Posted in Landing Page Optimization	April 12, 2006

By Kim Mateus, Managing Editor Mequoda Daily and Library

With gardening season upon us, it seemed like a good idea to have John Clausen do a landing page review of GardeningSecretsandTips.com.

John points out that there are few hobbies or avocations that rival gardening when it comes to the need for secret methods and helpful tips. And there are few activities that attract more avid practitioners.

So, with that in mind, he took a long, Mequoda Landing Page Scorecard look at GardeningSecretsandTips.com and what he found was a few mistakes you should avoid when writing and designing your landing page.

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• The headline on this landing page exhorts the prospect to "stop feeling jealous" of his or her neighbors and learn how to have a yard that "everyone else compliments and raves about." As a serious benefit, John doesn't see the ability to stop feeling jealous as a real motivator.
• John notes that he'd probably be more interested in buying the book and he's sure others would as well... if we only know early on what the book can do for us.
• There was no free newsletter as far as he could determine, and even the little floater that drops in during the ordering process to sell the email course really doesn't make him feel really warm and fuzzy about the book.
• Unless you count the comments of the letter's author, there are no testimonials whatsoever... and they really could use them here effectively.
• There is no sense that one must hurry up and order. There's no emotional pull, no "fear of loss of gain" as one of John's old ad agency buddies used to say.
• The landing page screams for an early-in-the-letter Johnson Box round up of the order options. Let the prospects know what's coming. What are we selling? What are they getting for free?