7 Lessons From the 10,000 Pushup Challenge

10,000 push-ups.

Sounds like A LOT of freakin’ push-ups, doesn’t it?!

Sounded like a lot to me too when I first heard about an acquaintance, Brian, who shared his experience of doing a 10,000 Push-up Challenge… knocking out 10,000 push-ups within a year.

When Brian started his Challenge he hadn’t done a push-up in years, was horribly out of shape and had serious shoulder issues. After consulting with a physical therapist on technique so he wouldn’t damage his shoulders even more, he set out on his goal of completing 10,000 push-ups.

The Challenge turned out to be a HUGE success for Brian. A few months in his shoulders were perfectly healed and he went on to knock out all 10,000 in about 10 months.

But that’s not the end of his story…

With his newfound upper body strength and pain-free shoulders, he has now taken up a new hobby – rock climbing – which he’d never been able to pull off before the Challenge and he is more active now than he’s been in years.

After hearing his story, something about the 10K Push-up Challenge intrigued me and I thought I’d do it too.

I mentioned this idea to my 12 year old and, to my surprise and delight, she thought it was a great idea and wanted to do it with me.

So on February 8, 2015 we set up a spreadsheet in Google Docs to track our progress and started our Challenge.

And on September 23, 2015 – a little over 7 months later – we reached our goal of 10,000 push-ups!

Here are some of the lessons learned along the way that are just as applicable to business as they are to our Challenge…

1. Break big goals down into smaller parts

When I mention doing 10,000 push-ups to people the response was almost universal. Their eyes would go wide, they’d give out a little chuckle and say something along the lines of “That’s a lot of push-ups. Good luck to you on that one!”

And, yes, 10,000 does sound like a lot of push-ups… until you break it down into smaller units.

To knock out 10,000 push-ups in a year, you need to average about 30 a day. That doesn’t sound so bad, does it?

You can even break things down further and think of it as doing 3 sets of 10 push-ups each day. Surely you can fit 10 push-ups in just after you get out of bed in the morning, in between responding to emails, after putting the kids to bed?

When you break it down like that 30 a day starts to sound pretty easy. And, at least for us, it was pretty easy in practice too so a few months into the Challenge we decided to shoot for 50 a day. We continued at that pace for the duration which is why we finished 138 days before our 1 year deadline!

2. All motivation is not created equal

Say you’re in a jungle and a tiger is chasing you. What are going to do? Yeah… run like hell! Your motivation here is survival and getting away from the tiger.

Now what happens as you (hopefully) put more distance between you and the tiger? Well, the further away you are, the less motivated you are to keep running.

This scenario is an example of push motivation where your motivation comes from running AWAY from something. Trouble is, once that something is removed (or lessened), your motivation wanes.

Now let’s say you’re wandering around the desert and have no water. You’re parched and desperately need a drink. Off in the distance you see luxury hotel with water fountains, waterfalls, and a giant water cooler at the entrance just waiting for you!

What are you going to do here? Yeah… run like hell again!

But here’s the difference. In this case, the closer you get to your ultimate goal, the faster you run.

This is an example of pull motivation where you’re working TOWARDS something.

Our Push-up Challenge was based on pull motivation. The closer we got to our goal, the more excited we were and the more push-ups we wanted to do.

Pull motivation is generally more effective than push motivation because it’s much better to be working toward your goal than running away from something (fear, avoiding pain, etc.).

What’s motivating you?

3. Having specific, measurable goals and a deadline

This shouldn’t be a new concept to anyone yet we so often fall into the trap of setting soft, mushy goals.

A big part of the reason we succeeded with our Challenge was because we had a specific number of push-ups we were working toward and a specific deadline to do them by. (Now the deadline was one we ended up obliterating so may have not been ambitious enough, but it was a deadline nonetheless.)

I’d tried to start exercise programs in the past but never stuck with them. Part of the reason this one was a success is because nothing focuses your attention quite like having a deadline to accomplish your specific, measurable goals by.

4. Get an accountability partner

I could not have a better accountability partner than my daughter. During the entire Challenge we were constantly celebrating our progress, encouraging one another and cheering each other on.

There were days I didn’t want to do any push-ups or thought about giving up completely. But as soon as I thought about her, quitting wasn’t an option.

Especially if you’re a solopreneur, things can be mighty lonely. If you don’t have someone who understands what you’re going through, can serve as a mentor/sounding board and hold you accountable… find one. It’s much harder to accomplish what you want to achieve when you’re doing it in isolation.

Having an accountability partner (or mastermind group) to keep you on task and motivated to keep moving toward your goals makes a HUGE difference.

5. Habits are hard to break

This is true of bad habits and good ones.

We’ve been doing push-ups pretty much on a daily basis for over 7 months. It now feels weird NOT to do push-ups at this point so, even though we met our challenge, we’re still doing our push-ups every day.

6. It sets the stage for you to accomplish bigger and better things

10,000 push-ups sounded like a really intimidating number when we first started. Now it doesn’t seem like that big a deal.

In fact, we’re talking about doing another Challenge where we knock out 10,000 push-ups in half the time. And/or we may add in some other exercises like squats, sit ups, etc. to the mix.

When you accomplish something that was originally quite intimidating, it alters your perception of what you’re capable of.

The big, hairy, audacious goals you set for yourself today can seem like child’s play 6 months or a year from now. If you want to grow and accomplish bigger and better things in business and your personal life, setting and accomplishing bigger and better goals is how you get there. You might be surprised at what you can achieve.

7. The ultimate payoff might not be what you expect.

Honestly, I’m not quite sure what I thought the payoff from the 10K Push-up Challenge would be. Partly it just sounded cool. Partly I thought it would get me exercising regularly.

And, if I’m honest, I guess I did have thoughts of an Adonis-like physique by the end of it. (While my arm muscles have gotten a bit bigger, for a skinny guy like me the effect is kind of like tying a knot in a fishing line!)

But in the end, the biggest thrill of it all for me was going through it with my daughter. Seeing the pride, joy and excitement on her face was the best payoff I could ask for.

Are You Trapped In This Imaginary Cage?

Mohini was a regal white tiger who was the first of her species to come to the United States. This being pre-Siegfried and Roy times, her striking snowy white coat with black and dark brown stripes was unlike anything people in the U.S. had ever seen.

And she was feisty beast too. While being presented to President Eisenhower in 1960 she roared and lunged toward him (while in her travel cage) making the President noticeably recoil at her fierce display.

After all the pomp and circumstance, Mohini went to live at the National Zoo in Washington DC. Despite her celebrity status, for many of her years there her home was the old Lion House where she perpetually paced around her 12 by 12 foot cage with iron bars and a cement floor.

Not happy with the conditions their star attraction was relegated to, the National Zoo built a new enclosure for Mohini. This new expansive space resembled a tiger’s native habitat covering several acres filled with hills, vegetation and a large pond for her to swim in.

When the day arrived for Mohini to be released into the enclosure, a large crowd gathered at the zoo expecting to see her happily bound around her new digs. The crowd, however, went home disappointed.

Because upon release into her new habitat Mohini headed straight for a perimeter wall at the edge of the enclosure. And there she remained for most of her life perpetually pacing – eventually wearing down a 12 by 12 foot patch in the grass.

Now if you think this post is about our own limiting beliefs which hold us back… you’re wrong. While that is a battle we all fight, this post is about something even worse.

What is it? I’ll give you some examples using things I’ve heard business owners say recently.

I’m not interested in AdWords cuz my brother-in-law who’s “good with computers” says it doesn’t work.

I see all my competitors on Facebook and Twitter so I guess that means I need to focus my efforts there.

“Everyone” knows direct mail doesn’t work anymore. You should only invest in marketing on the Internet.

So did you guess what’s worse than letting your own limiting beliefs hold you back?

It’s when you let the limiting beliefs of OTHERS box you in and limit what you do to move your business forward.

What assumptions about marketing (or any aspect of your life for that matter) are you making based on the uninformed, untested, or unproven thought patterns of others?

Now I’m not telling you to never listen or follow the lead of others. But when you do, go in with your eyes wide open and make sure they are someone truly worth listening to or following.

I recently heard a highly successful marketer give some advice to a young pup trying to start his first online business… “Imitate, then innovate.”

So yes… if you see someone who is successful (and you KNOW they truly are successful… not just someone blowing hot air up your shorts or trapped by their own biases, lack of knowledge or misery) then by all means study what they’re doing and incorporate as much as you can into your own marketing.

But even if you find those people worth imitating, don’t just stop there. Don’t limit yourself.

Because that’s just a starting point. Once you get some traction based off of imitating them it’s time to INNOVATE. Test new ideas, concepts and strategies to break out and through so you can move on to bigger and better things.

We handicap ourselves enough battling (or being oblivious to) our own limiting beliefs. Don’t let the limiting beliefs of others lock you in an imaginary cage and further limit what you are capable of accomplishing!

This Is Why Your Marketing Should Stink

Raw sewage, stale vomit and skunk spray.

That’s just a few of the ways people describe the smell of the durian… a large, yellowish-green, thorny husk covered fruit that’s popular in southeast Asia. Its imposing look and strong odor have earned it the title “King of the Fruits”.

Yet despite its horrific smell (which is so overpowering it’s BANNED from many hotels, airlines and even Singapore’s rapid transit system!), there are legions of devoted durian lovers who can’t get enough. Cuz evidently, if you can get past the smell, it tastes amazing.

British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace described it like this…

“A rich custard highly flavoured with almonds gives the best general idea of it, but there are occasional wafts of flavour that call to mind cream-cheese, onion-sauce, sherry-wine, and other incongruous dishes. Then there is a rich glutinous smoothness in the pulp which nothing else possesses, but which adds to its delicacy. It is neither acid nor sweet nor juicy; yet it wants neither of these qualities, for it is in itself perfect. It produces no nausea or other bad effect, and the more you eat of it the less you feel inclined to stop.”

Durian is one of those things you either love or hate. There’s no in between.

Just read some of these impassioned descriptions…

Novelist Anthony Burgess: “It’s like eating sweet raspberry blancmange in the lavoratory”. (Blancmange is a type of sweet dessert.)

Chef and TV personality Anthony Bourdain: “Its taste can only be described as… indescribable, something you will either love or despise… Your breath will smell as if you’d been French-kissing your dead grandmother.”

Travel and food writer Richard Sterling: “Its odor is best described as pig-sh!t, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock. It can be smelled from yards away.”

As you can tell, love it or hate it, one thing’s for sure… the durian evokes STRONG emotions in everyone who comes across one.

Which brings us to the curious case of Songpol Somsri, a Thai government scientist.

Somsri had a crazy idea… what if you could make a durian that keeps the amazing taste so many love yet eliminates the odor so many despise?

He worked on this idea for 20 years and finally succeeded. In 2007 he bred a variety of durian with a smell no more offensive than a banana.

A huge success, right?

Well, actually it was kind of a bust. In fact, Somsri’s durian caused an international UPROAR!!

Here was the problem…

The people who avoided durians still didn’t want anything to do with it – smell or no smell.

And the raving durian fans thought it was sacrilege to eliminate the smell that makes a durian a, well, durian.

Horrified durian lovers described the odorless variety as “the beginning of the end” and that “making a non-smelly durian is like a thornless rose… it’s really cutting out the soul.”

Songpol’s smell-less durian reminds me of most small business’ ads and websites… they’ve got no soul.

There’s absolutely nothing special or unique about them to make prospects take notice. It’s all the same old, boring meaningless drivel.

Songpol may have had greater success had he bred a durian that stunk even more than the original! And your ads and website may benefit from creating more of a stink too.

How?

• Take a controversial stand.
• Have a unique voice.
• Get emotional in your copy.

Sure, you may turn some people off but I’ll betcha the ones you do weren’t your ideal customers anyway.

Creating more of a stink in your marketing doesn’t attract customers – it attracts FANS. People who’ll be more loyal, spend more money with you and be more fun to work with.

So next time you sit down to write copy for your business – aim to create a big stink. Doing so may very well bear you more of the sweet fruits of success!

A Poem For My Daughter (And All Entrepreneurs)

Homework. Ugh.

It’s been about 20 years since I’ve had to worry about homework. I thought by this point in my life I was free and clear.

But no.

A few weeks ago, my 11 year old’s teacher gave her class a homework assignment… that had to be completed by the parents!

The homework was to read the poem “Mother To Son” by Langston Hughes together, discuss it and then the parents had to write a poem in response.

So that’s what we did.

No word on what kind of grade I got on my poem yet, but I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out. And, no big surprise, while it was written for my daughter, it is VERY relevant to entrepreneurs.

In the interest of doing something completely different in this newsletter, I decided to share it with all of you.

First, so you have the context for it, here’s Langston Hughes’ poem, Mother To Son:

Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor—
Bare.
But all the time
I’se been a-climbin’ on,
And reachin’ landin’s,
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
So, boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you set down on the steps.
‘Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.
Don’t you fall now—
For I’se still goin’, honey,
I’se still climbin’,
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

Here’s my response. I’m no Langston Hughes for sure, but hope you enjoy!

The Crystal Stair

I tried to climb a crystal stair once.
And, you know what?
It ain’t that hard. Kinda boring actually.

You know what stairs are better to climb?
The beat up, creaky ones with missing steps, no railing and heaping piles of garbage blocking your path.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s not easy. It’s not fun. And you’ll want to turn back along the way.

But, if you stick with it.
Oh, if you stick with it,you’ll climb to heights people on the crystal stair can’t even fathom.

Now part of me would love to give you an elevator that goes straight to the top of that crystal stair.
An elevator that protects you.
Keeps you safe.
Guarantees you’ll make it to the top.

But I know that wouldn’t be fair… to you.

It would rob you of seeing for yourself all that you’re truly made of.
Of facing the challenges, problems and setbacks along the way.
And of experiencing the sweet satisfaction of kicking them in the teeth while you keep on moving higher and higher.

The elevator would rob you of seeing for yourself what you’re truly capable of.
And of realizing the massive potential I see every time I look at you.

So let others try to climb the crystal stair.
The truth is they don’t go that high.

You’re better than that.
You’re up for the challenge.
And you’re going to be so much stronger when you reach the top.

I tried to climb a crystal stair.
But I found the people on the crystal stair never accomplish much.
That’s why I only tried to climb it… once.

Living in the Moment

This article has little to do with business or marketing. It’s WAY more important than those things.

It’s a 100{a950ddf0e7a23367a7e0f17377d3737fa8b8b1820bab9af7071f88951eb5d84e} true story that happened 10 years ago this month. It’s touching. It’s funny. And it’s about one of the most important life lessons I’ve learned (yet something I still struggle with constantly).

Hope you enjoy it and it’s something you take to heart as we head into the holiday season…

It was Thanksgiving Eve 2003.

At an age when most infants were sleeping soundly through the night, our 9 month old daughter wasn’t.

She’d been suffering from recurring ear infections for 3 long months. She was fine during the day. But at night the pressure would build up in her little ears and every few hours she’d wake up screaming in pain.

My wife and I took shifts going into our daughter’s room each night. The usual drill was: pick her up, calm her down, put her back in her crib and then go back to sleep for a few hours until she’d wake up screaming again.

This went on night after lonnngg night.

It was torture.

On this night, our daughter went to sleep around 8PM. And, after doing some chores, having a snack and watching some TV, I turned in around 11PM.

Not an hour later I was awoken… not by the baby, but by our neighbor’s damn dogs.

They were yappy little things and our neighbors had a bad habit of leaving them outside early in the morning and late at night.

But this night was even worse than normal.

Over the next 2 hours the following pattern repeated itself…

The dogs would bark. There’d be silence for about 5 – 10 minutes. I’d settle down thinking the dogs had finally gone inside, and then, just as I was about to drift off to sleep, the damn dogs would start barking again.

By about 2AM I’d had it. I finally was about to drag myself out of bed, find our neighbor’s phone number and give them a piece of my mind. But just as I was about to move, I heard the unmistakable sound of their back door slamming shut and I knew the dogs were finally inside where they belonged.

Being quite worked by this point, it took me a good 20 or 30 minutes to calm down. And then, just as I felt myself mere seconds away from that elusive slumber, my daughter, who’d been sleeping longer than she had in months, woke up crying.

Now, admittedly, I was not exactly what you would call a happy camper when I had to go in to get my daughter at night. Not that I was upset with her, or anyone else for that matter… I was just generally a bit pissed off at the fact that I wasn’t asleep at 2:30 in the morning, night after sleepless night.

And while my initial reaction on this night was to be generally ticked off, it quickly turned into a sense of humor about the situation. The night was already shot so there was no point getting even more worked up. So I figured I might as well make the best of it.

As I lumbered into my daughter’s room, my thoughts turned to an email I’d received a few days earlier. It was from a friend whose son was about the same age as my daughter. The email included an essay by the author Anna Quindlen entitled, “On Being Mom.”

Even though it was written from a mother’s point of view, its message applies to anyone involved with raising a child. Here’s an excerpt that gets to the heart of the essay and is the part that was running through my mind that night:

“But the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make while doing this. I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of the three of them sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4 and 1. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.”

So a little after 2:30 in the morning I figured, what the hell, let’s take a stab at this living in the moment thing!

I picked my daughter up out of her crib and dropped down into the rocking chair with her in my arms. Almost immediately she stopped crying and fell back to sleep.

Normally I would’ve waited a few minutes, put her back in her crib and gone back to bed. But not this night. On this night I decided to live in the moment.

The room was dark except for a tiny sliver of light escaping from the crack in her closet door where we kept the light on.

In the dim light I studied her tiny little fingers. I studied her precious little face and the funny facial contortions she made in her sleep. I studied the little fuzzy white onesie she was wearing with the three yellow ducks and the words “Quack, Quack, Quack.”

And I took in the nearly complete silence of the early morning. No cars, no planes, no birds, no one walking by outside. Just the low hum of the fan in the other room.

It was just my baby girl and me.

After what seemed like a good 45 minutes, I looked up at the clock on the dresser and it was only 2:45. Barely 15 minutes had passed!

I couldn’t believe it. It seemed living in the moment actually could slow down time.

I can’t tell you how excited I was about this!

I started thinking about how powerful living in the moment is. I thought about how fortunate I was to have discovered this little trick so early on in her life. And I thought maybe, just maybe, by living in the moment more her childhood wouldn’t blow by as quickly as the parents of older children always said it would.

I was so excited and was enjoying my newfound power so much that, despite being dead tired, I decided to stay there with her a little longer.

After what felt like another 20 minutes or so I looked at the clock again.

Still 2:45. WOW!! I thought I must be getting even better with practice.

I actually made time stand still!

But then my overtired brain started to grind a little. Time can’t stand still. Surely at least a few minutes had passed since I last looked at the clock. There’s no way it could still be 2:45.

Thinking my eyes were playing tricks on me, I peered harder through the darkness at the clock sitting on the dresser. It definitely said 2:45. But something didn’t seem right.

After a few moments of staring at the clock, I thought it seemed REALLY quiet in the room. And it was at that point I suddenly realized that the second hand on the clock wasn’t moving.

Time actually was standing still – but it wasn’t because I’d been living in the moment, it was because the batteries in the clock (which we’d gotten as a wedding present 3 years earlier) had just died!

When I realized what was going on I immediately stood up, plopped my daughter back down in her crib, and went to bed.

Now this used to be where the story ended. It was just a funny story I’d share with friends.

However, in the years since that night I’ve come to the following realization…

When I think back over my daughter’s life so far, there are very few memories I can recall so clearly, so vividly and so fondly as this one.

And 10 ridiculously fast years later I can still remember her little duck pajamas, her tiny fingers wrapped around mine, and the joy of sitting there in near darkness and silence holding this precious little girl in my arms.

As entrepreneurs, we can’t always live in the moment. We need to plan, strategize and focus on the future.

But we often get so caught up in looking towards the future, we don’t stop and live in the here and now.

We don’t stop to think about how far we’ve come.

We don’t take time to celebrate the little victories and achievements we have every day.

We don’t take as much time as we should to set work aside, turn off our smartphones, tablets and laptops to enjoy and give our full attention to our friends and families.

So, this holiday season, take some time to live in the moment and fully enjoy what you have.

Doing this may not make time stand still, but it can certainly help you savor some of life’s more important (and even not so important) moments.

People As Sheep, The Power of Words and a Brilliant Bald Guy

Each month I come across some brilliant videos, quotes, books, articles, etc. (and plenty of crappy ones too!).

Here are three that particularly resonated with me, in a good way, this month…

An Article: The Power of Words

Stuck on what to do with your website?

Thinking of changing the layout? Adding some cool graphics? Did you see some fancy bells and whistles on another site you think would be cool on yours?

Justin Jackson lays out what you REALLY need to be focusing on with incredible simplicity and clarity. It’s great perspective that a lot of business owners and marketers desperately need.

Read his concise, yet powerful, article here.

A Quote: People Are Like Sheep

Claude Hopkins is one of the true pioneers of direct response advertising. Ask any direct marketer worth their weight in salt and they’ve read his books Scientific Advertising and My Life in Advertising… many times.

The following quote is from My Life in Advertising…

“People are like sheep. They cannot judge values, nor can you and I. We judge things largely by others’ impressions, by popular favor. We go with the crowd. So the most effective thing I have ever found in advertising is the trend of the crowd.

That is a factor not to be overlooked. People follow styles and preferences. We rarely decide for ourselves, because we don’t know the facts. But when we see the crowd taking any certain direction, we are much inclined to go with them.”

Claude Hopkins wrote these words in 1927. And they are just as true now as they were then. The only thing that’s changed is the ways that are available to demonstrate the trend of the crowd behind your company including…

• Reviews
• Video testimonials
• LinkedIn connections/recommendations
• Twitter followers
• Facebook Likes/Wall activity/Shares

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

I’ve said before that the web has not changed the fundamentals of effective marketing. What it’s changed are the TOOLS you have at your disposal to take marketing strategies that have worked for decades and execute them in new ways.

Social Proof is programmed into our brains. We’re all afraid of making bad decisions and will often rely heavily on the trend of the crowd to guide us in making decisions.

Adding elements of Social Proof to your site puts the power of the crowd behind you and can heavily influence a prospect’s decision to do business with you or not.

So use the tools at your disposal to add social proof to your marketing efforts and use them often!

And a Video: A Brilliant Bald Guy

I’m sure most of you have heard of marketing genius (and fellow Smokin’ Hot Piece of Brain Candy) Seth Godin.

There’s really not much to add about this video from his TED Talk in 2003. He pretty much covers it all.

But since my main newsletter article this month covers the importance of research, I want to highlight one quote from Seth’s talk…

“Find out what people want and give it to them.”

And how do you find out what people want? Observation and research.

Here’s Seth talking about giving people what they want and being remarkable…

Home Page vs. Landing Page vs. Squeeze Page

Most industries have their own jargon…words the “insiders” know and use. While they’re helpful for communicating with other insiders, it often the rest of us scratching our heads.

We Internet marketers are as guilty as any. We often throw terms around, assuming our clients/prospects know what we mean, but they really don’t have a clue!

A common one that trips people up a lot is the difference between Home pages, Landing pages and Squeeze pages.

In fact, a forum of fairly experienced online marketers I frequent recently had a flurry of posts on this topic. It struck me because, even among this group, there’s confusion on the difference between Landing pages and Squeeze pages.

If even experienced online marketers have trouble understanding the differences, there’s a good chance you do too.

So here’s the difference between the three…

Home Page

You probably know what this one is already. The Home page of your site is the one people land on when they type in your URL.

Some types www.yourwebsite.com into their browser and BOOM, they’re on your Home page. It’s the main page that usually provides visitors with an overview of your business.

Landing Page

A Landing page is the first page of your site a visitor lands on. It could be the Home page. But it could be any other page on your site.

When running an AdWords campaign, you get to decide what page a searcher lands on after clicking on your ad.

For example, say you own a Sporting Goods store and have an AdWords ad promoting golf clubs.  In this case, you want the Landing page for your ad to be the page on your site that’s about your great selection of golf clubs.

Landing pages should have a much tighter focus than your home page. They focus on a particular product or service (or a highly related line of products/services) you offer.

And it should be very clear about what action you want the visitor to take…

• Sign up for something (newsletter, whitepaper, etc.)
• Buy something
• Share something (like an article or offer with a friend via email or social media)
• Give you feedback (comment, send you an email etc.)

Squeeze Page

A Squeeze page is the most specific of the three.

It focuses on an offer for ONE product or service. And it’s all about the ONE action you want the visitor to take when they land on that page. Usually it’s either making a purchase or opting in to something by giving you their email address.

Often a Squeeze page is so concerned with getting the visitor to take that one action there won’t be any navigation bar or other links on the page. The visitor only has two options…take the action you want them to or leave the site.

(And, yes, a Squeeze page could be your Landing page…the page that people first land on when they arrive at your site.)

The most important thing to understand when it comes to all this is…

The Home page of your site makes a poor Landing page. Whenever you can control things, get people to the Landing page on your site that’s most relevant to what they’re looking for.

Highly targeted Landing pages and Squeeze pages are essential for highly converting sites.

So think about…

• How people get to your site (AdWords, Organic traffic, Email, Direct Mail, Social, etc.)

• Why they’re coming to your site (Looking for information, Wanting to Buy Something, Solving a Problem, etc.)

…and make sure your Landing page is as highly relevant to where they’re coming from and what they want as possible.

Words That Click Chosen As One of Best Marketing Firms in St. Louis