in pages", "name squeeze pages" or simply "squeeze pages". No matter what you choose to call them the concept of using a landing page has been around for quite some time in the virtual world of online business.

MANY PEOPLE MAKE THE SAME LANDING PAGE MISTAKES

It doesn't matter if you're new to the world of internet advertising doing affiliate marketing or if you've been around almost as long as the famed Microsoft and Bill Gates himself. The simple truth is that things are changing and that change is not something we can just avoid by blindly ignoring the fact that what used work and what used to be considered affective is now no longer effective. These landing page techniques have become obsolete.

THERE ARE MAJOR PROBLEMS THIS SYSTEM IS OUTDATED

The main issue we have here is spamming laws. Without setting up some form of "double opt in" system to allow for check and balance we open ourselves up to a great number of people who will claim they never signed up to receive unsolicited emails. They may have actually been to the website and signed up for our latest greatest free ebook and they may have already downloaded and read the information in question or in the case where you are selling your own products & services or for affiliate marketers the buyer may have already been to the main product or service website.

Where we go wrong here is that people forget. We all do this from time to time, so there's no reason to take it personally, but in many cases those same people who don't remember seeing the landing page will turn around and complain to their isp, your web host or anyone else that will listen and they will claim that you are sending them SPAM emails. Without proof that they have signed up to be on your email marketing list you could easily lose your web hosting service, get your internet service provider to shut you down or the worse than all of the above you could get banned by the almighty search engines.

SO WE BEGIN OUR SEARCH FOR REASONABLE SOLUTIONS

First we incorporate a "double opt in" autoresponce system to replace the now obsolete "single opt in" programs that we were using in the past to market our products, services and affiliate programs. This will protect us from people who complain that they are being spammed, as we now have irrefutable proof showing the time, date and even ip address of the initial sign up.

Next someone came up with a very popular concept called an OTO or "one time offer" page. This was pure genius in the making! The beauty behind this is that it overcomes all of the situations where someone chooses to NOT sign up for your email list OR they sign up just long enough to gain access to what they want and then they unsubscribe. With this system you have an opportunity to strike while the iron is HOT and attempt to make a sale NOW before losing the prospect forever.

NOW LET'S TAKE THIS NEW SYSTEM TO THE NEXT LEVEL

For your landing page to truly be effective and meet your goals both on a short term and a long term basis you need to change the way you look at online marketing as a whole. People are tired of being pressured up front to join an email list just to gain access to a free ebook, product or service. It doesn't matter how you managed to get the traffic to your website. Once the visitor is there and they are looking they should have two choices.

Choice #1 - Buy the product or service that is being offered.

Choice #2 - Sign up for an optional online newsletter or ezine.

By giving the prospective buyer an option to sign up for your list this weeds out all the freeloaders that are only looking for a hand out and this method gives you a list that may be smaller, but the people who sign up are genuinely interested in the information you're going to send them via email. Plus by doing this they have to confirm their email address before it's added to your autoresponder, which gives them an added feeling of comfort that they're not just being hustled.

For those that chose to BUY NOW the next step is to send them to your landing page, but only AFTER they have made their payment in full. This way you have completed the sale BEFORE asking for their first name and email address. Once the buyer has gone to your landing page you can simply explain that you need this information to confirm their order and that you will NOT share this information with anyone else. As an added touch you can even tell the buyer that they will get an email from you once they confirm their sign up to your email list telling them where they can get their ebook, start using the service they have paid you for or download their new digital product.

THIS WAY THEY HAVE TO SIGN UP FOR YOUR EMAIL LIST

Once they sign up you can then redirect them to your OTO or "one time offer" page. A lot of really good online marketers are now offering multiple "one time offers" as a back end sales technique for their landing page and they're making TONS of money!

In the meantime the buyer goes to their email list to confirm that they signed up for your landing page and that they want to be on your email marketing list. They have no other choice. They have already paid for the products or services that you're offering them. If they want to get what they've paid for they have to sign up.