Squeeze Page Optimisation: How to Get 700+ Free Leads and a 64% Conversion Rate

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Blog posts here at ViperChill generally receive a large number of comments. Within just a couple of hours, there’s a good chance I’ll have 30 or 40 in need of reply. The discussion really picks up when my post goes out to readers who have subscribed via email. Though less than a third of the audience here opts for email updates, I get more comments from these readers than anyone else.

Why? Quite simply, email subscribers are more engaged than anyone else. People can ignore your Tweets, Facebook udpates and even RSS updates, but they can’t ignore an email. Even if they simply delete it, they have to engage with you in some way. If you want tips on growing the most valuable readership of all, then this post is for you.

Since I started out in internet marketing around five years ago, it has been drummed into me by fellow marketers, forum members and bloggers, that “the money is in the list.” The list they are referring to is a list of email addresses from people who are interested in what you have to offer.

If you ask any marketer who is trying to make money if they would rather have an email subscriber, RSS reader, Twitter follower or even Facebook fan, every single one of them will tell you the first option. Email subscribers are more likely to engage in your content, talk about you to others, and purchase your products. This has been proven time and time again.

Case Study: My Squeeze Page Which Converted at 64%

I have some very profitable email lists in other industries I participate in. Though most of the traffic to my affiliate sites is through SEO, not all of my sales are directly attributed to it. In some niches, it’s better for me to grab a visitor’s email, give them value and then promote a product to them, rather than trying to sell to them straight away.

I have never built a list in the internet marketing niche before, besides my readership here at ViperChill, so I decided to create one. I highly doubt that I’ll be promoting any products to this list, but instead I’ll just focus on giving as much value as possible to those who have signed up.

A squeeze page, for those of you feeling confused, is simply a page which is designed with the sole aim of collecting a website visitors email address. The page I created for my case study was cloud: niche, and if you head on over there you can see how tempting it is to give away your email address.

The premise is simple: Give something away so valuable, that people want you to email them. For my side project, I thought it would be a good idea to regularly email people with profitable niches I discover. I simply don’t have time to build sites in every industry I come across, so I thought that I may as well give the ideas away.

In most industries, a 10% conversion rate on a squeeze page is considered to be phenomenal. So, to reach a 64% conversation rate is simply unheard of. Keep in mind that this means two out of every three people who visit the page, sign up to my offering.

Here’s what I did differently…

My Design Was Nothing Like a Traditional Squeeze Page

In most industries, the typical squeeze page you’ll find online tends to work best for conversions. You know the one I’m talking about: Red headings, flashing arrows and fake highlighter text. There were a few reasons I didn’t follow this approach when I created cloud: niche though.

First of all, I don’t “relate” to these types of pages at all. The ViperChill brand has been built on me being personal and offering value. If I go and create one of these typical squeeze pages, it’s going to harm my brand and I would be doing something I don’t feel good about, just to collect a few more email addresses.

Secondly, the type of squeeze page I mentioned have been totally overused in the internet marketing niche. The conversion tactics in place are so common now that they just don’t help conversions at all. In fact, I think because so many people are using the same practices, a site visitor ends up having one bad experience with that type of page, and vows never to sign up to one of them again.

I believe that having a design which was more professional than most definitely worked in my favour. It’s not something I paid hundreds of dollars for either. I found it on a free templates website and then customised it myself. It definitely wasn’t intended to be used as a squeeze page, but that’s exactly what I used it for.

If you look at the site, do you feel like I’m going to spam you with irrelevant information or fill the regular emails with ads? Probably not.

I Tested a Mini Mad Libs Format

A few months ago, the affiliate blogosphere was going crazy over a new style of opt-in form which claimed to increase opt-in rates as much as 40%. Basically, instead of having fields such as Name:_______ Email:_______ Phone Number:________ in a simple list, one marketer decided to do things differently.

They created an opt-in form which used a mad libs format. Instead of the above example, they worded their opt-in text along the lines of. My name is ______ and my email address is ________. If you wish to call me, you can do so on _________.

The underscores were the spaces left for the website visitor to fill in the information. The result? Twice as many people filling in the form. After this original case study, a number of other marketers tried it out and received similar results. You can probably understand now why I used the phrases “My name is” and “My email address is” instead of the simple one word field labels on cloud: niche.

I Promoted Something Relevant to My Audience

I received over 400 signups to the list on the first day I released it to the world. Instead of blogging about it (which I didn’t do until two weeks later) I simply shared it to some of the members of Cloud Living. This is something that is a great addition to the Cloud Living course and made signing up an obvious decision to most people.

Before you think I just duplicated my current audience, keep reading. Though some people who joined the list were already aware of me, the majority of people landing on the page weren’t aware of me previously. I’ll explain how in the next section of this post.

Though many people had no idea who I was, they still converted highly because I was offering something relevant to them (it’s likely they wanted to make money online) and because it made total sense. I wasn’t giving away some “Adsense Secrets” guide offering to make them thousands of dollars, which would have peaked suspicion.

Instead, I was simply offering to email them with niche ideas I discovered, but had no time to develop sites around. The offer was simple, honest, and it made sense to sign up.

How I Received 700 Free Visitors to My Page

This idea is pretty genius, if I say so myself, though I wont take credit for coming up with it. A few weeks ago my friend Kelvin Newman released an eBook about link building. Kelvin is someone I’ve spoken to online for a few years now and he clearly knows his stuff, so I was happy to check it out. Though his eBook was free, I still had to pay for it.

You see, Kelvin used a service called PayWithaTweet.com which meant that people had to Tweet or Facebook share a link to his website, in order to download the PDF. When I created cloud: niche, I decided to use the exact same service. It helped to bring a flood of traffic to my website, but after a few days, I really wasn’t happy with it.

First of all, I couldn’t use my own button image and instead had a choice of just three options. Secondly, the pop-up where people had to sign into Twitter or Facebook displayed flashing ads for the service creators website. And finally, the site name and buttons used the word ‘Pay’ with a dollar sign, which I believe would have confused a few people.

I decided to solve my own problem, by creating my own service. Thus, cloud: flood was born. It is 100% free, contains no ads, and you can even upload your own buttons. I can’t make it any fairer than that. If you do use the service, just please don’t go overboard with it. Getting so much free website traffic can be addictive ;) .

How I Used It

When someone signs up to your email list, you can send them to a “Thank You” page of your choosing. I created mine at http://cloudniche.com/thanks/ for anyone who wants to bypass the process. The aim of the page was to remind people to confirm their subscription and to give them an offer.

The offer was for an eBook I only promote on this website. A 20-page guide which shows, in detail, how I grew this blog to over 10,000 subscribers in just 12 months. In order for people to get the guide though (you guessed it) they had to Tweet or Facebook share a link to my website.

The idea was simple, but it took off. Here’s a sample of just some of the tweets that were posted:

Traffic would pick up on random days, purely because a new person will tweet about the landing page in order to get the eBook, which sends another wave of visitors to my squeeze page. According to the bit.ly link (which was only used for Twitter) almost 700 people discovered my page because of it.

That’s probably why I quickly had over 1,000 people on the list.

Creative Ways to Flood Your Website With Traffic

Think about this for a second, if you don’t totally get the concept. Every time someone wants to download your product – in this case, an eBook – they must tweet a link to your website. Let’s say that one person who tweets your link has 500 followers, 50 of which go to your site, and 10 of which end up tweeting your link in order to get the freebie as well.

If they all have 500 followers, and 10% end up going to your website, you’ve now reached 5,000 people you wouldn’t have had access to earlier, and received 500 visitors on your website. The process to create this kind of system is also ridiculously simple…

Step One: You create something for free to give away to your website visitors. It could be an MP3 file if you’re a musician, a zip file full of PSD’s if you run a design blog, or simply an eBook on your topic of choice.

Step Two: You create a button on cloud: flood which includes the link to the file people will receive after they share your link, and a URL field for the link you want people to promote.

Step Three: You put the button on your site, and watch the traffic flood in.

If you already have quite a large audience, the exponential effect of this idea could literally threaten to take down your server. Especially if the freebie is valuable. Of course, I don’t recommend you use this for everything you want to give away to your audience, but definitely try it out on some things.

Can you think of any creative ways to use the tool? I would love to hear them in the comments. I’m giving away the domains Supercarblog.com (Supercar gets 22,000 exact searches per month) and eBookMillionaire.com to the best suggestions.




157 Comments


  1. Glen says:
    February 21, 2011 at 3:39 pm

    Just a quick note on cloud: flood for anyone who made it this far.

    Unlike the “other” service ;) I will be taking feedback and implementing it into the site. Just please make sure the feedback is constructive. Send it on over to mikey@viperchill.com and if it makes sense, I’ll implement it.

    I will be improving the pop-up redesign in the next day or two as well, when my designer friend comes to visit. The best part? You wont need to change any of your code :)

    Enjoy!

    Reply
    • alex - unleash reality says:
      February 21, 2011 at 5:58 pm

      i’m only coming to visit if those girls are still there

      Reply
    • Tom says:
      February 15, 2013 at 5:48 pm

      Glenn,
      I really appreciate the epic content you’re providing. I recently discovered your site after listening to your podcast with Pat Flynn. Cloudflood is great, but there is still a marginal room of improvement ;-) . Translating it to French and German. And maybe I can help. If you provide me the text to be tranlated, I’ll do it for you into French and German.
      I would really enjoy using it but slapping a frenchman with an English confirmation page and a “share to get” button in the face is like getting knocked out by Wladimir Klitschko… Ils sont sensibles, les français.
      I’ll get also a message to Mikey.
      Just let me know
      Cheers
      Tom

      Reply
  2. Onibalusi Bamidele says:
    February 21, 2011 at 3:49 pm

    Hi Glen,

    This is awesome and a really great case study, exactly what I want!

    I love the concept of paywithatweet and the fact that you even went ahead to create cloudflood and allow people to use it for free goes further to prove that you’re really passionate about helping the blogoshphere.

    I’ll try to see if I can implement the mad libs form format into my new squeeze page and see how it converts.

    Thanks so much for the awesome post and keep up the great work!

    -Onibalusi

    Reply
    • Onibalusi Bamidele says:
      February 21, 2011 at 3:51 pm

      BTW I’m happy to be the 1st (or…2nd) to comment :)

      Reply
    • Glen says:
      February 21, 2011 at 3:59 pm

      Glad you liked it, Oni.

      That’s the only reason I only posted once last week. I literally spent night and day, for the last 5 days putting it all together. I should really stop giving myself such big projects (and short deadlines) to work with.

      Reply
    • Tod says:
      September 21, 2011 at 12:50 am

      Glen – I love your site and writings. Really appreciate the time you take to walk us all through it. :-)

      I’ve tried your Cloudflood site to get juice for my own e-book, but while the Twitter connection works fine, the Facebook one kacks out. It returns a “User Not Authorized” error from Facebook’s API. I’ve tried this from three different browsers, so it’s not a browser issue.

      Do you know if the Facebook part of it doesn’t work now?

      Reply
  3. PV Reymond says:
    February 21, 2011 at 4:00 pm

    Hey Glen,

    Great post with incredible tips…

    I’ll put into practice that exact method with a new squeeze page I am about to put up.

    I think most people’s squeeze pages have a low conversion rate because…

    1. They don’t split-test. They put it up and think that it is the best they can do. You have to test different things to know the winner.

    2. They don’t keep their main goal in mind. If you are creating a squeeze page your main goal is to collect names and emails so you have to focus 100% on it.

    Avoid distracting things like links pointing out, banners, adsense, etc.

    My best squeeze page ever converts at 76%, I’ve tried to improve it but so far it has been impossible :(

    Thanks,
    ^PV Reymond

    Reply
    • Glen says:
      February 21, 2011 at 4:07 pm

      Hey Raymond,

      Some good tips there. In all honestly, I didn’t split-test this landing page yet. Mostly because I was too busy working on PWAT / CloudFlood. I’ll definitely see if I can get the numbers higher though.

      Any suggestions?

      Reply
      • PV Reymond says:
        February 21, 2011 at 4:21 pm

        Glen, 64% conversion rate is really high and very difficult to have in this industry, but if you are like me then I know you want to improve it.

        Your page is straight to the point so there is not much room for improvement but something can be done, for example…

        You can test another headline, something like…

        “Get 10 Profitable Niches Emailed Directly To You Every Week For Free”

        A simple change can mean a lot. You can test removing the exclamation mark or the comma.

        Hope this helps.

        Thanks,
        ^PV Reymond

        Reply
  4. Azzam Sheikh says:
    February 21, 2011 at 4:03 pm

    I love the CloudFlood tool :)

    I was going to ask a coder to develop one for me but now you have gone off and created a free version which is awesome and very generous of you.

    Thanks Glen. Can not wait to use it.

    Reply
  5. Tim says:
    February 21, 2011 at 4:23 pm

    Glenn, you’re a genius. Can’t believe you went over board to create something of immerse benefit for marketers…I’ve been looking for a tool that’ll work like this and you’re just spot on. Thanks for your continuous help to the blogosphere…

    I focus on using social media to generate traffic through my blog mastermind and I wonder if this tactic will go viral on digg or reddit or on any of this social news site…if it does, my opt-in-rate will skyrocket and that’ll mean that I’ll have a bigger platform to influence more life and to teach more people…

    Thanks for this case study. I must say it’s awesome!
    Tim

    Reply
    • Glen says:
      February 21, 2011 at 4:33 pm

      Hey Tim,

      I’m really glad that you like it. It seems like you’re exactly the type of person I was hoping to help with this.

      Not sure what you mean about the Digg and Reddit comment. You mean people talking about you on there?

      Reply
      • Tim says:
        April 2, 2011 at 11:36 pm

        Yeah Glen, something like that. People talking about my giveaway or content and allowing the stuff to go viral from there…

        It’s past one o’clock here in Nigeria and I’m still working on the best strategy to use. Guess combining it with some marketing tactic I’ve been seeing will really scale this up. I’ll report my findings.

        One question though, if for instance I’m using a double opt-in-list for my autoresponder settings, you know people will expect to receive download links in their email right? That’ll mean that the confirmation link will take them to where they’re going to share the freebie??? and after sharing then download the stuff??? Am I right?

        Tim

        Reply
  6. David says:
    February 21, 2011 at 4:24 pm

    Interesting stuff.

    Do you have any stats on the number of people who subscribed, but then didn’t do the pay with a tweet button to get the ebook?

    Some people a) don’t use twitter (or facebook) and b) may use twitter or facebook but not like tweeting/posting these kind of messages to their followers/friends.

    Wondered how many had chosen to subscribe, but not take the options of the ebook.

    Reply
    • Glen says:
      February 21, 2011 at 4:28 pm

      Hey David,

      I don’t know those figures, no. At a guess I would say about 10-15%. The eBook was something I had given away on ViperChill for a week so I suspect anyone who visited from this site already had it. Plus, not everyone who wants niche ideas is interested in blogging.

      Reply
  7. Mark says:
    February 21, 2011 at 4:33 pm

    How do people ‘get’ their freebie. Are they automatically redirected to it after they tweet?

    Reply
  8. Devesh says:
    February 21, 2011 at 4:44 pm

    Awesome post as always.

    I love the concept of cloudflood. You did fantastic work. Keep Rocking :)

    Reply
  9. Corey says:
    February 21, 2011 at 5:19 pm

    That’s sweet, can you help me i am looking for a plug for to get ppl’s emails what it a good one?

    Reply
  10. Murlu says:
    February 21, 2011 at 5:30 pm

    Pretty awesome stuff man.

    I think a while back there was something called like Contest Burner that was doing a bit of this implementation with having people share to get bonuses but it’s paid so this is definitely a big help.

    Btw, are you placing ReTweet buttons and FB Like buttons in your eBooks and such?

    Reply
    • Glen says:
      February 21, 2011 at 5:40 pm

      What do you mean by the last comment? I only have one eBook…and there are no RT or Like buttons in there…

      Reply
      • Murlu says:
        February 24, 2011 at 7:15 pm

        (Sorry for the delay)

        You can place retweet buttons within eBooks along with FB Likes and Stumbles where it will preload messages for people. So, for example, they get done reading and can hit RT, they get the Twitter popup and if they’re logged in it could be like ‘I just got done reading X, check it out at > link”

        Reply
  11. Hector Cuevas says:
    February 21, 2011 at 7:06 pm

    Looks good Glen.. talk about taking things into your own hands.

    I just finished setting it all up. I had a few reports that I wasn’t taking advantage of so this gave me an opportunity to bring them out again. We’ll see how it goes.

    If I get 10 new leads a week because of this, I’ll definitely call that a success, given the fact that it took me 10 minutes to set up. :0)

    talk soon
    Hector

    Reply
  12. Gabe says:
    February 21, 2011 at 7:21 pm

    Nice Glen, I’ll be sure to use cloud: flood soon. It looks perfect and thanks for making it free!

    Reply
  13. Kate Austin says:
    February 21, 2011 at 7:54 pm

    Glen, this is awesome. Thanks a lot for sharing creative marketing ideas and giving us the tools to implement..

    Reply
  14. Michael Lee says:
    February 21, 2011 at 8:32 pm

    Awesome awesome! There are so many possibilities people can use with this to gain exposure and traffic!

    Reply
  15. Stefan says:
    February 21, 2011 at 9:09 pm

    Glen! Amazing man. I am going to work on this straight away to implement it. Think I need to make a little (but awesome) product people who subscribe to a student motivational course would like to get after they subscribed.

    Serious, you give me a lot of motivation to keep on working in the internet marketing business. As a student myself, I get distracted a lot by schoolwork and partying, leaving my blog/business at the side sometimes. But then, when I am sitting at my desk again, checking out Viperchill.com, I want to explore ways again how I can market myself and my knowledge!

    Awesome, thanks Glen.

    Reply
    • Glen says:
      February 21, 2011 at 10:01 pm

      Hey Stefan,

      I can relate to that. I went out every single night in January. Got drunk, hooked up with random chicks etc. The result? I just kept thinking “What now”

      As soon as I get back to focusing on business, life just seems to flow, and I find myself having a lot more fun. Of course, it’s good to have a balance between the two.

      I’m glad I motivate you :)

      Reply
  16. Lee Hughes says:
    February 21, 2011 at 9:09 pm

    Amazing idea.

    I’m offering quite a few e-books for free when i’ll be travelling around the world. I already have it set up by hacking the wordpress downloads manager plugin.

    http://www.ephemeralproject.com/downloads/

    I think i’ll need to hack it some more now though.

    :)

    Reply
  17. mark says:
    February 21, 2011 at 9:11 pm

    Wow Glenn, this is really great.

    I like that you found something that was not to your liking and made something better. I am going to give it a whirl – it sure looks useful. Attaching a button like this to something that people already feel passionate about this would make for an amazing amount of traffic, I would think.

    Also, I really like the squeeze page you made as it is very simple and clean. Too often, (traditional) sqeeze pages just look like long lists of exclamatory nonesense. This one looks more like something that a modern software company or service would use.

    Plus, you mentioned mad libs, and I have loved those since I was 7.

    By the way, I really like the new look around here too.

    Have a great day!

    Reply
  18. Jon says:
    February 21, 2011 at 9:13 pm

    I always cringe when I see that typical squeeze page you mentioned, lol. (bold red headline, etc)

    Can you point us to a decent resource for such free templates to customize ourselves?

    Reply
    • Glen says:
      February 21, 2011 at 10:03 pm

      I like freecsstemplates.org. It takes some digging around, but there are some nice themes to be found.

      Reply
    • Marcus Wickes says:
      February 23, 2011 at 9:17 pm

      Arghhh! I totally agree. I hate when somebody approaches me and says “Can you build me a simple squeeze page?” And I ask “Ok, what did you have in mind?” and they say “Oh you know, the usual, typical, boring squeeze page.”

      That’s their blatant confession to me that their product/service is also the same, typical, boring product/service that everyone else offers. Don’t aim for the typical 1-2% results either. Think outside the box and shoot higher. I think people are just scared of change and feel like they have to fit in with all the other boring marketers out there.

      As far as inexpensive, killer templates, I find tons of cool landing pages (that can easily be converted into squeeze pages) all over on themeforest.net and graphicriver.net

      Reply
      • Glen says:
        February 24, 2011 at 11:29 am

        I used to promote ThemeForest on here heavily, until I had an awful experience.

        If you request a refund for any product, they automatically disable your account. It took 4 days for them to reactivate it, so I didn’t have access to over $400 worth of files. The problem made worse since I needed one of them in order to finish a launch I was doing.

        Reply
  19. Remco says:
    February 21, 2011 at 9:16 pm

    Awesome Glenn!

    I’ve just started building my list (10 subscribers) and will use it in a different form, as I don’t have the trust yet from my web visitors.

    I’ll give a first freebie, by asking them just to fill in the aweber form, and then after a couple of days, I’ll ask them if they liked it, and if they want another one……then I’ll let them use your cloud:flood tool.

    what do you think?

    Remco

    Reply
    • Glen says:
      February 21, 2011 at 10:04 pm

      Sounds like a plan. Or you could give away an eBook for a tweet, then in the eBook at the end (if they liked it) promote a link to your squeeze page.

      The possibilities are limitless :)

      Reply
  20. Lee Hughes says:
    February 21, 2011 at 9:34 pm

    Well, I would like to add how i’m using it creatively.

    I’m creating a 5000 mosaic for charity. People donate £2 and add a photo and when I get to 5000 photos I will have raised £10,000 for charity and have a mosaic that is the form of the ActionAid bollocks to poverty logo.

    http://www.bollocks-to-poverty.com

    I have used this feature and hooked it up so that when someone tries to donate they have to tell people on their twitter/facebook that they have just donated increasingly publicity for my cause.

    Amazing

    Reply
  21. Haroun Kola says:
    February 21, 2011 at 10:08 pm

    Great post Glen
    And fantastic services, and nice way of getting viral traffic to a site. I’m going to use all your ideas.

    Reply
  22. Brendon says:
    February 21, 2011 at 10:10 pm

    I don’t have any clever ideas to share unfortunately, as I don’t even have a product yet, but I just wanted to say, you are an absolute genius Glen! There are so many great takeaways from this article.
    It is funny you wrote about cloud flood, because I was one of the 1000 that were instantly sold on your cloud niche squeeze page and happily gave up my email address. But I remember consciously thinking to myself, what a clever way to promote your product via twitter, although I didn’t realize at the time that you created that yourself. And yes, I did send out a tweet from my @inMotionGfx account to get your free e-Book… you got me hook, line and sinker… ;-)

    Reply
    • Glen says:
      February 21, 2011 at 10:22 pm

      Haha, glad you’re not angry about it Brendon ;)

      Seriously though, thank you for the kind words. I think it’s good that you saw the process in action.

      Reply
      • Brendon says:
        February 21, 2011 at 10:27 pm

        Definitely not angry at all. I marvelled at it and can’t wait for the niche posts, especially since I am looking for new niches to enter.
        The process was perfect in my opinion, and the squeeze page was so refreshing. I think that definitely helped make it so successful, as I didn’t feel like I was being squeezed…. hahaha…

        Reply
  23. Thomas says:
    February 21, 2011 at 10:31 pm

    This is great advice, the typical squeeze page is far too overdone. Too many think that is the only way to effectively draw in users to give their emails to you, and it’s not. Any simple and effective format will do – highlight what you’ll do for them and an opt-in box. I’ve used this to great effect at my travel blog FavTrip. I think I will use your tool to help launch the redesign and to enter folks into a travel gear giveaway I have planned. I think the combination of having to share to be entered and the already well known appeal of free stuff should be a winning combo.

    Reply
  24. Paul Cheney says:
    February 21, 2011 at 10:55 pm

    Hey Glen, I’m putting my bid in for supercarblog (I don’t think you’ve given it away yet. If so, don’t worry about it.)

    It would be cool to make a type of membership site where you had to pay to have access with a tweet. It’d be a great way to cut down on spam for a forum for instance.

    Thanks for this awesome tool by the way. I’ll definitely be using it in the future.

    -Paul

    Reply
    • Thomas says:
      February 21, 2011 at 11:08 pm

      Interesting idea, just seems like the forum reg process can be ‘annoying’ enough for some users, especially when you want to streamline and make the process easy in order to get those memberships. Another self serving type of step might just put some off…a double optin or captcha usually does the trick well enough… maybe use the tool for those wanting to be added to a moderator status list?

      Reply
      • Paul Cheney says:
        February 21, 2011 at 11:21 pm

        True. But if the forum was freaking sweet, it could simply make it more exclusive and therefore more valuable.

        Reply
        • Paul Cheney says:
          February 21, 2011 at 11:25 pm

          Sorry Thomas, I didn’t read the comment you posted before my forum idea. I honestly didn’t mean to step on your toes with the domain thing.

          Glen, please give Thomas the domain. I wouldn’t feel good about getting it.

          -Paul

        • Thomas says:
          February 21, 2011 at 11:50 pm

          Whoa buddy, you sure didn’t step on any toes! And I wasn’t meaning to shut down your idea, I think its a great idea to attract attention to a forum – especially if it’s freaking sweet! I’d probably use your idea in some way if I did have a forum to promote. I have always wanted my own forum. With other people on there, of course. ;-)

    • Glen says:
      February 22, 2011 at 9:04 am

      Interesting idea. Would probably work best in the IM niche :)

      Reply
  25. Anne Lyken-Garner says:
    February 21, 2011 at 11:04 pm

    Great post. I’m loving the new look. I’ve always thought white looks more professional on a site.

    Reply
  26. Malathy Badri says:
    February 22, 2011 at 2:05 am

    What a blog post! I have never read a more informative and helpful blog post in my 5 years of blogging. Your sq page techniques, the templates are truly effective. I appreciate your intention to help bloggers like me.
    Thank you very much.

    Reply
  27. mike says:
    February 22, 2011 at 3:12 am

    thanks for cloud flood. what a great tool. i’ve gone ahead and implemented it already.

    Reply
  28. Shaun says:
    February 22, 2011 at 5:18 am

    Hey Glenn,

    Just curious why you have used Vimeo rather than YouTube on Cloud Flood?

    Cheers,

    Reply
  29. Andrew says:
    February 22, 2011 at 6:35 am

    It’s like a little Twitter pyramid scheme. I love it.

    Reply
  30. Behang says:
    February 22, 2011 at 7:47 am

    Hello Glenn,

    I’ve been following your posts for some time now. Great how you manage to bring so much value in every post. Keep on going.

    Reply
  31. Chicha says:
    February 22, 2011 at 10:35 am

    This is Informative. Much Appreciated.

    Reply
  32. Annabel Candy says:
    February 22, 2011 at 11:32 am

    OK, Glen, here’s my idea:

    How about if you actually used this idea to generate more interaction on Twitter AND more content. This would get more people to interact with the Tweets and encourage them to:

    1. Sign up.
    2. Retweet.

    Here’s what I’m thinking:

    1. People sign up to see the profitable niches
    2. You offer them an extra instant service (or live document) if they Tweet about what they just signed up for.
    3. You call it 10,001 profitable niches because everyone loves numbered lists plus it solves the waiting problem and gives people instant results.
    4. You get the list started off with a few niches.
    5. You ask that when people Tweet they add a niche of their own (if they have one) and the tweet includes the hashtag #profitableniches You explain that their idea will be added to the list.
    6. You get your clever coders to mine this hashtag so your list is automatically updated to include the new idea and the Twitter user name of the person who suggested it. Instead of being a PDF the link could go to a live web page for example.
    7. Your site will continue to grow and get RTed exponentially because:
    a. People will feel part of the project.
    b. They will be able to get involved and make their own suggestions.
    c. They will be able to connect with other like-minded people on Twitter via the hashtag and via the document you create.
    d. They won’t have to wait for you to send out a newsletter they can keep an eye on the hashtag any time they want to see what’s new instantly.
    e. They will tweet again and again as they enjoy watching the list grow and approach 10,001 ideas.

    It’s hard to explain all this but I’m interested in getting people to interact more, allowing them to feel part of a community and letting them influence outcomes. It makes people feel empowered and engenders a community spirit. As the leader of the community you’ll naturally benefit from that. I’m no techie but prefer not to be limited by that anyway – hopefully you can make some sense of this – and clever geeks could make it happen:)

    PS. And if I win that splendid prize I will be using it as a givaway/prize when I launch my new blog very soon:)

    Reply
    • Glen says:
      February 22, 2011 at 11:45 am

      I will buy you your own domain just because of that idea :)

      Reply
    • Haroun Kola says:
      February 22, 2011 at 9:05 pm

      This idea indeed deserves that :)
      Awesome idea Annabel, I wonder which domain you will choose to giveaway on your blog :)

      Reply
      • Annabel Candy says:
        March 3, 2011 at 3:01 am

        Both:) I have two blogs now plus my own name domain undeveloped. The last thing I need is another blog! Like Glen I just like helping other people set them up. Thanks for the lovely feedback Haroun and all the smileys, it’s great to meet you here.

        PS. Glen another comment ended up in the bin. I asked what domain you’ll buy me – commentaddict.com ? Happpy to trade everything for a quick Skype chat with you anytime:)

        Reply
  33. Michael says:
    February 22, 2011 at 4:43 pm

    Glen,

    Been following VC for the last few months, blown away! Thanks so much! I am still in a planning and learning stage right now (back ground in advertising and design, now moving toward social media management as an active income source) plans to launch a blog site this year just not sure yet of the niche then some more passive streams?

    VC value is excellent!

    Love your lack of marketing hype, and matter-of-fact truthfulness!

    Found you through Smart Passive Income! You guys rock!

    Reply
  34. Sandra says:
    February 22, 2011 at 6:42 pm

    Hi Glen,

    I’ve been following you for quite a while and I just wanted to thank you for all the valuable information you share here and also the tools you provide. I’ve already implemented cloud : flood on my website. Lets see how it goes…

    I also wanted to ask you if it’s possible to add a download counter to know how many people has actually downloaded the file. Could you recommend me any free tool? I’m a total newbie so I would need something very simple (HTML code, not fancy Java or CSS scripts). If not, thanks anyway! I’ll keep reading and recommending ViperChill.

    Reply
  35. Preexo says:
    February 22, 2011 at 7:42 pm

    cloud:flood FAQ and Usage look a bit strange… you probably haven’t added the new design there too…

    and is it really neccessary to include jquery about 3 or more times in on html page… i don’t think so. just get the latest one and get rid of the other ones. but apart of about hundreds of js warnings and 1 error in my firebug… pretty nice page. and usefully – big times!

    Reply
  36. Codrut Turcanu says:
    February 22, 2011 at 7:53 pm

    that’s a helpful resource , sadly some people will abuse it.

    now, for the idea, as I like the idea to win one of your two domains.

    I could use this tool for a viral contest. Giveaway a paid product for free for a limited time and hold a 3-day contest — the first 5 people sending at least 3 Twitter messages (first rule) to their followers will win advertising or whatever irresistible prize I come up with (along with my partners).

    I aim for the most creative messages, dislike canned alerts, so make that the second rule.

    I will also have an add-on prize: all the participants gets into a random draw for an even more irresistible ___ prize. Total value $500 minimum.

    I guess I’ll have to collect the peoples names before I start the contest in order to see who participate, as I’m not sure if your tool provides any stats?

    Reply
  37. Haroun Kola says:
    February 22, 2011 at 9:59 pm

    I’m using your Cloud Flood tool as an experiment on my blog post on Facebook Traffic:

    http://harounkola.com/how-to-get-viral-facebook-traffic-to-your-blog/

    Its a work-in-progress article, and I’m giving away an ebook which tells people about http://cloudflood.com and links to this blog post. Just signed up to Cloud Living, and now going to look for my affilliate links to your program that I signed up to :)

    Reply
  38. IamDavid says:
    February 23, 2011 at 1:38 am

    This is one of those “duh, why didn’t I think of that” ideas! Also, I vote for Annabel for best response :) I’m loving your site btw Glen. -David

    Reply
  39. Nate Dodson says:
    February 23, 2011 at 3:15 am

    Hey Glen,

    Any advice for how a non-techie can setup a mad libs style opt-in? I can’t figure out how to do it on aweber, that’s for sure. Great post, I’m going to use cloud flood for sure.

    Reply
  40. Atlas says:
    February 23, 2011 at 2:47 pm

    I’m just putting this into action now thanks Glen

    Reply
  41. Jessica Nunemaker says:
    February 23, 2011 at 2:59 pm

    Interesting.

    I can say that I sub by email only to sites (like yours) that I absolutely want to keep track of. It makes me look at the email first thing before my daily deluge.

    Google and Delicious, etc. helps me keep tabs on sites I might want to look over again someday when I have a spare minute.

    Still digesting your post. Great points!

    Reply
  42. Javier says:
    February 23, 2011 at 3:15 pm

    As someone exclaimed above, why didn’t I think of that? Great idea Glen.

    BTW, the layout is breaking at the bottom on Chrome, you might want to check it.

    Reply
  43. Adem says:
    February 23, 2011 at 5:03 pm

    I’ve used cloud flood on my http://psdposters.co.uk site so that when peopl download a free poster they give me some tweet luvin’!

    Yay!

    Reply
  44. Justin says:
    February 23, 2011 at 8:19 pm

    I think I’ll use this tool to save people money at the last stage of the shopping cart. For example, “Tweet this and unlock a 10% discount code” or something to that effect.

    Reply
  45. Carlos says:
    February 24, 2011 at 4:44 pm

    Hi Glen. Awesome post and great free service (cloud:food)!
    One idea it came to me, is that you could use this to expand your subscriber list from your current list. What i mean: if you send and autoresponder email to your current list with a freebie to download after they tweet or facebook about it, you are maximizing your list (instead of always looking for new customers/subscribers with PPC or other ways, you maximize the ones you already have)

    I think I´ll give that a try.

    Thanks
    Carlos

    Reply
  46. kendall matthews says:
    February 24, 2011 at 9:20 pm

    For the cloud flood landing page email capture, what is the code to create the side by side mad lib format instead of the template stack version that aweber offers?

    This weekend I am going to place cload flood on our website to distribute our restaurant coupons. The code will be right below the word “favorites.”

    Check it out bbq website in St. Louis, MO… http://www.MsPiggiesSmokehouse.com

    Then the madlib email capture format will be underneath.

    Please advise.

    Moving Forward,

    Kendall

    Reply
  47. Tony says:
    February 25, 2011 at 12:32 am

    Hello! I have to be honest, I have been lurking many different blogs for quite a while now and this is the first blog post to ever make me comment.

    First off, you have a ton of great information on your website and it truly is motivational. You make me want to start trying to work for myself online right away.

    As far as an idea goes, could you possibly use the tweet as an up sell? For example, let’s say I’m selling an informational product, like an ebook, at $10.99. However, I have another ebook of the same material except this one has video tutorials opposed to just screen shots and is valued at $15.99. (This is all hypothetical of course) How about instead of selling the other one for 15.99 – or whatever price it may be – you just ask them to tweet about it to get the video tutorials. I feel you would make more money doing something like this because its encouraging people to promote your product more.

    Thoughts?

    Reply
  48. Jamie says:
    February 25, 2011 at 9:26 am

    Hi Glen,

    I’m from Newcastle too mate! Glad to see one of us making money!

    I’ve just launched a website and this tweet tip will do me great i will implement it once website fully operational and let you know how it went!

    Cheers
    Jamie

    Reply
  49. Jamie says:
    February 25, 2011 at 9:51 am

    Aye sound Glen, your gonna have to get a spare bed for when this website makes me some money I’ll be coming to visit haha

    Reply
  50. Mikey says:
    February 28, 2011 at 1:55 pm

    Hi Glen,
    I have an idea for you. I consult for a large London organisation. We have been discussing running some comps (photo comps etc).
    Facebook limits their official comp app to companies that have spent min 10K on ads.
    Integrating a paid service such as http://www.wildfireapp.com/, and getting them to pay for entry with cloudflood might work.
    You could also just use it as a straight up entry cost on a business website. “Share to Enter” for your free ipad etc.

    This would be a way for businesses to advertise to their audiences, and if the prize is good, get a lot more leverage.
    The sweet spot for this tool is definitely looking at business usage, as there are a myriad of ways you could go with it, and they have loads of cash to throw around… you might even charge a price per entry from your “share”…

    Btw, the domain name is a coincidence, I’ve been using it as my consultancy for a while now, but I like your taste ;-)

    Reply
  51. Passos says:
    February 28, 2011 at 2:07 pm

    Great idea, i will try.

    Reply
  52. craig says:
    March 2, 2011 at 5:53 am

    Hi Glen,

    I have an idea to update the service first and a creative use of this product second:

    This could be used to introduce promotional products to less tech-savvy/cloud savvy customers, if there was a third option (in addition to fb and twitter).

    More than half of my web visitors are Asian parents looking to help their children with what I offer. Not all of them have facebook or twitter. If we could add an old-school “suggest to your friends” box with an option to put in their friends e-mail addresses, this could read a few (3-5-10) friends that would really enjoy the product.

    This seems to provide one opportunity and have one problem.

    The opportunity is that it avoids the assumption that all of our clients will be on FB or Twitter (okay, so most are, but when we deal with adults, not all will have, and honestly, for my business, adults with kids are my bag).

    Perhaps, for the professionals, we could also have a LinkedIn post in case they have LinkedIn (and my product is professional) but not FB or Twitter.

    The problem is that it may influence people with FB and Twitter to put fake emails just to get free stuff. That seems to be a huge problem, but Im sure there are ways around it. Perhaps a code to check current cookies (kind of like firesheep) for facebook and/or twitter. If those cookies are present, there is no option for entering emails. But if those cookies are not present, people can still get the product by sharing an email of friends who would be interested.

    –

    This would really help my cause, because I deal with education and university/mba admissions – not internet marketers and other savvy web types. I really like this concept, but I don’t want to sacrifice my list or my customers by asking something they are not technically ready/able/willing to do.

    What do you think? Is this a feasible use for this product for the people that are not on facebook?

    ——————————–

    A second idea how this can be used is as a mass-marketing for charitable causes. During disasters, like Haiti or Katrina, vendors that are raising funds can include this in their donation cart. So anytime someone donates money, 5$ to katrina for example, they also tweet/fb that they donated to katrina, the amount, and which organization is accepting donations.

    During times of crisis, this might be all that is necessary to drive traffic to your site when you are “fighting” with hundreds of other charities looking to raise money for the same purpose. It can actually be the catalyst to make a huge difference.

    Best

    cg

    Reply
  53. Valentin says:
    March 2, 2011 at 2:53 pm

    Hey ! That’s a wonderful tool you’ve got there ! But is there any way to translate the confirmation page ? Because since my websites are in french my audience may not convert because of the english confirmation. (yeah french people are really that picky ^^)

    Reply
  54. Richard Bravo says:
    March 2, 2011 at 7:45 pm

    Glenn what about adding an extra option … “Redirect to Fanpage”

    This would be a great feature in conjunction with a reveal tab in which the freebie could be placed. So you have the option to get Tweets, Shares and/or Likes, depending on the campaign goals.

    ~RB

    Reply
  55. Jamie says:
    March 3, 2011 at 4:42 am

    Hi Glen,

    I have been looking for something like this for ages so thanks so much for creating it.

    I have implemented it on our ecommerce site as a way for customers to get a 10% discount on orders. The wording doesn’t lend itself particularly well to this as it is aimed more at file download freebies. However we have pitched it as a free discount coupon anyway so hopefully it won’t cause too much confusion and in a way customers are downloading the code or the page with the code on it.

    I do wonder if we will annoy customers who don’t use Twitter or Facebook though. Time will tell I guess.

    One other thing which is kind of ironic given your own problems with paywithatweet…… why are the files that connect to Twitter and Facebook in a directory called ‘Pay’? :)

    I’ll let you know how we get on with this, it should be interesting. A bit later I might consider increasing the discount to try and make sharing irresistible but we’ll see how it goes at 10% for now.

    Thanks again!

    Jamie

    Reply
  56. Usman says:
    March 5, 2011 at 1:01 pm

    You have a very creative mind

    Reply
  57. Umer says:
    March 5, 2011 at 1:02 pm

    this is a very good tip to share something for free to the readers of a website

    Reply
  58. Rob says:
    March 10, 2011 at 3:52 pm

    This is sweet. And, since my page is converting LESS than 10% I am ready for a different approach.

    Live it LOUD!

    Reply
  59. Nicole Summers says:
    March 16, 2011 at 1:43 am

    great post! I really love the information you have here, you made some strong points too… thanks for sharing…

    Reply
  60. Justin says:
    March 24, 2011 at 5:13 pm

    When I first read this I immediately thought that this tool could be used for promoting events. It would have to be somewhat re-tailored since right now it’s meant more for downloadable goods.

    That said, if you were trying to promote an outdoor concert for a smaller band, you could offer people vouchers for beer, food or raffle tickets in exchange for them tweeting or facebooking about it.

    You’d likely get a larger attendance unlike using the traditional concert promotion methods.

    That’s my bright idea for the use of this tool!

    Also, what plugin are you using for the social sharing box at the bottom of your post. I like it!

    Reply
  61. Josh says:
    March 25, 2011 at 6:25 pm

    Sorta reminds me of Scott Murdaugh’s “Viral Script”.

    Anywho, righteous post!

    Reply
  62. Thea Westra says:
    March 31, 2011 at 10:23 am

    Thank you so much Glen. I so appreciate this tool.
    Just found it today and so far have added it here http://www.timeformylife.com/FriendsOfTheaWestra.html and here http://www.forwardsteps.com.au/ThankYouAll.html (which subscribers receive after clicking confirm link in their confirmation of subscription email).
    In that first example site of mine, the great thing is that the original gift page itself is the page that gets shared, so the gifts get paid forward, around and around. Love that!
    Cheers, Thea
    P.S. I’m going back up to read your post properly and try a few other things. Thank you again.

    Reply
  63. Rebecca says:
    April 19, 2011 at 12:04 am

    Just discovered this, Glen, and thanks for the great tips. I have a very small web business which I hope will benefit from your further e-mail. Wanted to let you know that, after I confirmed my subscription, I clicked the link to go back to cloud:flood and it sent me to my home page. As a web developer, I thought you’d want to know.

    Reply
  64. Alex Dem says:
    April 30, 2011 at 3:54 pm

    Hi from Ukraine :)
    Great post, Glen!
    This is my first comment but I read your blog time to time almost year. First of all forgive me for my English, it’s not my native. Hope you will edit my comment to make it more readable.

    I have realy enjoyed your cloud:flood and now use it for my client.
    We work with one of Eurovision participants (I hope you know Eurovision Song Contest).
    Inspired with your tool I desided to make some interesting contest for fans of Eurovision.

    Main idea of those types contests is to collacte some user data and engage them. But people don’t like to share their e-mails, even if you give them frebies.

    So instead of collecting e-mails first, on our squeeze page we ask user just “Share to Get” the access to contest.
    After shairing news about our contest user get link to Contest room. Where… But now not about my contest.

    I just want to point that the main idea is to ask for Share first. On squeeze page we ask to click on Share to Get button and promise that on the other side they will get freebies. And on this “another side” could be another “half squeeze page” :) with links to promised freebies and subscribe form to get Profitable Niche Ideas (in your case). Because user already get some cool stuff from you (only for SHARING this free offer), he will be happy to subscribe.

    In my opinion people much easier agree to share something to get freebie either to enter their primary! e-mail.

    So Think About it:
    1. We ask to share news about our cool freebies.
    2. We give freebies to the user and propose him subscribe to some other cool stuff.
    3. We 100% got Share and 90% (I hope :) ) new subscriber.

    What do you think about this?

    P.S.
    After our contest ends (May 10, 2011) I’ll share the results. Maybe you will even agree to post results like guest post.

    Reply
  65. Mandy Allen says:
    May 17, 2011 at 3:14 pm

    This method could certainly be used for a variety of different marketing avenues. I have to admit to disliking the overall look of the common squeeze page. I do shy away from them.

    Enjoy the journey.

    Mandy

    Reply
  66. Tim says:
    May 24, 2011 at 7:56 am

    I think this tool is great.
    I am planning to launch a site of my own soon and I will be using your service, thanks.

    I think the best way to use this service would be to use the freebie page (Where the person would download the freebie) as an opporunity to extolling the virtues and benifts of your optin email list.
    Perhaps offering additional freebie for sign up.
    You allready have someone interested in what you have to offer, why not get the most bang for your buck.

    Reply
  67. Shannon says:
    July 16, 2011 at 3:39 pm

    This is really cool and I look forward to using it on my up and coming site as well.

    One thing I am a little confused over , so you add this as your freebee, but then what about the freebee to get their e-mail address? Is this totally different so you need two freebee’s – one for this to get the tweet and then one for their e-mail address on a separate opt-in?

    I’m just not quite understanding how the concepts work together. If someone can enlighten me that would be fantastic. :) Thanks.

    Reply
  68. John Kremer says:
    August 10, 2011 at 10:11 am

    Love this idea. I didn’t like the paywithatweet form (which is still on one of your sites, since that is where I saw it). I can’t wait to use Cloud Flood.

    Much thanks.

    You are full of incredibly useable creative experience-based tips.

    John

    Reply
  69. Ed says:
    October 5, 2011 at 10:37 pm

    Hey this is a cool site !

    Have to bookmark this interesting site, nice layout!

    Ed :)

    Reply
  70. Caleb says:
    October 31, 2011 at 3:45 pm

    Although this post is a few months older now I am glad I came across it through Lisa’s blog. The idea of paying by sharing is something I very recently started using with free plugins I searched for within WP plugin database as my hopes are that it will both increase my social media presence as well as build authority.

    However, I must admit that list building has become daunting for me…I once signed up for a SwapEmailAd program where you sent solo ads to other ppls list in order to grow your own but only got a few subscribers, so I think the main thing that needs to be covered is getting traffic to a specific squeeze page from scratch…

    Do you recommend traffic exchanges such as TrafficSwarm for list building as others have recommended :?:

    Reply
  71. Charles says:
    March 26, 2012 at 10:53 pm

    Hi Glen,
    Love this idea and would love to use it.
    Glen, when someone sign up, they get the confirm subscription email from Aweber.

    Then they get my series of follow up emails.
    How do I send them to a different page (I’ve created) with the bonus offer and the clod flood button, immediately after they sign up?

    Is there a way to do this in Aweber?
    Sorry, I’m a bit new to this.
    Health, Wealth and Happiness…always
    Charles

    Reply
  72. Allison says:
    June 1, 2012 at 1:11 am

    Great tool. I can’t believe it’s free. I’d like to know the template you use for cloudniche.com? Amazing, thank you for all of your help.

    Reply
  73. gulfam says:
    December 16, 2012 at 10:56 pm

    Glen your post is simply awesome, i was just wondering if i can have the design of that squeeze page, that would be great!
    please reply

    Reply
  74. Bigmoneyshare says:
    January 5, 2013 at 4:59 am

    Great article. What software or website do you use to create your actual web design/template?

    Reply
  75. Reger says:
    January 5, 2013 at 5:06 am

    Great share. What software or website do you use to design your squeeze page template/design?

    Reply
  76. Paul says:
    April 25, 2013 at 7:35 am

    Very interesting technique.
    Worth a try for sure.

    A couple of questions:

    a) Can it be used all year/on going basis or is it short burst traffic.

    b) Would I need a Twitter account myself?

    Thanks for sharing.

    Reply

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