background photo courtesy of Haute Chocolate Feminine Stock Photos
If you haven’t gone through part one of the tutorial, you should stop reading this right now and go read that first. In that post, I show you exactly what we’re creating and why as well as a list of all the assets you need to make this tutorial happen.
I know you’re all eagerly awaiting this next part so I’ll get right to it. But first, don’t forget to download the checklist if you haven’t already. This whole process can get a little complicated and even I need this checklist to make sure I don’t miss any steps!
Get it now by clicking the image below!
What You’ll Need
Next, you’ll need a great background photo, preferably one of you looking and/or pointing to the side. This image should be at minimum 1500×1000 pixels. Don’t forget to optimize it!!
Step 3: Create Your Fake LeadPages Landing Page
Watch the video below to watch me create a beautiful sign up landing page!
Warning: You WILL need to do a little CSS editing here, so if you are very uncomfortable with that, then check out this HTML/CSS tutorial first.
Here is the HTML you’ll need for the landing page:
See the Pen Landing Page by Marianne (@marianney) on CodePen.
Step 4: Create Share Links
Now remember when we left the Facebook and Twitter share buttons blank in our Thank You page? Now it’s time to add those links in. This part is easy.
- Open the Thank You page
- Copy the URL of the landing page you just created in Step 3
- Go to bit.ly or your favorite URL shortener and create a new short link for your landing page
- Now go to Share Link Generator and we’ll create our share links
- For Facebook, enter the short URL and click ‘Create the Link’
- Now copy the URL Only and let’s go to our Thank You page and paste this URL into the href area of our Facebook button link. It will look something like this:
- Now go back to Share Link Generator and type out a tweet that will help convince people to click through and include the short URL here too. An example would be:
I just got a free HTML for Bloggers cheat sheet from @marianney. Get yours too! >> SHORT URL- Don’t forget to include your username so you know when it gets tweeted and add your url
- Also make sure that the whole tweet is no more than 140 characters – keep it short and sweet
- Click Create the Link, then copy the URL Only and paste it into the href area of the Twitter button link. It will look something like this:
Step 5: Design an Attractive Download Button
Using your favorite image editing tool (Canva, PicMonkey,* BeFunky, Photoshop,* etc.) create a new image that is the width of your blog post’s content area and about 250px in height. Mine are 700px x 250px.
Add some copy to convince your reader that they should download your freebie then add a small preview of your content upgrade if possible. This image will give people an idea of what they’re getting in exchange for their email address. Here’s an example below. Go ahead, click on it!
Now it’s time to write your blog post! In it, be sure to include the CTA (call to action) image and link this image to your new landing page.
And You’re Done!
That’s how you create your own content upgrade landing pages, popups and thank you pages! It’s more work than just using LeadPages but once you do it a few times, you get the hang of it. You’ll also be happy at the money you can save in the beginning stages of your business.
Hope you enjoyed it! Please let me know your thoughts or leave questions below in the comments! I’d love to see your own landing pages too, so share your links below!
And don’t forget to share this if you found it useful! Handy buttons are located below.
Thanks for this AMAZING tutorial! For some reason my background image is super blurry. Does it have to do with the image optimizing plugin I have in WordPress?
Hi Sarah, it could. What’s the url to your page?
Thank you so much! This is absolutely wonderful. I never would have even attempted something like this without your tutorial.
Oh that makes me so happy to hear Rachelle! Thanks for sharing 🙂