The Twenty Steps to Internet Marketing 7 - Thou Shalt Obtain a Mail-Autoresponder System - Internet Marketing Australia

Most Internet marketers collect email addresses from their site visitors. A few reasons for doing this are as follows:

1. You may want to let visitors know that your site has recent updates.
2. You may want to have visitors sign up for your newsletter.
3. You may want site visitors who are customers to stay customers so that you can sell them additional items. This is the prime reason for Internet marketers.

The following is a line of code which allows your site visitor to send you an email with a request for site updates in the subject line:

The above simple email link is the easiest way to collect email addresses. It is up to you to add a sender's name and email address to your email address book.

There are many scripts or forms to collect email addresses. You can find them on the Internet using a simple search. But most folks do no not want to manually collect email addresses, send a response, or manually send out an announcement or newsletter to each contact.

When someone comes to your web site, you might "bribe" them to give you his or her name and email address by offering a reward. It might be an eight-week course on marketing. It could be an ebook or a book you have converted to .pdf. It would be nice if this kind of information was sent to your potential customer automatically.

Here is what this senile old man is trying to say:

1. A person give you his name and email address.

2. Your "system" automatically collects the name and address and adds the information to your email address book.

3. The "system" then says a "thank you" letter or a verification letter to the contact.

4. Once verification (when required) is received, the address is placed permanently on your list.

5. Then your system sends the link to the "Come On" ebook or .pdf to the joiner.

6. The autoresponder also starts sending out lessons, one lesson per week for eight weeks, if that is how you have it set up.

7. (When a person on our mailing list sends a request to remove his information from your list, the system removes it.)

When I say that everything becomes "automatic," I don't mean that you have nothing to do. Your autoresponder only sends what you put into it. If there are ten letters that you want to send out, one every ten days, you must write the letters first.

I have a mail system on my computer that does all of this, but I do not recommend it to everyone. so I will not mention it here. I think it is often better to send emails from a server other than your local ISP server. Local servers are often cantankerous, and If you use your own mailing software, it may send out only a couple of emails when you wanted it to send five thousand.

I suggest, if you can afford it, and especially if you have a large mailing list, to use Aweber or one of the other fine services.

You can try a free service but choose one who does not stuff your outgoing emails with their own ads. Search the net for "free autoresponders." Once you find a "dandy", put the name of the autoresponder in the search box on your browser and see if anyone has anything good or bad to say about it.

You can find a lower-cost service like GoDaddy or AdlandPro but you get what you pay for.

Whatever you do, make sure you have access to and control over your list so that you can move it if you need to.

Each guru seems to have his favorites service.

Your autoresponder service will give you the needed code to put on your web pages to collect email addresses and names. You can get fancy in this area. Some use a video clip to grab an email address. People are so clever. These are available, usually for a service fee, on the net.

Don't ask a person for his life history and telephone number if you really want his email address. Some sites may have good reason to ask age and wealth questions, etc. I say, just get the name and email address. If you need more information, you can get it later.

A request for a telephone number is a real turn off! I put on the breaks whenever someone asks for my telephone number and my annual income (which I'm too embarrassed to tell them).

Once you get your code to collect email addresses, place the code on your website and your sales letter HTML and on all your landing pages.

In summary, an autoresponder will answer routine email and send out messages of your choosing on a regular schedule. For example, you can send several lessons to your associates.

If you are brave, you can use desktop mail programs to do this from your own computer. I say again, the problem may be troubles with your server when you try to send bulk email to your list. Also, these programs take time to learn to use. Most marketers prefer to pay someone else to take care of such worries.

If you can earn the $30 bucks a month or so required by a good autoresponder and mailing service, I say: Go for it!

In the next step to internet marketing , we will talk about how to get our hands on the money.

Move on, Pilgrim!

Fly Old Glory!