The biggest lie that you believed for most of your life?

for me was
"if you dont go to school, you will end up like me(low pay job)"
I been told that all my life.

"the only way to buy big toys at a young age is through financing.."(thank god i never did)

"be nice, dont make too much noise, and dont break the rules"

from The biggest lie that you believed for most of your life?

How do I set up a shopping cart for a free book (-S&H)?

Hi WFMs, Not sure if I'm posting this in the right category but I've hit a bit of a wall with my book release. I have this plan to relea.

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Cavemen Economics

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_SVexaSMwk&t=253s

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I Had Neglected Process

New member of TFF dropping by...

I thought I knew what it took to be successful until I read TMF. My understanding was scanty, TMF gave me the big picture. And on reading the action faking thread, I just found a word that accurately describes what I had been doing. I was action faking!

Well, that's the past. No need to cry over spilt milk. Going forward, I commit to consistently take constructive action.

from I Had Neglected Process

Go to school, get good grades, get a good job = Stupidity

from Go to school, get good grades, get a good job = Stupidity

15 Days to Freedom - Make Money Copywriting in 15 Days or Less

15 Days to Freedom
Make money copywriting in 15 days or less.
(Without writing a hundred Gary Halbert letters)​

Everything you think you know about the way they’ve taught you to think about the way things are supposed to work…

…is a lie.

Consider what this sentence actually means.

Now think about whatever reasons (excuses) you've been verbally vomiting to yourself about why you’re not getting anywhere and why you’re not making progress. What...

15 Days to Freedom - Make Money Copywriting in 15 Days or Less

from 15 Days to Freedom - Make Money Copywriting in 15 Days or Less

Trying Times (Trying VS Doing)

I know three people in my life who have successfully quit smoking.

By quit, I mean they haven't had even one cigarette in at least ten years (for the most recent of the group. For the other two, it's been about 18 years and about 35 years, respectively).

I also know eight people who have "tried to quit." You can spot the difference between the two groups based on the last day that they were a smoker. On the last day that the true quitters were smokers, they didn't make any dramatic...

Trying Times (Trying VS Doing)

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Introduction: My name is Edmark and today I got fired.

Hi guys, posted a few times but never introduced myself.

My name is my username, tho you can call me Ed. I'm a 20 yr old comp sci student living alone as I work at a min wage job and today I got fired.

Irresponsible! How do you get fired from a min.wage job?

Yeah I hear it now. But let me give you some context. I work at a fastfood chain for min wage and the owners/managers are the ones who only hire high schoolers so they can legally pay below min wage. People quit every two weeks...

Introduction: My name is Edmark and today I got fired.

from Introduction: My name is Edmark and today I got fired.

Creating quality content

Today I listened to a 4 hour book about SEO while I worked. I learned a lot about it that I previously didn't know. It talked a lot about pr.

from Creating quality content

Fastlane Parenting

I know that the forum can't be solely made up of 19yrd olds that aspire to boats n' hoes, so I'd like to solicit stories of how the folks on here that are parents raise their children to have a fastlane outlook on life.

A lot of folks use family responsibilities as an excuse to stay in the slowlane, but for me personally, I got about 10x more motivated to go fastlane when I found out Mrs G-man was preggo, and about 100x more motivated since I have to look at 8 week old Mini G-man every day...

Fastlane Parenting

from Fastlane Parenting

A Guide: How I've built my service business from scratch

Hi everyone! Michael here.

Short on cash? Don't have any Fastlane ideas to work on? Do you wish that somehow, you could get some traction to improve your life?

Perhaps you should start a service business! Hear me out.

You don't need much (or ANY, if you're hungry enough!) cash initially.

You can start selling and generating profit damn near overnight.

The skills you learn can be applied to any of your future endeavours, personal or professional.

I'm writing a short guide /...

A Guide: How I've built my service business from scratch

from A Guide: How I've built my service business from scratch

How to Lower Cholesterol?

I think MJ mentioned something similar in his book (around the same age I'm 28). I had a health scare today from my doctor that has hard paved me into no more fast foods, restaurants, and strictly water and exercise now. My cholesterol was around 275, whereas it should be 150.

I was curious to know from anyone who has similar experiences, whats the best way to lower my cholesterol? I'm planning a 3-month goal to exercise 30mins-1hr minimum per day, and cut out all fast food, sodas,...

How to Lower Cholesterol?

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Growing a list off of a twitter page

So I currently run a twitter page that has 125k followers. Obviously I don't have the engagement of 125k people because of the way twitter w.

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Best wordpress user plugin for a social site?

Hey all, building a niche wordpress social website for a local client and we need to make it so that users can register for an account on th.

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Google Search Console isn't always that accurate - Moz

Hello, I've been an author and book publisher for quite a while now, and I've had quite a lot of success with social media marketing, blogging, and ...

from Google Search Console isn't always that accurate - Moz

please delete as this has no interest

New startup I'm working on has a lot to do with selling product - But since my ... Hi, I have been creating coloring books and journals for a while now.

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Amazon FBA Guru

Hey folks,
I'm Tri-stan from the Denton area and I am an avid Amazon FBA reseller. I found this site by searching for investors and business partners. It's nice to be here and if anyone would like to know more about making money With me than lets talk! Thank you Fastlane for letting me be a member.

from Amazon FBA Guru

Amazon FBA Pot

After listening to my business partner I've decided to take on investors for our ecommerce business. ROI is higher than usual but is negotiable depending on how much you invest. The investments are for inventory only. I pay for all advertising and promotions. I don't require that you pay me any cash. I just want to place inventory purchases online.

It dawned on me that it doesn't matter how much is invested it's just a matter of feeding the beast. There IS no cap on how much we can earn....

Amazon FBA Pot

from Amazon FBA Pot

WTF does Tai Lopez do?

Just saw a commercial by him today. I think it was on Youtube.
He shows a black Lamborghini he claims to own.
WTF does he do? I haven't seen him do anything except talk about books, books, books
and utter an endless stream of platitudes.
Is he just some kind of self-styled success guru or does he have a real business?
Is he trying to be the next Warren Buffet? The next Brian Tracy?
I heard Warren Buffet is always reading.
I don't have time to read a bunch of general advice anymore.
I just...

WTF does Tai Lopez do?

from WTF does Tai Lopez do?

Membership Site: Best Format For Interaction?

Im making a monthly membership site for weight loss. I want to be able interact with the members where they can ask questions and I can ans.

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Tools to make a sales video?

Hi everyone. Long story short ive been getting organic traffic to a specific keyword for a while. I want to create my own offer instead.

from Tools to make a sales video?

Ecommerce Selling Branded Products on Shopify Compete?

So I have a small shopify store selling branded products. Obviously can't offer the free two day shipping. With Walmart, Amazon, and Jet.com. Is a small shopify shop selling branded products on his/her own website essentially screwed?

My prices are cheaper or even on par with them. I say price because if you are selling branded a lot of variables are held constant.

Bulk of sales is through eBay. Hard to convert eBay customers to Shopsite. Only thing I do is add a package insert why they...

Ecommerce Selling Branded Products on Shopify Compete?

from Ecommerce Selling Branded Products on Shopify Compete?

Remember: the 80/20 Rule applies to your THOUGHTS as well

Hi, I have been creating coloring books and journals for a while now. I recently took a very detailed course that taught me step-by-step how to create ...

from Remember: the 80/20 Rule applies to your THOUGHTS as well

The Latest Easiest Way To Load Your Pockets With Cash...(A must read)

I'll try and make this post as short as possible...but this is one of the latest ways to get wealthy if you're a marketer. SCENARIO 1: A.

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Alright Fastlane Forum.. Help me land this deal

So- I have a progress thread around here regarding my newest venture. In short, I am gathering clients and servicing them with digital marketing, social media, and graphics. These clients are on monthly plans either 6 or 12 months. I currently have a few small clients, 3-figures each MRR.

I was caught off guard the other day with a hour long phone call - a marketing firm who is looking to outsource some portions of client work to another group, my company. (company = just me and a few...

Alright Fastlane Forum.. Help me land this deal

from Alright Fastlane Forum.. Help me land this deal

Instagram Marketing ($100K+ profit, 4M followers)

Hey guys,

Been lurking here for ages, ex-military, I started with internet marketing 4 years ago, dabbled in some things, some failed(see my first thread) and some have worked (dental marketing, affiliate marketing).

Took breaks here and there but I knew to never stop.

But in the last year I've come to learn a lot about Instagram and growing accounts.

I currently run about 40+ accounts in different niches and creating new ones daily/weekly.

I have my own personal Instagram bot and in...

Instagram Marketing ($100K+ profit, 4M followers)

from Instagram Marketing ($100K+ profit, 4M followers)

STOP Paying Rent: Live For Free

Fastlane brothers and sisters, I am here to show you the light should you so accept to see it. I’d like to offer some advice from my experiences and to share the wealth of living rent free.

This is not a revolutionary topic, and I am not a revolutionary human. Living rent free has been done by many. Living rent free with cash flow has also been done by many (including me). It is easy. It will likely end up costing you less than $10,000 (I only brought $5,900 to...

STOP Paying Rent: Live For Free

from STOP Paying Rent: Live For Free

Biggest lesson from 15 years in business

Recently I made a list of all the mistakes (or lessons) I've had during my time as a business owner.

The one that stands out and in my opinion is the single most reason why I'm not at my "freedom" point is that in the last 15 years I've not spent at least 80% of my time taking action on tasks that create value/profit to the bottom line.

When I opened my computer shop in 2001 it was initially only to buy and sell refurbished models not undertake any repairs. However due to demand I taught...

Biggest lesson from 15 years in business

from Biggest lesson from 15 years in business

Buying .com.au domain when .com is taken?

Hi i'm looking to buy a .com.au domain which is available but the .com domain is taken and has a website on it. I was wondering if there.

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[DOWNLOAD] The 15-Point Landing Page Audit

Over a year ago, I did a live critique of DigitalMarketer Lab member landing pages on our weekly Office Hours webinar training. During that Office Hours segment, I identified four main landing page criteria that every landing page must consider.

Now, I’ve expanded that list with a 15-Point Audit across those four categories that will tell you how your landing page stacks up.

NOTE: You’ll get a downloadable version of the 15-Point Landing Page Audit once we’re done explaining how to use it…

The Landing Page Audit worksheet has five components (labeled above):

1. Grading Elements – Evaluating elements like the headline, offer, trust, visuals, etc…
2. Grading Criteria – Grade these elements based on specific criteria.
3. Element Scores – Score each element separately on a scale from Exceptional to Unsatisfactory.
4. Final Score – Receive an overall score out of 100.
5. Action Items – Take action to improve the elements that don’t receive a perfect score.

With all of the Landing Page editors or themes you can use out there, it is REALLY easy to create Frankenstein’s monster without even knowing it—this will give you the process you need to avoid doing that entirely.

The Components of the Landing Page Audit

As you start grading your pages (or other people’s pages) you’ll go from the abstract feeling of, “Man, that page pops” to knowing exactly WHY it “pops” (sorry, designer friends, I know you hate that term).

The four landing page categories are:

• Offer
• Form
• Trust
• Visual Hierarchy

There are 15 elements to a landing page audit within those categories:

1. Clarity
2. Scent
3. Relevance
4. Visualization
5. Visible Form
6. Appropriate Number of Fields
7. Compelling Form Headline
8. Visible and Noticeable Call-To-Action (CTA)
9. Professional Design
10. Relevant Trust Icons
11. Authentic Testimonials
12. Clear Privacy Policies
13. Using Visual Queues to Highlight Key Areas
14. Page Design Fits a Singular Theme
15. Supporting Imagery

Who Should Use This Landing Page Audit?

In this post, you’ll learn to evaluate and improve each of these elements. Then, you’ll get access to our Landing Page Audit spreadsheet.

Here’s how to put this audit to work:

• Email Marketers – You should definitely direct your traffic to a solid landing page, and the better the landing page the better your email campaign.
• All Pay Per Click (PPC) Marketers – We all know how important a well-crafted landing page is for our PPC campaigns. Use this audit to squeeze even more revenue!
• Business Owners and Managers – Landing pages are easier to create than ever, and it’s likely yours could use a tweak. See how your campaigns stack up or evaluate how your team creates their landing pages!
• Agency Owners and Freelancers – Audit the landing pages of your clients so you can help them improve their campaign conversion rates.

To show you this audit live in the wild, I’ve added new landing page critiques of big brands (and some little ones, as you can learn plenty from)—but first, let’s look at each of these important landing page elements in a bit more detail.

Landing Page Audit Category 1: Offer

The offer is probably the most critical part of any landing page.

No matter how well designed your landing page actually is, it won’t mean a darn thing if you have a crappy offer.

When scoring your offer, you need to pay attention to four main points:

• Clarity
• Scent
• Relevance
• Visualization

All four of these points work together. You need to have a clear offer, meet your user’s expectations (scent/relevance), and attractively depict the offer and benefits.

You’ll find that you want your offer to be as well rounded as possible, so if you see a dip in the numbers here, definitely start working here.

Landing Page Audit Category 2: Form/CTA

Most landing pages have some kind of form on them unless they are a click-through landing page that leads directly to some kind of checkout.

If your landing page is the latter, then make sure that CTA button is noticeable and that your cart page actually makes sense.

For pages with forms, you want to make sure your form is understandable and that people are willing to fill it out. The length of your form is contingent upon the offer’s perceived value.

If there is low value, then you can only ask for an email. If there is high value, you can start asking for more information.

This section’s break down is pretty straightforward.

First, if a visitor can’t see the form then they aren’t going to fill it in. That’s why this is the first “all or nothing” score. They either see it or they don’t.

Earlier I explained how important it is to have an appropriate number of form fields for the perceived value of the offer. A form with a lot of fields should have a high-perceived value.

If people are going to give up their information, they need a good reason to do so.

It’s also important to use a solid form headline! Don’t just reiterate something said on the page already or use a generic “Fill in this form” headline.

Try to draw their attention and speak to the desired end result.

(RELATED: Use this Headline Swipe File to get more clicks)

If you have a form or just a simple CTA, you need to make sure the copy is clear and actionable, and that the CTA stands out. Lyft does an amazing job with this (while still using their brand colors).

I can’t help but look at the button.

Landing Page Audit Category 3: Trust

Face it, people have trust issues online!

It’s your job to ease your visitor’s anxiety and convince them to convert. In order to develop trust, you are going to need a few things:

• A relevant trust icon
• Non-anonymous testimonials
• Clear privacy policies
• Relevant guarantees
• Return policies (if applicable)

I didn’t include “Professional Design” in the list here because I wanted to talk about it at length.

At DigitalMarketer, we’ve gone on record saying, “What is beautiful doesn’t always convert,” and while that is true, it is still important to put effort into your design because people will judge your credibility based on the design.

Let’s play a game!

Which mode of transportation would you take to Hogwarts? (Let’s assume there is a speed charm on the van so either mode of transportation will get you there at the same time.)

Now, if you are a consumer online and you were choosing to buy the same product from two different sites where the design differed in the same way, who would you buy from (assuming they have the same product and messaging remains consistent)?

…yeah, I thought so.

Landing Page Audit Category 4: Visual Hierarchy

This might be the least important of the four landing page pillars, but it is still important.

Your page layout not only helps develop trust, but it is a representation of your brand and also dictates eye flow.

The latter is very important because you want to make sure people are looking in locations that actually matter. An unbalanced landing page that lacks any visual hierarchy will confuse your visitors, and a confused visitor does not convert.

Here are a few things to ask when looking at your page’s visual hierarchy:

• Does the page design maintain the “ad scent”?
• Are your images competing with your CTA?
• Is your most important content being accentuated by the page layout via location, coloration, and visual cues?

How to Use the 15-Point Landing Page Audit

The audit tool is very easy to use. This short video will teach you to get started improving your content in minutes.

Okay, so designing a great landing page requires a lot of attention to detail, but if you successfully incorporate these four pillars you should be good to go.

(Note: The Audit works best in Adobe Acrobat)

Now, let’s get to the good stuff—landing page critiques! Click on any of the months below to be taken to that month’s batch of critiques:

• January 2017
• November 2016
• July 2016
• July 2015

January 2017

In this installment of landing page critiques, you’ll see:

• A landing page for data warehousing by Teradata…
• An updated ecommerce shop landing page from Shopify…
• A diaper subscription landing page from The Honest Company…
• A social media strategy kit Lead Magnet landing page from RivalIQ…

Teradata

Landing Page

Teradata Landing Page Review

Offer: 17

So we’re kicking this off with a brand new landing page, and I’m running into the same old problems! The headline on this page just doesn’t cut it.

“Beyond the Challenges Lie Amazing Outcomes”

What a load of woo-woo crap. This can be applied to nearly anything in the world and has nothing to do with business intelligence and data warehousing. What’s even worse is hyperbolic statements don’t particularly move the type of person who is interested in data.

The subheadline does more of the heavy lifting, but it can’t save this sad attempt at a headline. Here’s something I want everyone reading to do right now. Go to your landing page and read your headline and your subheadline.

If you’re using your subheadline to clarify what is said in the headline, you’re doing it wrong.

The subheadline is an expansion; it shouldn’t be doing all the work. Don’t get too cute and you’ll be just fine.

The only reason this is getting such a high mark is because I don’t know what the advertisement looks like that sends people to this page so I can’t grade on ad scent.

Form/CTA: 18

This is another metric that looks a lot better than it is. This landing page lacks any unified messaging. It looks like this page is more of an “About Us” page than it is a dedicated landing page.

What they do well is show a non-standard CTA front and center above the fold. They also reiterate their CTA for different offerings. However, all of these links bring you to a different page so it becomes terribly difficult to measure this landing page’s success.

There is no real unified goal and that is a serious problem. There are two main things you need to measure when you are evaluating your landing page’s effectiveness:

• Immediate conversion rate, e.g., click-through or opt-in
• Long-term conversion rate, e.g., qualified opt-in, sale, etc…

In this case, you are asking people to really learn more about several aspects of your product. Sure, with general keywords/interests this might work, but this page just screams “Jack of all trades but master of none.”

Trust: 22

In the last installment, people really had a hard time with showcasing trust. This page actually does this very well. The page is well designed and looks like they spent time and money during development.

They also include solid testimonials, user stories, and showcase the leadership team. This is a great way to connect with the prospect and making the future interactions feel more human.

One thing I would like to have seen was any mention of awards or other trust indicating seals to help provide more of a persuasive factor. Other than that, this page does a good job building trust.

Visual Hierarchy: 20

Since professional design is a trust factor, and I said this page had solid trust elements, then it only follows that their visual hierarchy is spot on.

The page just looks good and moves people to interact and consume the content. From the CTA buttons, downward arrows, or compartmentalized content this page knows how to keep your focus.

There are a few things that should go such as the share widget and potentially the “Contact Us” box. Both of those cause a seemingly unnecessary distraction for visitors.

That said, this is a heck of a good-looking page where form actually follows function.

Landing Page Grade: C – 77 (Totally inflated…read more to find out why)

Okay, so you might see 77 and say “Not too bad,” but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. With the Offer and CTA sections having so many issues, the team needs to take it back to the drawing board.

The copy doesn’t compel people to take an action or explain what the company actually does. There is no real unified CTA, so it is hard to measure success and is confusing to visitors.

Had I eliminated the “freebie” stats from calculation, e.g., ad scent and form, then this would have received a 57! Honestly, I should rethink some of my calculations and weight some of the points differently because design really saved this thing during evaluation but that wouldn’t cut it in the “wild.”

In most cases, your landing page is going to suffer an offer problem and no matter how much lipstick you put on that pig, it’s never going to convert the way you want it to.

Get the offer down and you’re going to see much better results.

Shopify

Landing Page

Shopify Landing Page Review

Offer: 27 (or PERFECT)

Shopify just gets it. I’ve been using their landing pages as examples of how to create great landing pages for years. I was ecstatic when I saw a new variant come out and I really wanted to dig in!

Unlike Teradata, this headline is crystal clear:

“Create your ecommerce store with Shopify”

No muss no fuss, just a clear descriptive headline! I love it.

The rest of the copy helps you understand what you get, how much it will cost, and uses social proof to persuade you to buy. They kept all of this content to simple bullet points so you can make your decision quickly.

Furthermore, they use their imagery to help you future-cast what your store could look like. They aren’t showing you the product backend for a specific reason! The backend doesn’t show you the desired end result but an ecommerce storefront certainly does!

Form/CTA: 27

With a single field form front and center underneath the clear headline and social proof, you have a winner here. This is only the first step of the total form, but it’s a good way to turn he visitor from a passive to an active visitor.

Normally, I prefer that multi-step forms use step indicators to provide transparency to the visitor. However, we’ve seen at both DigitalMarkter and TruConversion an absurdly high conversion rate between the first and second step without a step indicator. That said, I won’t dock them any points for omitting a step count.

The second step is where most companies screw things up… they ask for too much information! Thankfully the second step of the form uses the appropriate number of form fields (picture below)

Note: Your email address would populate if you filled out the field. However, if you clicked the CTA at the bottom then you would see the blank form above.

Trust: 20

So the page slipped up a little here, but there is nothing here a few tweaks won’t fix. Underneath the form field, they say “No Risk.” Whenever you start talking about risk people begin to think about what could potentially be risky.

Saying “No Risk” is like saying “Don’t worry about the man behind the curtain.” You are ALWAYS going to worry about the man behind the curtain.

Other than the “No Risk” issue, Shopify doesn’t include a privacy policy on the first step or on the second step. That’s another bummer for our privacy-minded prospects.

However, they do a great job leveraging authority with brand logos, building trust with a testimonial, and using a concise and professional design.

Visual Hierarchy: 20

This is the second page today that has a perfect visual hierarchy! I kind of want to give them bonus points because this page just looks great. It has a unified CTA, uses subtle visual cues, e.g., the image is a subtle arrow pointing to the CTA, and doesn’t have a smorgasbord of font types, weights, or unnecessary images.

Landing Page Grade: A – 93

Man this page rocked. Other than a few minor issues in the trust department, everyone could learn a thing or two from this page.

Honest Company

Landing Page

Landing Page Review

Offer: 17

Well, we’ve got another confusing offer on a landing page. The Honest Company uses subscription offers to send you all your baby needs. However, this isn’t really discussed on the page.

The page talks about diaper duty (c’mon someone giggled at “duty”), the company’s mission, trials, and diaper selection process. I don’t know exactly what I’m getting when I click “Start Your Free” trial, but I do know I can cancel by calling the provided number.

There is also another headline issue here “Diaper Duty Made Delightful.” Sure, diaper time can probably be a drag and they are speaking to a desired end result… but they missed a very important factor: what they’re selling.

If there was enough supporting content about how diaper duty is made delightful or what problems they are solving then this wouldn’t be a huge issue since all of marketing is articulating the change between a before and after state. That said, they don’t really deliver on the promise and muddle the offer with their [brief] mention of a subscription.

Form/CTA: 18 (or 5 since there is no form here)

This is just a hot mess. The CTA brings you to a page that looks phenomenal but lacks a fair amount of page scent. Though, in this case, the breakage in page scent is welcome because the subsequent page looks WAY better.

Also, what is that “Connect to Facebook” button even doing there? It’s competing with the offer and just needs to go away.

Is the goal to generate click-throughs or FB leads? Make a choice and stick with it.

Trust: 8

You know The Honest Company is relying on their brand. They don’t utilize trust seals or customer testimonials. They also don’t show nice imagery of happy babies or parents to drive the whole “Delightful” sentiment home.

What’s worse is they are already getting the notion of canceling a free trial in the prospect’s head by using that subtext underneath the button.

Brands are powerful but due to the poor design, poor offer, and lack of trust, I actually thought this was a knock off landing page. I’m sure other people might think that and refuse to click-through thinking they are about to be scammed.

Visual Hierarchy: 5

I CAN’T EVEN…

Normally “Frankenpage” are reserved for long form landing pages that have all kinds of odd fonts and elements showing up out of seemingly nowhere.

That’s what’s going on with this page.

The offer is muddled, they talk about a  free trial but then discuss free shipping when you spend $50. The page lacks any sort of professional design and actually makes me think it isn’t actually associated with The Honest Company.

There is no attempt at building trust and they have two wildly different competing CTAs.

Landing Page Grade: F – 48 (Inflated again…it’s actually a 28)

This page just needs to go away. I’m actually fairly positive that just sending people from an ad to this page would perform better:

It is an extremely rare scenario where I think a product page will perform better than a targeted landing page but this is that case.

Rival IQ

Landing Page

Landing Page Review

Offer: 18

This page starts off strong with a clear headline:

“Download Your Social Media Strategy Kit”

The headline needs a little tightening up as it is too wordy and introduces the concept of “data-driven,” which isn’t discussed in the headline.

The more you continue to read, the more you get disconnected from the concept of a “strategy kit.” The bullet points tell you that you get an infographic, whitepaper, and a case study. None of the bullet points share the value of the content, it only lists them!

As you start digging into the imagery there are some more issues. I know that it’s super tough to give a visual representation to information. So the image above the fold is fine by me. However, things get confusing below the fold.

There is a section for “Social Post Analyst” and “Competitive Analysis” and neither of these is mentioned as a part of the tool kit.

Pretty much the offer starts strong but falls flat due to a lack of perceived value and some confusion on the part of what the prospect actually gets.

Form/CTA: 20

This landing page uses an inline form that you see above the fold. Ideally, I’d like to see a form “section” rather than have it sharing the same background color as the rest of the content. I’ll discuss that more when I get to Visual Hierarchy.

The form has a reasonable number of fields but I’m not sure why “Last Name” isn’t required. If you don’t need the last name then just nix the field altogether.

The CTA button stands out and uses a non-standard CTA. As far as CTAs go this one is good! However, I would urge them to reiterate the CTA below the fold to make it easier for people to sign up (this goes double for mobile).

Trust: 18

This page does a god job trying to build trust with the limited content on the page. They showcase their clients’ logos as well as provide a testimonial at the bottom.

However, the page design looks a little tossed together and lacks some standard design elements that visitors tend to see, e.g., company logo.

Visual Hierarchy: 12

This page suffers from a case of good idea but poor execution. All of the above the fold content just floats in that gray background. There is no use of coloration to show content priority!

It’s great that they’re using an arrow to show where to click, but it would likely work better if the arrow was facing to the right and pointing at the CTA button as most people read left to right. Each time I look at that arrow it causes a weird visual dissonance that I can’t get over.

The bullet points just kind of show up on the page underneath the visual representation of the kit, which makes for an awkward layout.

Landing Page Grade: D – 68

In this case, I think the grade looks worse than it actually is! They have a good concept for a Lead Magnet here but they need to spend more time articulating the value. After they hone in on the offer, then they can begin to polish the page to get rid of the “Random acts of page elements” that is happening above the fold.

So that’s all, folks! To anyone reading, I just want to remind you that these criticisms come from a good place (especially if you are from The Honest Company… I love you and am just trying to help).

(NOTE: Want DigitalMarketer’s proven 8-Step Optimization Process for turning existing traffic into more leads and more sales? Get our Optimization & Testing Specialist training and certification. Learn more now.)

November 2016

I’ve picked some pretty cool pages that, on review, fell short and others that knocked landing page design and messaging out of the park.

Here’s what you’ll see:

• An Electronic Health Record product offer page from AthenaHealth…
• A restaurant management app from OpenTable…
• A smart thermostat product landing page for Control4…
• An Agency Partner sign-up page from Unbounce…

Okay, let’s do it!

Athena Health

Landing Page

Athena Health Landing Page Review

Offer: 22

The offer on this page is a little convoluted, it took me a while to figure out that they were actually selling software! The headline uses cute language and speaks to a pain point, but it doesn’t edify the audience.

I may not be the target market, but they are making a major assumption that people are familiar with HER technology (which as I Google it most doctors will be). However, you want to avoid jargon on the page as much as possible and they simply don’t do that.

After the somewhat obscure headline, you get a few statistics and some supporting imagery. There is nothing on this page that would convince me to take either of the two actions they ask me to take.

Speaking of actions: there are too many of them! But I’ll cover that next.

Form/CTA: 10

This page uses the 2-Step method where you click a button and are pushed to this opt-in form

Before we talk about the form, let’s discuss the major problem with the CTAs on this page and I’ll give you a second to guess exactly what it is…

…

…

…

There are two competing CTAs! Do you want me to watch a 3-minute video or do you want me to get started? Make a decision and stick to it!

Okay, now let’s talk about the form. Why do I need to give you seven fields worth of information in order to watch your promotional video? If I’ll truly want to see more after three minutes, let me see the damn video!

Trust: 15

Athena Health is a well enough known company where they can rely on their branding to instill trust in the visitor, and when you have a well-known brand you don’t have to rely on trust seals as much as “the little guy (or gal).”

Despite them missing some key trust indicators it will likely not hurt the page.

Visual Hierarchy: 23

The page looks just fine; it’s on brand, simplistic, and focused.

Landing Page Grade: D – 67

Overall, what hurt this landing page was the depiction of the offer and the form. Athena has enough brand recognition and budget to create a well trusted and beautifully designed page.

However, if they don’t clean up their jargon and provide more value before they ask for a metric butt ton of information, then this page will remain subpar.

OpenTable

Landing Page

OpenTable Landing Page Review

Offer: 23

All in all the offer is pretty clear and compelling… except for the headline.

The headline tells me nothing about the service and relies on the sub-headline to do all the work. This is the most common problem on any landing page! Your headline is one of the most read pieces of copy on your page; make sure it isn’t vague.

Form/CTA: 10

This page really struggled in two areas and this is one of them.

The form is asking for too much information without making any promises. The headline doesn’t tell me what to expect or why you need all of my information.

It is 100% acceptable to ask for detailed information, but that is only acceptable if you are providing enough value to justify it! Just set some expectations and tell me what I’ll receive, when I’ll receive it, and what the heck you’re doing with my information.

(Side note: I already have a family, I don’t want to join yours so stop asking.)

Trust: 12

Here is the second area of struggle on the page.

Like Athena, OpenTable is 100% relying on their brand to build trust. That’s not a good thing! Sure the brand is big, but smaller restaurants may be hesitant to work with them because they are used to their “old ways.”

I’ve met plenty of restaurant owners who avoided Yelp, OpenTable, and other newfangled tech like the plague. This page would never reach a key demographic, the small business owner, if they don’t attempt to build any trust.

Visual Hierarchy: 20

This page looks great. Like really great. The use of imagery, coloration, and the reliance on the long form scroll is a solid move to get people to interact with the page and consume the content.

Landing Page Grade: D – 65

This page is all beauty and no substance! Opentable was looking to rely on their design and brand to entice restaurant owners to sign up for…something…without attempting to build trust.

They need to hone in on the offer, set expectations, and use testimonials and other trust factors to convince people to take an action.

Control4

Landing Page

Control4 Landing Page Review

Offer: 25

It took a total of three words to completely describe what this product does, great work. The short headline with the supportive background video was a great way to turn visitors into active participants and really see the benefit of the product immediately.

As you scroll further down the page you get more information about what differentiates the product, some key benefits, and another video showcasing the features.

Form/CTA: 25

The form tells you exactly what you’re getting with the headline and actually has an appropriate number of form fields for a buyer’s guide. In this screenshot, it looks like the CTA isn’t standing out, but that’s because it doesn’t “pop” until you fill out all of the form fields, which is SMART.

The form stands out enough to draw attention and the button stands out enough when it’s ready to be clicked, great work!

Trust: 15

This is the third example in this batch that really wavered on trust!

They do provide a privacy policy link, but they don’t try to show any testimonials, clients, or anything. Unlike the previous two brands, this could actually hurt this product since they aren’t an “everyday” brand.

Visual Hierarchy: 20

This page looks good and follows a natural flow. However, I’m a little worried about the false bottom above the fold, but the video might be enough to get people to convert. That said, the rest of the page is easy on the eyes and makes sense.

Landing Page Grade: B – 85

Overall, this page is a solid landing page that should perform well.

If they up the trust factor with more testimonials and social proof, they’d have a real winner!

Unbounce

Landing Page

Unbounce Landing Page Review

Offer: 27

This page shined in the offer department. The headline explains clearly what the page is about and what’s in it for the visitor. The subsequent content explained more about the program, the perks, the requirements, and further explained with a detailed FAQ section.

Form/CTA: 22

So, this one would have been a perfect score had the form been seen immediately or there was a CTA button instead of that downward arrow. However, to save myself from some trouble if Oli Gardner sees this I have an adjusted score for this!

Oli has presented plenty of times that forms in “Zone 2” or the zone below the fold don’t necessarily hurt conversion rates. However, the page does use visual queues to get the visitor to scroll down the page where they will see this massive form.

When it comes to form size, the length makes total sense. This is an attractive offer for an agency who wants to partner up with Unbounce resulting in high intent. That level of intent makes the offer consistent with the number of fields.

Trust: 13

Unbounce is banking on their brand to carry this page for this [very] specific target market. The only people who would be interested in this page are marketing agencies who have a solid customer base and use Unbounce.

Since this is such a niche market, the power of the Unbounce brand doesn’t really require extraneous trust seals on the page… in fact, it might clutter the page up and cause further confusion.

Visual Hierarchy:  20

This is a great looking page that entices you to scroll and learn more without overtly hitting you over the head with what to do next. I’d also argue that this page had the best statement of value of the bunch.

Landing Page Grade: B – 82 (Adjusted Score for context: A – 97)

Unbounce is a landing page creation tool, if they had bad looking landing pages then they’d likely be out of business. As always, this is a great page made by the team and is the type of landing page any marketer could learn from.

It is much easier to be a critic than a practitioner, so please take these tips and actually implement them on your own page rather than just praising the beautiful pages and pointing and laughing at the ugly pages.

(Note: The Audit works best in Adobe Acrobat)

July 2016

Let’s see how these landing pages stack up against the audit…

Here’s what you’ll see:

• A home offer evaluation offer from Trulia…
• An eBook offer for ways to improve security from Microsoft…
• An application opt-in page to become a driver with Lyft…
• An Agency Partner sign-up page from Unbounce…

Trulia

Landing Page

Trulia Landing Page Review

Offer: 21.8 Points

The offer on this page is about as clear as it gets. The desired end result of the visitor is to find out what their home is worth, and this uses very direct copy to set expectations and activate the audience.

Since we aren’t looking at referring ads here, I automatically give this a 4 and will for all other pages (they shouldn’t be penalized because we don’t have ad creative to compare the pages to).

Trulia lost some points on relevance.

I understand that they are leveraging their brand recognition and the copy to show the visitor that the site is about buying/selling property. However, the end result isn’t depicted and the background image is more or less a generic placeholder.

I touched upon the visualization a bit when I discussed relevance, but there is no visualization of the product or service on the page.

Again, this is likely due to brand recognition since people equate Trulia with real estate.

Form: 26.6

This entire page is the start to their form, so it’s easy to see why they got a 4 for visualization.

On the surface, it looks like they are severely under utilizing form fields when compared to the value they are providing. However, when you click-through you are brought to a longer form that is an appropriate length for the perceived value.

I raved about the headline on the page already when I discussed the offer and since this page is just one big form my praise stands.

The CTA is one of the main focal points of the page. It stands out with its bold colors and doesn’t use generic copy, which better primes the prospect to click.

Trust: 11.6

This is a really slick design, despite it being so minimalistic.

Trulia used the mega image background to create a better overall aesthetic (a blank white page with a form on it wouldn’t have the same success).

Since all three of these pages are from major brands you’ll notice that they don’t spend a lot of time trying to build trust… the weight of their brand does that for them. Based on my rubric they will lose points here, but this score is subsidized by the name recognition.

On this page, they didn’t tell you what they’d do with your information, why you should work with Trulia over Redfin (or other competition), or even share testimonials from happy Trulia users. They went minimalistic on the design and hoped their branding would take care of the rest.

Since this has been their control (with some slight variations in form fields numbers) since 2014, it’s safe to say they have seen success from this page.

Visual Hierarchy: 18.3

In terms of visuals, Trulia did a good job working around a singular theme and hyper-focusing on the key sections of the page. The fact that they didn’t use any other supporting imagery cost them a point, but overall the visuals are focused and work toward the page goals.

Landing Page Grade: C – 78

This is a very simple landing page that relied heavily on brand recognition. When you have simple pages like this, you don’t have time to inform or persuade, which could hurt their overall conversions if people are deciding to sell their property on Trulia or their competition.

Microsoft

Landing Page

Microsoft Landing Page Review

Offer: 13.3

First and foremost, I want to say that an ebook is a terrible way to capture leads. Books sound time-consuming and aren’t immediately useful/valuable. Busy professionals likely don’t have time to go through that book and it is just adding more to their “to-do” list!

Further, the offer isn’t all that clear! It’s an eBook, but I’m only going to have seven takeaways? Seven takeaways sounds more like a blog post, not an eBook! So the offer is muddled and is also not attractive.

I might be overly critical because I’m not their target audience, but there has to be a better way to articulate this offer and make it seem immediately applicable and thus more relevant to the consumer’s needs.

Form: 11.6

This form cuts me deep (if you watch the Facebook Live video… watch to see how I react to this one!).

Yes, the form is visible but that’s really the only thing it has going for it! They are asking for WAY too much information for a convoluted offer. They are asking for 6 pieces of information and one of these pieces is a high friction form field: the phone number.

Furthermore, they shouldn’t have to ask for the country if they have the phone number, a country code can take care of that for you! If you can gather information from things like GEO-IP or have form fields that can answer the question: remove the extraneous field!

The CTA stands out, but it is in an awkward position.

Trust: 10

Just like Trulia’s page, this page is banking on its brand authority. However, since they are asking for some high friction fields, the prospect might be a little curious as to what they are going to do with that information!

Visual Hierarchy: 11.6

This is the perfect example of a Frankenpage. I realize that the team is likely stuck with a particular approved template and have to make due with that. I understand that, but this page has no logical flow to it.

Key copy areas are just identical headlines, it’s difficult to read the copy, and they don’t use any visual depictions of the deliverable (what the heck is that background image?!).

Landing Page Grade: L – 47

Sorry to say, but Microsoft had the worst page of this lot.

Remember, landing pages need to be more than just a storage place for headlines and filler copy, they need to follow a central theme that inspires the visitor to take an action through clear offers, clever persuasion (copy and visual), solid usability and reduced friction.

Lyft

Landing Page

Lyft Landing Page Review

Offer: 26.6

Lyft did a great job depicting their offer. They also used a secondary form to let visitors who weren’t sure if they wanted to drive for them see what they could potentially make each week.

This is a great way to get an “on the fence” visitor to become an active page user and interested in making the main conversion action.

They clearly speak to a desired end result: “Make 35/Hour” and use supporting content to drive this offer home.

Form: 25

This form really stands out on the page. I can’t help but look at this thing!

They are definitely asking for an appropriate number of form fields. What’s funny is they ask for the same number of form fields as Microsoft and they are actually offering to PAY the person who fills out the form!

Further down the page, they reiterate their CTA. This is a great practice because you don’t want your visitor to go looking for the CTA when they are finally convinced to convert.

Trust: 20

Lyft did rely on their brand, but they also used below the fold content to educate and convince the visitor. There is some opportunity for Lyft to improve the page. They could have testimonials from drivers to further persuade the visitor.

Visual Hierarchy: 20

This page just looks good and follows a very logical flow and each content section compliments it’s neighboring sections. There is a natural anchoring of the main content area above the fold (used with bright coloration).

Landing Page Grade: A – 92

This was the best page of the three I looked at today, so great work, Lyft!

I know this page is flashier than most, but I want to make it clear it isn’t the flashy page that always wins. They used solid design tactics but it was born out of solid page structure.

(NOTE: Want DigitalMarketer’s proven 8-Step Optimization Process for turning existing traffic into more leads and more sales? Get our Optimization & Testing Specialist training and certification. Learn more now.)

July 2015

Editor’s note: the pages by Shopify, Square, Fiverr, ExtraSpace Storage, Hootsuite, & ResumeHelp were all critiqued based off of the rubric below, pre-15-Point Landing Page Audit methodology.

Take a gander, and don’t let the difference in rubric numbers deter you from the valuable takeaways in these evaluations!

In the first installment of landing page critiques, you’ll get…

• A trial offer to join and set your store up on Shopify…
• A long form landing page showing all there is to offer from Square…
• A sign-up page featuring content and a front-and-center CTA from Fiverr…
• A geo-targeting heavy sales page from ExtraSpace Storage…
• The best of the bunch—a call for increased social skills from Hootsuite…
• A landing page geared towards helping professionals build their resume online from ResumeHelper…

16-20 = A

11-15 = B

16 – 10 = C

11-15 = D

6 – 10 = F

≤5 = L

Shopify

Landing Page

Shopify Landing Page Review

Shopify has a pretty slick page and this is definitely a layout that should be emulated (with a few tweaks).

Here are my grades for this page…

Offer: 4

The offer is 100% clear “Create your ecommerce store with Shopify.” It meets a direct need for any company looking to sell products online. The offer is also consistent to the ad that was clicked to get to this page.

However, I would like to see more content focused around the simplicity since the ad’s content almost exclusively promoted that benefit.

The one low point on this offer is the 14-day trial. They aren’t accentuating that part of the offer, and I’m curious how well a 14-day trial converts.

When someone starts an online business, things come up. Sometimes 14-days might not be enough to truly evaluate the product. Ideally, I’d love to see them test the trial offer and try to give it more visibility on the page.

Form: 2

I have never been a fan of the horizontal form, generally, it breaks the user flow. We are conditioned to scroll down on websites, so making the most important part of your website counter-intuitive from a usability standpoint can depress conversions.

Furthermore, the form doesn’t take center stage here. It is more or less the “belt” of the page, which is generally reserved for trust indicators and testimonials.

Trust: 3

I love that they said, “Trusted by over 165,000 business world-wide” and then they reiterate that fact in the bullet copy. This is a huge selling point and they keep it top of mind. Shopify is also a well-known brand, so keeping their logo front and center definitely helps build trust.

Where the page’s trust falls shorts are their icons below the video. I don’t know if these are “As seen in” logos or “Used by” logos. Since they are three publications, I assume that it is the former. This ambiguity could be cleared up with a simple line of text.

Visual Hierarchy: 3

Overall this page has a coloration issue, from a visual hierarchy perspective. Every element looks as if they are all of equal importance, which clearly they are not. The form doesn’t stand out and the trial portion of the offer is marginalized.

The page does a great job highlighting the content, but again the content is only what dictates the value, the converting action must stand out too.

What is done really well is the ratio of links to converting action. There are three links on the page: the form, the header image, and the login link. You want to keep your link to converting action ratio as close to 1-1 as possible.

Landing Page Grade:  B 

Square

Landing Page

Square Landing Page Review

Square went with the long form landing page, and that makes sense for their product. Let’s see how this page stacks up!

Offer: 2

Similar to Shopify, this landing page has their offer front and center with a compelling headline “Start Selling Today.” Other than the placement of the headline and first action point, the offer isn’t all that compelling.

The ad talks about a free reader, but that is only mentioned once as link text for their product video. Needless to say, there isn’t a whole lot of follow-up from the ad offer to the landing page offer.

Form: 3

This page is all about the click-through, whether it be via self-segmentation or clicks on the primary CTA. I love the CTA on the button, using “Get” has historically increased conversions on buttons and saying “started” frames that this is the start of a process that might take a little bit of time.

When you click the “Get Started” button you are brought to this form:

This is a clean form, but the two-column form may cause some confusion. On top of this issue, I am not sure just how many steps it will take to complete this process. The copy on the button tells me there are more steps, but I would like to know how many steps I need to take upfront.

Trust: 2

Square is a well-known brand, so using their logo and brand reach they are able to increase trust immediately.

The only other trust indicator is at the bottom of the page where they say “Join the millions of businesses signed on with Square.”

Visual Hierarchy: 4

The page has a wonderful layout that highlights the most important areas using visual queues. Since Square is multifaceted, the page utilizes self-segmentation to get visitors to the most relevant page.

Even though I like to keep the primary CTA to link ratio as close to 1:1 as possible, there are always some exceptions. As a click-through landing page, the wide ratio here isn’t a major problem, because the content they promote moves prospects into more refined segments.

Landing Page Grade: B

Fiverr

Landing Page

Fiverr Landing Page Review

Fiverr decided to push more content below the fold but also has the primary CTA front and center on the page.

Offer: 0

Similar to the last two examples, Fiverr keeps the main CTA front and center with a simple headline and sub-headline. What’s unfortunate is I don’t know exactly what I’m getting when I give them my email address. I know I can get some kind of project done at an ‘Unbelievable’ value, but that’s about it.

Simply put, the page lacks specificity and value. What’s worse is that the offer in the advertisement isn’t reiterated on the page. Instead of telling us we can get jobs done starting at $5, we are met with ambiguity.

Form: 4

Steal this layout! If you have a one form field form, try this basic inline form. It has [almost] everything you need in a good form. It has a headline, sub-headline, evident form field, and a clean CTA.

The only thing that’s missing is some kind of privacy reassurance – if they had included one, this form would be perfect.

Trust: 1

There’s really no trust indicators at all on this page. What’s worse is there is no mention of a privacy policy when you enter your information.

Fiverr is clearly depending on their brand and their service count (made evident when they say “Millions of services” and “Over 3 million services”).

Visual Hierarchy: 5

This page looks good. Fiverr reiterates the CTA for people who continue to scroll so the conversion action is always front and center.

I think what I loved the most was the use of face; the woman’s eyes are looking directly at the form. This type of visual queue prompts user to look at the form next and is a nice trick to try on your own pages.

Fair warning: If you are too egregious with your efforts visitors will see through this and it might have the opposite effect.

Landing Page Grade: C

Note: this is just the landing page grade – it is a slick landing page. The offer is just awful – a slick landing page will never fix a bad offer!

ExtraSpace Storage

Landing Page

ExtraSpace Landing Page Review

ExtraSpace Storage takes a different approach on their landing page – they used geo-targeting in their ad and on their landing page to provide a more personalized experience. This is not your standard ‘dedicated’ landing page, but the product page you’d expect to see while navigating the site.

For sites like ExtraSpace and most ecommerce sites, this tactic works well. Most dedicated pages are focused on a single product or offering – when you have a person searching for something at the category level, you need to provide them with categorical information.

Let’s get to the grades…

Offer: 4

Free storage for a month? I’ll take it! Thankfully the ad and landing page had a congruent offer, well for the most part. I’m not seeing that 15% savings, so that could be a sticking point.

That said, you clearly know what you are getting – a mini storage pace in your city at an initial discount. Unlike the other pages we’ve looked at, this page has the actual price on the page for the respective units – so that is also a plus from the offer perspective.

Form: 2

This is a click-through landing page, so let’s click and get a closer look at the form…

The form page leaves something to be desired. I like that they display your storage location – but how they do this feels awkward. This page also suffers from business porn, which is an unnecessary distraction on this page (the “If It Matters To You, It Matters To Us” quote and image.)

The form includes trust seals, makes it clear you don’t need your credit card, and requires minimal information. Similar to other critiques, the multi-column form isn’t the best way to go from a usability standpoint – especially if there are multiple rows.

Trust: 4

The page has a nice set of trust indicators, provides live chat, a phone number, and wants to help with space selection size. This is a trustworthy page.

They lost a point because of the form and lack of proof. The trust indicators on the form were just placed on the left-hand side and could be strategically placed a little better. Also, ExtraSpace is banking on these seals getting the job done – sometimes a well-placed testimonial about the service or facility will make all the difference.

Visual Hierarchy: 2

Since this is a category page and not a dedicated landing page, the visual hierarchy suffers. There are a lot of links, top bar navigation, and a ton of distractions.

That said, the page does a good job highlighting the CTA buttons – but the unique offer kind of blends in with the rest of the page.

Landing Page Grade: B

Note: This is not a traditional landing page – but this is a layout you’d expect to see when people search from a “category” level.

Hootsuite

Landing Page 

Hootsuite Landing Page Review

Spoiler Alert: This is the best page on the list. Check out the breakdown to find out why.

Offer: 5

The ad content is reflected right in the headline! This is the only page so far that has pulled this off. If you are running any PPC campaigns, make sure your ad content is congruent with your landing page content!

The offer is clear and enticing. Hootsuite uses a 30-day trial and has a clear CTA button. What’s better is that Hootsuite keeps the offer top of mind by repeating it in different sections as a user scrolls down.

Form: 5

This is a click-through landing page, so the form is on the next page. The form is your standard order form and it looks great!…

This is the only form, so far, that is single column. The headline sets the time commitment, and the right-hand content reassures the customer about their current purchase.

There is potential for sticker shock here, but Hootsuite handles this well. They prompt the visitor with a price in the subheadline and give different payment options in the form.

Trust: 4

I’ve been a little too excited about this page, so let’s start with the negatives here. This checkout form doesn’t use any trust indicators at all. They have a text guarantee about the trial period, and that’s about it.

However, the landing page itself has a lot of social proof and leverages Hootsuite’s brand. By sharing the user count and prominent brands there is clear social proof at work on the page.

Visual Hierarchy: 5

I’m just going to say it – I hate ghost buttons.

However, I was pleasantly surprised with how Hootsuite used the ghost button. Generally, people use text links as the secondary CTA on a landing page, but the ghost button is an amazing way to show that it’s associated CTA is secondary to the main CTA.

The CTA stands out and use inclusive language. Even better, it is reiterated throughout the page, so visitors always have the chance to move to the next stage in the funnel.

The primary CTA to alternative link ratio is very good on this page. There are three instances of the primary CTA and three instances of alternative CTAs. That maintains the 1:1 ratio on the page!

Landing Page Grade: A

ResumeHelp

Landing Page

ResumeHelp Landing Page Review

Okay, so a lot of the pages I’ve shared were larger brands. The last two are smaller brands – do they have what it takes to pass the landing page inspection?

Offer: 1

I think my biggest pet peeve is that the ad says this thing is free, but they don’t mention it ONCE on the page! That should be right in the headline to keep a consistent message from ad to landing page. All of the other content in the ad is shared in the bullets, so why omit the key conversion booster that is “free.”

I know that this will help me build a resume, but I don’t know what it will cost or if these resume templates are even relevant to me. The page just lacks that “value” punch that could take it to the next level.

Form: 5

When they say “Create Your Resume” they aren’t kidding. This goes directly into their resume building wizard.

At Constant Contact they found that getting people to start creating their email campaign first instead of doing the banal task of importing their user list first increased conversions and customer retention. This landing page moves you from the promotion right into the thick of it without giving one piece of information up.

This was a pleasant surprise and if the team at ResumeHelp really wants to boost conversions, this feature shouldn’t be a surprise at all. Likely you need to create an account after you finish your resume, but by that point they’ve provided value in advance and people will just hand over that information.

Trust: 2

This page utilizes some top tier brands to help build social proof. That’s really the best use of trust indicators on the page.

The testimonials below the fold might as well be anonymous, they just have a first name and the images clearly aren’t of the people making the testimonials. Visitors will see through testimonials that look fishy – so if you’re going to have a testimonial make sure you can attribute to someone real!

Visual Hierarchy: 2

The page, overall, looks good. The CTA stands out and there are multiple links that support the primary CTA. What’s odd is where people end up when they click the in-line links. It brings someone directly to the wizard, even though the text CTA is saying something completely different.

Landing Page Grade: D

What really hurt this page was the CTAs that say one thing but lead to another, that there is no display of true value on the page, and that they don’t properly prime the user for the awesome experience of going through the wizard without giving up information.

The 15-page audit is a great starting point for your own page evaluation… so, get started so your page doesn’t end up on with a failing grade on my next list.

Happy Optimizing!

(NOTE: Want DigitalMarketer’s proven 8-Step Optimization Process for turning existing traffic into more leads and more sales? Get our Optimization & Testing Specialist training and certification. Learn more now.)

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Shark Tank Investments

I'm wondering what goes on behind the scenes in the TV program Shark Tank? Whereas there's an agreement between the investors and budding entrepreneurs. Do the investors do all of the investing themselves or do they also bring along other investors, those outside of the program, to also do some of the investing and all?

Thanks.

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BULLETPROOF!

Anyone here tried the bulletproof lifestyle/coffee even?

Have you seen many effects/swear by it?

I just purchased some MCT oil and going to try it out...

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Currently looking for a outline for our products.

I work at a non profit organization and we produce chair mats and wood products. I'm currently providing our product on 2 websites and E-bay.

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Is it possible to target only those who...

I have a blogspot website named " howtomakemoneyfirst ". ... I recently took a very detailed course that taught me step-by-step how to create my ...

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Serious Website Indexing Issue

Hello All, I have a website which is running on .eu domain and is not getting cached in any of the Search engines. Its domain is only a yea.

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Launched my own clothing line (in less than 7 days)

After more than a year of pseudo entrepreneurship with apps etc (just trying things out lol);
I created my own clothing line and webshop in less then 7 days (with help from awesome services)

The brand is called 10AM and the website is www.10amapparel.com

Together with a friend of mine we create minimalistic-"polyscape" inspired clothing

Here is one create by myself with the picture photoshopped on a model...

Launched my own clothing line (in less than 7 days)

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Facebook Ads Not Converting

I've been selling clothing in the alternative niche for several years and recently noticed a lot of large FB campaigns targeted at me for al.

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Go straight to Clickbank checkout

I have a blogspot website named " howtomakemoneyfirst ". ... Hey guys ive got a brand new social networking site aimed at young adults age 13-23 ...

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writing shortcode function from template code

How would I write a WordPress shortcode function from this: Code: <?php global ; // required = array('numberposts'=>1, 'category.

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Buying incoming unique visitors

Hey guys ive got a brand new social networking site aimed at young adults age 13-23 and its critical to get visitors to the site to see if i.

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Creating an iPad app for a Tradeshow

Hello All, I would like to ask if you could recommend how to approach the following project: I want to create an app for a specific trad.

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UNSCRIPTED: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Entrepreneurship

Ladies and gentlemen,

After a long writing process, I'm happy to say that my next book will be tentatively released on May 23rd, 2017. This is a soft annoucement.

Official pre-order and pre-release announcements will come several months before.

Writing this book was very difficult for me because I had to write it for two very different audiences: 1) A TMF reader already familiar with "Fastlane" and 2) A reader unfamiliar with TMF. This made the book about 20% larger than I wanted (it's...

UNSCRIPTED: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Entrepreneurship

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Is Fastlane Forum your action fake?

If anyone noticed, I've hardly logged into the forum over the past week.

I began to think about something. Is the Fastlane Forum my action fake? I scroll through the posting page, I comment, give value, learn and digest information.

I've commented hundreds of times, helped others and encouraged many more. I'm accomplishing a lot. Right?

My progress thread hasn't been touched. And worse, my "business" is at a stand still.

But man did I give lots of value on so and so's thread.


The...

Is Fastlane Forum your action fake?

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Wanted: script or WP plugin for linking to other people's content?

I'm looking for a script or WP plugin that allows you to link to content on someone else's website (ex. article on Huffington Post) but it p.

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Looking for Awesome Course

I have been creating coloring books and journals for a while now. I recently took a very detailed course that taught me step-by-step how to create my ...

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This is possible to earn from "free blogspot" blog site

I have a blogspot website named " howtomakemoneyfirst ". I want to earn from there. my blog total visitor is 10000+. After change.

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8 ways to get your content read

I thought this may be helpful to a few folks so I thought I would slap it here So these are my 8 simple ways to get your content read.

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Instabuilder opt-in form

Does instabuilder allow to use private email with the opt-in form? Or I always need the html code from a autoresponder service.

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Paypal Issue

Hi warriors, I am an owner of a UK based Company and also leading the finance team of my company. But the problem is I travel a lot. And.

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You would be a Donkey not to do this folks

Ill jump straight into this. How often do you sign up to email lists? Often? Thats not a good thing. Anyway, have you noticed how almost every list.

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Created a mobile app development studio

Good morning everybody,

I joined the forum sometime early 2015 at 18 years old with no specific skills but a ton of ambition and drive to become absolutely great.

The past two years have been the best and most challenging of all. I've gone from knowing absolutely nothing about programming to managing business intelligence tools for a billion dollar company, developing in over 5 different languages, and self teaching mobile development to the extent of being able to create my own...

Created a mobile app development studio

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We are all KINGS!!! (Reclaiming Masculinity in the Modern Day)

(Before I begin, this is in the form of a book called "The 4 Archetypes of Man" - By Carl Jung

Throughout all of human existence, a king watches his domain as it grows over the Earth.

(What a business Clichè)

I have struggled with the aspect of who I am as a man throughout my young life due to the absence of my father, a event many men can relate to in this day.

My mother did her best but it's difficult to teach something that's simply natural when it isn't natural to someone. The...

We are all KINGS!!! (Reclaiming Masculinity in the Modern Day)

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Nobody Likes Steve (but us)

As someone that works as 9-5, and goes home and works more/harder over the weekend. This is how I feel on Fridays... And even worse on Mondays, people are slow and sluggish because they had a "break".

I noticed that during my work day I'm much more productive than my peers because I have a self-created ultimatum and a goal to achieve. On Mondays, I'm already moving full speed because I've...

Nobody Likes Steve (but us)

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Not a team player, am I doomed? (Do introverts have it harder?)

Is being "team oriented" a prerequisite to entrepreneurial success? Since kindergarten, I've been forced into team spirit, but I honestly couldn't care less. Looking back, everything great I ever achieved was done;

1. Solo
2. Using available resources, including human capital.

Despite the song I hear everywhere concerning the unlikelihood of succeeding at the game of wealth alone, I can't help but notice that so many incredible entrepreneurs such as;

• @MJ...

Not a team player, am I doomed? (Do introverts have it harder?)

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How To Find (Non-Public) Email Addresses

I needed to contact a senior level executive at a professional sports franchise today. As you can imagine, their contact information isn't out there for public consumption. Email is the quickest and most effective way to get someone's attention, especially if their email address is hard to get! Direct hit.

Step 1. Simply call their office. Ask the receptionist. He/She might give it to you. She might transfer you. Ask the next person. You might have to explain (in one...

How To Find (Non-Public) Email Addresses

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How Can I Monetize Indian Traffic

I purchased a deleted domain with lots of traffic from India. When I checked the stats on Bodis for the last 1 week alone, I had 184 visitor.

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Why I Hate School But Love Education

Stumbled upon this video few months ago. This kinda says it all. Really motivates me to keep heading towards my vision.


Cheers,

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Where I have been this time... and why I'm famous at Wells Fargo

Hey guys, I have been extremely busy the last several months. As usual. Sorry that's such a pattern. It has definitely been an incredible learning experience. I know @Vigilante is privy to some of the details of this time away... I decided it would be a huge shame not to use what I have learned to help some of you. I also plan to do what I can to stick with this although the companies suck up a major portion of my time.

First of all, I got married back in April to a...

Where I have been this time... and why I'm famous at Wells Fargo

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Sharing economy opportunities/experience.

Does anyone on this forum have any experience in starting sharing economy serivces and would like to exchange few words with me? I would be delighted, because it seems really hard to find anyone who had something to do with it, I thought this might be the place.

I would also love to hear any opinions from you guys in this area.

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Issues with looping a video on the website

We want to have a video in the header of our main page of the website and we'd like it to play endlessly. However, it looks like there are i.

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Struggling to sell uniquely created products...

I was using a free + shipping model upfront (necklace) then up-selling (bracelet and earrings) using funnels to increase the average order value.

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Can anyone suggest some 3rd party API for Instant Messaging, Video Chat, Group Chat, Screen ...

I've been doing a bit of research and I currently haven't found the answer so I thought I would ask the warriors. I want to integrate.

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User Generated Tags & SEO

Hey there, What is your opinion on user-generated tags? I have a site that people can upload their products and add tags accordingly. Mo.

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WordPress plugin to share my old posts on Facebook

Hey Warriors, Can you suggest me a WordPress plugin that will allow me to revive my old posts and allow me to share them on facebook and.

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How to Get a Job - videos inspired by #AndyTalks

I was inspired by Andy Black and his #AndyTalks thread. I wanted to provide some value to you guys with something that I am good at, getting a job.

I do some volunteer work, and help people find jobs - and through my own personal experience I developed my own strategy to go about the whole job finding process. I kind of sucks that I can't give a sweet vlog about how to build an awesome business yet, but I figured this advice might help someone get a great job that will help them on their...

How to Get a Job - videos inspired by #AndyTalks

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Outsourcing your Prototyping

From idea to conception, I have finally built 2 separate prototype designs made out of all plastic, through 3D printing.

Great!

However, I don't think my 3D design will be accurate enough to send to a large manufacture and expect them to create the first product correct, the first time.

I am now on the hunt to find a woodworker who can create a wooden prototype, that would essentially be the final product. This way, when I visit manufacturers I can show them the exact product I want...

Outsourcing your Prototyping

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Youtube ads can now be targeted based on Google searches - has anyone used it yet?

This is an interesting development, as search ads tend to give most people a great ROI in direct response campaigns, whereas Youtube ads have ...

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Day Two: How to Fill in the Details of Your Winning Piece of Content

This is part three in a series on Content Marketing Strategies from Pamela Wilson of Big Brand System.

If you’re a coffee or tea drinker, Day 2 might be a good day to drink an extra cup. You’re going to write a lot today, so do whatever it takes to go into the day with your energy high.

Need to catch up on the rest of the 4 Day Content Creation System? Here are the previous posts: 

• A System for Easily Publishing Consistently Great Content
• Day 1: How to Build a “Backbone” for Your Content Marketing

The first thing to do on Day 2 is to review the headline and subheads you wrote the day before. You’re seeing them with fresh eyes now — do they still make sense? Do they sound intriguing? Do you feel excited about writing what’s missing? (If so, that’s a good sign.)

If you see weaknesses in your basic structure, take some time to fix them before you start to write. Reinforce your structure so it’s strong enough to support the words you’re about to hang on it.

Once you’re happy with the headlines and subheads, it’s time to fill in the details.

Ready? Set? Write!

Write Your First Draft … Fast

I know this sounds ridiculous, but I want you to think of your Day 2 work like a race. And there’s a good reason for this.

On Day 2, your goal is to write the first draft of your article. This is a stage where you might get stuck: after all, writing a first draft feels like actually writing your content.

And it is, but I want you to keep it in perspective at this stage.

What you’re writing is a messy, junky first draft. It doesn’t need to be perfect. It won’t seem polished.

What it needs to be — by the end of Day 2 — is done.

Done is way more important than perfect at this stage. Remember: no one is going to see this except you.

So write, write, write. Do not go back and edit. Don’t attempt to polish and perfect what you’ve written. Write forward, not backward.

Day 2 Tips

Write your first sentence. My book contains a whole chapter on writing compelling first sentences. I know — overkill, right? But the first sentence is an important transition element that will pull your reader from your headline into your content, so don’t skimp on this handful of words.

Write your introduction section. Your introduction section is equally important. Your reader is making a decision about whether he or she should spend time reading the rest of your article. Your introduction section should sell the benefits they’ll gain from reading your content. Review the Introduction chapter for help with this section.

Fill in under your subheads. You’ve thought through your content structure and written compelling subheads. Now fill in a first-draft version of the text that will go beneath each subhead to explain the point you want to make. See the Main Copy chapter for guidance.

Write your summary. Wrap it all up with a summary that refers to your main points and shows your reader the journey they’ve taken. The Summary chapter will help you write this part.

Add a call to action. Remember, all content includes a call to action, even if all you do is ask for comments. Think through this important interaction and get more information about how to effectively write it in the Call to Action chapter.

Remember at this stage, don’t sweat the details.

Just get your thoughts down, and don’t edit anything. You have a full day reserved for editing, and you’ll do a better job editing if you leave some time between the writing stage and the editing stage anyway.

Whew! That was a lot of work in one day.

It’s time to walk away from your content. Once you’ve written your first draft, you can feel satisfied that you’ve gotten your thoughts down.

Do something else and get a good night’s rest because you’ll need fresh, rested eyes to do the next day’s work!

Pamela Wilson is a 30-year marketing veteran and is the author of Master Content Marketing: A Simple Strategy to Cure the Blank Page Blues and Attract a Profitable Audience. Find more from Pamela at Big Brand System.

*Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links.

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