Generating leads & Conversion rates

Hello everybody,

I'm new here at the Warrior Forums and after trying to find a decent post on the subject I just couldn't. So basically i have a few questions that I'm aware that no one can answer in a post or two but must come from experience by it self.

Frankly I don't have a website up and running yet, I just quit my part-time job working at the cinema and I'm off to fulfill my dream to become a person that can generate money over the internet so I can provide for my parents to live a normal care-free life.

My start up budget is very low, being that my country has a dollar to our currency ratio of 1 : 6 (i.e. $1 = about 6 HRK). I can spare about $100 to start my business and I'm aware that that is not much considering some spend several thousand dollars on their Ad Words campaigns alone... yet i barely manage to gather enough funds to get a domain name.

So not to make things any longer here are my questions:
1. What kind of page is used to generate leads? (to get people to sign-up for my mailing list), I understand that the page is called a "Squeeze page" but I'm asking about what do you put on a squeeze page except the form to fill in. Do you use a sales letter or something else?

2. What factor determines the conversion rate of a squeeze page? i.e. What techniques must be applied to get a better conversion rate.

As my last question, this is a simple yet a complicated one: Do any of you know or can recommend a book that is good that can teach me step by step on: writing a good sales letter, how to make web pages that convert good and perhaps a book that can teach me to generate some traffic (i.e. some simple free traffic since my budget is limited for now until I make a sale)