Bonbonica Swampscott, MA

Lesson 3 of 7

Nothing else belongs on this page

A menu, a sidebar, a link to your latest post — every one of them is a way out. This page has one way forward and no way sideways.

A pale pink card reading The page that Collect EMAILS in magenta serif type

Your normal pages are built to let someone wander. This one is not.

A visitor who clicks your menu, your latest post or your Instagram icon has left, and almost none of them come back. That does not mean a bare page — it means every element earns its place by moving someone toward the form.

Step 1 is a decision that depends on whether you can edit your own website.

Steps 2 to 4 are the build. The prompt writes the words; you do the placing and the stripping.

1Decide where it lives

Why: where the page lives decides whether Google can ever find it.

What you do: choose between a page your email tool hosts and a page on your own domain.

What you end up with: you know where you are building, so you stop second-guessing halfway.

You have a website you can edit. Put the page on your own domain. Google can find it, it builds authority you keep, and the address is yours forever. That is the better long-term answer and the reason the whole thing is worth doing properly.

You own a domain but the site is somebody else's job. Common if somebody else built it and makes changes when you ask. Put the page on Netlify, then point a subdomain at it — something like guide.yourbusiness.com. Your main site stays exactly where it is and nothing breaks.

If a subdomain is also too much to arrange, leave the page on yourname.netlify.app for now. You can move it to a proper address later once you have a site you can actually edit.

You have neither. Two ways. Netlify will host the file on an address like yourname.netlify.app, free, and you choose the name rather than getting a random one. Or build the page inside MailerLite, where the free plan includes one landing page and a small site of up to five pages. The Netlify route gives you something you can later move onto your own domain; the MailerLite route is fewer steps today.

If you are putting the page on Netlify, your PDF goes in the same folder as index.html. Drop both files onto netlify.com/drop at once, and the PDF will be at yourname.netlify.app/your-guide.pdf. Keep that address — lesson 4 needs it.

2Write the six blocks

Why: a page missing any one of these six blocks quietly loses signups.

What you do: write six short blocks, in order.

What you end up with: all the words for the page, in the right sequence.

In this order, top to bottom. It fits on one screen and a bit of scrolling:

  • A headline about the result, not the format. Nobody wants a PDF; they want the thing the PDF gets them.
  • Five bullets on what is inside, specific enough that someone can tell whether it is for them.
  • Who it is for — and naming who it is not for is what makes the right person feel understood.
  • The form. First name and email. Nothing more.
  • Who you are, in two or three sentences. Credibility does the selling.
  • The same button twice, near the top and again at the bottom.

Prompt: write the page from your guide

This is lesson 3 of 7 in the 7-Day Content Engine at bonbonica.com/lessons/your-signup-page/. Confirm that in one short line, then get on with it. Before anything else, tell me in one line to rename this chat to "3 — The page that collects emails" and put it in the same project or folder as the earlier lessons. Then carry on. I need a landing page whose only job is to get someone to enter their name and email in exchange for my free guide. The guide is already written. Here it is: [PASTE YOUR FINISHED GUIDE FROM LESSON 2, OR THE OUTLINE IF IT IS NOT WRITTEN YET] Read it. Everything the page promises has to be something the guide actually delivers. If I have already been through lesson 7 and have a paid offer, here it is: [PASTE THE OFFER BLOCK FROM LESSON 7, OR WRITE "not yet"] If I pasted an offer, build one page with two halves: the free guide and its form above, the paid offer below it. Most people only ever need one page, and sending someone to a second one loses half of them. If I wrote "not yet", build the free half only. Lesson 7 will send me back here with an offer to add. Then ask me these three questions, one at a time, and wait for my answer each time: 1. What do you do for a living, and why are you the person answering this? 2. What worry might stop someone from handing over their email address? 3. Where will this page live? I have a website I can edit myself, or I own a domain but the site is somebody else's job, or I have neither. Then give me both of the following. PART ONE — the words Write the page in this order: - A headline about the result, not the format - A one-line subhead - Five bullets on what they get, each drawn from something actually in the guide - A short "this is for you if" list, and one line on who it is not for - The form section heading and the button text - Two or three sentences about me - A closing line PART TWO — something I can actually publish If I said I have a website I can edit: give me one complete HTML file, ready to save as index.html and upload. Self-contained, with the CSS inside a style tag, no frameworks and no external files. Readable on a phone first. Leave a clearly marked comment where my email tool's form embed code goes, and tell me in one line where to find that code. If I said the site is somebody else's job: give me the same file, and then the steps to put it on Netlify and point a subdomain at it. Say plainly that the main site is not affected, and mention that if a subdomain is also too much to arrange, the page can stay on yourname.netlify.app for now. If I said I have neither: give me the same file and tell me to drag it onto netlify.com/drop, then rename the site to something readable in the settings. Also offer the other route — the blocks a landing page builder asks for, in order, so I can paste each one into MailerLite instead. Say which one I should pick and why, in two lines. Whatever route I take, the file must be called index.html or it will not serve as the front page. The file must be completely self-contained — all CSS in a style tag, no external files. If I am on Netlify, my PDF goes in the same folder as index.html. Tell me the address the PDF will be at once the folder is uploaded. Rules: - Short sentences, plain words, no marketing hype and no exclamation marks. - The button says what they get, never "Submit". - Do not promise anything the guide does not contain. - Do not invent claims, numbers or testimonials. - Keep the page copy under 400 words. The HTML does not count toward that. - End with one line telling me what to do next: go to lesson 4 at bonbonica.com/lessons/set-up-your-list/ and set the list up so the email actually arrives.
Copy & open Claude (copies the prompt and opens in a new tab) Copy & open ChatGPT (copies the prompt and opens in a new tab)

Change anything that does not sound like you. This page is the first impression a stranger gets, and stiff copy reads as someone else's writing.

3Add the form

Why: the form is the only thing on the page that actually does anything.

What you do: paste the embed code from your email tool and delete every field except name and email.

What you end up with: a working form, connected to your list.

Paste in the embed code from your email tool. Ask for first name and email and delete every other field — each one you add costs you signups, and you can ask later once they trust you.

Make the button say what they get. Send it to me, never Subscribe.

4Strip everything else off

Why: every link that leads somewhere else is a visitor who left.

What you do: remove the menu, the sidebar, the social icons and every outbound link.

What you end up with: a page with one way forward and no way sideways.

Take off the navigation menu, the sidebar, the social icons and every link that leads anywhere else.

Then open it on your phone before you open it on your laptop. That is where most people will see it.

The page is half of it

A form nobody has connected to anything just collects addresses into the void. The next lesson is the part that makes the email actually arrive.

Publish it before you go on. Lesson 4 needs the address of your PDF and the URL of this page. Until both are live you cannot write the email that delivers the guide. Build it, put it somewhere reachable, test it on your phone, and then move on.

Your task before lesson 4

Build the page. Do not style it yet. Get the words down and the form on it.

The whole sequence is in the free 7-Day Content Engine guide. If your site is the thing standing in your way, that is what web design and Website Manager exist for, and SEO services are how a page like this gets found in the first place.

The seven lessons

Read them in order, or jump to the one you are stuck on

  1. 1 What to give awayPick the one thing worth handing over for free.
  2. 2 Write it in two pagesDraft it in one sitting, using a five-part shape.
  3. 3 The page that collects emailsYou are here.
  4. 4 Set up your list properlyThe half hour that decides inbox or spam folder.
  5. 5 Tell people it existsWhere to put the link, and how to keep mentioning it.
  6. 6 One thing, six placesTurn a single idea into a week of content.
  7. 7 Sell what you knowCharge for the deeper version, with nothing monthly.