If you read articles on online marketing, it won't be long before you meet the term "landing page." So what does it mean? And why is it so important?

When a visitor first arrives at your site, he or she sees a web page. That first page is the landing page. It's where the visitor initially "landed" on your website.

Consider how people visit your website. They don't all start at your main page. Instead, they may come in through a bookmark they set on an earlier visit. Or a link from another site. Or a link in some search result. So potentially, any page on your website can be a landing page.

Imagine you send out an email to a thousand customers telling them they can get 20% off your newest product. You naturally provide a link to your website in that email. Any recipient interested in that offer is likely to use that link to visit your website. So the destination page becomes the landing page for that email promotion.

If we can dictate the landing page, then we can put specific content on this page that encourages the visitor to do what we want them to do. We can custom-design the landing page to fit with the goals of whatever advertising or marketing effort got the visitor to land there in the first place.

Custom landing pages for different promotions or communications can make an astonishing difference to results. So they're a critical tool for marketers: choosing and designing a suitable landing page simply gets more people to take the desired action.

More on Landing Pages

Your Home Page isn't always the point of entry inyo your Web Site, so you have to take that fact into consideration when designing your Site.

A landing page - is very much like a focused mini home page - and how successful you are at capturing your visitors attention, and conversion,will depend on what you do with that page.

Landing pages are always sales process pages. They always constitute a step in the conversion process of catching pre-qualified traffic and moving it along its way to taking action.

A sales process page actively persuades your visitor to accomplish some phase of the selling process .Your landing pages can and should be constructed to reinforce the reason your visitors landed there.

In a way, this article is a follow-up to some of the articles written in a recent Cutting Edge issue. It seems that people "just didn't get it" and we kept getting questions which indicate people still didn't understand the basic overall plan necessary in making a website successful. So let's break it down into a few clear steps for you to follow.

Here are the five major steps that you MUST implement in-order-to create a successful website.

1. Get traffic … get qualified visitors coming to your website. This sounds like a small thing, but in reality it is a very big job. Use all of the techniques in the course to generate traffic

2. Create a website which makes visitors want to stay and spend time. The course talks about how to keep visitors at your website by giving away good information, and by making your site attractive and easy to navigate. You don't want a dog's breakfast of confusing stuff.

Your site should be attractive. It should focus on a specific topic and target group. It needs to allow you to create credibility and rapport with the customer (as that is what will get you the sale), make the visitors feel comfortable, make him/her feel you are there to help them, make it easy to get the information they want, and make it easy to order.

3. Get visitors to come back to the website once they've left. Not all visitors will buy the first time they see your product or service. Some want to do more research, some want to wait until they can afford it, some don't need it until later, some don't fully trust you and your claims yet, etc. This is critical when there are so many website out there now.

You cannot expect them to remember you when they are visiting ten's, if not hundreds of websites in one session online. You need to capture their email address and remind them who you are and how you can help.

A great way to do this is by offering a free valuable newsletter at your site. Each month you can remind people to come and check out your newest issue.You can even offer things like a tip of the day, week or month. Whatever you do, make sure it is timely so that visitors will want to come back and check out your website all the time to get new information.If you offer something like a tip of the day or month and you don't deliver this through a newsletter (but just publish it on your site and expect people to remember to come back and visit your all the time), the dilemma you run into is that you can't guarantee return visitors. Since you have no way of reminding them to come back to you, they may forget about you forever.

It's important that you have a newsletter to remind them to come back and get the tip of the month, or see the new article your have or whatever your most current information is.

4. Have a great sales process. What is meant by "sales process" is to make sure that you give them the desire to buy without being pushy (usually through good sales copy) and make it is easy for them to order. This is not an easy thing to accomplish - there are a lot of "tiny" things that will make a difference... many people can get the traffic to their site but don't turn those visitors into sales (which means you make no money)... so follow the advice closely in the course (as well as the issues of the cutting edge) on how to do this as it will make the difference between a "winner" site and a "loser" site.

Note: Don't forget to have great customer service before and after the sale as that will make a big difference for #5 below.

5. Work the backend. The backend is very critical. And even though it's mentioned it in the course and in past newsletters let's talk about it again … because the backend is where you make your money. If you treat a customer right and you give them great value and great customer service you are always going to be able to sell them something else. That's where you make your real money.

Once you have a customer it costs you nothing more to sell to them again especially since you can email them for free. So everything you sell them afterwards is pure profit. There are no advertising costs, no getting a customer cost, no commissions or referral fees … everything after the first sale is pure profit … you keep the whole thing (other than the product hard cost). This is where you make your money. Fifty percent of your net income should come from backend sales. No matter what product you are selling, no matter what business you are in, the backend is where your money is … so take this to heart! This is your master plan of action for making your business successful. Your goal is to complete all five steps.

Though the master plan is broken down into 5 major steps, each step is made up of dozens and dozens of smaller, but important actions which have to happen along the way.

For example take step number one … getting visitors to your web site. Getting qualified visitors is a very hard thing to do, and it requires taking a lot of individual actions … following through on a lot of promotional and marketing techniques -testing different methods and sale copy, etc. Although it is listed as one step, don't underestimate it. It requires a lot of work to get just that one step done properly … and in reality, this job never ends.  

The good news is that it is very profitable and many clients that have quit their day jobs because their Internet business is making them more in two months than they were getting paid in an entire year. All of the smaller action steps you need to take have been described in detail in the course. These 5 master steps are an overview of what is necessary to create a successful web business.

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1. You can hire a Web Design company to build one for you; there is any number to choose from. This method, if you are to get a truly custom site can be expensive.

2. You can build one yourself using Macromedia Dreamweaver/Fireworks, Microsoft Front Page or another program. You will need some computer skills and hopefully the assistance from a knowledgeable friend. This method gives you a lot of flexibility and will allow you to change, add to or modify your site whenever you wish.

3. You can buy a Web Site template. But one that you will be able to go into and rework it to meets your custom needs. There are lots that are constructed in Dreamweaver/Fireworks. You’ll get a great look at a fraction of the cost.

4. You can buy a Web Site package. The one I recommend it Site Build It. In my opinion stay away from packages that advertise “it’s so easy even your grandmother can do it”. They must have some smart cookie for a grandmother, don’t get me wrong, I love grandmother’s but…..?

The first, and foremost, thing you need to do is determine, as specifically as possible, what it is you are trying to accomplish, who do you want to reach and what do they need. Define your target market.

Develop a plan and rationalize your decisions. Bear in mind you can’t e everything to everybody you’ll end up being completely frustrated.

I can’t emphasize the need to plan enough, it will save you time and money.