I recently read an article on Aweber’s blog, the post topic being thank you pages, and the author commented on how shocked he was that a “frightening number” of people don’t take advantage of customized thank you pages and just use the default placeholder page provided by Aweber.

I was a little surprised to read why… It was not that people didn’t know about the thank you page or how to create one – No. The main reason people were not putting any effort into their thank you pages was because they didn’t want to take the time to create one.

Just to clarify, and it may be a little confusing because the “thank you” page may mean different things to different people depending on which autoresponder service you use, but the thank you page I am referring to is the page that a subscriber is taken to right after pressing the “Submit” button. For example, if you were to sign up for my free forms on virtualassistantforms.com, once you clicked on the submit button, you’d be taken to this thank you page.

When signing up for free reports, tip sheets, or teleseminars that use an autoresponder, you will most likely be taken to a page that says something like “thanks for subscribing, check your inbox.” Other times you may be redirected back to the home page. Or you may even be treated to Aweber’s ho-hum default page (I kid because I love . You may be wondering what is the big deal? Good grief, it’s only a page. But it’s a very important page and I’ll tell you why.

Whatever you are selling or giving away, the goal of the traffic flow – the process taken by the subscriber during sign-up and confirmation – is to be an impressive, effortless, and dynamic experience – not a boring, confusing, or worse, ineffective one!

The thank you page plays a big role because the primary purpose of this page is to instruct the subscriber what to do next. If the person doesn’t know what to do immediately after signing up, he or she may lose interest, and you may be losing out on a sale or a client. Think about it, if the person does not confirm their email, the e-mail address will never be added to your list. And in the case of Aweber’s program, the address will ultimately drop off the list after a number of days.

You don’t have to spend a lot of time and money putting together an effective page. As you saw from my example above, it’s a basic page that I can re-use for most other lists but with a couple of changes: I remind the person what they signed up for (forms) and what they need to do next (confirm the e-mail by clicking on the link).

Feel like getting creative? Here are just a few ideas of what you can do to jazz up your thank you page:

• Incorporate screen shots that depict exactly what the incoming email will look like or what the person needs to click on
• Add audio (check out Aweber’s thank you page for an example)
• Add video! Perry Lawrence can show you how at http://www.askmrvideo.com

Building a thank you page and the confirmation page (the page redirected to after confirming the email – a whole new topic!) may take a little time but it’s worth it!

Web form placement is perhaps one of the most important decisions you will make. This article will go over web form placement and the pros and cons of using pop-up forms.

Placement of Web Forms

The most important point to remember when creating web forms is this: people really don’t like to work. If you make the form hard to find or require a lot of fields to fill-in, it may discourage the potential client from signing up.

Display the web form “above the fold” - put it somewhere near the top of the screen so that the person does not have to scroll down to find it. You can also put another sign-up box near the bottom, nothing says you cannot have more than one form on any page, it all depends on the content.

Use the web form to complement the page, not detract from it. One example is if you have a web page that contains an article. You probably do not want your sign up form front and center as the purpose of the particular page is to get the reader to read your article. In this case, it may be a good idea to add the sign-up box only to the bottom of the page. Reason being that the person is so impressed with what you have to say, they will sign up on the spot. Ok, maybe in my world that is how I’d like it to work : )

The goal here is to bridge the gap, appeal to your visitors’ interests, and provide a way for them to sign up for your list without being pushy or obnoxious.

Should You Use Pop-Ups?

When you hear “pop-ups,” you may think of pop-up ads or pop-up banners, both considered to be annoying and intrusive marketing tactics. But you have to admit that pop-ups work in that they grab the reader’s attention, if only for a short time.

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