When I discovered the world of Internet Marketing 'way back' in 2009, it seemed like something that I would never be able to do. Phrases, words and abbreviations like list-building, social networking, lead generation, squeeze-page, optin, autoresponder, blog, SEO, OTO, PPC (and so on) meant nothing to me. You might as well have been talking to me about another planet, because it was all ALIEN to me!But, for reasons of my own, I was determined to find out everything that I could about the cyber-world of online business. Since I am writing this in 2010, I can't claim to be any kind of expert on the subject but I have learned a lot about the general principles of selling things online and making a business out of it. The very first thing I learned is that it's hard to do without any money! It turns out that online business isn't much different from opening a restaurant, dry cleaner or a car wash. It takes money, and plenty of it, to start a business.
But the really attractive thing about starting an online business is that you can substitute time for money. It still takes a lot to get it going, but it doesn't take a lot of money. Instead, it takes a lot of time. I think that's why so many people try this business and quickly give up. They don't have any money and they aren't willing to spend any time at it. That's one of the things I've learned. The other major thing I've learned is that, one way or another, you need to build up a 'list'. If you don't know what that means, I'm talking about people who have agreed to receive business email messages from you and are likely to read them. With such a 'list', you can share products and services that you've found and sell such things to one or more of your readers every time you send a mass email to them. That, in a nutshell, is one major aspect of this thing called Internet Marketing. And there are lots and lots of people who earn full-time incomes doing it!
Anyway, you need something called an 'autoresponder' in order to do this. You need to learn how to use it and you need to commit to the TIME it takes to build a business mailing list. Time: that's the key. It takes time and knowledge, and there's a lot to learn when it comes to list-building! Anyway, an autoresponder service is an email marketing tool that is a must-have if you are going to learn and do this business. The one I chose is TrafficWave. They're based here in Houston, where I live, and they've been around for years. Some other reasons for choosing TrafficWave are:
1) It's a good product that has all of the features you will need as you embark upon your new Internet Marketing career. Well-known industry leaders use TrafficWave and the support staff is very good. Yes, there are free autoresponders available but they include ads in your letters and you are very limited in what you can do with them. If you are going to do Internet Marketing right, you need the right tools!
2) The price is very fair when compared to similar products in the industry. And because of the affiliate referral program, three affiliate sales with cover the cost and effectively make it a free service. That's very good and another good thing is that they don't increase the monthly charge when you increase the number of autoresponder campaigns and lists that you manage, like some of their competitors do. You can have unlimited autoresponder campaigns and the price never changes. Not only that, but you can import an existing optin list into your new TrafficWave account.
3) A potentially very lucrative affiliate sales plan in the form of a 3x10 MLM-style matrix that has become world famous. Not only can this produce a monthly income stream all by itself, but it includes bonuses as well for active recruiters. The 10-level pay plan is one of a kind where this type of product is concerned, and that's what makes the TrafficWave autoresponder truly unique!
