Not only is the auto responder an internet marketing tool – it is an essential internet marketing tool for internet marketing newbies. Now that you understand how to put a website live on the internet you need to know how to build and manage your customer database.
What is an Auto Responder?
For a definition of auto responder I went to wikipedia (well actually I went to my trusty friend, Google first and then to wikipedia).
It seems that there are two separate definitions for auto responder but only one relates to internet marketing. The first definition is an email program that automatically answers email sent to it. An example is the out of office reply that you have no doubt received if you have sent an email to someone who is on vacation.
The definition of auto responder that relates to internet marketing is a software application that automatically delivers information by email.
Why do Internet Marketers Need Auto Responders?
An auto responder is a program that sends emails but it is sooooo much more as well. Most internet marketers would use a web-based auto responder service (I don’t know of any other kind really). The auto responder, as well as being a program that sends emails is a program that stores information about your customers or subscribers. It is a customer database system!
Basically, you keep all of your customer details in the one place and when you want to send them some information or let them know of a special product that you are recommending you can just write an email and send it to all of your customers or only those customers that would be interested in that information. An auto responder service allows you to manage an unlimited number of lists so you can have you customers organized into different categories and using this auto responder software you can choose to send an email message to part of your customer database or to all of your database.
There are two ways that you can send out an email message to your list. Firstly, you can send out a broadcast which means that you send out the same email on the same day to all of the members in your database that the message would be relevant to. This is useful for time sensitive information such as a discount or sale on a product or an upcoming event such as a live training or a webinar.
The second way is to set up a series of messages usually referred to as an autoresponder series. You can specify the amount of time between each message. So you can have constant communication with your customers without the need to write an email every couple of days. You can set up your autoresponder so that your customers get an email from you every couple of days and there is no limit to how many emails that you can load into the autoresponder series. You can load a years worth of emails if you like and then it is really set and forget. The advantage of using an auto responder service in this way is that no matter when someone joins your list they always start at the beginning and don’t miss out on any of your valuable information. So you may have one person in your database that is receiving message no 29 on the same day that someone else is receiving message no 5.
How Do I Get Customers for My Database?
You might be thinking now that it is very time consuming to enter all of that data into the auto responder software. If you already have an existing database of customers then you will have to transfer that data over to your auto responder service and the way to do this is to search in the help or support area of your chosen autoresponder. Read more »
One Project at a Time
Many people tell you that to become successful in any field, not just internet marketing you need to remain focused on your goals. You need to concentrate on one project at a time. You need to complete one project before you start on the next, especially when you are an internet marketing newbie. I agree with this but only to a point.
Staying focused on one project at a time in the beginning will ensure that you don’t miss any critical steps in the planning and execution of the project. Each individual step will take much longer to complete the first time that you do it than it will in any subsequent project and the first time you do something will definitely be the worst that you ever do it.
Why is Multi-Tasking Better?
Multi-tasking to me, means having several projects on the go all at once. The key is to have them all at different stages of development.
Why do I think having several things on the go at once is better than concentrating on one thing at a time?
Well, the reality, is that sometimes things take time to be resolved. For example, if you buy a domain name and make a mistake assigning the dns nameservers then it can take up to 24 hrs for the changes to propogate through the web. If you want to start generating traffic on this site then you have to wait the 24hrs or so until it is live on the web before you can implement traffic generating strategies such as submitting RSS feeds, pinging, social bookmarking etc.
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In the last few posts I have discussed he first couple of things that you need for your website. You need a domain name and you need a server(hosting) to store the files that you need for your website. The next thing you need to know how to do is …
FTP.
What is FTP?
FTP stands for file transfer protocol.
This is the way that you transfer the files that you need for your website from your computer to your server so that your website can be displayed when someone types your URL into their internet browser program (eg Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari).
The process of FTP is done using a special software program. These programs are called FTP programs or FTP software. If you type “FTP program” into the Google search box you will find over 9 million results so let me help you narrow it down a little. An FTP program must be easy to set up and easy to use. If it is inexpensive or free then that is an added bonus!
The program that I have found which is the best free FTP sofware is called Filezilla. When you go to Filezilla you will see a couple of options:
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If you need a little review then here is the post on how to register a domain name. Once you have a domain name you need hosting and you can get hosting here . If you need to watch a video about web hosting then here it is.
Ok now you are up to speed, I’m going talk about what to do next so that your domain name is setup on your server. This is a little bit different depending on the level of hosting that you have.
Basic Hosting Package
If you bought a basic package,you are allowed to have as many domain names as you want under the one main domain name. This is a subdomain arrangement. If you purchased hostgator hosting it would be either a baby or a business account. Just login to your c-panel (the details will be in your welcome letter ) and navigate to the add-on domain area. Simply fill in the required fields and you have now connected your domain name to your hosting. Read more »
Internet Marketing Business
Is internet marketing a business to you or is it simply a hobby?
Even if you are not making any money at present online, if you are learning about internet marketing so that you can one day be a successful internet entrepreneur then you need to treat internet marketing like a business and that means systemization.
Working on your internet marketing business in your spare time when you still have all of the other things in your life to worry about (work that pays, family responsibilites etc) can be extremely challenging and at times even frustrating.
Sometimes you just wish you had hours alone to figure out some internet challenge (there always is one isn’t there?) but the reality is that if you are trying to squeeze in a few hours of internet marketing in an already full day this won’t be the case. You will have to do things in bits and pieces whenever you can grab a small chunk of time.
So how do you keep moving forward using only the small amounts of time allotted to you?
I guess one option is no sleep – but this one doesn’t work long term (Luckily I’m a bit of a night owl and can survive on less sleep than most)
Organization is the Key
I suggest that the first thing to do is sit down and really think about how much time you want to spend on your internet marketing business per day or per week. Then work out how much time you can actually find in your day.
For me, I’m aiming for about 20 hours a week. I’m actually hoping that I’ll never really have to work more than 20 hours a week!
Next you need to look at what tasks need to be done to move forward with internet marketing and finally you need to decide what proportion of your allotted time you want to spend on each set of tasks.
Task No.1 – Content Creation
I think that for me, at this point in time, I need to spend about 5 hours a week on content creation. Read more »
