The ebook squeeze page for the Ultimate List of Guest Contributor Opportunities converted at almost 60% the first time we promoted it, and averages around 20% from cold traffic to the blog.  

It's most successful landing page I've done in my 10+ year career online.

The funny thing is that it was one of the fastest pages I've ever made too.

Successful and easy?  Kinda cool.

This is what it looks like (click on the image to see a full screenshot of the entire page):

Anyway, I thought you might find it helpful to see exactly how I did it.  

To start, I used the Thrive Architect Plugin to build the page (you can grab it here if you don't have it yet).

You could use another page builder, but Thrive Architect is by far my favorite. Easiest to use, inexpensive and great conversion-focused features.  It's a no brainer if you are an online marketer.  

I'll show you how  to recreate this exact ebook squeeze page (and even where you can get the premium template we used for free).

Here we go...

First, I looked through the near 300 templates that come with Thrive Architect to find one that would work for this page.

Here's how you choose and publish a template with Thrive Architect:

I found several that I liked and would have worked fine, but I wanted to see a few more options.

So I checked out The Landing Factory.   They have beautiful premium templates that range in price from free to $16.

I found this free one right away that I loved (and was even designed to be an ebook squeeze page):

Download this template here.

I grabbed it and uploaded to our site. Took less than a minute.

Here's how easy it is:

Now that it is uploaded, I'm ready to get started.

The first thing I do is make adjustments to the layout and backgrounds.  

The thing that caught my eye first was the top section with the book...so I didn't want to change much there.

But I thought the plain white background area with all the icons could use a little something, so I added a pattern layer with a very subtle diagonal line that looks like a really nice piece of paper.

It's very easy to change backgrounds to almost whatever you want...patterns, gradients, images or even videos:

I wanted to use that white area to highlight some of the features in the book, but I also wanted another area to show the overall benefits of being a contributing writer.

So I drug another background area in between the white and black ones.  Set the background color to the same orange.

Next, I added a third row in the black area.  My  book has three sections (Premium Media Outlets, Guaranteed Approval Sites and Industry Blogs), so it's the perfect spot to highlight each of them.

I just selected the "3rd Sequel" row, and clicked the green copy button. 

The testimonials I wanted to use on this were short, so I needed to change the testimonial section.  So, I added another background element and set the color to a gray. 

Then, I drug in a Testimonial Element, which opens the available testimonial templates.

The Resume Clients one was perfect.  It has short copy and were all in one row that will be easy for a visitor to scan on a squeeze page.

Now that I have that testimonial section, I can delete the old testimonials on the template.  

After looking at it, I also decided I didn't want that entire white section.  So, I just deleted it, which left the blue CTA (call to action) area laid up right next to the new gray testimonial section.

Next, I used the "Decorations" option to add a slanted edge to the top and bottom of the CTA so that it subtle draws the readers eyes toward the button.   

This is one of my favorite features of Thrive Architect.  You can really make a page look like a professional designer did it for you.

Here are some of the options using the Decorations Element:

Looking good. But then I thought it'd be a good idea to include a section below the blue CTA to point out that I've used these strategies myself to be a guest contributor to many publications.

So, I drug a new background below the CTA and set the color to black.  I also added a 2-column table (one to add an image of me, and one for some copy).

Now that the layout is done, I can go back and start adding content.

The first type of content I wanted to add was the images.

I started from the top and worked my way down the squeeze page.

I swapped out the logo by clicking on it to open the image options, then clicking Replace Image:

That will open the standard WordPress image window where you can either upload a new one or select an existing one.  I already had the logo in the library, so I added it.

It came out the same width as the template's logo, which was too small for mine.   I opened the options, drug the slider until it looked the way I wanted:

I also liked the grayscale style of the default logo, so I expanded the Image Effects and drug the Grayscale slider to 100%:

Now that the logo was the way I wanted, I moved on to the main book image.

I replaced it with my book image, but it ended up being too big.  

I opened the options for it, and drug the size slider until it fit the background area.

Next, I moved down to the testimonial section and replaced the default pictures.  I didn't need to adjust anything in the settings.

The last piece I needed to do with images was to add my pic in the area below the CTA.   Since there wasn't an image already, I dragged an Image Element into the right column of the table I added earlier.

I made a video walkthrough of how to work with images using Thrive Architect:

The next thing I had to do was edit the icons.

The main icons on this page were in the white area. I loved the ones included and definitely wanted to use them.

There were 6 features in my book that I wanted to highlight, so I just had to drag-and-drop the icons around to the places I wanted them.  Easy.

The only other icons were the quotes in the testimonial element which I changed to the orange color used in other areas.

But there are other ways to customize icons I didn't use on this page:

That part was done now too. 

Next step, was to change the copy.

This part was fast and easy because I liked the fonts, colors and layout of the template.  So there wasn't much customization needed.

I just retyped my content on top of the template.  I did make some small adjustments to font size and position in the main area at the top so it would fit properly.

The only real thing I had to do was add additional paragraphs in the black 3 part book section for each area.  No more than just dragging a paragraph element under the bold one for each section and adjusting the color of the font.

I made a video showing how to work with the font elements:

I only used one type of conversion elements on this page - a button that triggers a pop up lightbox with an optin form.

There were two of these buttons on the page (at the top and in the blue CTA area). The button could link to another page with a form, but I set it to trigger a lightbox.

I had to set up a light box first, which is in a different section of WordPress.

From the Dashboard, there is a "Thrive Lightboxes" link in the side bar.  Hover over it, and click "Add New".

Then just give the lightbox a name, and click the green "Launch Thrive Architect" button.  This opens the same Thrive Architect design screen we've been working with on the ebook optin page.

I drug in headline and paragraph elements. Then added a Lead Generation element from the same side bar.

Added my own copy and styled it a bit.

This is what it looked like:

Next, I connected it with our email service.

Click on the Lead Generation element to get the options menu. Under the Main Options area is a hyperlink to "Connect Form To Service":

The steps in this will be a little different depending on your email provider.  We use ConvertKit, and it was an easy process (I'm sure it's no different with most other services).

The Lightbox is finished and ready to go, so I saved it and went back the ebook optin page.

I clicked on the top button to open the options, then expanded the Animation & Action.

I chose "Popups" as the type of action, then connected it to the Lightbox I created.    

The orange button was done.

I went through the same quick process for the button in the blue CTA area.

This is what the Lightbox looks like when you click one of the buttons:

THAT'S IT!!!   THE PAGE IS DONE!!!

It took me about 30 minutes from start to finish.  

This is the starting template laid up next to my version:

I've been using Thrive Architect for a while, and had the vision in my head. Plus I had all the copy and images ready to go.   

So, may take you a little longer...but should still be faster than any other page builder

Since I built this with Thrive Architect, I thought I should do a quick review in case you're thinking about testing it out.

Thrive Architect also enhances your experience working with other Thrive products like Thrive Leads and Thrive Quiz Builder.

The Thrive team is very responsive to feedback, and what we’re seeing now with Thrive Architect is just the beginning. Over time, the product will continue to improve and get better and better.

So if you are looking to design a landing page or just want to create visually appealing blog posts, I highly recommend giving Thrive Architect a try. 

Click the button below to get your copy, or you watch a full video walkthrough and see details of all the features.