Internet Marketing Basics - The Autoresponder

If earning money online is your goal, then it's important to learn the basics before you go chasing every rainbow you see. All online 'opportunities', in whatever form they take, will require either your time, your money or both - usually both. An online business is no different than any other business in that most online businesses fail due to lack of funds, lack of knowledge and a lack of commitment. Online or offline, it doesn't matter; most businesses fail. For example, did you know that the average life expectancy of a restaurant (any kind of restaurant) is less than two years? My father opened a video rental shop here in Houston and the whole family helped work it. Guess what? It went under.

My point is, just because you 'start' a business doesn't mean it will succeed. Sometimes, things happen that are beyond your control and there are never any guarantees. That said, if you want a chance to succeed with online business, there are some basic concepts that you must come to understand if you want any hope of making it work. The very first thing to put in your mind is this: Nothing happens until something is sold. It seems like a simple idea, doesn't it? But think about it. From a business standpoint, nothing happens until the cash register rings. So your goal is to make sales. That might seem obvious, but lots and lots of people get into business and do everything BUT sell anything! It's because they don't know how. So the purpose of this post is to outline the first basic idea that (in my opinion) is essential to online business success. And I believe that by the time I'm finished, I will have sold you on TrafficWave. That's the goal, anyway. And if you chose TrafficWave as your autoresponder service, then you might as well join my team advertising co-op as well, called Team OceanSwell. Help is good!

OK, so what's the #1 priority when it comes to online business? It's advertising, of course. Online, advertising results in web-traffic - i.e. the pot of gold at the end of the Internet rainbow! If you can get traffic, you can get sales. But, but, but... (smile) good business practices establish customer relationships so that you can continue selling goods and services to the same people again and again; like a grocery store, for example. So how do you sell to the same person more than once online? You do it with an opt-in mailing list. And for that, you need an email marketing system. In this business, we call it an 'autoresponder'. Until you understand what that is and start using one, then it's like running a restaurant without knowing how to manage a kitchen. There are a variety of autoresponder services out there, with varying levels of prices and features.

I chose TrafficWave because it gives me everything that I want and at flat-rate pricing. The deliverability is good and here's the most important part: TrafficWave has an affiliate compensation matrix that pays ten - yes TEN - levels deep! That's incredible. And what it means is that while you use the tool to build and manage your contact lists, you can also promote the product itself as an additional business! There are a number of ways to do that, including the co-op advertising idea of Team OceanSwell, which certainly helped me in the beginning. It can help you too! But if you'd like to help yourself as well, then you must learn everything there is to know about 'list-building'. And as long as you're learning, then why not also learn how to sell the autoresponder with the #1 affiliate sales plan to other marketers? We're talking Internet Marketing basics... and it doesn't get any more basic than that.