Do start page and surfing type programs work? The key question here is, what are you trying to accomplish?

If you are using them to try and make sales, the results can be quite discouraging. If you are using them to sign up new subscribers for your ezine or newsletter, your results can actually be surprisingly good.

Most people who are surfing for hits, are not interested in buying anything. Their main purpose is to create more hits for their own website.

So this being the case, how does one grab their attention? You have to make them an offer that can benefit them. I'm not talking about giving them a 50% discount on your best product. Give them something with no strings attached, except to give you their email address.

Some things that work well are free ebooks, free marketing courses or anything else that might benefit the surfer.

There are different approaches to making these offers. You can take the visitor straight to a page on your site that offers free ebooks or marketing courses and get the email address in exchange.

That method can produce quite well but I like to give them more than one chance to sign up.

Send them to the page on your website that provides good quality information. This page, like every page on your site, should give them the opportunity to sign up for your ezine, newsletter or whatever it is you provide.

I personally use a marketing resource links page. It provides information. It is a site that can be useful over and over, so they may want to bookmark it. It is not a page trying to sell them on anything, just a helpful page.

Here is the page I use quite often for this purpose. You can get an idea of what I mean.

http://www.moneyforhire.com/marketingresources

This will not only give you a chance at getting an email address but might get a return visitor as well.

You can get a second chance by putting an exit pop-up on this page. I know, you hate them and supposedly everyone else hates them. The fact is, using a pop-up in the right manner, can be one of the most important marketing moves you make.

People's irritation with pop-ups comes from sites that use multiple pop-ups and sites trying to cram a sale down your throat.

Give something away. You will be amazed at the people who suddenly start checking out your pop-ups. Offer a free ebook or marketing course in exchange for signing up for your newsletter or ezine.

Using this method for your start page and surfing programs, can provide you with a number of future customers.

If used correctly, these programs can be quite beneficial. Like anything else, used incorrectly, they are a waste of time.

That couple of minutes it takes to sign up for a hundred hits, can be well worth it when you use them correctly.