There’s a lot of debate these days about whether squeeze pages still work for list building.

What is a “squeeze page”? It’s simply a page you place in front of the rest of your site that requires visitors to give up their name and email address before they get to see any information.

This technique must be used carefully — it can build your list, but can also drive away potential customers.

Consider the following…

You know it’s important to grow your e-mail list. The bigger the list, the more people will see your offers, and the more money you will make.

The problem we run into these days is simple: people are more reluctant than ever to give up their email address. The squeeze page is still the best way to build your list, but it requires more thought today than it did even a few months ago. Using a squeeze page carelessly can do your business more harm than good.

It’s best to use a squeeze page on a site that is built to sell one product. For example, if you have a site that features a sales letter selling a particular product or service, placing a squeeze page in front of the information about that product or service is a good idea. This keeps readers from being distracted; it sifts and sorts potential buyers by level of seriousness; and it gives you a list of interested parties that you can go back and market to repeatedly.

The worst thing you can do it use a squeeze page in front of the wrong kind of site.

Sites that are intended to sell one targeted product or service, through direct response promotion, are good candidates for the squeeze page approach. Portals, branding sites, and blogs should not be protected by a squeeze page.

Remember that your squeeze page is a gate.

For direct response sites, it’s a valuable tool; used on other kinds of sites it may simply be a turn-off to your customers.

When you offer the right kind of bribe, however, you can get people to opt in through the squeeze page — building a valuable, targeted email list.

The growing problems of spam, viruses and spyware have made people more reluctant than ever to give up their name and e-mail address.

The answer to this issue is simple, in my opinion. Squeeze pages can build your list super-fast; you just have to choose the right websites and scenarios in which to use them.