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101 Comments

I made 5 landing pages. Deleted everything. Went back to basics, and saw the highest signup rate.

Hey guys,

just wanted to share this little story with you all! It might even help a few of you...


So as the title says I made 5 landing pages. Each new one I made more elaborate and detailed than the former. I was expecting more and more signups with each iteration.

Signups came to a halt.

It started to annoy me a little bit. I added more detail, more GIF's, more pictures, more copy. More, more, and more equalled less, less, and less signups.

So I scrapped every one of them. Went back to the original, cut out a load of the bullshit and went with the bare minimum.

Straight to the point. Only kept what was crucially needed.

The most basic landing page, barley a page long.

Which is converting higher than anything else I've tried so far. (Let's hope it does at scale too with FB ads).


I think in marketing and entrepreneur life, in general, we tend to see more as more, and less as less. But sometimes the most simple and easy things are best kept that way.

Very first landing page (30th April) 10% conversion rate
https://www.spreadtech.online/home

Second landing page 7% conversion rate
https://www.spreadtech.online/spreadsoftware

Subset of my niche (interviewers) 1% conversion rate
https://www.spreadtech.online/thepodcasttool-spread

FINAL FORM... 12% conversion rate
https://www.spreadtech.online

  1. 7

    It looks like the current website can be redesigned, the styling just looks like a scam imo.

    1. 1

      I completely see your point. Sadly I agree to a certain extent.

      FYI IT IS NOT A SCAM. hahahaha

      I made it on WIX. I need a real web developer to make a professional website for me. Do you know anyone?

      1. 2

        I am a web developer. Let me know if I can be of any help.

        1. 1

          I need a front end dev if you can help or freelance? (kinda cheap) hahaha

          1. 2

            Sent you an email

            1. 2

              Cheers mate, I've replied

              Get back to me as soon as you can please - very interested, sure you will be too :)

              1. 1

                Please check your email.

      2. 2

        I think you can go further with a designer, you don't need a web developer, you can build a nice looking website with Webflow.

        Unfortunately I don't have anyone to recommend, I don't have much friends as I am busy working on my own software.

        1. 1

          I will look into web flow. Thank you very much

          How is your software coming along?

  2. 5

    Great story, the content overload in landing pages it's an epidemic.

    1. 1

      Sadly I was a content overloader with my previous landing pages.

      It didn't convert well (less than 12%).

      I agree with you completely.

      1. 1

        but the work was not wasted. you kinda have to lay EVERYTHING on the table, so you can pick what's the most relevant.

        congrats!

        1. 1

          You're completely right.

          Years ago I saw 'losing' as the worst thing ever, I'd avoid it like mad. And therefore I never really got anything done.

          Now I embrace it. I test everything, explore different opportunities, and actually learn to improve.

          Thank you for your comment.

  3. 3

    Couldn't agree more with you on this, sometimes the easiest things are the best when it comes to engagement.
    For some reason I cannot resist but mention the obvious, the 'think small' from doyle dane bernbach was simple and straight to the point. It happens to be the masterpiece campaign in advertising ever.

    1. 1

      I find it so hard to not go overboard. It's like I have to restrain myself from adding more in ahaha.

      In my head, the more GIF's and shit I add the more signups I'll get but it just isn't true. And this proves it at the end of the day

      Do you have a link to 'think small'?

      1. 2

        I totally understand, the struggle is real. I am mentioning the wikipedia link below.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_Small

        1. 1

          Thank you very much. Most appreciated.

  4. 3

    This is good stuff as I'm preparing to rebuild my landing page. Thanks for sharing!

    1. 2

      I'm working on a declarative landing page builder, and I have a working version (calling it the SSMVP - super simple MVP 😜) for users to get started with. Let me know if you're interested and we can have a chat - for free of course.

      No problem if you already have a tool you're using, and if you're happy to share then it'd be great to know which tool you use and how your experience has been (what worked well, what could be improved, etc.).

    2. 1

      I hope it goes well for you!

      Link me to your landing page when you're done?

  5. 3

    Yup, the new, bare page spells it out perfectly. I just shared it with some friends that could use it 🤜🤛

    1. 1

      OMG. You shared it with some friends?

      That's made my day. Thank you.

      What are you looking for from Spread? Or what are your friends looking to get out of it?

      1. 2

        I have some friends who work at a music and film licensing company. They have a lot of youtube creators as customers. I imagine many of their customers would appreciate a product like Spread. I'll let you know if they try it out and have any feedback.

        1. 1

          Please do Ryan. That would be greatly appreciated.

          I was looking for a similar company I could partner up with (who would have similar customers to mine). If they wanted to become affiliated or anything at all similar, then please let me know!?

          My email is [email protected] or [email protected]

          Thank you very much Ryan

          1. 2

            Absolutely. I'll follow up with them this week to see if it's anything they want to pursue.

            1. 1

              Looking forward to hearing what they have to say. Thank you Ryan.

  6. 3

    Great stuff. Looks like you did a great job. The final straw was the chance to get a free account for life couldn't resist not signing up.

    1. 1

      hahaha, thank you.

      I thought that would be a good sell. I did it to get as many BETA users as possible.

      Thank you for signing up as well.

      What are you looking to get out of Spread?

      And please share any of your content channels, I'll be sure to check you out!

  7. 3

    Love it. Straight and to the point. Just signed up.

    1. 2

      Thank you very much - I genuinely mean that.

      What part of Spread are you most looking forward to?

      • Share any of your content channels, I'll be sure to check you out!
      1. 1

        I have yet to work on any marketing but I like the idea of being everywhere in any medium that your user prefers. And on top of that, most of the work looks automated by spread. So looking forward to trying that out. I’d imagine it’ll take screenshots and captions off the YouTube video for starters?

        1. 2

          Exactly!!

          Everyone learns in a different way. Everyone has preferred platforms.

          Every piece of content should be available to every potential consumer - hence, Spread.

          The most basic part will be transforming youtube videos into podcasts, so not that revolutionary.

          But after that, you'll be able to download transcripts from Youtube/podcasts. So you can use that transcript as a blog post or social media content/captions.

          Eventually you'll be able to cut clips out of your YouTube video and use them as social media posts.

          (I say eventually, but this will be one of the first micro content features to be added, as part of it is already made from the last MVP).

            1. 1

              no worries, cheers!! :)

              Let me know when you start working on your marketing. I'll help you out :)

  8. 2

    Hey,
    Just signed up using your new signup page. I can almost guarantee I wouldn't have signed up with the others. The new simple one is great!

    1. 1

      Thank you so much, that means so much to me Brad.

      Cheers mate!

      Can I ask what you are looking to get out of Spread?

      1. 2

        Sure, as mentioned in another thread. I'm looking at how I can automate the generation of content. It looks like your tool will allow me to make a video and then turn that into multiple different content types.
        Automation is key to how I build my business so the more opportunities the better.

        1. 1

          Sounds great to me.

          Soon it will do much more than that, but that will come in time :)

          Thank you again

  9. 2

    Thanks for sharing. The latest version looks much better than the others.

    IMO, the orange font is still giving off a feeling of scam. Consider changing it to black and maybe use bold or larger font for emphasis instead of color.

    1. 1

      I completely agree it still looks very dodgy and scammy with the orange, soon I will have a real landing page :)

      Thank you for your input !!!

  10. 2

    Wow do you have links to your old landing pages? It'd be great to see how you've changed.

    1. 1

      They're on there now! Sorry for the very slow reply lol

      1. 2

        This is great! Honestly, you should repost this as it's own post I'm sure a lot of people would love to see how things changed.

        1. 1

          Repost it again? I may do when I've completely finished with the signup landing page

          Thank you for your comments :)

  11. 2

    Would love to see the other versions!

    1. 2

      Hey Dr!

      you're not the only one, I answered this a little further up too

      ---

      Very first landing page (30th April) 10% conversion rate
      https://www.spreadtech.online/home

      Second landing page 7% conversion rate
      https://www.spreadtech.online/spreadsoftware

      Subset of my niche (interviewers) 1% conversion rate
      https://www.spreadtech.online/thepodcasttool-spread

      Current landingpage 10-12% conversion rate
      https://www.spreadtech.online/

      ---

      As you can see my last landing page is nearly identical to my first (except much more compact).

      It took the shortest amount of time to make, yet has the highest conversion rate. I never knew it worked this way hahaha.

      Sorry, I don't have all of them. Hope this helps you out :)

      1. 1

        That's great, thanks a lot for sharing this!

  12. 2

    The less distraction the better. That´s why I added a pop up for top sign in instead of putting a sign up form directly at the top. The video we have is still a distraction but it always comes down to what your intention with the page is.
    A landing page is simply for to collect email addresses, a homepage should provide info so if you want both, it´s a act of balance.

    1. 1

      I love that last line. Act of balance. I agree entirely.

      But what do you mean by "pop up for top sign"??

      Do you have any examples?

      1. 1

        Regarding the pop up. When designing a homepage you try to put the most important things "above the fold", that means before someone has to scroll down. It´s the thing that a visitor sees first when visiting the website. That´s even more important for landing pages. Landing pages need to be straight forward, to the point, in your face and a coloured protrude Call to Action at the end.

        Example is our homepage. https://double-edge.net/ We put the explainer video on top, and the actual service below and a pop up to subscribe to our newsletter, become a beta tester and get updates on coins and new services.

        1. 2

          Thank you for this. I need to 'copy' this approach in my design.

          Most appreciated!!

  13. 2

    You're not testing a design, you're testing an idea.

    Clean simple landing page, very nice 👍🏼

    1. 1

      Agreed!

      And what do you think of the idea?

  14. 2

    That is an interesting landing page : simple but not poor. I would love to see your other 5 landing page versions leading up to the current version if you have them online ?

    I have not yet made a dedicated landing page myself, but have just started to create a list of landing page examples to learn from (here) and I would like to have your landing page in my library and especially I would like to add your other versions to see the progression.

    1. 1

      yeah ofcourse!!

      I don't have all of them up as I'm only on a wix starter plan, so I was limited to how many pages/signup forms I could use.

      ---

      Very first landing page (30th April) 10% conversion rate
      https://www.spreadtech.online/home

      Second landing page 7% conversion rate
      https://www.spreadtech.online/spreadsoftware

      Subset of my niche (interviewers) 1% conversion rate
      https://www.spreadtech.online/thepodcasttool-spread

      Current landingpage 10-12% conversion rate
      https://www.spreadtech.online/

      ---

      As you can see my last landing page is nearly identical to my first (except much more compact).

      It took the shortest amount of time to make, yet has the highest conversion rate. I never knew it worked this way hahaha.

      Sorry, I don't have all of them. Hope this helps you out :)

      When I click your link It doesn't load up? - Might be my internet though?

      1. 2

        I have added spread.online to my landing page examples list and together with it's earlier versions and the conversion rate information it is by far the most interesting addition to my list.

        Allow me also to comment on your earlier versions : I think they are horrible and I would not trust any of them (even though the bottom of 1. version made me smile as though you catched me in bad behaviour, yes that was fun). Your current version I would trust though.

        I am not sure why you could not load the examples page, but lately I do actually experience worse internet myself, however I hope you will try again - I would like you to see the list.

        1. 1

          Thank you. If you are after any other specific data then let me know and I will try my best for you. Sadly I haven't tracked much data as I didn't see it taking off this quick to be honest hahahah.

          I will try the link again when my wifi stops playing up!

          How are you marketing your website?

          1. 1

            I don't think I am after anymore data (unless you have a good idea as to what it could be in relation to the landing page examples list).

            I am not really marketing my website, my main marketing strategy is to attract people to topiqs.online via the blog posts I write (though I do not really blog with that purpose in mind only, eg. the landing page examples list is made with the purpos of being useful for me, not to be google friendly)

            1. 1

              I see. A personal project then?

              If you do ever want to make it into something like marketingexamples, then let me know and I will help you with content?

              Quick tip: Post your blog to medium too, via importing :)

              1. 1

                Helping me with content ?? I would love that - I will even make you are a co-owner of the blog.

                I have heard of medium and a check in my inbox shows I get email from them, so I have probably already signed up with them. I cannot see how posting my blog on medium can help me, but since you seems to be in marketing, I think I will try to find out what benefits there can be by duplicating my blog on medium - if it is as easy you suggest it is.

                1. 1

                  I will help you repurpose content for you, not exactly make it. (Big difference) but I will still help you loads!

                  Medium is insanely good. You simply 'import' your blog to medium (check this out: https://help.medium.com/hc/en-us/articles/214550207-Import-a-post)

                  and boom. Your blog is visible to all of the exclusive medium readers. And due to medium having a great Domain rating, you will rank on google faster via your medium blogs than your actual blogs...

                  Hope this helps. Any questions then let me know?

    1. 1

      Thank you so much!!

      How do you want Spread to help you?

      Also link me to any of your content channels, I would love to check them out

  15. 2

    Great, very simple way to explain the value proposition. What I have started liking is a screen capture of the product in action. This seems to explain the product very quickly and might increase conversion.
    Look at this website who has done that very well https://bearer.sh

    1. 1

      I LOVE THAT IDEA.

      Sadly Spread isn't built yet, so there's no current way I can do this. However, I will definitely be incorporating this asap

      I may even include a 'sandbox' mode so users can test out an example on the homepage, what's your thoughts?

      1. 2

        Yes more concrete evidence will lead to more conversion. Sandbox mode will be a great way to introduce your product to your audience.
        Also it is not necessary that you actually build it to showcase it you can put screencapture of mockups.

        1. 1

          I have been told countless times to make mockups, I'm just not sure how to exactly do it.

          Any software suggestions?

  16. 2

    I think it was Sam Parr on the latest episode of indie hackers podcast who said the exact opposite (Correct me if I am wrong). I think it depends on your product.

    1. 2

      No I do agree with you.

      With more complex products you may have to go into much more detail. But for a product like mine, I believe simpler is better.

  17. 2

    Excellent post. Thank you fo sharing. I look forward to seeing the service live.

    1. 1

      No worries at all. Anything I can share on my journey to help you guys I definitely will!

      Thank you for signing up!!! :D

      In what way do you want Spread to help you?

      • Share any of your content channels, I'll be sure to check you out!
      1. 1

        I write articles on business and investing. Sometimes they drive traffic and others not so much. As the amount of promotion I do is small, I do not have enough data to really see what article content is the best going forward.

        1. 2

          Have you got a link to your blog? Sounds like my type of reading tbh

          With articles IMO I think you should focus on SEO. But promotion is a crucial step too.

          However, you shouldn't promote. Instead, you need to repurpose content into smaller content.

          This smaller content is known as MICRO content. Micro content is usually social media pieces. Currently, with all of my blog articles, I manually repurpose them into social media captions, images or anything else that fits.

          You need to 'content market' your content marketing pieces.

          Sounds weird, I know. But it is the best thing to do to reach as many people as possible. Micro content (social) is easily consumable, shareable, and creates a brand image. Abuse this to grow your reach. Link back to your main blog article with every repurpose to get as many visitors as possible.

          My blog posts get more traffic from repurposing than SEO (as they're still young).

          If you need me to go into any more detail then let me know?

          :)

          1. 1

            Thank you that is what I needed to know. I will work to make some social media pieces and see what strikes interest.

            My blog is https://toddmoses.com/insights

            1. 2

              I'll check it out, thank you

              let me know if you need help with any social media pieces, I'd love to help repurpose come of your content for you

              Just let me know what you want :)

  18. 2

    That is a cool idea! It's an idea I wanted to build to solve my problems.

    I hope we can chat to know more about your product and give you insights

    1. 2

      Thank you very much!! :D

      Cool enough for you to sign up? ahahah

      What problems are you experiencing? How do you want Spread to help you?

      • Share any of your content channels, I'll be sure to check you out!
      1. 2

        I already signed up!

        I'm creating chooseyourplant.com which is a worldwide community for houseplant lovers. The main feature now is to find plants you love and you can keep alive, and then when you choose one, you see a plant guide with images, video tutorials, a description and stuff.

        To me, each plant is kinda an article. So, every time I write an article, I would like to share in different social media.

        I generated a node script to generate the tet for each platform so I kinda do copy paste, but if I would even automzate this more, would be awesome!

        I only share on:

        • linkedin
        • twitter
        • indiehackers
        • each picture of the plant on IG (from there, to FB and trumbl)

        but if I could do to hacker news or soemthng like that to get inbound traffic would be amazing

        1. 2

          Thank you for signing up. Greatly Appreciated.

          Straight away you're missing out on your two biggest traffic sources:

          Pinterest and TikTok

          You would kill it on each of those platforms. I mean it.

          If you need help with this then let me know, and I can give you some pointers or even help create some content for you?

          Can you also link me to any of your socials so I can see what you're already making?

          1. 2

            I've been following TikTok for a few months already, (noone was there yet) but Idon't know if there's a potential audience there.

            On the other hand, I know pintesrest is a good option, but I never used the app more than for searching results.

            I would appreciate if you could send me a DM on twitter!

            https://twitter.com/devictoribero

            1. 2

              I'm guessing you have your own plants yes? - If so you have so much opportunity to make your own videos. Here are a few examples I quickly found...

              Millions of views
              https://www.tiktok.com/@thequirkycupco/video/6805130372301524229

              180k views
              https://www.tiktok.com/tag/plant#

              500k views - this one is probably most relevant to you
              https://www.tiktok.com/@auroramccausland/video/6799352060157414662

              1k views
              https://www.tiktok.com/@auroramccausland/video/6826348061007023366

              I hope this helps you realize the potential? Let me know what you think? :)

              1. 2

                yes, it makes sense.

                Maybe I'll upload some videos to see what happens

                1. 2

                  Why not?

                  Worst that happens is no one sees it?

  19. 2

    Nice story. I would really be interested in the statistics. Like how many sign ups, or how how many percent per landing page went down, or something like that.

    1. 3

      I'll give you the results for today as it hasn't been up long enough to show real results yet

      But if you're one of the people that followed me, then at the end of the month I'll post 30 day (ish) results you'll be able to see!! :)

      Results from today: (best day so far)

      92 unique visitors
      10 sign ups

      so 11% ish conversion rate

      Visitors are the highest it's ever been today, but conversion rate is the lowest...

      Either way, I'm ecstatic! ahaha

      1. 3

        Yesterday and today

        336 unique visitors
        35 signups

        1. 2

          Thats great :) ~10 % conversion rate that is incredible... keep up ;)

          1. 1

            Thank you.

            Tbf it is for a free product so 10% isn't actually that good in the grand scheme of things

  20. 2

    Hi Louis,

    Great to hear your story :) I agree, simple and to-the-point can be the most successful on many occasions!

    I'm building a landing page tool myself so I'm keen to know which tool you used and any info you can share on your experience (what worked well, what could be improved, etc.).

    1. 2

      Heya!!

      I now LOVE simple and to the point. I've always been a person to 'over-word' anything I write. I've recently made an effort to stop that with every piece of writing I do (including this comment).

      So yeah, I'm using WIX. As it's the only one I'm familiar with. I have only ever built 6 landing pages in my life so I'm very inexperienced.

      I love:

      drag and drop features
      easy media upload
      grid/ruler movement

      Disliked:

      On wix there's like a center strip where you can only place content, outside of that strip won't show on mobile. So that is hella annoying.

      Not everything looks professional. It looks too much like a 'canva' image. With that weird blocky text. Too fuzzy if that makes sense?

      I love a sleek professional looking design and I just can't get that from WIX tbh

      Hope this helps you!! :)

      1. 1

        This is really insightful, thanks a lot! We can get in touch with you when we have a beta version if you're interested :)

        1. 1

          Very. If a professional look is something you can provide.

          I'll defo be making another post when I launch so look out for that, or follow me :)

          1. 2

            Ok great, we certainly will be providing that and looking to do it in a simple way :)

            I'm following you already so I'll look out for that post!

  21. 1

    This comment was deleted 4 years ago.

  22. 5

    This comment was deleted 7 months ago.

    1. 4

      "Performance through simplicity".

      Heck yes, awesome!

      How is getflookups going? Hope you're cracking along!

      1. 1

        This comment was deleted 7 months ago.

        1. 1

          Excellent, glad to hear signs of life are returning! The great thaw begins.

    2. 2

      I like the minimalism. It's elegant, made me want to actually read the thing. Great stuff.

    3. 2

      I love that motto! I wish I heard it 5 landing pages ago!! ahahah

      I was constantly overdoing it before. Always adding more and more and more

      Sometimes less really is more. In the future, I'm going to start with the bare minimum and work out from there...

      I completely agree with you!

      Any of your landingpages/website pages super basic that you care to share?

      1. 1

        This comment was deleted 7 months ago.

        1. 1

          I love the tag line and your name

          very on brand...

          Keep this thread updated with your progress?

          1. 2

            This comment was deleted 7 months ago.

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