In this excerpt of my “The 5 Deadly Mistakes of Home Page Design” presentation, I explain what the fourth deadly mistake is:
 

 
Are you making this mistake? Are you loosing the opportunity to continue the conversation with visitors to your website because you haven’t offered them a compelling reason to give you their name and email address?

A subscription to your newsletter won’t cut it any more. Web visitors want something more before they’ll share their contact information with you. They want you to give them something valuable that is consumable quickly and easily. Good opt-in incentives usually share the following characteristics:

* They answer a burning questions or solve a compelling issue for the visitor
* They are downloadable so they can be delivered in minutes
* They are quick and easy to consume

And, these days, they are also visually pleasing. The look and feel of your opt-in bonus is increasingly important.