Creating Your Lead Generation Web Site

If you haven't written your lead generation web site... why the heck not? As a copywriter, it's one of the simplest ways to establish a regular source of leads.

And if you think it's complicated, let me assure you. It's much easier than you may think.

Here's what you need to do:

1. Write a sales letter on why a prospect should hire you.
2. Code it in HTML so you can post it on the Internet.
3. Register a domain name at GoDaddy.com.
4. Get a $3.99 a month hosting account at GoDaddy.com.
5. FTP your sales letter to your web site.

That's it. Now a couple clarifications.

You can write your letter in Word and then learn how to hand code in HTML. That's what I did. I learned HTML at W3Schools.com. Then I hand coded in TextPad, my favorite text editor.

Or you can write your letter in a WYSIWYG editor like NVU, which you can download free at NVU.com. (By the way, that long funky acronym stands for "What You See Is What You Get.")

Or, last but not least, you can write your letter in Word, then hire someone to code it and upload it for you. I posted an ad on Craig's List last week and got flooded with over 50 responses from web designers. My guess: it would cost you between $50 and $100 to get a good web designer to do the coding for you.

I use GoDaddy for just about all my domains and hosting. It's really cheap and really easy.

After you have your web page, domain, and hosting account, the only thing left is to upload your page to your web site. This is called "FTP," which stands for "File Transfer Protocol." I prefer Coffee Cup's FTP program because it's so simple. There's a 30-day free trial. It's only $34 if you decide to keep it.

Once your site is online, you can send traffic to it and capture leads.

Oh, and you don't necessarily need a web form to capture lead information. You can have them call you. This is easier to just get things rolling. You can figure out how to create a form later.

For traffic, get a Google Adwords account and start paying for clicks. Or submit articles at EzineArticles.com. Or post on forums and include your web site in your signature file. Or publish a press release. Etc.

One last note: After you have your web site up, you can participate in the Great CD Giveaway by adding a simple link to my blog at the bottom of your site. ;-)

Any questions? Just post a comment below.