Hey Jim,

It sounds like what's happening is people are getting the track without confirming.  The trick here is that you want them to confirm first, otherwise they get the track and disregard the confirmation part.

So definitely do what John is suggesting by having a thank you page with explicit instructions.

"Great!  I just sent you your special download link.  Check your email now and click the link to get your free track!"

I'm also thinking that people might be a bit confused too because your page auto-plays a track, so maybe people are commenting without even signing up at all.

Also, I was just looking at your page and I think you'll see better results if you really make the instructions above your sign-up form a little more prominent.  It may sound like over-kill, but the more specific you can be with what you want people to do, the more likely they are to do it.  "Hey!  Sign Up Here For Your Free Track"

People will be like...  "Oh, okay!"

Seriously  🙂

Nice job.

Hey Jim,

My first question is "How many people have come to your page since you required the download?"

You need to know that exact number. Even with a page that converts badly, it should be at least 10%.

I have seen too many people send 5 people there and be disappointed by results. Don't make any conclusions until you send 200 unique people there which you can track and confirm.

You said that people were signing up before, just not confirming because you were giving them the song to soon. That suggests that it's not the squeeze page but rather the confirmation process.

I signed up and went through the whole process. If I'm to be blunt... I think your squeeze page looks fine but the copy could be improved a little and instructions could be a tad clearer. You'd be surprised how much help some people need. You might also lead with your "if you like" headline and then follow up with the free download info as a sub headline. It puts the benefit first and that is typically more powerful. The instructions on your thank you page could also be a little more detailed. But the thing that needs to be changed right away is that your confirmation email headline says "confirm your subscription". People are afraid of subscriptions because they often cost money. Change the headline to something like... "Response Required: Please confirm that you would like to receive your free download."

In the body of the email you just say "now that we know you are human click here". I realize this is along the lines of what I said above, but I was expecting you to expand on that. It sounds a bit odd with just that one sentence. Try something more like... Thanks for requesting your free download of "------song name-----". It's just one click away. Please confirm that I have your permission to send you the download link by clicking the link below...", or something like that. Step by step, clear, and make sure it doesn't make teh person nervous that they just stepped into a big old pile of spam.

Hope I'm not coming off as negative. Just trying to be direct. And remember, this is just one guys opinion.

Jim P said:

In general I don't really like the whole process, I myself would not go and check my email etc... I think it should be that they just fill in there email and get the song, but this does not register them in aweber.

I am still wait for google analytics to kick in, so I don't how many people have landed on the page, but I did get two sign up so far, and this was due to Twitter traffic.

I know this stuff seems counter-intuitive at first Jim, but you can't lose sight of the goal here... which is actually selling music.

You can set up aweber so that people  don't have to confirm, but here's the risk you run when you do that...

Some people are "form-fillers".  They do it for the sake of doing it.  They may take your free track, but if for some reason they don't like it, they won't open any of your emails and they may even go as far as to report you for spam (I know, get a life right?).  When you force them to double opt-in, you are asking them to actually go inside their email account and PROVE that they own it.  Now this doesn't mean that they will like your music or open any future emails, but you won't lose your aweber account for spamming people.

Secondly, people will not usually buy your music the first time you offer the cd to them.  Some of them will have to see your offer a few times before they go ahead and buy it.  This is why having permission to email them is sooooooo important.  It assures you that you will have the opportunity to put your cd offer in front of them over and over again until they buy it.

Obviously not everyone is going to give up their contact information... that's to be expected.  You'll find however, a good number of people will have no problem with that at all.  And if your messages are engaging without being totally self-serving, people will be open to the interaction with you and actually be appreciative of it.

Permission-based email marketing allows you to not only control the interaction with your subscribers, but also build a mutually rewarding relationship with them.  The ones who buy from you will be more likely to buy from you again and again and they are the people you will want to focus your energy on the most.  It's proven itself time and time again to be true.

Hang in there and just keep sending people over to the page!  You already got two, who's to stop you from having 200... 2000?  🙂

Jim P said:

In general I don't really like the whole process, I myself would not go and check my email etc... I think it should be that they just fill in there email and get the song, but this does not register them in aweber.

I am still wait for google analytics to kick in, so I don't how many people have landed on the page, but I did get two sign up so far, and this was due to Twitter traffic.

Hey Jim,

The process may seem a bit cumbersome but it hasn't ever proven to be much of an issue. About 80 - 90% of the people who enter their info follow through. Like Steve said, you CAN set it to be a single opt in where they don't have to check their email. But it doesn't establish an audit trail, you won't be able to move your list to another company that requires double opt-ins, and over time your open rates will go down as your reputation with the email providers diminishes. Still, there are times to consider this. I sometimes do it. But for now I would strongly recommend the double opt in.

You mentioned above that you are running paid ads. Tread carefully. If you are having trouble with your conversions it's best to start with free methods. You throw money at your offer AFTER it converts and you have some data to work with.

There is nothing wrong with paid ads now, I just want you to be clear on the risk.

Hang in there Jim.  Take some solace in the fact that you are ten steps ahead on the curve compared to most of your competitors, just by knowing what a squeeze page is and does.

The rest is just tweaking it until it yields results you are happy with.  Don't be afraid to ask questions, that's what this forum is for.  The "share your music" forum also has links to the squeeze pages of the other artists in here.  Look at some examples of the copy to see which type of communication resonates the most with you.

It's nice to have someone else's work to use as a template, but in the end this is about communicating with an audience, in your own voice.

Like John mentioned, once you get your squeeze page to convert a little better, then paid ads may be a smash success for you.