By the way, what are good landing pages you can recommend to study? Ideally, with proved above average conversions.

supposedly those huge 1 page landing pages convert like gold.

one of the better reads I've found on landing pages - http://www.seomoz.org/blog/announcing-the-seomoz-landing-pag... and yeah they say they do work like gold I could just never bring myself to be so sleezy

sleezy cause I think the reason they work is that they get you to read for 30 minutes, then you don't want to feel like you are wasting that 30 minutes by not buying.

Writing a long-form sales letter that fully and narratively explains the benefits (especially emotional) that will accrue from the purchase and use of the product is not sleazy, it's smart.

Lying about those benefits is sleazy.

a huge portion of those pages is the customer testimonials, all of them are made up on the spot. I'd call that sleazy, wouldn't you?

The ones I've read aren't mostly testimonials -- but yes, making testimonials up is sleazy.

Though I never understand why. I think I might be different from their target audience but I have an immediate negative reaction to anything that looks like an ad.

I do a lot of landing page designs for clients. Here are some successful pages I can show:

http://www.codedpreview.com/previews/68ce03ad/

http://www.codedpreview.com/previews/78709ad6/

http://www.codedpreview.com/previews/f2658514/

http://www.codedpreview.com/previews/96728435/

It's important to keep in mind that the most important thing about your landing page is that you send qualified leads to them. Some of the requests I get seem very silly or odd, but my clients are AdWords magicians and can get the right people to go to them and convert very well.

Many clients optimize the pages I deliver to bring in $500 a day, net. I've been in the affiliate marketing service industry for long enough to have some insights for anyone just starting with online marketing.

If you have any questions, feel free to reply and ask!

Rule #1: Test, test and test.

That's one thing I've learned from my experience with landing pages. You should assume little. Test a lot.

Yep, testing is essential for landing pages. But successful tests require good amount of traffic which might not be possible for smaller campaigns. So, best approach would be to follow best practices in landing page design and then tweak one thing at a time to really optimize conversions.

heres a site Im working on landing page for local company - Please look it over and give first impressions ... on the landing page only...

http://okcgranite.com/redorb/index.html

in general, simplify.

my 2 cents. take or leave:

* severely cut down the copy up top. e.g.: Athenian Marble has specialized in cultured marble since 1969. We have 50 employees in a 67,000 sq ft facility to serve your needs!

* add the A+ BBB rating as a very simple graphic--instant credibility (even I know what that is!)

* 3 calls to action below:

1) Call (phone number only)

2) Visit (address only; map seems extraneous; maybe include the photo form the "About us" with the building facade so people can find it easily when they drive there)

3) Email (deprioritize this--I assume most people pick up the phone for info on marble; maybe even get rid of the form and just have an email address)

I would refrain from using phrases like "Are You Ready?" and "Let us help you." In particular, "Are You Ready" could turn off someone who's just looking for info.

BTW, the "see all photos" page should feature photos more prominently. It has a ton of text up top. I imagine photos are very important for engaging customers.

Thank you very much I will - be A/b testing your exact idea (as far as I can get from the text) with google site optimizer thanks a lot that is great feedback :)

This is my first impression for all sites that are left justified instead of centered: why? just add a margin: 0 auto; into a wrap and get the thing in the middle.

wish I could write this in a private message lol - it was pure lack on knowledge, now I'm on a trail to figure it out :) its been annoying me ... Thanks, please provide other feedback based on content .. while I fix it.

feel free to email me and I can help you out with any CSS stuff... darrindemchuk @ gmail.com

Very educational

Good advise