This is the classic ‘catch 22′ in that you know that your splash pages will not be as effective as ones that are made for branding, but the customers see a splash page as a splash page. People will take the road of least resistance, making their own splash page is harder than using a provided one. So you, as the program owner, can either buck the system and make people create their own splash pages (and probably not get the results you want) or follow the crowd and provide splash pages. It comes down to if you want to be the pioneer in this or not. It comes down to educating the people coming into the program. Even then you lose some that will not be willing to create their own splash pages. This is no matter how easy make it for them. It does however remove the ‘looky lous’ from your program. There is no good answer for your dilemma – either way you will upset someone.

Mark,
A great point for discussion as a program owner myself I have come to a compromise I provide splash page’s the add the members name automatically. This enables my members to promote my site and increase an awareness of themselves in the internet marketing world. I am aware that marketing and business on the internet is different to mainstream non internet business, and therefore different rules apply. In the mainstream business world the individual is subordinate to the corporate image.
In the Internet word we are told the opposite is true. However personally I am still a little doubtful from a long term perspective that solely and heavily promoting a product via the individual solely using personalised vanity splash pages is quite the panacea to a lack of positive results either for the individual member or the program owner. I feel that giving total freedom to members to create and promote their own individualistic splash pages has the potential to create confusion in the minds of prospective buyers. Internet buyers nowadays are less impulsive and have a greater awareness of potential scam sites than perhaps in the past, I think adopting a certain image and sticking to it over time gives reassurance to the potential customer.
By allowing a member to use a splash page that has a certain corporate image and identifies the member I feel is a safe alternative, it allows me to control the content of the advertisement and at the same time gives the member exposure.
I further encourage my members to use the sites splash pages by giving a small reward via credits every time they show a site splash page and sometimes a little cash reward. I also encourage my members to take part in chat rooms, forums and other social networking sites as much as possible for what is the use of having a jazzy personalised splash page if no one knows you. Unfortunately only time will tell if this strategy proves to be correct.

Hi Mark. I think it is okay to provide splash pages, especially since you have more experience with the elements of an effective splash page. Are people too lazy to track their own results? Maybe. I know I am deficient in that area of my marketing. I’m not always clear on the methods of tracking clickthru’s. Have you thought about some training videos on the finer points of tracking and tweaking splash pages?

Thanks for your thoughts Victor.
To succeed in any form of advertising tracking your results is absolutely essential. I know its a pain and I know it can al seem too hard and at times a complete mystery.
But if there is one thing that has helped me more than anything it is consistently tracking and split testing squeeze pages.
I actually have one video available in the eBook Break Free Traffic that is specific about using Traffic Wave as an ad-tracker. I’ve also put together a couple of videos on Viral Mail Profits which is different in as much as it allows you to track the effectiveness of your safelist headlines. They’re available at you tube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ifZPaJVJN4 & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqivFvyGWE4
I do intend to put together a video showing you how to track and test E splash pages using the program I now use Vital Viral Pro in the coming weeks. I hope that all helps

Thanks for your comments Mike. and you raise some very good points from a program owner’s perspective, and I agree that allowing personalized splash pages goes some way to addressing the problem. However, you may be aware of the hundreds of personalized splash pages that people are using to promote a program close to my heart -Traffic Exchange Profits and after a while they all look the same. Certainly for somebody who has a high profile in the TE’s a photo splash page with a program can work, if all they do is want to promote a program.
My recommended strategy is a little different. I believe that for the average person to establish a business they have to concentrate on building relationships via a list. the easiest way to do this is to create an individualized squeeze/splash page inviting people to get their report/eBook whatever. they then follow up with sincere honest advice and recommendations. This is how I’ve managed to build large downlines in many TE’s and related programs – not by advertising them up front but by recommending them to solve a problem – a great example of this is a program called Hit Magik, which has a unique surfing memory efficiency tool – I never advertise Hit Magik, I just recommend it to my list. I have a downline in excess of 50 there and it earns me lots of easy credits every month,
Of course by building a responsive list you have much more chance of making sales when there is a significant product launch or when recommending key elements of your business.

You’ve got it in a nutshell Leonard. There is no easy answer. Overnight, I kind of reached a decision on this. I wil be doing a major update to my member’s area soon. When I do this i intend to have an introductory video over my splash pages explaining that people must work at branding themselves. I intend to suggest that they use my splash pages as a baseline for tracking results, when they have something that is consistently out performing my splash pages I would suggest that they drop them entirely. Of course this will be too hard for some people, but you can only lead a horse to water

Leonard is right when he says promoters will take the road of least resistance. There are at least two defensible reasons for this: (1) faffing about in EasyHits4u or any other TE that offers free splash page creation is a time suck and (2) prefab splashes provided by affiliate product hosts are almost always more esthetically pleasing than home grown splashes, unless one has the know how to create a stunner SP using something like AdKreator-and is willing to invest in it. (the 3rd reason is Occam’s Razor)
As an interim measure, I have found Carl Bailey”s Instant Splash to be a God Send because it enables me to build a quasi personalized Splash on the fly and as Instant Splash has a rudimentary tracking tool built in. (disclaimer: I am an Instant Splash affiliate but have not earned anything from it as of this date).
To me, tracking itself is another time suck unless one uses bitly which seems to work better than Vital Viral because some TE’s do not let me put Vital Viral tracking codes in my website field.
My top priority is getting bait in the water, affiliate offers out there with sufficient exposure to have a chance in the TE lottery.
Forgive me for being Cro-Magnon when it comes to Splashes and Tracking but my first priority is proof of concept or (proof of tenacity if you prefer) that a benchmark cash return can be achieved through internet marketing in general and TE marketing in particular.
Which is to say, when I have USD 1,000 in the bank from my online efforts I will feel vindicated and ready to shore up the fine points of Splash Pages, Tracking and sub domains and so forth.
I trust I am not the only newbie that feels this way, as it is one thing to see others’ succeed online and quite another to see yourself emerge from the info miasma.
While acknowledging PSP (Personalized Splash Pages) & PB (Personalized Branding) are IM pillars I believe getting the cash spigot open via TE Profits and/or pure generic SP affiliate product promotion is the fastest way to earn a PayPal cash dollop as I am not looking for strategic positioning-just opportunistic cash making-at this stage.
Lastly, while I concur that personal branding is the sina qua non of sustainable success in the im niche I am not quite sure how to go about establishing authentic, authoritative, useful and lasting PB.
If you check http://www.imreportcard.com you can see many gurus reviewed (I am looking forward to seeing several names from this blog highlighted there soon!).
I would point to someone like Cris Farrell as an example of someone who seized im mind share with his ‘How to put up a website by 3′45pm this afternoon” positioning.
Cris provides an unambiguous solution to a widespread how to/problem need and of course his PB goes well beyond SPages.
You have done the same with your PB targeted on making money with Traffic Exchange Marketing.
I guess what I am saying is: I find the goal of embodying a recognized and trustworthy online IM Brand to be a worthwhile online destination I do not know the detailed process map/action steps to get there myself, especially I am not satisfied with the notion that one must follow his/her passion.
I think it is much more promising to seek a personal branding niche with proven payout/payback and/or expected payout using a combination of keyword research and Alexa ranking to scaffold a market needs adjusted IM personality brand but I am not clear on how to achieve this exactly.
And while I am not satisfied being in this position on the im chess board ( I believe that other newbies feel similarly)in the throes of ferreting out a viable im authority niche that avoids the trap of wanna be im guru cloning, I do not entirely see why it does not make more sense to get some cash in the bank from showcasing prefab Splash Pages until I have cash proof that the system works?

As I suspect your reply will be along the lines of you have got the im cart before the horse…….I will make an effort to show my posterous blog page in TEs as soon as I can figure out how to add an optin that marries up with Traffic Wave to see if this helps.

Thank you for allowing me this extended comment and best wishes to all from Yokohama, Japan

Mark, I would like to build on Leonard’s catch-22 comment and focus more on your customers. Your customers are new IMers, people wanting to learn how to make money using TE. If you see what they see, it is a bunch of well produced program splash pages and them some random pages, with random faces promoting the same product. As they spend time surfing, and probably running out of credits and not having much success, where are they likely to go? to the random person, like Bill promoting BFT, or a splash page that looks like it is from the program owner, they guy who knows what he is doing, because he has been around for years? – The latter of course.
The idea is newbies want to follow or hang with people that are successful, to learn. They don’t want to go get stuff from another newbie promoting a affiliate program or e-course.

Now, I don’t have the data to back this up, yet. But I think it would be better for the newbies to promote the program, learn the ropes, build experience, possibly under the mentorship of an experienced marketeer. Then they can find an area to brand themselves and continue to develop a following.

I think we need to teach people how to use a splash page, a autoresponder, a list, tracking tools, etc and build them up to create a brand, their own products, etc. Otherwise, these new customers that we all want are going to be stuck in this catch-22 cycle of being told to brand them self, but not having a product, or an identity or brand, but they have to brand it, because that is what successful people tell them they have to do.

So my vote is for keeping the product splash pages. Promote them, and teach them to build a list and brand the list. Once they have that, then they can worry about branding splash pages.

This is a great discussion on the splash page topic. I think it boils down to people want to make it as easy on themselves as possible. The ready-made splash page is easy to implement. To really be successful at this IM game, TEs are a small part. Branding is a small part. Sure you will get people to buy from you because they have seen you, but will this sway all of the people?

Some of the people who really make big money are not well known. They steer very clear of the many online tracking services as there is a risk of someone finding the niche and the places they market. These people will have many articles, under many names, depending on the niche they are in. They make 6 plus figures a year and we have never heard of them.

So you have both ends of the spectrum, those that promote branding and those that do none of it. Who is right? It will depend on what your end goals are. For TEs, you need branding, list building, and name recognition. Will you make a million dollars on TEs? That remains to be seen. Can you make a living, more than likely. You have to wonder though that with TEs you are pretty much trying to get the name of someone who has given their name to dozens of others. They see hundreds of splash pages everyday. They sign up for many different lists. So just getting the name is only a small part of it as you have to compete against the other lists they are in. It gets even worse when a new program comes out and you get deluged with several emails that are EXACTLY the same with different names. The ironic thing is that most of these come from the people who promote the branding and personalization (Many of the TE owners themselves).

So thinking a little further ahead, you not only need a catchy splash page, but also a unique proposition. If you have a splashy page that gets sign ups, but are peddling the same old thing that everyone else is – you may not get far (this may be where the branding comes in). People do need to realize that a TE is not the ‘be all – end all’ for making money on the Internet. If they choose to concentrate on TEs, they also need to think a little bit ahead and have an actual marketing plan that suits a TE. You need to remember what and who is your market in a TE. You need to look for programs you don’t see on a TE to get people attention. A generic splash page will not usually get the confirmations in the ARs that a branded one gets. If they don’t recognize the name in the email; they won’t confirm.

The mentoring idea is a great one, but who is going to do this? Will someone actually pay for your time to do this? There are TOO many people out there that are looking to be the next overnight millionaire. So to get your products sold and offered, you need to proceed as you are planning. There is no easy answer.

The other thing is that some people don’t want their picture and name on the Internet for one reason or another. Maybe fear of losing their day job if anyone saw them.

Mark,
As a member of your program this information has been very helpful. There are splash pages available for our use and like you said you do advise us that they might not be as effective if we make our own. You provide us essential tools that can help us learn how to make them which is what I am currently in the process of doing.
One thing I am taking into consideration is the fact that if I do not learn how to make them I will not be able to say they are my creations. This brings forth another issue….If I use someones program like AdKreator for example are the creations mine or theirs?
If I use what knowledge I have of splash page creation to make my own I will have to learn from my mistakes and keep trying until I get it right. It is all about mindset.

Stephen you’ve it the nail on the head with the phrase – it’s all about mindset. It’s a matter of tracking, testing and tweaking until you have a responsive splash/squeeze page.

Of course there is always room for improvement and you should always be split testing at least two splash pages so that you constantly improve your results.

As for ownership – that’s an interesting question. Ad kreator is a program that I have not had a lot of experience with – but I believe you can upload the splash pages to your own server.

At that point here is no question – you own it.

If you use any software to create and host your splash pages while the intellectual property maybe yours, the actual page I believe would remain the property of the product owner – it’s a gray area for me and one that I haven’t properly considered.

Another reason,I think to create and host your own pages