Squeeze pages are a must have component. for any website that needs to grow a client base. (Every website then)
What are squeeze pages? They are nothing more than a page you set up offering something for free in exchange for a name and an email address.
When setting up a squeeze / landing page do not try to sell your products, Give away a gift that relates to your product.
This way you only attract people who are interested in what you are selling.
You will of course need a reliable autoresponder to collect the names and email address's, and to send out the download link for whatever you are giving away.
Only then should you start mailing them about the products (Or Service) you are selling.
That being said, You should not just bombard them with sales letters or they will just unsubscribe.
I have purchased products online where I also had to subscribe, Its incredible the amount of marketers that send out 1 or 2 emails almost everyday.
Even if you are a ClickBank affiliate it pays to build your own squeeze / landing page. Then you can get the customers details for yourself before forwarding them on to the affiliate sales page.
Some websites put the Opt-in page as there index page and will not let you in to the site unless you subscribe.
There are different reasons for doing this. If the site is a membership site subscribing normally allows you access as a free member.
Other sites do this to get your first name so every page you visit has your name on the pages making your experience more personal. (They still have your details in their autoresponder though.)
There are other ways to get people to subscribe. You can use a floating pop-up ad offering your free gift or newspaper subscription. Another option is to put a subscription box on each page through out your site.
Personally I think you stand more chance of getting subscribers if you have a good squeeze page / landing page / capture page or what ever you want to call it.
You should endeavor to create at least 2 or 3 pages so you can check out which works best. There are numerous websites out there that allow you to build capture pages just Google "Squeeze page makers" and you will get almost 3,000 pages come up.
All top marketers will tell you "Test, Test then Test again.
There is no need to go over the top as most times simple works best.
Also you must be prepared to send an awe full lot of traffic to your pages because it is getting harder to get people to part with there info.
Before you start sending traffic to your page make sure its all working properly by subscribing yourself. This makes sure you have your autoresponder set up correctly.
It is essential that the leads that opt-in to receive a free gift receive that item quickly, and that all leads that are captured are regularly followed up with to convert them into clients. (By regularly I do not mean every day.)