Link to Squeeze Page VS Optin Box in Sidebar

You do need to split test this and see what works best with your audience.

Having the opt-in in the sidebar means people don't need to leave the page to become subscriber, whereas if they need to follow a link you need to start over with marketing to them. Having said that, a squeeze page should convert well once visitors are on there.

Have you considered a popup opt-in form as another method to test?

Why don't you try pop up form as well which allow you to have more space to write to induce them to opt in into your list?

TC

Optin Box at the side bar

If you can create an optin form of the same quality than that of a SQ page

Although it may not have a massive effect ,but some people may be a bit lazy and they would want to optin there and then

Having said your optin/SQ page will decide the conversions ultimately

Chyanit

I think so, 100% yes. But i believe you can get an even higher conversion rate if you have the opt-in form on the sidebar... along with a hover ad opt-in form that appears whenever someone visits your site for the first time. You can get one from Aweber if that's your autoresponder.

Considering mobile is increasingly becoming the top traffic source, I think it doesn't make much sense to use sidebars since they won't show on a mobile device anyways.

As a rule I never depend on just an opt-in form in a sidebar. On my blog I have an image of a gift wrapped box with the following...

Special Product

This Week's Featured
FREEBIE

FREE DOWNLOAD

Then a "Download Now" button.

I have about a hundred different squeeze pages in a sequential rotator, so when the "Download Now" button is clicked, it goes to a different squeeze page giving away a product related to a product that I'm also advertising in the free product.

On the second page of the free report I have an advertisement for a free ecourse that takes the reader to another squeeze page for my ecourse that naturally includes a lot of content as well as links to some of my other products.

My goal is to get people on as many different lists that I can. I have over 300 segmented lists.

My number one rule is... Everything I do online must in someway build my list.

A squeeze page can supply much more information giving the reader a very good reason to fill out the opt-in form than just having an opt-in form in the sidebar. Just to be safe I also have an opt-in form on my page. The theme I'm using allows me to have both of these elements at the top of each page of my blog so they are still not in the sidebar.

This is what I do and it has been very successful for me.

Best regards,
Steve Yakim

Opt-in box itself on the sidebar will probably work better for most people. That's probably why it's the most common choice. The less steps the visitor has to take, the better.

Of course, good to have more opt-in boxes as well. I'll link to a squeeze page if my lead magnet comes up in an article, but otherwise I have a Hello Bar running across the top, an opt-in box after the post, and an exit pop-up in addition to the sidebar form. I'd be hurting if I removed even one of these.

I do both. I also have an opt-in form at the bottom of every blog post and a pop-up opt-in form that fires when the visitor goes to exit. That one actually works the best. I also have a bar that goes across the top of my blog with a link to another squeeze page. I guess you could say my blog is a list building machine!

Rule of thumb the less clicks you make people take - and if they can do what you ask without having to wonder if they are going to lose track of what they are interested in on the page then that's better. Make sure your optin form is high up and clearly visible. Its more about the copy you use too. Sign up or subscribe on a button is actually less effective conversion wide than something like GO or get it now because you want to give people instant gratification. The first step in building a relationship with your visitors is satisfying them immediately! And don't make them have to look or work for what they want.

It all depends upon conversion my friend Optin box works great for my blogs.

I would advise you to experiment both ways and see what works best for you...both have its set of advantages and disadvantages...

in former case visitors need not to switch to another page as optin is present with the details itself...in latter case users get more intrigued to see what is in store due to an image leading to squeeze page...

I would suggest you read this wonderful article https://blog.kissmetrics.com/stick-like-fly-paper/ written by Neil Patel to get a clear idea of how to go about...

In my opinion I believe you should do both like I do. I don't think it's a question of which is better but rather of question of having your sign up forms easily available as much as ethically possible on all your web pages. I probably have about 6 different ways a visitor could opt-in to my email list on my homepage. But I do it in a cool way that's not invasive.