Welcome to part four of State of the Article. In my last article we talked about landing pages and their purpose. There are five basic types of landing pages that you can build: AdSense, Opt-in, Direct, Blog and SEO. Each of these types of website has a specific purpose for monetization and a different format; in this issue, we’ll take a closer look at each of these types of pages. I’ll share my tips for success on each format as well as when each type should be used, depending on your needs. Finally, we’ll go over a few tips for setting up your opt-in form for your newsletter.

The Adsense Site

The key to building a profitable AdSense site is to find a high-paying AdSense niche. There are several that are consistently good performers including:

• Financial niches – FICO scores, loans, mortgages, bankruptcy, credit cards, payday loans, taxes, debt consolidation.
• Investment niches – FOREX, stock quotes, estate planning, Internet-related, FOREX, stock quotes, estate planning.
• Internet-related niches – domain names, web hosting, anti-spam, adware and spyware programs, shopping carts, web design and development, high speed, DSL, broadband, cable Internet, wireless.
• Travel niches – hotels, airfares, vacation packages, vacation rentals, timeshares, cruises.
• Cars niches – trucks, sports cars, SUVs, motorcycles, ATVs.
• Telephone, cable and satellite niches – cell phones, VOIP, toll-free number, cheap long distance, ring tones.
• Health and fitness niches – diabetes, heart disease, weight loss, diets and dieting, body building, anti-aging, nutrition, supplements.

Naturally, Adsense sites need to feature prominent ad-block placements, as you can see in the example below. If you build an AdSense site you can write articles that promote affiliate products but your real money is going to come from AdSense clicks. Each site of this type should include 10 to 20 pages of solid content. Use articles, reviews and product descriptions to fill out your pages.

An AdSense site is a good choice when you’re chosen niche has high AdSense payouts (such as those mentioned above). You can outsource the articles, use PLR content or, if you have the experience, write the material yourself. You may also consider placing AdSense on some of the other types of site to make some extra money. Just be sure that the AdSense ads aren’t distracting from the main purpose of that site.

The Opt-In Site

The main purpose of the opt-in site is to get the visitor to sign up to your newsletter or mailing list. That being said, you need to build
trust quickly and show that you can deliver value. Opt-in sites should have a strong headline with a clear incentive for signing up. The incentive (a free report, video, teleconference, e-course, etc) should be something that the visitor would be willing to pay for. The headline should be backed up by a sub-headline that emphasizes the main benefit of opting into the list.

Besides your strong headline and incentive, the Opt-In site should contain an opt-in box where the visitor can sign up to receive more information. The opt-in box should only ask visitors for their e-mail address and name – nothing else. The more you ask for, the lower your conversions will be. Keep it simple!

A privacy policy is necessary for an opt-in site (and really any other site online these days) and you should link to this directly from your opt-in page.

Your opt-in site doesn’t need to contain a full long-form sales letter. Instead it should have bullet points that highlight the advantages of subscribing. You should also show proof of your claims through screen shots and testimonials.

The tone of your opt-in site should be handled very carefully. You should keep the exclamation points to a minimum (they imply “scam” if they are used too much) and you should be polite but not too “chummy”.

As you’ll see in the following site descriptions, you should really have an opt-in box on ALL your sites, no matter what type they are. Choose an opt-in site specifically if you have easy access to content that you can use for a newsletter. PLR content that has been sitting on your hard drive is a great resource for this. You can also benefit from an opt-in site if there are a decent variety of products available that you can promote to your list either directly or as an affiliate. If you can find at least three good Clickbank products in your niche, then building a list through an Opt-In site is the way to go!

The Direct Sales Site (Comparison Site)

A direct sales site is designed to sell a product and there are many variations. For the purposes of this strategy, we’re going to focus on the comparison site. As the name suggests, the comparison site compares two to three different products and is often more effective than just offering one product. People have a hard time believing that one product can solve all their problems so comparisons are important because they lend credibility to your site.

The site should include all the products on one page. Arrange them in descending order of their Clickbank Gravity score starting with the highest gravity first, and so on.

The secret to an effective comparison are to keep it real and keep it short. Your site visitors will most likely skim the text on the site so make good use of bullet points and short sentences. Avoid hype entirely and focus on including proof of your review or your claims about the products. Include graphics of the products next to your short, bulleted list of benefits.

At the top of each product review use a strong headline to highlight the main benefit for each individual product. If a person is skimming through the site they should be able to get the basic gist of each product from the headlines alone. Make your “call to action” links very visible and use phrases like “Click Here to get started” or “Click Here to learn more.”

Even though this is a comparison site, go ahead and use an opt-in box as well. Put it below the fold so it doesn’t detract from your reviews. Your #1 goal is to get your visitor to buy one of the products but, if they go through all the product reviews and don’t buy, you can still capture their information for further marketing. You’ll need to include links from your comparison site pages to your privacy policy and disclosure page.

A direct sales site is a good choice when your research turns up multiple Clickbank products with good gravity and a high number of referred sales, but you don’t enough content options to build an SEO site. Try creating a direct sales site for each product and also a comparison site that reviews several products. Track your results to find out which approach works best for you.

The Blog Site

Blogs are a unique form of website because they rely on the social media interaction between you and the audience. You should choose a niche that people are passionate about so enthusiasts will want to participate in your site, encouraging it to grow. You can use a blog site to take advantage of the instant traffic possibilities from Web 2.0 and social networking.

Blogs are all about content, so be prepared to write one post a day for at least a few weeks to get some good traffic coming to your site. When you create your blog you should always use WordPress and your own domain. Avoid free blogging sites because they won’t give you complete control over your website content. At the end of it all, there’s nothing to stop them from banning your account and seizing all of your content.

Blogs work well with an opt-in box and this should be prominently displayed above the fold. WordPress has many different blog templates available, many of which have space for opt-in boxes automatically worked into the design. If you use an autoresponder service like Aweber you can set up a “blog broadcast” to your list which will send out a message automatically each time you create a new blog post.

Having a busy design isn’t a problem with a blog. There are categories, a tag cloud, advertisements and posts in most blog layouts. This way there is something for everyone to read and it makes your site “sticky”. People will stay to read your content, bookmark it, share it, and hopefully return again in the neat future. One of the best arguments for blogs is their versatility. You can use AdSense, affiliate marketing links or promote your own products.

The SEO Site

SEO sites are built to attract natural traffic from the search engines, based on their content, and they are monetized in a variety of different ways (Adsense, affiliate products, direct sales, etc). As with the previous site examples, you can make the most of your SEO Site by including an opt-in box with a good incentive.

On an SEO Site, your internal links should contain your specific keywords and the articles on each page should be related to those keywords. Once your content is up you should start building incoming links from other sites that include those same keywords.
Remind people to come back and visit the site by including a “Bookmark Us” link toward to top of the page. If they choose to add your sites to their favorites in their browser, there is a much greater chance that they’ll return. You can also encourage them to spread the word about your site with a “Tell a Friend” script.

This type of site needs lots and lots of articles. You should start with at least 10 to 20 articles and at least that many each and every month. Since there is a lot of content involved, this site is perfect if you really love the topic and want to make a long term commitment to the niche. This type of site also works well if, in the long-term, you want to build an authority site.

Building a List

The common factor with all these different kinds of site is the opt-in box that will allow you to build a list. It can take seven or more advertising messages before people will be moved to make a purchase. By continuing to market to them AFTER they’ve left your site, you will increase your conversion rate.

You’ll need an autoresponder service to build your list and, in my opinion, Aweber.com is your best choice. Once you’ve signed up and logged into your account you’re ready to build your first list. Your first order of business, after selecting the name for your list, is to customize the verified opt-in message. You can always use the Aweber default message but it’s a better idea to personalize it a little bit with your site or company name. Add the subscriber’s first name by clicking “personalize” and adding {firstname}.

The next step is making a Web Form that you will use on your website to encourage people to opt in. Make sure to mention the incentive and collect their name and e-mail address. You can deliver the incentive by including a link in your first automatic message.

When you create your first newsletter it’s a good idea to remind people that they agreed to sign up to this list in the first place. You can use a text header before the body of your message to remind them. Even though Aweber includes an unsubscribe link at the bottom of each e-mail, it’s still a good measure to include the header. You can use something like this:

To exclude your address from all future mailings click the link at the end of this email. Feel free to send your friends to the site where you signed up for this newsletter and received your free ebook: http://www.your url.com

This header reminds people why they signed up for the newsletter, gives them a way to unsubscribe if they want, and also encourages them to refer their friends to your site. Pretty clever, huh?

Your first newsletter should be short and simple. Include the download link for your freebie report or eBook, add a link to an article on your website, but don’t bog them down with content. After that, pre-load the autoresponder with articles, PLR content, pitches for other products or a little of each.

We’re really just skimming the surface of how to build a list. However, with these tips, you can get a head start on building an opt-in list no matter what type of site you are creating.
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By Anik Singal
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This article was originally featured in Mike Filsaime’s print newsletter, “MDC Monthly.” You can get a free trial copy shipped to your door by clicking here.

Anik Singal is the Founder and CEO of Affiliate Classroom, Inc. and Lurn, Inc. Anik began as an Internet marketer and affiliate in 2001. In 2008, Anik Singal was among the top three finalists in Business Week’s Top 25 Best Young Entrepreneurs in the U.S.

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