How To Build A List Using A Squeeze Page And An Autoresponder

A BRIEF INTRO

List building is an important resource if you want to make a living from you internet earnings. Having a well-taken-care-of list in a popular niche can be a “set and forget” earnings stream online – as long as you have sown the primary seed of setting it up.

This article is a simple how-to guide for internet-earners on building a mailing list by using a squeeze-page and autoresponder software.

Requirements

There are two required resources needed to properly build an email list. These are

A website or blog

An autoresponder

A Website or Blog

Your website is like your piece of real estate on the internet with a valid address – one of the places where you can be found online. You need to have your own website or blog. Your URL (Uniform Resource Locator) or simply your domain name does not have to be fanciful, but it will be of great advantage if you do your keyword research and buy a domain that contains the main keywords of your niche or the product you intend to promote.

You want to be careful though as there are tons of cheap domain and hosting providers out there. Personally I go with GoDaddy – The world’s largest registrar. You can pick a cheap domain to begin with.

You also need a webhost which supports PHP and MySQL. The best host for blogs is Bluehost and Hostgator also is very good with great customer service – no wonder they are the biggest webhost in the world with over 2.2 million sites/blogs hosted.

Frankly, I don’t think there is any point in taking a risk with just any webhost. With those gotten, you are ready to build your site or blog.

Getting an Autoresponder

Autoresponders are software used for collecting and storing the information (names and email addresses and sometimes phone numbers or more) of the subscribers to your list. Autoresponders let you to setup follow-up mails and create emails you want to broadcast to your list.

There are several types ranging from free to the ones you pay monthly subscriptions for and as you can imagine, the services, reliability and functionalities will differ based on cost and versatility. The best autoresponders contain features that you can use for tracking and statistics, should be able to automatically handle unsubscriptions and undeliverable mails (bounces).

Some webhosts offer integrated autoresponder features but these are nowhere near what you need believe me. So your best bet is to sign up with reputable dedicated autoresponder providers like Aweber and Getresponse

What a Website or Blog Structure looks like

The most fundamental of websites needs three pages at least:

• A squeeze page
• A confirmation page
• A thank-you page

Creating the Squeeze Page

The squeeze page is a the short page which lists the main benefits of whatever it is that you are promoting and contains the signup form which collects the visitors name and email address. A good incentive is to offer a free bonus of some kind, available only to subscribers. You can put a bit of pressure on by making a time-limited offer.

The signup form is usually created using the autoresponder software, which gives you a set of HTML to copy and paste into your squeeze page. At the end of the page, you can mention that you hate spam too and will never share or sell the email address. It is also a good idea to include a link to your privacy policy and perhaps some legal disclaimers there.

Creating the Confirmation Page

After subscribers have submitted their emails and names, this is the page that they are redirected to. You will use this webpage to remind them that they should verify their subscription by clicking on the link included in the confirmation e-mail that will be sent to them. This is very useful and important if you are using double-opt-in. If not, you will lose quite a number of potential subscribers.

You should also inform visitors plainly that they will only get the benefits you have for them only if they confirm. Sometimes, it is wise to offer the signup form again on this page, just in case the visitor made some mistakes while entering their email on the squeeze page.

Setting up the Thank-You Page

The Thank-You page is the page that your subscriber will be sent to, when they have confirmed their subscriptions by clicking on the link in the e-mail. Here is where you can then offer the free bonus and/or redirect to the product you are promoting (using a cloaked affiliate link).

Watch out for the PART 2 of this post coming later.

Cheers,

Billy