In the previous two posts, I’ve discussed three of the most engaging landing pages you have (and that you’re almost certainly not monetizing properly), and gave some suggestions for what you could do to change that.

Before I wrap up with the FeedBlitz “how-to” however, one point I didn’t emphasize earlier but should is this: You should monetize the landing pages, true, but not the interactions that lead up to them.

By which I mean, don’t bling up the subscription form with lots of offers and competing links. You want to draw the subscriber in closer, so make it clear what you want them to do. Don’t distract them before they even start the process.

Similarly, you should keep the activation email down to one call to action: Activate your subscription. By all means brand it, but, again, don’t add other competing links, distractions and bright shiny objects. You want them to finish the play, so make that the first, obvious and only choice they have.

Obviously, the same applies for your unsubscribe form. You don’t want to be reported to your email service provider or the relevant government authority for making it hard to unsubscribe, so don’t get in the way on the conformation page. Ask them why they’re leaving and let them go. Save the monetization for the page that follows.

Set Up the Landing Pages on Your Blog

You need to decide which landing pages you are going to use and make them. Don’t make them as posts, but as pages. Also make sure when you publish the page that you tell your blog to omit the landing page from your site menus and navigation. They should only be reachable as a result of the opt-in and opt-out processes in the email subscriber life cycle.

Now, bear in mind that you don’t have to do all three at once in order to be successful. The “check your inbox” page will have the most traffic, but the people reaching the “welcome – you’re in” page will probably be the most engaged. I recommend picking either of these as your first page to produce, depending on the programs you have available to monetize with. Leave the unsubscribe landing page until later if you’re short on time.

As you build each page, remember too that the job of each page is to inform the subscriber of what to do next and / or confirm what it is they have just done. Make sure that the relevant message is front and center; don’t shove it below the fold. After all, you’ve built enough trust to merit someone wanting to become a subscriber; don’t give them second thoughts now.

Setting Up FeedBlitz

In your mailing list’s settings, go to Newsletters - Settings - Content Settings - The Basics (v3), or your list’s settings page (v4) and look for the three landing page redirect fields. Add the URL(s) of the landing page(s) you’ve created here and save. If your landing page is a script and can parse incoming variables, you can pass the subscriber’s email address into the redirect as well by following the tip on that screen. That’s it!  What you then need to do is test that it all works, so log out of FeedBlitz, and then subscribe to your list using an email address you haven’t used before. This ensures that you get the same experience as a fresh visitor to your site as you move through the process. FYI there are similar options for autoresponders too – just find the analogous screens and fields.

Test, Optimize, Repeat.

As you build your list, you should start to see increased engagement and monetization from these new pages. Once they’re settled in, try changing the offers, the headlines or other elements on the page to see how that affects click through rates from those pages. Optimize steadily over time to grow your business further, and good luck!

Landing pages. Generically, landing pages are the pages where a user starts to interact with your site in some way, usually after an search, or possibly clicking on an ad. One of the things that Internet Marketers (and any business online) spend a lot of time optimizing are their landing pages.

The landing page is your last best shot at converting the new visitor into something else: A buyer, perhaps. A lead. A subscriber. A donor. A voter. The point being that you want that new visitor to do something when they hit that landing page, and optimizing that landing page to improve its conversion rate typically leads to more success (however you define that) later on.

Landing pages can be short and sweet, or go all the way through to screenful after screenful of text, with embedded videos, highlighted text – “squeeze pages” in the industry jargon. Optimizing landing pages needs lots of testing. Even simple headline changes, a subtle change in the call to action, or adding a chevron to a button can dramatically affect how well a landing page converts.

Dollars to donuts, you have three highly visible, highly engaging landing pages that you haven’t even thought about. And that means you’re losing out on potential conversions, and therefore on downstream monetization.

Thinking Harder About Dual Opt-In

The tragedy of most bloggers – which is why I wrote the “List Building for Bloggers” series and subsequent ebook – is that email subscriptions are neglected, forgotten about and generally ignored. Not only is that in and of itself a tragic loss of potential engagement (and, again, monetization opportunities), it also means you’re missing out on three critical landing page monetization opportunities.

What are they?  Well, think about the dual opt-in process. You probably haven’t for a while, so here’s a little diagram as a reminder:

See, after the subscription form is completed, there’s the “Check your inbox now” page. It’s a landing page.

After the subscriber activates their subscription, there’s another “thank you for subscribing” landing page.

The third landing page I mentioned? Happens when a subscriber unsubscribes. They opt out of the list, and a “Sorry to see you go” landing page appears.

Three, very engaging, well-read, landing pages. Have you thought about how to make better use of them? Optimize them? Leverage them to help you monetize your site better? Because if you haven’t, you’re missing out on some great revenue opportunities.

More on what to do with the neglected landing pages hiding in your dual opt-in process in the next post.