Yesterday I introduced the 10 Hard Pills to Swallow in Affiliate Marketing. Now I want to talk about what is probably the biggest and hardest to swallow pill for a lot of people.
It Is Going To Take Money!
If you believe you can start and run any business, internet or not, without cost, you need a reality check. It costs money to run a business. The good news is that the cost associated with an internet affiliate marketing business is low. Let's look at the products and services you absolutely need.
- Autoresponder
- Training Hub
- Tracking Service
- Hosting Service
Your autoresponder is and will be the heart of your business. Once you get started, you will use your autoresponder 3-7 times a week. Autoresponders have a wide range of prices from free to several hundred dollars/month. Make sure the autoresponder you pick does what you need and does it reliably. I would be very leery of a free autoresponder. They have to make money somehow; e.g., they may add advertising to your emails.
Another reason you want to choose an autoresponder that will last you for a long time is that it is hard to switch autoresponders and keep all of your current subscribers. When you switch, most require subscribers that you import to opt-in again and this is where you lose them.
Features to consider when choosing your autoresponder.
- Price - this should not be your only consideration. As I said earlier, the price can range from free to $100's/month. Price can be a flat fee that doesn't change or it can change increase based on the number of subscribers.
- Integration - what other programs can the autoresponder integrate with. Integration with other programs or products you use can save you time and money.
- Automation - This is a feature that I consider very important to me. Automation allows you to tailor what subscribers receive based on how they have responded or actions in the past.
- Landing Page Builder - If you have no other way to build landing pages, many autoresponders have landing page builders that are easy to use.
- Segmentation - This is the ability to identify subgroups within your subscribers. This allows you to target these subgroups with very specific emails.
- Dynamic Text - This allows you to put user-specific text in emails making the email more personalized and friendly.
These are what I consider the important features but it is by no means a complete list. You need to think about how you want to use your autoresponder and what is important to you.
Aweber costs $19/month (lower if you can take advantage of a multi-month payment plan) for your first 500 subscribers. I like Aweber because they provide fantastic training that goes way beyond how to use the system, they have excellent support, they are always on the leading edge of AR technology, they have a landing page builder, they integrate with dozens of other programs, they have automation but it could be better and more.
TrafficWave costs $17.95/month with no limit on subscribers. TrafficWave is the autoresponder recommended by ClickTrackProfit. I used TrafficWave for years before switching to Aweber. TW has training on how to use the system, they have good support, they have an excellent affiliate program and they are easy to use. TW interfaces with very few other programs. They have a landing page builder with limited capabilities.
SendSteed is a free autoresponder. The only reason I mention SendSteed is that it is part of LeadsLeap which is a free program that has so much to offer it needs a complete post just to discuss its features.
There are dozens of autoresponders out there. Do your homework. Your autoresponder is the heart of your business and you will be using it for years. For the purpose of our budget discussion, let's use $20/month as the cost of your autoresponder.
I will have to talk about more tomorrow.
See You At The Bank,
Bob Caine