If you’ve been
studying online marketing for awhile you’re familiar with the
term ‘AIDA’ since it’s the standard formula for creating a sales
or signup page.

But just in case
you’re not here’s what it stands for:

1. Grab the reader’s Attention.
2. Get the reader’s Interest.
3. Create a Desire for your
   product or service.
4. Call for Action. (Tell your
   reader what to do.)

So you write a catchy
headline and try to use 1 or more of the latest ‘buzz’ words.

Then you write
something you hope will get the reader’s interest and describe
the ‘benefits’ of your offer.

And of course you’ve
put a signup form or a payment link on your site.

But …

Nothing’s happening.
No sales - No signups.

Well the first thing
you have to check is to make sure you’ve got some traffic to
your site.

Ok, you’ve got some
decent traffic so what’s the problem?

There are lots of
possibilities and I am going to list 4 of the biggies.

1. Your page loads so
   slow people don’t stick around to read it.

   True, a lot of people have fast connections but they’ve also
   gotten used to fast loading web pages so your landing page needs
   to come up quickly. Because my homepage takes too long to load,
   I’ve created several fast loading pages to promote my site and
   newsletter and you should consider doing the same.

   If you don’t want to create smaller landing pages you can also
   divide your page into sections by using tables. Have the top
   portion of your page in 1 table so it will come up quickly and
   give the reader something to read while the rest of your page
   loads.

2. Your site is hard to
   read.

   When you’re picking the colors and fonts for your site make sure
   you pick ones that are ‘easy on the eyes’ and show up well on
   the monitor.

   You should also write short paragraphs with empty space between
   them.

   And one of most effective things you can do is create bullet or
   numbered lists. Be sure to put some space between the bullet
   items and if the list is really long you should alternate either
   the color or bold style of the list items. (Changing fonts or
   font size is not recommended.)

3. Your page requires
   special software to be seen or heard.

   Now maybe you’ve got all the extra downloadable software to make
   all your banners, ad boxes, audio and video work but a lot of
   people don’t. In fact, I’m one of them.

   Almost every day I come across sites that tell me I need to
   download something to see or hear a page properly. While I know
   how to download these things, a lot of people don’t.

   So if you’ve got something on your page that requires special
   software make sure the software is easily attainable, free and
   most visitors already have it.

   Don’t rely on the part of your page that requires extra software
   to do most of your selling because a lot of visitors will never
   see or hear it.

4. Your page is full of
   extra clutter.

   In your attempt to build a list you’ve created a signup form.
   Then you wanted to add content so you did. Next you need to sell
   something so you’ve put up a few ads. You need traffic so you’ve
   added several banner exchange banners to your page. And lastly,
   you’ve added a popup.

   With all these things going for you, your visitors will surely
   find something to click on. Right?

   Wrong. You’ve given them too many things to click on. Now when
   they see your sight it looks like a flashing sign that says “I’m
   new at this and trying anything that will get your attention.”

   Remember the other marketing acronym - KISS. (Keep It Simple, Smarty!)

   Ok, I changed the last word but you get the point.

   Don’t clutter your page with so many things your visitor is
   overwhelmed with choices. Focus on 1 thing.

   Sure, your homepage may be a content page with a signup form and
   some ads. But what’s it’s focus?

   If it’s the content then that’s what fills most of the page and
   the other things are smaller and unobtrusive.

   If it’s primarily a signup page then the content is promoting
   your mailings and the signup box is bigger and included in or at
   the end of the content. Any ads on the page are smaller and
   unobtrusive.

   Now I don’t use banner exchanges but know the banners have to be
   shown for you to get credit. Rather than have several on you
   home page, use 1 at the bottom and maybe 1 at the top of your
   main page. To get exposure for your other banner exchange
   programs, try splitting your main page or creating some other
   page that most visitors will visit and then you can place 1 or 2
   more on that page as well. (You could create a text link that
   promotes free traffic and points to your page full of banner
   exchange banners along with some words saying that by joining
   these programs they can get more traffic for their site.)

There are other
things that can cause your response rate to be less than
acceptable so you should be testing different headlines,
wording, formatting, etc. while you’re making sure you’re not
committing 1 of the above biggies.

Creating a page that performs well doesn’t mean you have to use
a lot of images, make it unique with unusual fonts and colors,
use all the latest technical gadgets or promote everything
you’ve joined.

If your landing pages are simple; fast loading, easy to read,
readable by everyone and focused on 1 thing, you’re on the right
path to getting a good response rate.

To Your Success,

Susan

Susan Carroll owner of http://www.friendswhocare.us has formed a global community of online business people through her weekly newsletter.
Although designed to help those just getting started, her community of friends
include both newbies and experienced internet marketers.

Her Circle of Friends free membership area contains many free resources and
tools for online marketers. You can get a free membership at:
http://www.friendswhocare.us/join.htm.

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