A waitlist landing page is a single page that explains what you are launching and collects email signups before it exists. With an AI builder you describe the offer, the form fields and the thank-you message; it stores signups in a database, gives you a private admin list and publishes the page on a live link.
- A waitlist page has four jobs: one clear promise, some real proof, a short form and a thank-you state that says what happens next.
- One qualifying question with fixed answers turns a pile of addresses into segments you can count and interview.
- Signups are saved in the site's own data and read in a private admin area. Ask for a CSV download in the first build.
- Queue positions and referral counts need atomic updates and duplicate checks, or they drift and double-count.
- Confirmation emails go through your own SMTP account. Until you add it under Integrations, nothing is sent, but signups are still saved.
- Free links last 30 days plus a week marked for deletion, so a longer waitlist belongs on a paid plan; your own domain works on any plan.
What a waitlist page has to do
A waitlist page is a test, not a brochure. It answers one question: do enough of the right people care to leave an email? Four parts are enough.
- The promise
- One sentence naming who it is for and what changes for them. "Invoices that chase late payers for you, built for freelance designers" beats "The future of billing", because visitors can tell at once whether it is meant for them.
- The proof
- Something real: a screenshot of a prototype, a short demo, a few lines on why you are building it. Skip invented social proof. A "Join 10,000 others" counter on a list of 40 loses exactly the careful early adopters you want.
- The form
- An email field, one optional question and a button. Every extra field is a reason to leave; you can ask more later, by email.
- The thank-you state
- Confirm the signup worked, say when people will hear from you and offer one next step, such as a personal referral link. A bare "Thanks!" wastes the moment when interest is highest.
Add a one-line privacy note under the form saying what you will email and how to unsubscribe, and you have everything a waitlist page needs.
Plan the page before you prompt
Ten minutes of planning saves several rebuilds. Write down:
- A headline and one paragraph in your own words. The builder can polish copy, but it can't know your positioning.
- Your qualifying question, with fixed options. "What do you use today?" with four choices is easy to count and filter. Typed answers are not: the data layer filters on exact values, so free-text replies can't be searched later.
- Where traffic will come from. Give each channel its own tagged link, such as
?ref=newsletter, and store the tag with each signup. - How long the waitlist will run. Longer than 30 days means a paid plan, because free links are deleted, data included.
- Your assets. A logo and one product screenshot, attached to the chat as reference files of up to 25 MB each.
Then decide what day one needs. Most waitlists need less than founders think:
| Feature | Needed for launch? | How to ask for it |
|---|---|---|
| Email field and one question | Yes | "Email (required) and one question with these options: …" |
| Private admin list with CSV | Yes | "A private admin area that lists signups and exports CSV" |
| Duplicate and spam protection | Yes | "Reject duplicates, add a honeypot field, limit repeat submissions" |
| Source tracking | Recommended | "Save ref and utm_source with each signup" |
| Confirmation email | Recommended (your SMTP) | "Send a confirmation through my SMTP account" |
| Position and referral link | Optional | "Fixed position at signup; credit referrers once per new email" |
| Your own domain | Before wide promotion (any plan) | Set up in Domains, not in the prompt |
Build it step by step, with a prompt you can paste
The general walkthrough is in how to build a website with AI. The waitlist version:
- Create a free Community account (no card) and open a new chat on the web or in the iOS or Android app.
- Attach your logo and screenshot, then paste the prompt below. Put everything in this first message: on Community, one build uses your whole 5-hour usage window.
- Answer Wisy's question if it asks one; otherwise the build starts and reports progress in the chat.
- Read the final note. It tells you how to sign in to the admin area and which integrations, such as email, still need your details.
- Test on a phone and a laptop: two real signups, one duplicate, one typo such as
name@gmail. - Ask for fixes in the same chat. Each change is a new build, and a failed build leaves the previous version live.
- Delete your test signups before you share the link.
Build a waitlist landing page for [product], [one-line description] for [audience]. Use the attached logo and screenshot. Style: [calm and minimal], phones first.
Page: the headline "[headline]", a short paragraph, three benefits and the screenshot. Under the form: "[We'll only email you about the launch. Unsubscribe anytime.]"
Form: email (required) and "[question]" with the options [A], [B], [C] and Other. An unticked checkbox "Send me product updates". Reject duplicate emails politely, add a hidden honeypot field and limit repeated submissions.
After signup: "You're #[position] on the list" (a fixed position given when they join), a personal referral link with a copy button, and "[what happens next, and when]". Credit a referrer once per new email through their link; never count duplicates or self-referrals. Save the ref and utm_source values from the URL with each signup.
Admin: a private admin area with a login, listing signups newest first with totals per answer and per source, a delete button and a CSV download. Send a confirmation email through my SMTP account once I add it.
On the free plan, Wisy keeps each build to a working first version, so referrals or totals may come in a follow-up build once your usage window resets. More phrasing patterns are in our AI website builder prompt templates.
Where signups are stored, and your private admin list
Each signup is a record in your site's own data storage, isolated from every other site on WisyLink. There's no spreadsheet to connect and no separate form tool to pay for. Anything public that depends on the records, such as a total shown on the page, updates within about a minute, with no rebuild.
You read the list in an admin area the app builds for itself. Your site runs its own logins, with hashed passwords and a session cookie, rather than a platform account. The build's final note says how to get in: with admin credentials it created, or by registering first so the first account becomes the admin. If it's the second, sign up yourself before you share the link.
To see and download your signups, open the admin page in any browser, your phone's included. A useful list shows:
- newest signups first, with date, email, answer and source;
- totals per answer and per source, so you see which channel brings the people you want;
- filters by answer, source or date (exact-value filters work; free-text search over a long list isn't available);
- a delete button for tests and removal requests, and a CSV download.
On the free plan, download the CSV weekly. A Community link is deleted with its data after its 30 days and the extra week. On a paid plan, links never expire while you're subscribed.
Queue positions and referrals that can't double-count
"You're #123 in line" and "Invite friends to move up" are the features most likely to be quietly wrong:
- Positions that move or repeat. If the position is counted each time the page loads, it shifts when you delete test entries, and two people joining in the same second can both see #123.
- Inflated referrals. If credit is given per visit, or per resubmission of the same email, one keen person can climb the list by refreshing.
The fix is to write both numbers once, at signup, with safe updates. WisyLink's data layer supports atomic increments: adding one to a counter is a single step, so simultaneous signups get different numbers and no update is lost. The prompt above asks for exactly that; if you add referrals in a later build, reuse its wording.
Print the reward rule on the page, for example "each friend who joins moves you up five places". If you send confirmation emails, credit a referral only after the friend confirms.
One thing not to build: a "tell a friend" form where your site emails an address someone types in. The UK regulator, the ICO, advises against this, because the business is still instigating the email under the PECR rules. A copy-link button lets people invite friends themselves.
Confirmation emails through your own SMTP account
A WisyLink site sends email through your own SMTP account; there is no shared sender built in. When the build adds email, Integrations shows an "Email (SMTP)" entry with host, port, username, password and from address. Fill it in once; the values are encrypted and never shown again. Never paste them into the chat.
Be clear about the default: until you fill in SMTP, nothing is sent. The form still works, signups are still saved and the thank-you state still appears. The build's final note says so.
Many business mailbox plans include SMTP sending, and email-sending services offer it priced by volume. For inbox delivery, send from an address on your own domain, add the SPF and DKIM records your provider gives you (as TXT records in WisyLink's DNS manager if your DNS is there), and test with two or three mailbox providers.
Keep the confirmation transactional: what they joined, what happens next, how to leave. Product news is marketing, with stricter rules. In the US, the FTC's CAN-SPAM compliance guide requires a valid postal address and a working opt-out in commercial email. In the UK, marketing email to individuals needs specific consent, which is why the updates box starts unticked. For a cleaner list, ask for double opt-in: "Mark a signup as confirmed only after the link in the email is clicked."
Launch: share card, SEO basics and your domain
Launch traffic arrives through shared links, so the preview matters. Every first build ships a share image designed for the page (1024×576), a favicon and full tags: title, description, canonical URL, Open Graph and Twitter card. Paste your link into a draft post to check it, and ask for a new image if it misses your brand. Server-rendered HTML, a sitemap and robots.txt come with every build too; just make sure the title holds the words people would search.
Settle the address before you post widely. A free link lives at https://<id>.wisylink.com for 30 days. On any plan, connect a domain you own in Domains (if you don't have one yet, register it with any domain registrar first), and do it first: once a link moves to a custom domain, its previous address stops serving it.
WisyLink's terms ask you to review and test what the AI builds. For a waitlist that takes ten minutes: the form on a small phone with the keyboard open, a duplicate email, the admin login and CSV, the confirmation email (including the spam folder) and a referral from a second browser.
Read the results and decide what to build next
WisyLink has no built-in visitor analytics. For visit counts and conversion rates, ask the builder to add your analytics provider. The admin totals already answer the useful questions:
- Which source brings qualified people? Compare signups per
reftag, then the answer mix within each. - Who is it really for? If most people pick an answer you didn't expect, listen.
- Does it spread? The share of signups from referral links shows whether the idea travels.
- Will people talk to you? Email twenty signups from your best segment and ask for a 15-minute call. Replies beat signups as a signal.
Write your bar down before launch, for example "100 signups from freelance designers in four weeks, and five calls booked". The numbers are yours; the point is choosing them before the data arrives.
If you clear it, keep building in the same chat: the waitlist can grow into the product's first version, with accounts, data and payments. Our explainer on what an AI app builder is shows how far that goes, and shipping without a technical co-founder covers the founder side.
Start your waitlist today
Describe the page in one message and get a live link. Copy the prompt above, attach your logo and screenshot, and collect signups the same day: start free on Community, no card needed.
If your waitlist will run longer than 30 days, compare plans; Starter is $7 a month and its links never expire. For other things to launch the same way, browse the use cases.
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