| Dear Internet visitor,
My intention is
to help you own a profitable Internet
Home Business.
Here is
Internet Home Business course that will help and guide
you to start off your Home Business on the Internet.
Lesson #8
DOORWAY PAGES - PART 1
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:
In this two-part lesson, you will
learn the basics of planning, designing, building, and
publishing doorway pages. This lesson will cover
planning and design. The next lesson will cover building
and publishing.
REVIEW OF THE CONCEPT
There are many different types of
Websites and Web pages used for different purposes. One
category of Web pages is "doorway pages." You may recall
that we introduced you to doorway pages in
Lesson 4 of this course. We said there that a
"doorway page" is a Web page used to lead people to
another target interactive site. The doorway page
contains a link to your target page. The target page is
where you hope the user will take some action such as
purchasing an affiliate product or opting in to your
program. The target page sells. The doorway page gets
people's attention and leads them to the target page.
Doorway pages serve two main purposes:
1. To optimize search engine
placement, and
2. To target your initial approach
to different demographics.
We also said that the best doorway
pages are pages that attract the targeted demographic by
providing useful information or entertainment, while
remaining easy to navigate. In Lesson 3, we concluded
that any Web page must have valuable content and must be
easy to use if it is to succeed. That is, a Web page
must flow. A doorway page must flow with content and
ease of use, and it must flow into the target page where
the desired action can happen.
While the information in this lesson
applies generally, we will focus on the SFI affiliate
program to simplify our discussion. As an SFI affiliate,
you already have several very effective target pages
with effective opt-in programs. Your doorway pages can
point to the SFI main site, the SFI Affiliate sign-up
site, the Full-Circle Success site, or any of the
product pages. Any and all of these are effective target
sites.
You can have one or several doorway
pages for each target site. You can design your doorway
pages to attract specific types of prospects
(demographics) or to be general in approach.
Before we begin, let me reiterate from
our last lesson that you can succeed in SFI with very
little technical knowledge. Following the procedures
from our last lesson will get you well on your way to
success. For those of you who want to learn more of the
technical process, let's look now in more detail at the
process of planning, designing, building, and publishing
doorway pages.
AN OUTLINE
It will be helpful if we start first
with an outline of the process.
Planning Your Doorway Page
- Choosing the "value" you will offer
- Deciding on the demographic you will target
- Deciding whether to use a virtual domain or a
subordinate URL
- Choosing a name
- Planning your "flow" from the demographic to the
value to the target page
- Deciding on the level of interactivity
- Determining update needs
- Determining security needs
- Deciding whether to farm it out
Designing Your Doorway Page
- Wording your content
- Choosing your layout
- Optimizing your search engine use
- Gathering your graphics
- Choosing which editor to use
Building Your Doorway Page
- Browser compatibility issues
- Resolution compatibility issues
- Loading speed
- Language, grammer, and spelling
- Graphics refinement
- Navigation issues
- Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
- Space requirements
- Code writing
Publishing Your Doorway Page
- Choosing an ISP
- Contract issues
- Uploading your site
- Registering your site
- Maintaining your site
With this outline, we can now discuss
each item in turn.
PLANNING YOUR DOORWAY
PAGE
As with anything worthwhile, planning
is the most important step. You should put a great deal
of effort into your planning. This will save you effort
later on.
The first two issues you must address
in the planning stage are interdependent. They are "What
demographic group will you target?" and "How will you
provide value to that demographic?"
You can provide the valuable
information or entertainment for your doorway page
yourself, or you can obtain it from another source.
There are sources on the Internet (such as YellowBrix or
BraveNet) that will provide dynamic information that you
can easily incorporate into your Website. They have both
free and fee options. The free options may have links in
the content that will divert some of your traffic to the
content provider's target pages. The reason they provide
free content to you is to gain that traffic. If this is
all you can afford—and you can not come up with value of
your own—this is far better than nothing. If you can
afford it, you can purchase information from many
different sources to provide on your page that will not
divert traffic. Better yet, you can provide your own
valuable content.
Most everyone knows something that
would be of value to others. Maybe you are good at
small-engine repair, gardening, canoeing, backpacking,
fresh-water fishing, photography, skydiving, or fashion
accessorizing. Or, maybe you just know the good
restaurants in your city and the ones to avoid. You can
provide value to your doorway page with well written
information on any of these subjects or an infinite
number of other subjects. The one catch is that you
either have to be able to write fairly well . . . or you
have to find someone who can write well to help you. If
you have a creative streak in you, it can be worlds of
fun to plan your doorway page.
The point is that you have to have
valuable information or entertainment from somewhere to
offer on your page. A Web page must have value. If you
expect your Web page to be effective, it cannot just be
a list of links and banners. Doorway pages, however, by
definition, can be very short and sweet. In fact, the
more focused they are, the more effective they will be.
Do not try to do all things with your page—just do one
thing well.
Depending on the value you have to
offer, you can identify the demographic group you will
be targeting with your doorway page. Or, if you will be
acquiring the content from other sources, you can pick
that content to match the group you want to target.
Let's look at an example. Let's say
you decide to target persons approaching retirement who
are worried that their retirement income will be
insufficient to meet their needs. First, think of
information that this group will find valuable. A lot of
companies offer senior discounts. You could research and
formulate a list of such companies and the discounts
they offer. You could then offer this information on
your doorway page. You can then easily make this content
flow into your link to the SFI program by stating that
savings from discounts is one way to manage your
retirement budget, but increasing your income by working
part-time from home is another. Then provide the link to
your SFI page as the means to obtain that extra income.
When gathering content for your page,
be careful to avoid violating copyrights. You cannot
just copy information from someone else's page without
his or her permission. Either get permission to use
content created by others, find content which is in the
public domain (such as certain government publications
produced for free dissemination), or create your own
content.
Another decision you have to make is
whether you will purchase a virtual domain or just use a
subordinate URL. A virtual domain is where the name you
have reserved, such as "mydomain.com," is permanently
tied to your Website through DNS (Domain Name Service)
entries overseen by ICANN (Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers, the authority responsible
for managing domain names for the Internet).
Alternatively, you can purchase space from an ISP or
even find free space from services, such as
Angelfire.com, where your URL (the address of your
Website) will be a subdirectory of someone else's
domain, for example, http://angelfire.com/yourname. We
refer to these addresses as subordinate URLs because
they are a subdirectory of someone else's domain name.
If you want to have your own domain
name, you have to pay a fee to register it. More
importantly these days, you have to find a decent name
that is not already taken. That gets more difficult to
do with each passing day as millions have already been
reserved. The oldest and most respected source for
searching and registering domain names is Network
Solutions. At the time of this writing, they charge $35
per year for registration of a domain name. Other
services, such as 000domains (which charges only $13.50
per year) are now available for much less.
Having your own domain name will help
your standing with the search engines and provide ease
of advertising. Picking the right name is important. You
can search for available names at one of the registrar's
sites or at a Whois site. Most obvious names that you
could think of are already taken, but with some
imagination and time you may find a suitable one still
available for your purposes.
Once you know what your address
(whether your own domain or a subordinate URL) will be
and have decided on your demographic group and content,
you need to give some careful thought to making it all
flow into the link to your target page. We cannot
overemphasize the value of flow. Your viewers' mind must
be naturally led to your link from the content of your
page. If not, they will not likely click on the link
regardless of how much they enjoy the content.
Any time you plan a Web page, you
should give some consideration to interactivity. By
interactivity, I mean that the viewer can select choices
or input information, and the content will change
accordingly. A quiz is a good example of interactivity.
Correct answers yield a reward. Incorrect answers result
in a buzzer effect. Interactivity makes your page much
more interesting than a static, brochure-type page.
Interactivity requires some programming beyond basic
HTML, however. You will have to use a CGI scripted
program, JavaScript, or VBScript, or your host will have
to have an API (Application Program Interface) program
available for your use. Doorway pages do not have a
great need for interactivity since their sole purpose is
to catch traffic and direct it to the target page.
Interactivity is always a plus, however.
Another important consideration is
updating your Web page. You will need to keep the
content on your page current as the information changes.
Design your page to make updating easy. Some of the free
hosts allow you to update your pages at will. Some Web
designers will design your own custom administration
section to allow you to update your page at any time,
even without knowledge of HTML. Both of these methods
allow you to add changes to your content into Web forms,
which when submitted will update the content of your Web
page. The traditional way of updating your Web content,
however, is to use an FTP program, such as WS_FTP Pro.
This will let you upload a new version of the entire
page each time you change it. You also need to plan and
schedule when and how you will go about the updating
process. A regular schedule and a routine of keeping
your page current should be an important part of your
plan.
Your plan should also take into
account any security needs. There are generally two
types of security. One type of security is limiting
access to specific pages so that only authorized viewers
can see them. The other is protecting private
information as it travels across the Internet to and
from your site. Will you be collecting private
information from your viewers? If so, you will need to
have the HTTPS protocol available. This protocol
encrypts the information as it is passed to and from the
site so that it cannot be read by unauthorized persons,
even if it is intercepted as it travels across the
Internet. To obtain this latter type of security, you
have to obtain and install a Security Certificate (such
as the ones available from Verisign) or use one already
obtained by your ISP. Security certificates identify you
as being who you say you are to those passing private
information to you from forms on your Web page.
Unless you are already familiar with
HTML (the code language that is used to build Web pages)
and are not traumatized by the above discussions of CGI,
Java, APIs, and Security Certificates, you may want to
farm out the building of your Website. Many people have
enjoyed the process of learning to build their own
Websites, but many have found it to be extremely
frustrating. If you fall into the latter category, there
are many good Web design and hosting companies available
at reasonable prices.
You must be very careful in choosing a
Web design firm, however. Because this is all so new,
there are few standards to judge who is really an expert
and who just claims to be an expert. I have encountered
many people who have proclaimed themselves to be
Web-design experts but who are in fact dangerously
ignorant. You do not become a Web-design expert just by
figuring out how to build a basic template site with one
of the HTML editors such as FrontPage. To be a true
Web-design expert, one should be thoroughly familiar
with computers, operating systems (including Internet
server operating systems), Internet protocols, HTML,
CGI, APIs, and some of the scripting languages such as
JavaScript or VBScript. The firm you choose should also
have good knowledge of graphic design and graphic file
compression standards and software. Some artistic talent
needs to be added to this knowledge base for a firm to
produce high-quality products.
Also because this is all so new, there
is tremendous variation in pricing for these services.
Some not-so-expert firms will charge thousands of
dollars to design a site which could have been obtained
from a true expert for a fraction of the cost. Thus, you
should use great care in selecting a design firm you
choose to farm out the building of your site.
At the time of this writing, SFI is
negotiating with expert firms to offer special deals to
SFI affiliates who are members of the
IAHBE. If you're not
an IAHBE member yet, e-mail me at
designfirms@georgelittle.com and I will direct you to
suitable firms for design and temporary hosting in the
interim.
DESIGNING YOUR DOORWAY
PAGE
Once you have a good solid plan for
your doorway page, you need to begin the actual design
process. Whether or not you farm out the design of your
doorway page, you need to participate in the design
process. At this point, it is time to turn your
attention again to the content you will have on your
page. Hopefully, you have decided during the planning
stage the type and source of content you will use. Now
you must decide how to display that content on a Web
page.
The next step is to rough out a design
layout on paper. Think about the most pleasing way to
display the content on your Web page. This is where you
begin to think seriously about the graphics you will
use. You will need a background color or image for your
page. The subtler, the better. You do not want to blind
your visitors and overwhelm the content on your page
with a busy background. You will also need a logo or
similar type of "branding" graphic to give your page
some identity. You may want to use photographs that you
have available or can take to add a visual dimension to
your written content. Consider how you will place the
logo and photos in relation to the textual content on
your site.
The goal, again, is to create flow.
You want your visitors' attention to start at the top
and flow down your page to your target link. Mentally
and visually, you need to have a starting point and a
flow path. Design your graphics (or have them designed)
so that the eye is naturally led down the page from the
top to the bottom. Remember that the focal point of the
entire page is the link to your target page. Design your
page so that if attention is first caught by any other
part of the page, it will be led to your target link.
Word your content to have the same directional effect
mentally as your graphics have visually. Work to make
both your graphic content and your textual content come
together as a unified whole that creates a reaction in
the viewer and leads him or her to your target link
through a pleasant and interesting visual and mental
process.
One of the most important aspects of
design is to optimize your page for the search engines.
Web pages contain metatags which are invisible to the
visitors to your page, but are specifically read by the
search engines. We will have more on this in the next
lesson and even more detail in subsequent lessons, but
for now you need to come up without about 25 to 30
keywords for the search engines to index that will draw
people to your site. You also need to draft out a one
paragraph description of your site, utilizing the most
important keywords from your list. Your description
should concisely state in very inviting terms what your
site has to offer. Finally and most importantly you must
word the content of your entire site with your keywords
and description in mind. Search engines are not happy
when a site has keywords and a description which has
little to do with the actual page itself.
After creating the layout for your
site, it's time to prepare the final wording of the
content and to gather up the graphics you need. You can
design your own logo with a drawing program or you can
have someone else do it for you. You need a graphic file
preferably in a .GIF or .JPG format that is small in
terms of the bytes used in the file size so it loads
fast. Using a digital camera or a scanner, you can
digitize the photographs, if any, you need for your
page. When you have all this together, you are almost
ready to start actually building your site.
The one final issue before beginning
to build your site is how you will write the code. If
you have the knowledge, the prefered method is to write
your own HTML code in a simple text editor. If not, you
will have to rely upon an HTML editor. HTML editors are
like word processors that allow you to type text, insert
graphics, build tables, insert links, and do the other
things necessary to build a page. The editor then writes
the HTML code for you in the background. Most HTML
editors provide pre-built templates which have a layout
already in place for you. Many feel it is better not to
use these templates because they are recognized as such
when people see your page. If time is an issue and
economy requires you to build your own page, however,
templates can be useful.
If you are going to use an HTML
editor, you want to find one that actually saves you
time, rather than one that burns up your time while you
try to learn how to it. If the editor is not very user
friendly, your time might be better spent learning the
HTML code itself, which is not really that complicated.
HTML is a tag type code. You insert tags before and
after content to produce the placement and effect you
desire for that content. Learning HTML is not like
learning a programming language, such as C++ or Visual
Basic. It is much simpler.
CONCLUSION
Doorway pages can be very useful in
promoting affiliate programs. They allow you to target
specific audiences and lead them to your target link.
Doorway pages allow you to optimize search engine
acceptance and placement. Just as with any other
undertaking, good planning is the key. Start with
planning and designing your site as discussed in this
lesson before you begin to actually build your site.
WHAT'S COMING NEXT
In this lesson we discussed planning
and designing your doorway page. Our next lesson will
continue with discussion of building and publishing your
doorway page.
by George Little
Copyright (year) Panhandle On-Line, Inc.
License granted to Carson Services, Inc. for
distribution to SFI affiliates. No part of this work may
be republished, redistributed, or sold without written
permission of the author.
For more information on the Internet Income
Course and other works and courses by George Little, see
www.profitpropulsion.com.
For Web Hosting services specially designed for
SFI affiliates, see www.profitpropulsion.com.
Continue To Next Lesson
>>>
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