A typically Squeeze Page tries to entice its “target” audience with marketing and copywriting techniques such as headlines, bullet points, teaser copy, deadlines and testimonials. All of which are generally so well researched that they can take the author days and several attempts to perfect.

But something that I just can’t fathom out, is why such a well written bit of marketing tends to have to look so aesthetically unpleasing to the eye. I have found myself on several occasion just giving up trying to read such a page as the design is so appalling.

The classic example generally has a blue or grey background with either a white of light yellow text area. The text for some god-awful reason seem to usually be Courier – can anybody tell me Why? And with alleged meaningful words and phrases picked out in a collection of insipid Red, Yellow or Blue bold text makes the whole thing unbearable.

Maybe this is why the work? Maybe people just sign up because their brains want to get away from horror as quickly as possible. But maybe, and here is a crazy idea, maybe they could work even better if they looked aesthetically pleasing. Just imagine combining that beautifully crafted bit of copy with some design?

Surly that is what advertising is all about? Cleverly crafted words and pictures fussed within a beautifully constructed layout? Drawing in the audience and making them want to participate because they are enjoying themselves.

I’m in the process of writing such a page at the moment. And in the process of doing so I have been thinking long and hard about whether I should use the classic squeeze page layout or try for something a bit more up market.

My conclusion is that I may try both designs alongside each other and compare their performance. The only problem with having two sites with the same (duplicate) content is that it could effect page ranking and search results. So I am thinking of implementing a script that would change the theme every other visitor. One visitor would see the classic design, the next would see the modern one. I would then monitor the success rate of each over a period of time and see which returns higher sales. Assuming one will work better than the other, I would stop using the least productive theme to maximise on profits.

I am obviously forgetting one import point here – the Product itself. I could have the best looking website in the world, but nobody is going to want to buy what I am selling unless it is something they really want. And this is why the standard squeeze page probably works they way it looks at the moment.

But if I had something to sell that people wanted, would I be able to sell more with a better looking design? That is what I am hoping I will find out, and when I have some facts and figures I will make my findings public.

One last thing though, I’m sure other people have already tried this – have you? If so I would be interested to know thoughts, suggestions and findings.

What is Bla.st? Put simply it’s an alternative form of online advertising that anybody can use. You can promote almost anything and pay as little (only pay if you want to) or as much as you like. The more you do pay means the higher up the page your advert(s) will go and the more likely it is to appear on other peoples websites, yes, they have a publishers program in the form of a widget (great for Wordpress sites) which doubles as a kind of referral program where you can earn credits for your own cards as well as 50% of the sale on any paid ads taken out by the referral.

Bla.st is extremely easy to use and has the added bonus of being free, and with hundreds of categories to choose from, you can target your advert to a specific market. If there isn’t already a category for the market you want, you can create one, but this means you will probably be the only advert in that category for a while, which could be good or bad depending on the way you look at it!

Traffic from my ads haven’t been that fantastic so far, but I have noticed that as Bla.st has grown, there has been an increase in visitors, so I am optimistic it will continue to be a valuable source of extra traffic over time.

Summary: If you are looking for an alternative way to advertise your product then I think Bla.st is a good idea, it’s not the only free option, but it does allow you to design and redesign your own ads as many times as you like, and if you place cards on your own website, you could earn credits to promote your own cards to the top slot, and maybe a few extra dollars along the way!

Update: I’m no longer using Bla.st, but it still looks like an interesting way to attract additional traffic to your website.