Whats your process when building a salesletter / landing page

[absbica]

What is your process?

Do you use a WYWIWYG editor like dreamweaver, frontpage, etc...?

Do you spend your time in Design mode where you basically don't manually touch the code at all?

Does it matter to you what the code looks like behind the scenes?

I want to get a feel for the typical process a WF Im'er goes through to build a salesletter / landing page. Do you just outsource it?

I manually code every site I work on, but I get a feeling that is NOT the case for most IM'ers.

any input you can provide is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Bryan

[Steve Grish]

Hey Bryan,

Generally I will first conceptualize my design on paper, creating a some what storyboard of how I would like the user to interact with my site.

Certain areas I highlight more if I want the read to be attracted ot it more and use some sort of visual media to bring their focus there.

After that I usually design in flash and dreamweaver, from top down on the site and left to right. Breaking th site into sections and coding each section then moving onto the next following my storyboard.

[absbica]

Ok, so you code yourself. Do you hand code or let the WYSIWYG do the work.

[jbsmith]

Hand code only - it's just what I've gotten used to.

Often start with templates - either my own, purchased, etc...

Not sure it really matters if you hand code or use GUI - main thing is that you execute.

Jeff

[absbica]

Well, there are benefits to hand coding such as control, seo, load page optimization, etc...

[ashwinsatyanarayana]

I am a newbie, but I did my landing page all by myself.

It's easy enough, you just have to DO it. I used a free WYSIWYG editor like NVU.

Copy is the most important part - even if it's a landing page (I am not sure how my copy came out, I still need to work on it).

Set up landing page > set-up auto responder > promote > build list> Send follow-up mails> just keep doing it> send emails with affiliate links in it> Rinse and Repeat.

Should work...That's what I learnt, at least.

[Maria Gudelis]

I often start with templates, and have a outsourced person do a final lookover to clean up code - make it 'faster on load' etc.

What I do first though is an Eric Louviere trick he taught me..I look at competitors websites, CPA squeeze pages, and write down the 'benefits' they have in their salesletter to use as a swipe file for my sales letter - speeds up the writing big time!

[absbica]

thanks everyone.

The gist of the post was to find out if you feel the technological piece to building a landing page is frustrating, if the process seems complex, repetitious, etc... or if you outsource do you do it so you don't have to deal with the headaches. If you could do it easily without outsourcing, would you?

[Loren Woirhaye]

I'm not a very advanced hand-coder bu WYSIWYGs are a PITA
to make things look like you want in many cases. You still
have to know how to fix things with hand-coding for cross-
browser compatibility.

Anyway. I write in aword processor or notepad. I write a lot.
I emphasize writing with passionate enthusiasm. That's hard
to fake or put into a dreary letter later. If the subject bores
you you'll have to find an angle that is exciting about it in
my experience.

I just get all my ideas down. Then I edit and do HTML and
grapics later.

[absbica]

Thanks Loren, good stuff.

[camforbes]

I have a pretty standard workflow that I use.

I built my own template with an external stylesheet.

I start with the template then drop in my info in the container <div> (I use CSS exlusively, never tables)... If I need to make changes or edit the layout I mock it up in Fireworks and slice it up then load the images in the CSS files.

Typically I handcode all my work in TextMate, then drop it into CS3 to clean it up and validate.