We are all working our buts off, or so we think, trying to make a living or an extra income on the internet. Many of you are affiliate marketers promoting someone else's products, through your web pages, websites or PPC campaigns.

I am quite sure that you have heard by now that you have to use landing pages in your marketing efforts. You may, or may not, have given it a look or a thought, but few have implemented this useful marketing tool.

Why?

It is extra work, you are very busy just getting your ads to work never mind tracking, doing split testing and priming every other ad to get the best results for your money. Which of course is the way to do it.

But think for a moment, if you could half this work, take 25% off your costs, and still make 25% to 50% more profit, would you be interested?

That is the beauty of landing pages. At the beginning you will have to put more time and effort in creating and refining them, but once you've got it all up and running you can certainly expect more profits.

The basic purpose of a landing page is to gather email addresses and build your list. The list is where the money is, all successful internet marketers will tell you that.

By building a list through landing pages you will gain the knowledge of who the people are that are interested in a specific type of product or service.

So the next time you market a new product in this line, you already have interested people who can easily become customers.

So you see, the landing page is an essential tool in any marketers arsenal of marketing armory.

Now let's look at the elements of a landing page.

The all important heading.

It has the same purpose here as on a sales page, you have to catch the attention of the reader to read on.

• A sub-heading leading your prospect into the page.
• A short sales message containing 5 to 10 benefits of the product you are

  promoting.

• A submission form where he or she can enter their details.
• After submission they are taken to the sales page.

So,. how am I going to write a sales letter on my page asking for a name and email address?

The best way of going about this is to offer something for free, a report, ebook, some useful software, subscription to a newsletter, anything relating to the product you are selling.

Lets look at an example of a landing page for a new keyword analyzing software program.

In Search Of That Perfect Keyword Phrase Getting All The Sales?

The headline catches the visitors attention and also qualifies him for the product.

How would you feel if I told you now you can:

• Find out how many others are using the same word you are aiming at.
• Know what they are paying in an instant.
• What you should bid to rank first.
• Know which phrases have the best sales conversion rates.
• And which keywords are just going to cost you money.

The bullet points highlight the important benefits the user can expect when he is using the software.

Get yourself in the FIRST place in the race for sales, and easily beat the top guns at their own game.

A summary of the bullet points again referring to the benefits

Just fill in your details to receive weekly tips on keyword analysis and how it can increase your sales. You will then immediately be redirected to 'Name Of Your Product'.

Your call to action. You ask for their details in exchange for their email address. The bonus or subscription will be of value to anyone who purchases this product and you say what will happen as soon as they submit so they know what to expect.

A very valid argument is that if I have a landing page that is not well written, a person landing on the page might just leave the entire site and could have purchased if he or she was sent straight to the sales page.

If this is your feeling there is a way around this problem. If you feel uncertain about your writing or asking someone to give you their email address, just add a button with text below the form saying something like 'click here to go directly to the product page'.

Be assured though that by building your list will ensure more customers and sales for your products. It will also give you the opportunity to get to know and communicate with your subscribers.

Don't obliterate them with product emails every day, only send them quality products addressing their specific needs, that you either use yourself, or know is good, and write a small review on how it has helped you solving a certain problem.

Long term good relations with your subscribers will turn into good long term good relationships with paying clients.

Many of you might still be scared to make use of landing pages. If you are still one of this group you are sending a lot of money to someone else's account.

Karl Stadler is a author and internet marketer. You can view or download a video showing step by step how to create and implement landing pages here.