When starting out with an internet business, most people may think all you need is a site, a server and the ability to write a little blog about their product. What many don’t realize at first, is that there are several tools that are needed to move visitors through the purchasing journey.
First of all you will need a way to upload information to your domain. This is done through a FTP (file transfer protocol) client like FileZilla. With this tool you can upload files from your desktop like themes, images, and pages. I mention FileZilla because it is a free download and is user friendly. You just have to make sure you fill in all fields correctly for it to connect properly and you can use it for multiple sites.
In order to capture information and build your list, you will need an opt-in page. This is where people fill in their first name and email address to request the information or product you are offering. There are many sites that offer free downloads of templates for this, but you can also design your own. To do that you will need a HTML(hyper text markup language)editor. I would suggest NVU another free download.
With this you can design your own headlines, body text, and add images. NVU has a tutorial, but it still takes a little playing around with it to get used to how things work. With the editor you can connect to your domain and download pages to edit and also publish pages to your site.But, you will also need an editor to insert the code you get from your autoresponder.
How’s that for a lead in? Autoresponders are an extremely neccessary part of doing business on the internet. In truth, its very difficult if you don’t use one. An autoresponder is just that – it responds automatically to a request by your customer. When they enter their name and email address and hit the submit button, it automatically sends out a confirmation message.
The customer then needs to go to their email and confirm. When they do that,depending on the URL(uniform resource locator)that you entered, they will be sent to your sales or download page. You also use the autoresponder for follow-up messages that are sent for you in the interval you request.
The autoresponder can also broadcast messages out to all on your list. You could use this for an upcoming event or a launch of a new product. Again, there are a lot of autoresponders out there, but I use Aweber and GetResponse. At the time I signed up, both were offering free trials.
All three of these tools, and they are just that, need to be in every internet marketers tool box. Like everything else in life that is new, it takes a little getting used to them to feel comfortable. Once you do, though, its a piece of cake.
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