In addition to careful copywriting, there are other important things you must take into consideration when creating a landing page that converts. For instance, it is important to build a compelling case for a time-bound offer.
Now, this doesn't mean you have to invent fake deadlines and constantly revise them each week. This is a good way to guarantee your complete loss of credibility in the shortest amount of time possible.
However, when planning your copy, you will want to make sure that you constantly urge the reader to act immediately by inserting a number of “calls to action” as I've mentioned previously.
You may want to consider using fly-ins or pop-ups to create more urgency – or to make a time-bound offer. Perhaps you can use a countdown to build urgency (i.e., when someone arrives at your landing page, they have five minutes to purchase the product at the lowest price).
Now, if you're creating a squeeze page, you might want to employ slightly different tactics. Rather than building a compelling case with multiple triggers and calls to action over the course of 1000 words, you may want to simply condense that all into a compelling headline and one paragraph of “benefits.”
For a completely free-to-join squeeze page, you more than likely won't have a considerable amount of resistance to joining, unless the visitor
a) doesn't see any benefits; and
b) suspects that you will sell their email address to spammers.
Both of these problems are relatively easy to overcome. In your headline, simply state the exact benefits they will receive for joining – as always, mixing in psychological triggers. In your first paragraph of copy, give them a compelling reason to join now (i.e., the price might go up, the list might become private, you'll get this amazing report).
Now, to overcome the second problems, simply include a short line under your opt-in form that explains that you will not – under any circumstances – spam them or sell or give away their email address and name.