Your web business probably gets product inquiries from potential customers around the globe. Inquiries come via e-mail and your web site, and you try to send information to each hot prospect as quickly as you can. You know that you can drastically increase the likelihood of making a sale by satisfying each person’s need for information quickly!

But, after you’ve delivered that first bit of information to your prospect, do you send him any further information?

If you are like most Internet marketers, you don’t.

When you don’t follow that initial message with additional information later on, you let a valuable prospect slip from your grasp! This is a potential customer who may have been very interested in your products, but who lost your contact information, or was too busy to make a purchase when your first message reached him.

Often, a prospect will purposely put off making a purchase, to see if you find him important enough to follow up with later. When he doesn’t receive a follow up message from you, he will take his business elsewhere.
Are you losing profits due to inconsistent and ineffective follow up?

Following up with leads is more than just a process – it’s an art. In order to be effective, you need to design a follow up system, and stick to it, EVERY DAY! If you don’t follow up with your prospects consistently, INDIVIDUALLY, and in a timely fashion, then you might as well forget the whole follow up process.

Consistent follow up gets results!

When I first started marketing and following up with prospects, I used a follow up method that I now call the “List Technique.” I had a large database containing the names and e-mail addresses of people who had specifically requested information about my products and services. These prospects had already received my first letter by the time they requested more information, so I used the company’s latest news as a follow up piece.

I would write follow up newsletters every now and then, and send them, in one mass mailing, to everyone who had previously requested information from me. While this probably did help me win a few additional orders, it wasn’t a very good follow up method. Why isn’t the “List Technique” very effective?

• The List Technique isn’t consistent. Proponents of the List Technique tend to only send out follow up messages when their companies have “big news”.
• List Technique messages don’t give the potential customer any additional information about the product or service in question. He can’t make a more informed buying decision after receiving a newsletter! If someone is wondering whether your company sells the best knick-knacks, what does he care that you’ve just moved your headquarters?
• List Technique messages convey a “big list” mentality to your potential customers. When I used to write follow up messages using the List Technique, I was writing news bulletins to everyone I knew! I should have been sending a personal message to each individual who wanted to know more about my products.

What follow up method really works?

Following up with each lead individually, multiple times, but at set intervals, and with pre-written messages, will dramatically increase sales! Others who use this same technique confirm that they have all at least doubled the sales of various products! In order to set this system up, though, you need to do some planning.

First, you’ll need to develop your follow up messages. If you’ve been marketing on the Internet for any length of time, then you should already have a first informative letter. Your second letter marks the beginning of the follow up process, and should go into more detail than the first letter. Fill this letter with details that you didn’t have the space to add to the first letter. Stress the BENEFITS of your products or services!

Your next 2-3 follow up messages should be rather short. Include lists of the benefits and potential uses of your products and services. Write each letter so that your prospects can skim the contents, and still see the full force of your message.

The next couple of follow up messages should create a sense of urgency in your prospect’s mind. Make a special offer, giving him a reason to order NOW instead of waiting any longer. After reading these follow up messages, your prospect should want to order immediately!

Phrase each of your final 1 or 2 follow up messages in the form of a question. Ask your prospect why he hasn’t yet placed an order? Try to get him to actually respond. Ask if the price is too high, the product isn’t the right color or doesn’t have the right features, or if he is looking for something else entirely. (By this time, it’s unlikely that this person will order from you. However, his feedback can help you modify your follow up letters or products, so that other prospects will order from you.)

The timing of your follow up letters is just as important as their content. You don’t want one prospect to receive a follow up the day after he gets your initial informative letter, while another prospect waits weeks for a follow up!

Always send an initial, informative letter as soon as it is requested, and send the first follow up 24 hours afterwards. You want your hot prospects to have information quickly, so that they can make informed buying decisions!

Send the next 2-3 follow up messages between 1 and 3 days apart. Your prospect is still hot, and is probably still shopping around! Tell him about the benefits of your products and services, as opposed to your competitors’. You will make the sale!

Send the final follow up messages later on. You certainly don’t want to annoy your prospect! Make sure that these last letters are at least 4 days apart.

Following up effectively seems complicated, but it doesn’t have to be! So many potential customers are lost because of poor follow up – don’t you want to be one of the few to get it right?

Using an Autoresponder for Email Follow Up

There’s no real way of effectively following up your customers without the use of an Autoresponder email service.  Automating this process with pre-written emails, targeted keywords/phrases and a pre-set structure for distributing your emails to your list is the secret to successful customer follow up!

Think of banner ads as the spice in your affiliate diet. Sprinkle them around, but for a heartier helping of sales, you’ll need something more solid! Learn to give your visitors longer, more descriptive pre-sales text. Revamp your affiliate advertising using these simple steps:

1. Pull the Reader in
2. Introduce the Product
3. Explain the Product’s Significance
4. Tell the Reader to Make a Purchase

Pull the Reader in

To convince your audience that your text is worth reading, make your first sentence or two very interesting. Make a bold statement, say something seemingly ridiculous, or appeal to your prospect’s emotional side. Then, tie this grabber in with the rest of your copy.

Introduce the Product

What is the product you’re advertising? What does it do? Directly after your grabber, give a compact explanation of your product. Keep this explanation short, while still being very clear. This should still be a very short section of your text.

Explain the Product’s Significance

What will it do for me?

By writing your own copy, you can directly target your unique audience. Make the most of this opportunity! Clearly explain how your readers will benefit from this product.

No one knows your audience like you do. Suggest a variety of product uses just for them, and give examples. This is the time for details – make this section long and rich.

Tell the Reader to Make a Purchase

You’ve come so far – you’ve laid out exactly what the product is and how it will help your unique audience. Now, seal the deal – tell your readers to purchase the product! Include your affiliate link in this section.

This step may sound strange, but it’s necessary. Often, people hear about a product and are genuinely interested, but fail to actually make a purchase. A clear call to a simple action cuts down on buyer ambivalence. Don’t be pushy – just change your verb tenses to the imperative. Instead of: “If you think that you fit this profile, you might want to think about buying this product.” Say: “Click here to order an account today.”

Drive Sales – Use Long Copy

If you don’t feel ready to write long copy yourself, ask your affiliate program manager for help! Many companies release well-written articles by respected authors that you can reprint free of charge.

The novelty of the Web is wearing off. People online now are busy. Surfers won’t make a purchase unless you make a great case for what they’ll get out of it. And you’re not going to do that with just a banner ad.

Capture Email Adresses

Once you’ve done the hard work of getting the customer to your website, take the opportunity to capture their email address.

Building a list is vital if you want to build a sustainable affiliate marketing business.  Some people will purchase your product once they have viewed your sales page, however many will not.  Therefore it is crucial that you are able to communicate with them in the future.

Don’t just put up a basic sign up form! Give them something as an incentive for signing up to your list and use your Autoresponder service to communicate with them. If you are not using an Autoresponder service I highly recommend Aweber, which is used by many Internet marketers.

In 1936, long before the rise of the personal computer, Hormel Foods created SPAM. In 2002, the company will produce it’s six billionth can of the processed food product. But that mark was passed long ago in the world of Internet spam.

• Who Cooked This!? (How did it all start?)
• Why Does Bad Spam Happen to Good People?
• Stop The Flood to Your Inbox
• Stay Off Spammed Lists in the Future
• Think You’re Not a Spammer? Be Sure.
• The Final Blow

Who Cooked This!? (How did it all start?)

The modern meaning of the word “spam” has nothing to do with spiced ham. In the early 1990’s, a skit by British comedy group Monty Python led to the word’s common usage. “The SPAM Skit” follows a couple struggling to order dinner from a menu consisting entirely of Hormel’s canned ham.

Repetition is key to the skit’s hilarity. The actors cram the word “SPAM” into the 2.5 minute skit more than 104 times! This flood prompted Usenet readers to call unwanted newsgroup postings “spam.” The name stuck.

Spammers soon focused on e-mail, and the terminology moved with them. Today, the word has come out of technical obscurity. Now, “spam” is the common term for “Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail”, or “UCE.”

Why Does Bad Spam Happen to Good People?

Chances are, you’ve been spammed before. Somehow, your e-mail address has found it’s way into the hands of a spammer, and your inbox is suffering the consequences. How does this happen? There are several possibilities.

Backstabbing Businesses

Businesses often keep lists of their customers’ e-mail addresses. This is a completely legitimate practice and, usually, nothing bad comes of it. Sometimes though, the temptation to make a quick buck is too great, and these lists are sold or rented to outside advertisers. The result? A lot of unsolicited e-mail, and a serious breach of trust.

Random Address Generation

Computer programs called random address generators simply “guess” e-mail addresses. Over 100 million hotmail addresses exist – how hard could it be to guess some of them? Unfortunately for many unsuspecting netizens – not too hard. Many spammers also guess at “standard” addresses, like “support@yourdomain.com” “info@yourdomain.com”, and “billing@yourdomain.com.”

Web Spiders

Today’s most insidious list-gathering tools are web spiders. All of the major search engines spider the web, saving information about each page. Spammers use tools that also spider the web, but save any e-mail address they come across. Your personal web page lists your e-mail address? Prepare for an onslaught!

Chat Room Harvesting

ISP’s offer vastly popular chat rooms where users are known only by their screen names. Of course, spammers know that your screen name is the first part of your e-mail address. Why waste time guessing e-mail addresses when a few hours of lurking in a chat room can net a list of actively-used addresses?

The Poor Man’s Bad Marketing Idea

It didn’t work for the phone companies, and it won’t work for e-mail marketers. But, some spammers still keep their own friends-and-family-style e-mail lists. Compiled from the addresses of other known spammers, and people or businesses that the owner has come across in the past, these lists are still illegitimate. Why? Only you can give someone permission to send you e-mail. A friend-of-a-friend’s permission won’t cut it.

Stop The Flood to Your Inbox

Already drowning in spam? Try using your e-mail client’s filters – many provide a way to block specific e-mail addresses. Each time you’re spammed, block the sender’s address. Spammers skip from address to address, and you may be on many lists, but this method will at least slow the flow.

Also, use more than one e-mail address, and keep one “clean.” Many netizens find that this technique turns the spam flood into a trickle. Use one address for only spam-safe activities like e-mailing your friends, or signing on with trustworthy businesses. Never use your clean address on the web! Get a free address to use on the web and in chat rooms.

If nothing else helps, consider changing screen names, or opening an entirely new e-mail account. When you do, you’ll start with a clean, spam-free slate. This time, protect your e-mail address!

Stay Off Spammed Lists in the Future

Want to surf the web without getting sucked into the spam-flood? Prevention is your best policy. Don’t use an easy-to-guess e-mail address. Keep your address clean by not using it for spam-centric activities. Don’t post it on any web pages, and don’t use it in chat rooms or newsgroups.

Before giving your clean e-mail address to a business, check the company out. Are sections of its user agreement dedicated to anti-spam rules? Does a privacy policy explain exactly what will be done with your address? The most considerate companies also post an anti-spam policy written in plain English, so you can be absolutely sure of what you’re getting into.

Think You’re Not a Spammer? Be Sure.

Many a first-time marketer has inadvertently spammed his audience. The first several hundred complaints and some nasty phone messages usually stop him in his tracks. But by then, the spammer may be faced with cleanup bills from his ISP, and a bad reputation that it’s not easy to overcome.

The best way to avoid this situation is to have a clear understanding of what spam is: If anyone who receives your mass e-mails did not specifically ask to hear from you, then you are spamming them.

Stick with your gut. Don’t buy a million addresses for $10, no matter how much the seller swears by them! If something sounds fishy, just say no. You’ll save yourself a lot in the end.

The Final Blow

The online world is turning the tide on spam. In the end, people will stop sending spam because it stops working. Do your part: never buy from a spammer. When your business seeks out technology companies with which to work, only choose those with a staunch anti-spam stance.

Spam has a long history in both the food and e-mail sectors. This year, Hormel Foods opened a real-world museum dedicated to SPAM. While the museum does feature the Monty Python SPAM Skit, there’s no word yet on an unsolicited commercial e-mail exhibit. But, if all upstanding netizens work together, Hormel’s ham in a can will far outlive the Internet plague that is UCE.

Autorespoders and Spam

Using a reputable Autoresponder service will help you build credibility with your audience and demonstrate that you have a Privacy Policy that means something.  Some Autoresponder services, such as Aweber, will automatically ban your account if they get a hint that you may be ’spamming’.

Try AWeber Email Marketing Risk-Free

Numerous myths have circulated regarding confirmed opt-in and its effects. There are many misconceptions out there, and we’d like to help clear those up.

Myth 1: My List Size Will Decrease Because Of Confirmed Opt-In.

Some addresses entered into your form will not confirm — that much is true. The percentage of addresses that don’t confirm depends on many factors, including the quality of your traffic and how effective your thank-you page, confirmation message and incentive for confirming are.

Percentages aside, there are compelling reasons that having fewer addresses on your list is a good thing.

Sometimes Less is Better

I know. You may be asking, “How can a decreased list size be a good thing?” Well, let’s consider:

5-20% of all web form submissions are undeliverable right off the bat.

This means that of your total list size you can cut that by 5-20% because these email addresses are simply dead. Remember these are not temporary undeliverable but permanent dead addresses.

Now, add on the bogus and malicious sign ups that undoubtedly will happen. For example, someone comes to your website and decides to put in bob@aol.com. Well, bob@aol.com was once a real email address and because you were not using confirmed opt-in you are now classified as an unintentional spammer.

A recent study by MarketingSherpa and KnowledgeStorm found that only 68% of users always enter a valid email address.

So, nearly a third of respondents knowingly enter bogus email addresses.

- Source

ISPs do not differentiate between unintentional spammers or actual spammers. The potential for you to be blocked or even worse, blacklisted, remains the same.

Myth 2: My Mailing List Is Different! I Don’t Need Confirmed Opt-In.

Let’s be clear, confirmed opt-in is for all businesses, plain and simple. Anyone collecting subscribers and in turn sending email needs to confirm that those people intended to sign up to your mailing list and want to receive your email.

In this age of email regulations and massive volumes of spam email, deliverability can be an issue. Why increase your chances of not getting delivered by putting yourself at risk.

Myth 3: No One Else Uses Confirmed Opt-In. Why Should I?

This is simply not accurate. Our own campaigns here at AWeber use confirmed opt-in for all email marketing activities. When someone signs up for a Test Drive of AWeber, they must confirm.

After setting up an account, if they want to receive our customer training email course, they must confirm. The same goes for our affiliates and their email training. Even when someone subscribes to our blog, they must confirm.

Ok, but AWeber must practice what they preach, who else?

If you want to sign up for the mailing lists of these organizations you will need to first confirm:

CNN	Microsoft
Oprah, CNet	bellagio.com
IRS.gov	weather.com
ign.com	maxim.com
tgifridays.com	olivegarden.com
pbs.org	visitpa.com
Whitehouse.gov

The list goes on and on

Myth 4: Subscribers In My Market Don’t Know How To Confirm.

The simple solution is to tell them. The first page after someone fills in an opt-in form, commonly called a “thank you page” should tell the visitor exactly what to do next. Often this is done most effectively with a picture showing visitors what the confirmation email will look like.

An excellent example is our test drive sign up video on the thank you page showing visitors what to do.

Honestly, if they can’t click a link then you probably should be marketing your business offline. If someone can find your website online I guarantee they can click a link.

Myth 5: My Sales Will Decrease Because Of Confirmed Opt-In.

Have you tested this assumption? The answer is always, “No, but I just assume” or “No, my colleague told me it would hurt sales”.

It’s best not to assume anything, but rather to seek out your own answers by testing and observing your own campaigns. We have found from our own testing that while the raw number of email addresses on our list declined when we switched to confirmed opt-in, sales did not.

This means that the people who did confirm were the ones that truly wanted the information that they had to offer and the ones that didn’t were not left to bloat the mailing list.

Grow Your Business Without Risk

Will your results be exactly the same as AWeber or even anyone else? This can only be determined by proper testing and measuring.

Use confirmed opt-in as an opportunity to make sure that your lists are 100% clean and that you know without a doubt that 100% of the people receiving your mail have specifically requested it themselves.

Spend your time and energy building your business with subscribers who want to hear from you rather than dealing with issues created by people who dont want to hear from you.

Ensuring requested opt-in email is delivered to subscriber inboxes is an increasingly difficult battle in the age of spam filtering. Open and click thru response rates can be dramatically affected by as much as 20-30% due to incorrect spam filter classification.

Permission

Confirming that the people who ask for your information have actually requested to be on your list is the number one step in the battle for deliverability. You should be using a process called confirmed opt-in or verified opt-in to send a unique link to the attempted subscriber when they request information. Before adding the person to your list they must click that unique link verifying that they are indeed the same person that owns the email address and requested to subscribe.

Subscriber Addresses

When requesting website visitors to opt-in ask for their “real” or “primary” email address instead of a free email address like Yahoo or Hotmail. Free emails tend to be throw away accounts and typically have a shorter lifetime than a primary ISP address.

List Maintenance

Always promptly remove undeliverable addresses that bounce when sending email to them. An address that bounces with a permanent error 2-3 times in a 30 day period should be removed from the list. ISP’s track what percentage of your newsletters bounce and will block them if you attempt to continually deliver messages to closed subscriber mailboxes.

Message Format

Usage of HTML messages to allow for text formatting, multiple columns, images, and brand recognition is growing in popularity and is widely supported by most email client software. Most spam is also HTML formatted and thus differentiating between requested email and spam HTML messages can be difficult. A 2004 study by AWeber .com shows that plain text messages are undeliverable 1.15% of the time and HTML only messages were undeliverable 2.3%. If sending HTML it is important to always send a plain text alternative message, also called text/HTML multi-part mime format.

Content

Many ISP’s filter based on the content that appears within the message text.

Website URL:

Research potential newsletter advertisers before allowing them to place ads in your newsletter issues. If they have used their website URL to send spam, just having their URL appear in your newsletter could cause the entire message to be filtered.

Words/phrases:

Choose your language carefully when crafting messages. Avoid hot button topics often found in spam such as medication, mortgages, making money, and pornography. If you do need to use words that might be filtered, don’t attempt to obfuscate words with extra characters or odd spelling, you’ll just make your messages appear more spam like.

Images:

Avoid creating messages that are entirely images. Use images sparingly, if at all. Commonly used open rate tracking technology uses images to calculate opens. You may choose to disable open rate tracking to avoid being filtered based on image content.

Attachments:

With viruses running rampant and spreading thru the usage of malicious email attachments many users are wary of attached documents. It’s often better to link to files via a website URL to reduce recipient fear of attachments and reduce the overall message size.

CAN-SPAM Compliance

The January 2004 Federal CAN-SPAM law introduced a number of rules regarding the delivery of email. It’s important you have your legal counsel review your practices and ensure you are in compliance. The two most important rules include having a valid postal mail address listed in all commercial messages and a working unsubscribe link that is promptly honored to remove the subscriber from future messages.

Reputation

Reputation services are often used by large ISP’s as a way to vet email senders regarding their email practices and policies. Businesses listed with these services are then given less stringent filtering or no filtering at all. Several reputation services are:

• http://www.isipp.com/iadb.php
• http://www.bondedsender.com
• http://www.habeas.com

Relationships & Whitelisting

Contact with major ISP’s and email providers is essential in letting them know about your requested subscriber email. Many large providers such as AOL and Yahoo have specific whitelisting programs and postmaster website areas to ensure your email is delivered as long as you meet their policies and procedures in handling your opt-in list.

Email deliverability is about ensuring requested opt-in email is delivered to the intended recipient. While no single tip will enable you to get 100% of your email delivered each one utilized as a group can go a long way to reaching that goal.

To find out more about email deliverability tips using Aweber’s autoresponder service click here.

We’ve all signed up for an e-zine or website newsletter at some point, and within a few seconds you get an email from that site or person with a welcome message or whatever, and you go “Hey that was quick!” – Well, the big secret to that is that they will be using an autoresponder. What exactly is this and why is it important?

Autoresponders are a method of having emails dispatched to people without needing any human input, an automatic response to a request. As prevalent as they are, they of course come in all shapes and sizes. There are scripts you can install on your site that will give you this capability. You can use a service that will automatically dispatch your messages for you. It’s possible to set automatic follow up’s that can be pre-set to send out your email communications at specific times for example, every hour, daily or weekly. There are, frankly, auto responders for just about anything you care to think of, and the people using them have a distict advantage over their competition!

The great thing about autoresponders is that they do everything on auto-pilot, without the need for human intervention. It’s like having a customer service or sales person on duty 24/7 without having to pay them. Responders can be set for all types of different inquiries or questions, and the latest versions have quite a lot of clever intuition built in that uses keywords and key phrases to specify the response sent to the enquirer.

For example, Mr. Jones goes on a site, then emails a question about response times on blue widgets. With the right settings, the XYZ site when it receives the email, will see the phrase ‘response time’ and then automatically send an email back with links to where on the XYZ site information can be found about the response time of the widgets. The next day, XYZ site see’s that Mr. Jones IP address hasn’t returned to the site, so it sends an automatic follow up asking – well, whatever you want it to. “Did you find the information you needed? Can we help you with anything else? Thanks for your enquiry, and today we have a special for 24 hours only on widget YZS “. All this can be automated by using autoresponders correctly.

Autoresponders and Internet Marketeting

Ever heard the phrase “your biggest asset is your list”? Building a list of customers is one of the key elements for success in Internet marketing and an Autoresponder service makes it possible to both build and create massive lists that you can market your products or services to. Is there a downside? In some ways yes, as it does take out the personal touch that can be essential to gaining new clients, and frankly a lot of people don’t like an automated response, and prefer a person to interact with. Yet there’s very few sales sites out there right now without an autoresponder of some kind or another. One of the most popular Autoresponders out there is Aweber, which is used by many of the top affiliate marketers. Aweber will give you a Free 30 Day Trial of their Autoresponder system so you can check them out and give it a try! To take the trial, just enter your name and email address in the form below!

There is an information revolution raging online. Article marketing has fuelled this move due to the ever growing requirement to publish unique content on your websites. There is more content online today than you can possibly go through. To simply define it, article marketing is the use of articles to act as marketing tools. This means that if you have a business, you can write relevant articles in your line of business to educate your visitors. The advantage of this form of marketing is that it has an effect not only online, but also offline. Indeed, article marketing breaks the barrier of online marketing and can have a real impact on your business. The fundamentals behind the whole idea are the same and the internet simply offers a different form of distribution.

When you write articles you want to build credibility and trust by offering your customers free, useful information that is exactly relevant to their search term. Customers will respect you for offering them information that is relevant without necessarily coercing them into buying something from you or visiting your website. Some authors have become experts in this field and as a result, they are now considered authority figures in their own industry, simply because they took the time to write relevant, informative articles. You may not become an authority figure in your field but you can get your articles pulling large traffic to your website which eventually is the whole idea.

Articles are more likely to capture the attention of your readers and have a lasting impact than advertisements because they offer useful information to the user. When you engage in article marketing, you get the chance to present yourself, or your service or product, in a way that your potential customers would otherwise not have gotten a chance to experience. The more relevant the content is, the more likely they are to come back and the more likely they are to purchase something from you. How do you distribute your articles? There are many ways to do this. You can decide to have a monthly newsletter, a blog or post to article directories. All of these are effective ways of getting people to read what you have written. Article directories will readily accept original content that is relevant to your field of expertise and will allow you to display your contact information on the bottom of the article offering you wide exposure.

You do not have to be an expert writer to undertake article marketing. As long as you know something about the industry or service you are providing, you already have enough information you can share and your customers will show their appreciation – very likely with more sales.

In most cases, when you are looking for web hosting services, price comes first. It is however, equally important that your web hosting plans suit your needs. With many organizations, firms and web users clamouring for web spaces, it is not difficult at all to find a web host that offers you services that you want. After all, competition has forced them to slash prices dramatically and at the same time offer services targeted at offering solutions to target clients. Depending on your web hosting plans, there are many things you will take into consideration when looking for a web host.

One of these is email accounts. In most organizations, there is a need to have many mailing facilities so that mail accounts are properly managed. Advanced web hosting services will usually offer unlimited email accounts. However, the limit on this is imposed by the amount of space available on the server. If you are going to have many departments each with its own or several email accounts, ensure that your web hosting services offer not only unlimited email accounts but also have some bit of extra space on the hosting server.

You may not have realized this but your web hosting plans should also take into consideration connectivity options to the internet and bandwidth usage. Well, what does this mean? Bandwidth is the amount of data that users transfer from your site. Every time people connect to your website, they are offered some bandwidth usage. This means that the more people connect and possibly download or upload content, the more strain it will put on your website. In fact, bandwidth usage is as important as the amount of disk space allocated for your web files in your web hosting plans.

Consider also customer support services offered. Sooner or later you may experience what most web owners get to experience once in a while, a website crash. This happens when your users cannot be able access your website, download or upload content or send you an email. In your web hosting plans, ensure that customer support services are included so that you do not have to experience long downturns while you try to resolve the problem yourself. There are many things to consider before web hosting and the above are just the tip of the iceberg. However, when you know what you want in your website, then you will find it much easier when deciding which hosting plan to choose.

One tip you should consider is making sure that your webhost will host unlimited domains for you. One of the most popular web hosting companies that does this is Bluehost. This allows you to keep adding websites to your hosting account at no further cost.

Bluehost usually have plane from around $6 per month, so they are very affordable.

Let’s face it, working for a living sucks! Whether it’s corporate life, working in the local grocery store, or working in an office, there’s not much to get enthused about by getting up every morning and going off to work.

So, what other options are there other than not working at all? Well, you could start your own business if you have the capital, knowledge, experience and time. You could become a freelancer if you have a special skill, or you could set up some kind of home business. You could also become an Affiliate Marketer!

What is Affiliate Marketing?

In broad terms, affiliate marketing is selling other peoples stuff online without having to stock inventory, deal with customers, and you can even do it without a website! Your affiliated merchants handle everything related to orders and you don’t need to employ staff.

Although there are dozens of benefits to affiliate marketing, here are our top 10 reasons to make money online as an affiliate marketer.

1. Low Cost Set-up

Got a desk, Internet-connected computer and word-processing software? You’re in business today!

2. No Joining Fees or Geographic Limits on Distribution

Affiliate programs are usually free to join, and market reach is limited only by the affiliate’s ability to promote his or her web site.

3. Make Money While You Sleep

Very unlike a traditional bricks and mortar business, what other business allows you as a sole proprietor to keep your doors open and keep making money even when you take breaks or after you go home for the night?

4. High Income Potential

With your own affiliate business your income potential is limited only by your desire, effort and imagination – not the company you work for.

5. No Product Development Costs

The cost to develop and produce a new product is expensive! But you needn’t worry about that as an affiliate.

6. Choose From Thousands of Products and Services

What isn’t sold online nowadays? With affiliate networks like Clickbank, Commission Junction, Be Free and Linkshare, it’s easy to find products related to your current or planned web site.

7. No Merchant Account Required

Forget the problems associated with collecting and storing names, addresses, credit card numbers, etc. You can use a merchant account that will handle all payment processing, so you never have to lose sleep over charge backs, fraud or losing your merchant account.

8. No Inventory to Carry

No money tied up in stock! Even if you live in a small one-bedroom apartment, you can sell large items without storage concerns.

9. No Shipping Costs

Don’t worry about buying packing supplies or postal rates. The cost and hassle to prepare and ship products to customers worldwide belongs to the merchant.

10. No Customer Concerns

Do you hate the prospect of dealing with aggressive, unhappy customers? Don’t worry about it! The merchant handles all customer contact.

With virtually no start up cost and resources affiliate marketing has huge potential returns and makes it one of the most outstanding business opportunities available today.