If you’re a beginner blogger, or just want to
move your blog to the Wordpress service, Yaro
Starak’s and Gideon Shalwick’s Become a Blogger is
just for you.
The Many Faces of Gideon
Shalwick
I first
heard of Gideon Shelwick from Yaro Starak.
Shalwick has two internet marketing sites.
Internet
Marketing Wizards- an interview blog, with
all the big guns, that exhibits his
professionalism. And
Internet
Marketing News- an internet
marketer-oriented entertainment site, which
exposes a gayer side of him.

Both top notch, whether you’re
looking for a little mind-numbing internet
marketer-targeted entertainment (find more
here), or professionally done interviews with
all your favorite internet marketing gurus.
Yaro Starak Never Sleeps
Although Starak may
report to the contrary, he seems to be churning
out more and more new content every day. You never
expect someone, who’s just re-launched a
membership site,
to launch a brand new site, but there it is!
Become a Blogger - Simple, elegant
Become a Blogger
is a beautifully and simply designed site,
that’s aimed mainly at beginner bloggers, who
want to get their blog set up. Having said
that, I think it’s also great for veterans,
who want to move their existing blog to
Wordpress, or bloggers considering hosting,
for the first time.
I want to take the opportunity to talk about good
web design. In the above picture, you see the
homepage of Become a Blogger. First off, look how
pretty it is: round corners, a planned color
scheme, good use of stock images and tons and tons
of white space.
Why is pretty important? When I look at a
well-designed site, I know somebody payed a
professional to do the job right (either that, or
the owner actually knows design, but that shows
effort, as well). When somebody slaps a site
together and airs it, you can tell, and as a
potential customer, it raises questions of trust,
in you. A great design like, Become a Blogger, also
catches you off guard- in the end, this is a
squeeze page for Starak’s
Blog
Profits Blueprint (a
5
star report, I’ve
reviewed before ), but what an amazing squeeze
page it is!
Navigation has Never Been Simpler
From the
above picture, you can see exactly where you can go
and what you can see, on the site. The simple
design is not just pretty, it’s also checked the
usability box, as well. And just in case you’re not
sure where you want to go, the big images ask you
very simple questions: Are you new to blogging? Or
are you already in that stage, where you can start
making money? These two questions clarify what the
whole site is about, and make sure to capture the
right target audience.
Innovating the Squeeze Page
Charles
Trippy started this revolution, but Starak
and Shalwick are taking it one step further.
Starak is highly influenced by his mentor,
Rich Schefren. Schefren’s latest report,
The Attention Age Doctrine Volume II, is all
about providing value, inside the free content, in
order to close a sale. That’s what the Starak and
Shalwick team do. Become a Blogger is not your
ordinary long-copy squeeze page. It’s a
content-stuffed site.
The Become a Blogger Content
In all the
excitement, I almost forgot to mention the site
content. We’re talking about 10, grade A, tutorial
videos, to help you technically set up your
hosting, Wordpress blog and plugins, and RSS.
Starak and Shalwick give you two viewing options:
- A video page
- A blog (with RSS, of course)
What Can a Veteran Blogger learn from Become a
Blogger?
Excellent question, young grasshopper!
Here are 6 lessons we can learn from the Become a
Blogger launch:
- Pretty sites look professional (= trust
worthy and authoritative ).
- Easy navigation keeps visitors on your site
longer (and maybe even prevents their immediate
leaving).
- A blog could be an excellent squeeze site (in
contrary to “squeeze page”- so passé, get with
it!
).
- You can provide the same content on the same
site, in different ways, which will make your
site seem richer in content (+ it gives people
choices for how to consume your content).
- Provide value to your potential customer, and
they are more likely to do whatever it is you
want them to do.
- The complex sales funnel: Note what Starak
and Shalwick are doing here (The following
includes some guessing on my part, if you know
details to be different, please let everybody
know, in the comment section!): My guess is that
Shalwick is an affiliate in Starak’s
Blog Mastermind affiliate program.
Becoming a Blogger is Shalwick’s site. He
creates the videos and sets up a site. Then he
contacts Starak and offers him a small JV: “I
create a site all about your free report- You
put your official stamp on it.” Starak does a
small welcome video and allows Shalwick to use
his official picture and sponsorship. The site
leads the user to download the Blog Profits
Blueprint, Shalwick’s name is linked with the
user’s name. The Blog Profits Blueprint leads
to Starak’s membership site, when the user
joins, Shalwick is credited with affiliate
income. Everybody wins. Beautiful, isn’t it?


Yaro Starak’s and Gideon
Shalwick’s Become a Blogger, is a good
tutorial site that also sets a wonderful
example of how squeeze pages should really be
done.
Viva La Revalucion!
Tags: Beginner blogger, Yaro Starak, Gideon Shalwick, Become a Blogger, Providing content, Wordpress tutorial videos, Veteran blogger, blog Hosting, squeeze page