My name is Matthew Bredel and as of March, 2007, I am a full-time, work-at-home internet marketer.
For close to 10 years, I worked for a defense company which was an OK job, but I was so uninspired in life and frankly, I needed some more money. That is when I first discovered internet marketing! Now I admit that I didn't start making thousands in my first couple of months (in fact, I lost my shirt!), but I finally saw the "internet light"...
We all have an inherent love for our content, especially our opt-in content. We want people to EARN the right the see this great information and we are tempted to put the right protection to ensure that the client receives it OUR way. But at what cost?
I remember the first opt-in page that I created (it was for Proactiv Solutions…and the campaign, while it generated me my very first sale, was a complete disaster!). For the opt-in, I had created a top ten list of things you can do to remove acne today. It was on a web page, but I was so scared about people finding this page without the opt-in.
At first, I used a cheesy javascript routine to password protect the page. But then I realized that the script was visible to the public through the page source so I went and purchased a $30 password script. This worked, but out of the whopping 5 people that signed up for the opt-in, 2 of them emailed me (one didn’t get the password and the second one couldn’t get the password to work because their computer did not have have javascript enabled).
Seeing what I am getting at here?
I admit, this was extreme but for some reason I felt that my free content needed to be locked under key. I was spending lots of time and money to do this (while driving away potential clients due to hurdles and technical difficulties).
Frankie Says Relax!
This is internet content paranoia at its finest and I see way too many people worrying about it! I do agree that protecting your paid content is important and should be under lock-and-key, to some degree (like a password protected website, for example). But during this initial funnel process (like a free opt-in), it is really not necessary.
Remember there are a few things to remember when it comes to opt-ins…
Resistance is not futile, it is just BAD!
Making people have to get and use passwords can hurt you at the beginning.
Higher Costs Per Lead?
Sure, a password may give the information a higher perceived value, but realize the potential costs. First, the customer service for those who are having issues with logging in. Second, they may not even want to spend the time trying to figure out how to log in.
Content is Content, and More is Better!
It is sometime a shame to hide all of this good content. Now I realize that we don’t want these pages to appear in the SERP’s (Search Engine Results Pages), but tools like Google Adwords likes to see pages with links to lots of content. If you are using a squeeze page, you more than likely don’t have too many links on the page (and if you do, they are most likely shared articles that appear elsewhere).
Here, we have a page (or pages) with fresh content. Adwords will like this and increase the quality score of your website. (And you can always use a noindex meta-tag to prevent the page appearing in the organic search results.
See my point here? We are so scared that people may find our “pseudo-free” content or see our “upsells” without following our path through an opt-in. But what are the costs?
I thought it was a bit crazy to put the fulfillment link onto the opt-in page itself, but what happened?
- Well, I do get about 1-2 people per 100 that click through this link. (And I bet 50% of those people still come back and opt-in !).
- There still is great content there and it still develops trust.
- My PPC bids have gone DOWN because of the larger content depth of the website.
- My customer service time is almost zero.
- My click-through rate to the deliverable increases.
- More time & money can be spend sending MORE traffic to the site.
Simplicity can be bliss at times! Don’t over-complicate your business. In most cases, it won’t do a thing!
cheers…matt
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Perhaps I am missing something here after watching your video and reading the post on protecting your download links.As I understand the down link for your product is only sent from your autoresponder when the opt-in is completed?
To add the link in the page if it’s free stuff is a good idea though.
Perhaps the most important is how can you stop the download link you have sent for paid content being passed on?
September 5th, 2009 at 4:33 am
Hey Roy,
Protecting your paid content is a whole different issue. Some marketers STILL don’t protect their content. They may have a login page, but the boxes are fake and the login button is just a link (I believe Ryan Deiss does this on some of his membership products…outside of Home Biz, of course!). There are plenty of scripts and programs (like Amember) that can provide with a username and password. For my stuff (like Tru-Guru), I use a little bit of PHP to and “Visitor SESSIONS” to control my access.
But don’t get too pre-occupied with this protection at first (unless your product is expensive or your client count is large). Focus on getting your customers in first, then you can put the proper locks on it when you are ready.
cheers…matt
September 7th, 2009 at 7:00 am