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How To Easily Create High Converting Squeeze and Sales Pages For Your eBooks and Products

January 12, 2011 By 8 Comments

The #1 way to make money online is to sell your own products. Every single top blogger in the world has their own product of some kind, whether it be physical or digital. For most bloggers, the jump into their own product is normally in the form of an eBook or other digital product that your readers can purchase and download instantly, and I highly recommend you look into this form of monetization if you have not already.

However, there is one HUGE mistake that most bloggers make when looking to sell their own products online.

#1 Blogger Mistake: Bloggers often rely on their blog to be the sales page for their products.

If you are doing this right now, I already know what you are thinking. Why? Because I have been there.

  • You don’t want the reader to leave your site or your content.
  • You don’t know how to design a sales page or at least how to do one easily and cheaply.
  • You don’t have the time to set one up right now and the quickest way was to create a page on your blog.

Where is the flaw in using a page on your blog as the sales page for your eBook?

There are far too many distractions on your blog to keep high conversion rates on your products.

Think about it…the same reasons you want to keep the sales page on your blog are the same reasons it will not sell well. When your potential customer lands on your page, they need to have only one thing in mind…”what is this product, how will it benefit me and am I going to buy it for that price.” If that same potential customer also sees a list of your recent articles, navigation or worse…ads like Adsense, you are inviting them to find something else to do other than buy your product.

Sales Pages vs. Squeeze Pages

What is the difference between a sales page and squeeze page? At the end of the day…not much really. Each one is setup basically the same way, but they have a different end goal for the visitor of that page.

  • Squeeze Pages: Dedicated page to getting the opt-in to your newsletter. (ex: Problogging Is Dead)
  • Sales Pages: Dedicated page to converting sales of your product or service. (ex. Ramped Reviews)

So whether you are going for an opt-in to your newsletter or a sale of your product, sales and squeeze pages are going to convert at higher rates due to their design.

How To Create Sales & Squeeze Pages

Ideally, we would like to not have to hire a designer or operate outside of WordPress for our squeeze and sales pages, so when I went looking around for themes to accomplish this goal for me…I ran across OptimizePress. Not only did it promise to make my sales and squeeze page process much easier, but it also has some drip marketing, video and membership site features that I plan on using in the future.

Stats on OptimizePress:

  • Squeeze Page Building System – Create high impact squeeze page designs from a range of 10 templates, all tested and proven to convert – so you get more people on your mailing list fast!
  • Sales Letter & Offer Page Building System – Easily create sales letters, offer pages, bonus pages and more, with our unique point and click system. Now you can have pages that look like a pro-designer has created them, for a fraction of the price!
  • Launch Builder System – Use our unique launch page development system to create pre-launch and launch pages that boost response, with advanced features like integrated facebook comments, twitter sharing and more! Add your videos, headlines and call to action buttons with one-click! These pages will get your market buzzing about your product launch fast (this means more money for you when you go live!)
  • Add video to your pages with one click – just paste in your video URL (from Amazon S3 or similar) or use video from Youtube, Vimeo, Viddler or any other video hosting site. Using video is proven to boost response and conversions!
  • Unique iPad & iPhone Video compatibility – OptimizePress has been developed with a unique system to ensure your videos will also work on iPads and iPhones, which are fast becoming popular browsing platforms. Simply enter the URL of your video encoded in the correct format, and OptimizePress will do the rest!
  • Shortcodes Sales Letter Elements – Easily add extra headlines, subheadlines, bullet blocks, content boxes, order boxes and more to your sales letters and offer pages with our point and click shortcodes – no more messy HTML and CSS!
  • Cross Browser Compatible – All our designs are coded with the latest HTML and CSS standards, and have been tested on all the latest browsers (and some older ones too!). This means more people will be able to access your pages and see them as you desired!
  • Built in SEO features – We know SEO is important to you, so we’ve integrated some of the most popular SEO features such as setting the title tags, descriptions, keywords and more for each of your pages individually, without the need for plugins (of course you can use your favourite plugins too if you wish!)

Basically, you install the theme and start the process of creating your page through the use of short codes. It also perfectly integrates with all of the major newsletter service providers (I use Aweber) if you are looking to create a squeeze page or easily capture the contact information of your customers.

Just to show you how easy this theme is to use, I have put together this quick video that gives you a look at the backend in the page creation screen. Now…keep in mind…this is a very simplistic look as you can really expand on the features of OptimizePress to make it your own.

What Have Been My Results?

Over the past month, I have converted all of my sales and squeeze pages on Blogging Labs and Bike198 over to OptimizePress. Overall, my conversion rates have increased about 20% just by having better looking, easier to setup sales pages for my eBooks. I am going to start split testing different content to see how I can get my conversions even higher, but so far I am incredibly happy with the result and ease of setup with this theme. Everything you need, from graphics packages to all of the icons and buttons, are included with the theme and the settings are easy to understand. If you have installed a WordPress theme in the past…you should have zero problem getting this setup.

At $97.00, it is on the high end of WordPress themes these days, but I do believe it is worth it as I have barely even scratched the surface of what it is capable of. Also, the increase in sales has more than offset the price of the theme which makes it worth it on its own. If you are looking for a high-quality, easy to setup option for your sales and squeeze pages, OptimizePress is an incredible option. Through my entire testing period, I only had one glitch and that was fixed with the latest update (the add to cart buttons were not working in Chrome…but that is fixed now) and the support has been incredible. Anyone can setup high converting pages with OptimizePress.

Click here to see the rest of OptimizePress’s features or purchase.

Filed Under: Reviews, Tutorials/How To, Wordpress Theme Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Is A WordPress Theme Framework Right For Your Blog?

December 20, 2010 By 13 Comments

Over the past couple of years, WordPress theme frameworks have been growing in popularity. With features like SEO integration and clean coding, frameworks like Thesis, Headway, Genesis and Platform Pro are continuing to take their bite out of the premium WordPress theme market. As you look at your blog and try to decide what look is going to go over well with your readers, it is natural to look towards these options due to their popularity in the market and marketing push, but are they the right option for your blog?

Over the past couple of weeks, I have redesigned my two biggest blogs incorporating frameworks. This blog, Blogging Labs, got the Pagelines Platform Pro treatment and Bike198 made the switch to Studiopress’s Genesis framework. Before we jump straight into if you should be looking to frameworks for your blog, let’s take a quick look at the before and after on each of my blogs.

Pagelines Platform Pro - Blogging Labs

Studiopress Genesis - Bike198

You can see the layouts and themes live by clicking here: Bike198.com | Blogginglabs.com | StudioPress Genesis | Pagelines Platform Pro

The Positives: Theme Frameworks

WordPress theme frameworks provide a lot of positive features for the blogger and these features are what make frameworks popular today. Let’s take a look at some of the most significant.

Easy Upgrades Over Time

In a typical setup, a WordPress theme framework acts as the underbelly to your theme. When installed, you do not edit or make changes to the theme itself, but you instead make a “child theme” that lays over top the framework. All of your coding, design and other changes are made within this child theme separate of the framework. When it comes time to upgrade Thesis, Genesis or any other framework you chose to run, you can completely upgrade the theme without having to change the core files again to reflect your changes. This is HUGE for bloggers who have really created their own look.

Provides A Solid Foundation For Custom Themes

Before theme frameworks, when you wanted a full custom WordPress theme, your designer had to go through the long task of converting their pages into the WordPress format. This procedure had a large cost to it as they are trying to get a specific look to integrate with WordPress. With theme frameworks, designers can take that look and lay it over a solid WordPress foundation seamlessly drastically reducing the amount of time it takes to develop a custom look. This also reduces to the cost to the blogger and allows for more “custom” options to lower budgets.

On the bloggers end, it also does not keep you tied to one designer as most of the community can work directly over these frameworks, so if your designer decides to hang up his designing hat…you can still find someone else that can work on your site without having to dig through custom code. The framework’s code is also very clean, so the blogger does not have to worry about the designers coding ability as that can have an adverse affect on page load speed and SEO if done incorrectly.

Hooks Provide Placement Advantage

Do you want to add a advertisement at the bottom of every article? How about a new global nav? This used to be a hard and tedious procedure as you had to dig through pages of code and test what would work to edit your core files and add that feature. Now…with theme frameworks and their implementation of hooks, you can easily add elements to your blog without having to edit core files. Some frameworks like Headway and Platform Pro allow drag and drop functionality and other frameworks like Thesis and Genesis have plugins that make things easier on the blogger. Either way…you are guaranteed to be able to add elements quickly and easily without affecting your core files.

Negatives: Theme Frameworks

However, like most things in life…nothing is perfect so you need to take a look at these drawbacks to theme frameworks before you make the decision to use one on your blog.

Do You Know How To Design?

When you activate your theme framework for the first time, you are going to notice that your site looks incredibly bland. Have you ever seen those plain white Thesis based sites popping up all over the web? That is because they bought the theme, activated it and started writing without any real knowledge of what it takes to make a blog look unique. Your blog design is one of your most important converting elements behind content. Your blog needs to stand out amongst the competition…not look exactly like it. If you do not have the funds or ability to make your WordPress theme framework unique, you are going to get frustrated as your blog looks exactly like everyone else that just hit activate and got to work writing.

While there are some premium child themes on the market and companies like Studiopress offer different child themes to go over their frameworks, be prepared to spend extra cash on top of the framework itself if you do not have CSS and php knowledge. Theme frameworks are not just plug and play like some other options from WooThemes, Elegant Themes and WPZoom which offer more out of the box options.

SEO Integration vs. Long Term Options

One of the marketing tricks of WordPress theme frameworks has been SEO integration. While I agree that their clean code does greatly help with SEO over time (Google hates messy code), theme frameworks also advertise their SEO integration with titles, descriptions and other elements that were previously handled by plugins like All-In-One SEO. In my opinion, by integrating all of those elements into your theme, you are marrying yourself to that theme over time and insuring your repeat custom basis with that WordPress framework by making it harder to switch in the future if you look to integrate a different look or framework. While it is true that less plugins equal a faster site, I still keep my SEO duties to a plugin so if I want to change my theme sometime in the future…I do not have to worry about porting that integration.

My Recommendation To Bloggers

As you are probably wondering by now…what is my recommendation to bloggers as you look to WordPress themes as a way to make your blog unique? Both of my main blogs are now running theme frameworks for the benefits they provide my sites. However, I have enough CSS and php knowledge to create that custom look that I was after without having to spend any extra money for a custom design. If you do not have the ability or funds to create a more custom look than the standard white on black that theme frameworks provide, I would start looking at places like WooThemes, Elegant Themes, WPZoom and Theme Forest to find a layout and look that fits your blog. There are enough great looking premium themes out there that you should not have to worry about looking exactly like your competition.

If you can afford to pony up for the custom look or premium child theme, WordPress theme frameworks are a great way to get clean code and a custom look without paying the high cost of a full blown custom WordPress option. The cost difference is in the thousands and there are plenty of quality designers that will work straight over any of the theme framework options. That also provides you with a solid platform to create edits as you see fit without having to contact your designer with every change.

As with most things in life, there is not one solution for everyone. You need to look into your needs and abilities to see what is the right choice for you. Just because everyone else is doing it…that does not mean it is the right option for your blog. If you plan on throwing up a stock install of a Worpress theme framework and making a lasting impression on your readers…you are going to be disappointed in the end.

Theme References Mentioned In Article:

WordPress Theme Frameworks

Premium WordPress Themes

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WP Theme Review: Fresh Journal from Simply Fresh Themes

March 30, 2010 By 4 Comments

Keller Hawthorne at Simply Fresh Themes sent me over a copy of her first premium theme for WordPress blogs, Fresh Journal, for review on RobbSutton.com. Keller is the mind behind FresheVenture.com and Fresh Journal is her first step into the premium WordPress theme industry. With a clean overall look, included documentation and long list of admin options, let’s take a dive into Fresh Journal and take a look at how these theme will operate on your blog. Note: For the purposes of theme testing, I use another site I own, whatannoys.me, that may or may not have this theme live when you read this review.

Fresh Journal Install and Setup

Fresh Journal installs just like any other WordPress theme on the market. You can upload it via FTP and activate or use the built-in installer in WordPress. Once you install and activate the theme, the administration panel where you tweak the inner workings of Fresh Journal are found under the appearance tab.

Once you are in and installed, there are a ton of options available to customize the look and feel of Fresh Journal. There is everything from Twitter and Google Analytics integration to thumbnail resizing.

One of the best features in Fresh Journal is the ability to change the custom image tag. For those of you that are running another premium or free WordPress theme that has a thumbnail for each article, you are able to change Fresh Journal to match your previous settings keeping you from having to go back and update every single article. In my case with whatannoys.me, I was able to change that tag to the Thesis post image tag and all of my images were up and running instantly. That was a huge time saver.

This administration panel is also where you can control your overall site link/box color, featured posts options (shown at the top of the content section on the homepage), home page excerpt length, ad spots on homepage and single article pages, rss and Twitter box options (at top of sidebar and bottom of single) and how many related articles you would like to see at the bottom of each article. As you can see by the screen shot in the gallery, there are also other included options that allow you to change things up as you need to.

Once you have your settings all tweaked up, you can head over and arrange your widgets in the sidebar and footer, and…as you can see by the included screen shot, there are more options for sidebar layout than I even use. From single to dual column in two different areas of your sidebar, you can really mix things up as much as you want to.

Fresh Journal Look and Feel

Outside of the administration options, Fresh Journal has a sharp and clean overall feel. Everything is laid out nicely on the page with adequate spacing between elements and the lack of imagery within the theme framework makes for a fast loading page. Those looking for a more custom look are going to want to tweak the CSS file to include a custom background and custom page elements, but the CSS is laid out cleanly…so that shouldn’t be an issue for those that are used to diving into design code.

Overall Thoughts and Review On Fresh Journal

At $39.95, Fresh News is about 1/2 the cost of most of the premium themes on the market. At this price, I really consider this theme a great deal for many WordPress users. With a clean and easy to use interface combined with a clean look, you are able to get up and running with a professional looking blog on a budget and easily.

That said, there are a couple of things missing from the administration panel that I would like to see included in future revisions: changing the fonts, changing individual element colors (coming in next release), changing background image.

If you are looking for a clean theme that everyone isn’t already running (since this is new and relatively under the radar…you don’t have to worry about everyone having the same theme as you), Fresh Journal is a great option for those of you that are not ready to drop 75-100 dollars on a premium WordPress theme. I had whatannoys.me up and running as pictured in about 10 minutes without any real effort. I can imagine that spending some time on it would create a great look in the end.

What I Liked About Fresh Journal
  • Great administration panel for those that aren’t coders.
  • Clean look and fast loading pages.
  • Incredible documentation included.
  • New theme, so everyone on the block is not already running it.
  • Ads for affiliate or Adsense easily installed.
  • Custom image tag changer is a HUGE time saver.
  • 1/2 the price of most premium themes on the market.
What I Think Needs To Be Included In Later Revisions
  • Easy way to change background and fonts in administration panel.
  • Scrolling feature panel on homepage instead of click to move.
  • Replace links for social media with icons.

Overall, great job by Keller on her first drop into the premium WordPress theme market. I am looking forward to the other themes that Simply Fresh Themes is going to produce over the coming months.

To check out Fresh Journal for yourself, click here.

Filed Under: Reviews, Wordpress Theme Tagged With: , , , , ,

Review: Thesis Theme by DIYThemes – Premium WordPress Theme

January 29, 2010 By 21 Comments

If you are using WordPress and you do not know what the Thesis Theme is…you have been living under a rock. For the past year or so, Thesis has climbed to the top of the “must have” WordPress themes on the market. With multiple features and an easy to use administration panel, bloggers have found that they can get up and running pretty quickly with something that is professional. So…let’s take a look inside and see what makes the Thesis Theme from DIYThemes click…

Installing Thesis

You install Thesis just like you do any other WordPress theme so that part of the equation is simple. Once you install, you have to change the custom-sample folder to just custom so you can edit, change and customize your theme. Once you have that done, the administration functions of Thesis are found at the bottom of your left hand toolbar. Within these options you are going to find the Thesis Options, Thesis Design Options and the Custom File Editor.

Thesis Theme Options

Thesis Theme Design Options

Within these screens, you can do everything from customizing layout and colors to adding in your tracking scripts from Google Analytics. Basically, if you have something you need to add or edit outside of your content…it is all here.

Within the post screen, you are going to find another box. With these Thesis administration boxes, you control the automatically placed image in your article. You can also specify a different thumbnail than the picture and the placement of those items if you want them to display differently than your global settings that you specified in the Thesis admin.

Post Options Thesis ThemeSEO Box in Thesis Theme

Making Thesis Look Unique

The Thesis Theme is built around DIY’s own framework. DIY uses a series of “hooks” that allow you to customize layout options and add in your own personal flare to the homepage, single.php, archives and others. By adding hooks, you are able to customize content layout and design. This video from DIY will show you the basics on how you can change colors, layout, etc.

Review Of The Thesis Premium WordPress Theme

For those of you that haven’t had any experience with Thesis, you now know the nuts and bolts that go behind the theme. So…not that all of the formal stuff is done, let’s take a look at what I think of the Thesis Theme from DIYThemes.

First, the base code for Thesis is very well written for a premium WordPress theme. What does this mean? Out of the box you are going to have a site that loads quickly, is efficient at handling the typical blogging tasks and is search engine friendly from a spidering standpoint. Clean code is an essential part of blogging as you are reliant on load times and spiderability to really see growth over time.

The backend management system within Thesis is extremely easy to use for everyday tasks. Simple things like excluding items from the navigation bar can be done by bloggers who have little to know WordPress or coding experience. This is huge for beginning bloggers as there are less questions you have to ask to get things up and running quickly.

The hooks system is easy for coders to figure out, but for those of you that haven’t dabbled in coding before…it is going to be extremely confusing at first. Luckily, there is a great support forum available that you can ask for help as you move along in the process. For most users (and you can see this throughout the Thesis sites online), mess with the hooks a little bit to get functionality of plugins…but that is where they really call it a day. For web coders, the possibilities are really endless using the hooks system just as you would with regular website coding.

The designers of the Thesis Theme want you to use their built in SEO functions within the theme. Personally, I strongly disagree with this method as it ties you to the Thesis theme for your SEO. By using a plugin like All-In-One or Platinum SEO, you are accomplishing the same task…for free…and just  as efficiently. But…when you go to change themes sometime off in the future, all of your SEO work is tied to the plugin you are not changing instead of the Theme you are. DIY has done a great job promoting the SEO aspects of Thesis as a selling point, but I do not agree with it.

Another thing that DIY has done a fantastic job with is marketing. With a great affiliate program and a big push by big name bloggers, the Thesis Theme has become big business. Great for DIY, but that also means that just about every blog reader on the planet has seen a Thesis Theme’d blog. While you can make Thesis look incredibly unique (almost to the point you do not recognize it anymore), most of the Thesis sites out there all look the same with a couple of different colors. This does not have to be a bad thing, but if you are looking for an original look, Thesis may not be where you want to head unless you are a designer or are ready to pay a designer.

Final Thoughts On The Thesis Theme

There would not be so many people using Thesis today if it wasn’t a great theme. It works for 90% of the bloggers out there by focusing on content and ease of use. While the hooks system does work well, beginning bloggers are going to have trouble understanding the coding (but they would with any theme). If you are looking for a lightweight, well coded option for your blog, Thesis is worth taking a look over. If you need something with more of a unique look…it might not be.

What I Like About Thesis
  • Clean coding and fast load times out of the box.
  • Easy to use backend management system.
  • Incredible support and affiliate program.
  • Price is average for premium themes.
What I Don’t Like About Thesis
  • Most Thesis based sites look the same.
  • SEO marketing ties you to theme.

Click here to pick up a copy of the Thesis Theme for your blog.

What are your experiences with Thesis?

Filed Under: Reviews, Wordpress Theme Tagged With: , , , ,

Review: WooThemes Premium WordPress Themes

January 22, 2010 By 6 Comments

In the blogging world, finding your unique look to separate your blog from the masses can be a difficult task. One of the first and most natural ways to set yourself apart from the rest is by investing in a premium WordPress theme that organizes and presents your content professionally while still holding true to your voice. In this premium WordPress theme review, we are taking a look at WooThemes and their features for bloggers and website owners. Having used several of their themes for multiple purposes (including the current theme on RobbSutton.com), I have had a lot of experience with WooThemes over the years…so let’s take a look inside.

Behind the Scenes – Woothemes

As with most premium WordPress themes, WooThemes has their own backend mangement system to let you control things like color scheme, logo insertion, javascript insertion (stat trackers, etc) and other specific tasks that relate to the function of the theme on your blog. Recently updated to 2.0, the new Woo Framework provides a lot more user friendly interface with a couple of new options.

WooThemes Framework 2.0

The previous generation, while looking good on the outside, was rather slow and clunky. With 2.0, WooThemes streamlined and made a much faster interface that is easier to use. Honestly, this is a HUGE upgrade over the previous version from a usability standpoint. The crew over at WooThemes also added a feature that I used to have to get custom coded in the past…including the post image in your RSS feed when you use the WooThemes image resizer. In previous generations, this was not possible without some custom work.

WooThemes Post Options

Within each individual post draft screen, you are given options to include an image in your post that will be used for the thumbnail in archives and on the homepage and…in this case…an option to embed a video that can also automatically display in a widget on your blog. On the post screen, WooThemes keeps things simple with only what you really need. While there are other themes on the market that want you to integrate the SEO with their theme structure, I actually recommend using a plugin like All-In-One or Platinum SEO for those duties so that you are not tied to a theme for your blog’s search engine optimization. WooThemes kept it simple, so it doesn’t clutter up your draft screen with items you are not going to use.

The CSS within the WooThemes markup is organized and easily editable. With the inclusion of a custom CSS file, you can edit your look and still make upgrading easy in the future. Each of the templates for sidebar.php, single.php, etc. are also well organized for easy editing. If you are looking to jump in and start hacking away…it is easy to do within their current file structure.

WooThemes On The Outside

With over 50 themes available and multiple color schemes for each theme, you can almost guarantee a unique look for your blog by simply adding your logo. However, WooThemes does have a unique look, so your readers will be able to tell where you got your theme from, but that is not a bad thing if done correctly.

WooThemes provides some of the best looking themes on the market for WordPress, but they are heavily image based. What does that mean for you? To get a really unique look out of a WooTheme, you are going to have to edit some image files and not just straight css. This also…typcially…makes your site load a little bit slower than the guys running a plain white Thesis Theme layout, but that is the price you pay for having a unique look on your blog.

WooThemes provides several different widgets, color options and other built in features to bring functionality and uniqueness to your blog.

Final Thoughts On WooThemes

I have tried A LOT of premium WordPress themes over the years and WooThemes is the one that I come back to every time. With organized code and plenty of options for a lot of different site layouts, they are a go to option for anyone looking for a custom, unforgettable look on their blog. WooThemes is well tailored for beginning bloggers looking for a unique look without a lot of technical knowledge and for advanced coders looking for a solid foundation to build a custom blog off of.

What I Like About WooThemes
  • Easy to use backend administration system with a ton of features (including ad integration)
  • Unique look due to 50+ options and multiple color schemes
  • Consistent quality across all themes
  • Easy to customize markup
  • Great pricing for premium WordPress themes
What I Don’t Like About WooThemes
  • Loads slower than some of the competition because of image based design
  • High popularity could mean similar look

Click here to check out the premium WordPress themes from WooThemes

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