There is a lot of money to be made in affiliate marketing; it's not unheard of for a savvy marketer to earn a million dollars per year. Most people don't earn anywhere near that amount, and a lot of people who try online marketing don't earn any money at all. There's a reason for that - marketing effectively is hard work, and the competition on the Internet is fierce. The most successful marketers are those with large mailing lists, and the best tool for building a list is a squeeze page.

Many people will not make a purchase upon initially viewing a sales page for a product, but they can often be enticed to buy if they become more familiar with the product. If you can get your visitors to sign up for your mailing list on their initial visit, you can send them additional e-mail messages to persuade them to buy the product at a later date. A squeeze page is a Web page that exists for one purpose and one purpose only - to get visitors to sign up for your mailing list.

The structure of a good squeeze page is much simpler in design than a traditional Web page. Most Websites have a number of features on them besides content, such as navigation bars, links to other pages or Websites, and advertising. A squeeze page will have none of these items, as navigation bars, ads, and links potentially distract the visitor from the one thing you want them to do - fill out the form for your mailing list. Instead, many squeeze pages consist only of the following:

An eye catching headline - Something that will attract their attention. Many squeeze pages have headlines that tout the possibility of earning a large income, for instance.

Several bullet points that outline features of the product in question - Some "teasers" that tout the benefits of the product while not revealing too much about it. You want to get your customer's curious about the product.

An opportunity to receive something for free, such as a PDF report about the product in question. Free reports are often quite effective at persuading customers to buy a product, and provide an opportunity for an extended description of the product's features.

A form to sign up for your mailing list. All you need is a first name and an e-mail address. Popular autoresponder programs such as Get Response or Aweber can help you easily create the forms you need for your squeeze page.

Other than those items above, you don't want anything else on the page that might distract the visitor from signing up. You want them to do one thing and one thing only - sign up for the list. Once they sign up for your mailing list, you can send them to the product's sales page, or you can send them additional information about the product through your autoresponder.

A popular saying among online marketers is that "the money is in the list." Having good products to sell is important, but having ready-to-buy customers is vital. A good squeeze page can go a long way towards helping you realize that goal.