Splash Pages: The hot new term for the old Entry Page.

But just what is a splash page and what is its significance?

In its most basic form a Splash Page is designed to do two things well:

1. Capture a visitors Name and E-Mail address.

2. Grab a visitors attention to compel them to click a link.

Splash pages come in all shapes and sizes but all generally load in a browser quickly and smack the visitor in the face with some wacky graphic, outrageous statement, compelling video or an addictive sound file. (I thought I'd spare your sanity by looping the sound file only once. The actual Splash Page runs the sound file in an endless loop.) No matter what method is used all are designed to compel a visitor to add their name to a mailing list to be presented with more information in some form, sometimes FREE information in the form of an e-Book or report. Here is another example of an effective and simple Splash Page.

I stretched the Splash Page rules a bit when I designed this one. This page is actually one I built from memory of an Entry Page I used several years ago. The original page had an infectious quality in the respect that it compelled many people to pass it along. My own father was upset at me when the page went down because he loved to play it for his grandchildren. So I re-built it from memory and posted it on my web site for his personal enjoyment. That's when I realized this page had so much more potential than its original intent.

I poked, prodded and tweaked until I found a working combination. I hid hyperlinks in the text. I linked each dancing smile to a different web page. I made sure each link opened in a new window. I included a Google® search box. I also added my mailing list capture form and included a FREE gift. There is even code that allows anyone to Bookmark the page for future reference and/or enjoyment as the case may be.

Not to be outdone I copied this page several times, changed the links (I created specialty pages that focused on Work from Home Opportunities, Traffic Building, Link Rotators, and various other items.), and posted the links to various classified ads sites around the world via online advertising. This page is an extension of my Smile2 page I created to promote my business partners. If you click the word 'actual' in the first sentence the original Smile2 page will open in a new window or tab depending on how your browser preferences are set.

One last trick that I incorporated into this page (as I frequently do in many of my pages) is the text hyperlink color. I set it to the standard blue so that a visitor is visually unaware which link was selected previously. Setting the text color prevents it from turning to the standard (visited link) color of purple. I also remove the underline text attribute. This trick does not work with all browsers as people tend to set their browser properties differently to suit their personal browsing habits, but it does seem to work for the majority of viewers. I actually created a page like this for the visually impaired by using the 'alt' attribute for hyperlinked text. This allows speech recognition software to read aloud the alternate text of any image when the mouse hovers over it.

Well, I don't know about you but my eyes are getting buggy from all of this black and white text. I hope this bonus post inspires you to create your own Splash Page and incorporate it into your overall marketing plan. Remember, you set the limits in design, form and function so try many different layouts, be creative and above all, have fun doing it!

Until next time.

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