$0 vs $30 - Building Your Online Business Advice - FREE Isn't Always The Best Way To Go!

Running a business online involves having to spend money on more professional tools than simply using free autoresponders and free hosting.

I see this kind of questions being asked all the time in here and I also see many newbies offering their advices to other newbies about how they should just stick to using free tools.

In my opinion this is wrong. First of all my post isn't intended as a review, what I'm doing is giving some marketing tips based on a 7 year experience in the IM arena.

And even though there are tens of marketing tools that every marketer should have in his arsenal, I'll be referring to just 3 of them: an autoresponder, a domain name and some professional hosting.

Let's take the first one. Having an autoresponder is a must. The truth is this: the more people you have on your list the more money you'll make.

I'm not going into the details of treating your customers like human beings, offering them valuable content and stuff like that simply because this should be an axiom.

Just as a quick note, the money isn't in the list itself, but in the number of people who will OPEN your messages and then click on the links inside (which leads us right back to treating our subscribers/customers like gold).

So the question for a newbie marketer should not be: do I sign up with a free autoresponder or with a paid one?

The question should be: am I going to offer valuable content to my subscribers and treat them exactly the way I personally expect to be treated... or not?

Guys look, there's no point in having a free autoresponder or a paid one if you don't grasp this simple fact: subscribers ARE NOT and SHOULD NOT be treated like some random numbers that just float around inside your AR account.

Instead be their trusted source of advices, talk to them like you talk to your best friend, do honest product reviews for them and I assure you they'll buy thru you whatever it is that you're reviewing... making YOU money.

The point I'm trying to make is that as long as you're willing to do the work, your list will be your best online friend, it will feed you for years and you'll feel a tremendous joy and personal accomplishment for helping others.

So, let me ask you now (after this long rant ): do you think it's worth investing like 20 bucks per month in order to have a professional "look and feel"?

On the other hand, let's do some math: let's say you're only adding 4 subscribers per day to your list. Notice I didn't say 40 or 400 subscribers, there's no point in talking big numbers when you're just starting out.

That's 120 subscribers in your first month minus let's say 15% who unsubscribe, so you're left with 100 subscribers. If you treat them as advised above, do you think you'll make a sale or two, which in turn will more than cover your AR monthly fee?

You be the judge of that.

And those 4 subs per day is just an example, by no means am I suggesting to limit yourself to that number. In fact building a list should be every marketer's goal on the long run, so you should put at least 50% of your efforts into building your list.

When you have a list of your own you're the one in control, so be smart and build a list instead of blindly promoting stuff as an affiliate for example by sending the traffic YOU've worked for directly to some other marketer's list.

If that's what you're doing than STOP doing it. Get an autoresponder account (Aweber it's like literally 1 buck for the first month), look around inside this forum in regards to how a nice looking squeeze page should look like (there are even nice templates being offered for free) and get to work.

And as a side note, most free autoresponder services will embed different links (to their terms, self promotion etc) at the end of your messages, which is a big no no in terms of conversions and professionalism.

Now let's talk about having your own domain and hosting, which is another must have when building an online business.

$10, that's all one needs... 10 bucks to have a nice, professional domain name and hosting package. Keep in mind that when signing up for the first time, lots of hosting companies will offer you a free domain name. So it's like killing two birds with one stone.

Also, when having your own hosting package/domain you can track everything: visitors, conversions from clicks to sales, different landing pages, you can install different plugins (which you can't do for example when using the free WP platform)... and most importantly, you're overall conversion rate will be higher. That's a fact.

Think about it and do the math again. Lets say that at the end of the month you received 500 clicks all across the board. I can say with a 100% accuracy that by having your own domain and by using nice looking affiliate links (like: www.yourdomain.com/productname/recommends) you will generate at least one additional sale versus using a free platform.

That additional sale will more than cover the cost of your hosting/domain name fees and as you know most ClickBank products have at least 2,3 upsells in place (some have 6,7 and even 8 upsells, especially in the IM niche), which means that a single additional sale can put $200 to even $500 more money in your pocket just because of the higher conversion rate.

So the moral of my rant is:

1. You're in the business of making money online, so treat it like a business.... not like a hobby.

2. The 30-40 bucks needed on a monthly basis - think of them as an investment in your own future, not as an expense.

3. If you don't plan on making at least these $30-$40 per month, then what is it that you're trying to accomplish online?

Your first goal should be generating that first sale, then generating 10 sales per month, then 1 sale per day and so on and so on.

And for that to start happening you need a plan, a daily plan. You've got thousands of posts, threads, great advices inside this forum in regards to this matter.... so not having a battle plan IS NOT a reason to not succeed, it's simply an excuse.

So stop making excuses, you have all the reasons in the world to make your online business work and it will, if you're willing to put in the necessary dedication .