Hey ,

Tomorrow, I lead my first of four hour-long workshops for a new audience. The first one is on building effective landing pages for community members, inside the group: Learn.Community.

In anticipation of my workshops for new audiences (to help bring awareness to my work by being helpful for others), I had some realizations that I also wanted to share with you.

If you've ever wanted to teach a workshop (or you plan to grow your audience by doing joint events), you may find this week's edition helpful.

On another note, I am sharing some advice for your own landing pages or single-page websites below.

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Before I started preparing my keynote slides and presentation notes, I reached out to the entire group and encouraged topic suggestions, questions, and feedback.

The post quickly took off, with over 20 comments from members asking questions to seeking feedback. Here's my post:

And, instead of waiting until our workshop, I answered every single one of them in the group.

I wanted to share a couple of their questions and my responses with you because I feel they're incredibly valuable to learn (rewritten for privacy):

Q: How long should my landing page be?

A: TL;DR: Shorter is better. It can be as long as it needs to be. However, it should be: clear, not clever. Helpful, not manipulative. No one will feel good if they look at the outside of a store (windows covered with fantastic, yet not representative signage), but once they walk inside it's a totally different experience than the one promised.

One tip to get you there: Write your website copy and then cut it in half, just like they did in Rework:

We cut this book in half between the next-to-last and final drafts. From 57,000 words to about 27,000 words. Trust us, it's better for it. … Getting to great starts by cutting out stuff that's merely good. - Rework (by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson).

Q: What text should appear on my buttons? I see a lot of BUY TODAY!!! out there. What do you recommend?

A: Personally, I myself wouldn't be encouraged to purchase a service from someone who's using that LOUD language on a website. They're not a good fit for me.

So, when you're writing: 1) Be helpful always. 2) Be yourself and speak how you speak. Follow these two simple pieces of advice and you'll attract the right people to you and your brand.

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Here's another great resource for course landing pages from one of the members inside the community.

Get the Swipe File >

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After all of this preparing, I began to realize I had more thoughts and helpful tips to share that just didn't fit into my workshop.

📝 So, I started to compile additional guidance and examples into a Landing Page Resource Guide that I'll be providing to them for free.

🎁 And, there's a surprise bonus inside for anyone that gets it, where they'll be able to get a thorough review and feedback on their current landing pages.

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Have a question about your own website or landing page? Ask me. I'm happy to respond.

Enjoy,

Matt

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