One thing that all internet marketers are interested in is a growing list of leads. Leads are the primary reason that marketing exists at all. Without the ability to gather leads, there would be no commerce. For that reason, a great deal of time, research and effort have been spent on the technical aspects of capturing leads. Even though all of the old ways of capturing leads are still valid such as TV ads with a phone number or web address displayed, radio ads with a phone number or web address given, guerrilla tactics such as handing out flyers and making cold calls and visits to name a few, newer, more efficient ways of collecting leads are being used more and more heavily since the movement of commerce from the non-virtual to the virtual world.

With respect to the collection of leads, targeting is absolutely everything and in the virtual world, today's powerful search engines deliver the most targeted traffic that the marketing industry has ever seen. An effect of the rise of these technologies is the establishment of a community dedicated to the optimization of interaction with the algorithms that build and format this virtual landscape. It is know as Search Engine Optimization or SEO for short.

Quality SEO, does a great job of funneling these highly targeted leads. However, it does nothing to capture or retain them. In other words, if the content in or on you blog or website is optimized for search engines, search engines will send plenty of traffic your way, but they will do nothing to help that traffic convert into sales while they pass through.

I have often been taught that it takes seven exposures to the marketing of a product before it is seriously considered for purchase by the individual being marketed to. If that is truly the case, then the odds of making a sale on the potentially one and only visit of an individual to your blog or site is truly minuscule. So what can be done about this problem? How can we capture this individuals attention many times over, seven or more times to be exact?

Truth be told, you have to get them to give you their contact information. In the virtual world, more often than not, you have to obtain their email address. Of course, it goes without saying that web surfers will not just hand you their beloved email address, you will have to bribe them for it. How do you do that? Simple. Offer a product in your niche. It should be something along the lines of a free report, e-book, instructional video, e-course, plug-in, or any of a large variety of digital information products. If your site has been optimized properly, they will find you. It is at this point that you have merely seconds to convince them to give you their email address for the free item you are promising. This is where opt in forms come in.

The beauty of opt in forms is that they are very good at getting the attention of your visitors. Opt in forms come in three major types: pop ups, slide ups, and static opt in forms that just hang out some where. Lets briefly discuss each of these three types.

First, there is the static form. A static form is just what it says it is, static HTML code or JavaScript embedded somewhere on your site. As part of the opt in form you will the four basic attributes of an opt in form, the attention grabbing headline, the description of the irresistible freebie being given away, the name and email or the email and confirm fields and finally the actual subscribe or submit button. Static forms such as this one are also very common on squeeze pages. These are highly used.

The second type of opt in form is the slide up. As you loaded this page you probably noticed a slide up ad slide up at the bottom just above the edge of your screen. Slide ups can contain simply an ad or the HTML or JavaScript code used for the opt in fields. Slide ups are generally considered to have more capture power than static opt in forms due to the fact that as or after the page is loaded, it is something that is actually moving on the screen. Naturally, any human will invariably direct his or her eyes to that location to get a fix on the movement. It is at that moment that they actually read the ad and decide whether or not to opt in on the slide up form itself or click through to the page or squeeze page that contains a static opt in form. The movement is what makes the difference.

Finally, there is the pop up opt in form. You are probably familiar with them. If you have ever visited a site and had an annoying window pop up over the content you are trying to read, you have seen a pop up. Pop up opt in forms are the most effective form of opt in advertising because it does not draw the eyes of the visitors towards itself, rather, it literally covers up the content and replaces it with the four basic opt in attributes in all their glory, the loud and splashy headline, the details and benefits of the irresistible freebie that has specifically been tailored to appeal to the visitors delivered to that site via search engines, the name and email or the email and confirm fields and finally the subscribe or submit button. As annoying as they are, pop ups convert the best meaning they capture the highest percentage of leads. Some marketers argue that an annoying pop up is the fasted way to lose loyal traffic, but if the pop up is successful in capturing the email address of the visitor, you never need them to visit your site again because you will be selling to them via their email address. Your search engine optimized content was just a lure since the beginning.

Once you begin harvesting email addresses, you have commenced building your list. Remember, the money is in the list especially since it is a targeted list.