More than likely, you have heard that using an auto-responder can help your online business to grow, but what you may really be wondering, is what an auto-responder actually is. In order to use an auto-responder effectively, you need to understand what it is and how it works as well.

Simply put, an auto-responder is basically software that you can install that will allow you to automatically send emails to people. Many people think that this software will actually write the emails for you, but this is not true. This software does not send spam email or email that is unsolicited either. You actually write the email messages yourself and then you use the software to send out to people who are in your database at selected times.

Auto-responders are actually very important to marketing, and they make email marketing much simpler than ever before. If you have a list of email addresses that you can send email to, then you are on your way to making a great deal of money. The more people that allow you to email them, and the more emails that you actually send, the more money you will be able to make.

The great thing about an auto-responder program is that this program will send out emails to people who are on your email list, and this will happen even if you are not even at your computer. You can write up a six or seven course set of emails, and then whenever you have new people that join your email list, you will be able to have an email sent to them every day for the next few days. The great part is that after you write the actual emails, the program does the rest of the work for you.

Whether you are at the computer, or even online, the software makes sure that those emails go out. Another great thing is that the software also keeps track of who joins the mailing list and who unsubscribe as well. You will not have to do a thing, and the software will keep track of all this information for you.

If you are familiar with marketing, you know that many times people need to hear about a product or service a few times before they will make their final decision. It can be quite a task to constantly be writing out emails to people about your product and finding their email address and sending it to them. With an auto-responder you will be able to keep presenting your information to prospective buyers without doing a great deal of work.

Many online businesses have a problem with people showing up to their site, taking a look around, and then never coming back again. It is important to find a way that you can continue to connect with prospective customers so they can learn more about what you have to offer. Having them voluntarily sign up for email information, while providing them with helpful information, can give you an opportunity to continuously present your services and products to them. This is basically a form of permission based marketing, and the amazing thing is that it really works.

It is important that you remember that you need to give the people on your list helpful information. You should be careful to keep away from using information that sounds too much like a sales pitch, and focus on giving them information that they will find valuable. Just making a brief mention of your product at the end of your email is a great way to get them thinking about what you have to offer without turning them off with too much sales information.

Using auto-responders can help you to develop a relationship with people over time, and they will start to trust you and what you have to say as well. The longer you continue to keep up this relationship, the more likely they are to purchase your product or service.

The greatest thing about using an auto-responder is that it will save you a great deal of money and time. You will not have to worry about spending a great deal of money on printing or postage, and you will not have to spend a great deal of time trying to send out those emails yourself. Basically, without you have to do much at all, you are able to keep in contact with prospective customers at any time. If you want to build your sales and do it without a great deal of money or hard work, then you may want to start using an auto-responder for your online business.

For the Real World Business Owner, it makes little sense to worry about brand advertising.  This kind of image advertising is simply not a strategy you should jump into. Focus instead on direct response marketing — get new customers into your business with real offers, not soft and fluffy slogans or mascots.  Ad agencies will try and trick small business owners into believing they need to look like a big business and use the same big ad ideas.  BAD IDEA.  Don’t you do it!  Focus instead of making solid offers, talking about benefits, and resisting the urge to be the same as everyone else in your market. 

It don’t work.

Read my review of this thought provoking book for christian entrepreneurs

At the start of every automobile race, the starter waives the green flag.  It means GO!

Well. Here we are in 2007 and we all got the Green Flag.  That’s what a new year brings - time to start fresh. It’s a new race.

What kind of race will you run this year?  Will you jump on the gas and move to the front, running your engine at full throttle?  Will you pace yourself in the middle of the pack and make sure you last until the end?  Will you fall behind early and never have a chance to chase the leaders?

Now I know your business is not an auto race, and you certainly are no car, so what the heck am I talking about?

There’s nothing magic about the calendar flipping over.  Your problems, frustrations, failures, and losses do not simply disappear at midnight like some fairy tale, but something inside us seems to "reset" over the holidays.  We seem to get energized and get a whole new outlook on our businesses. So in a sense, it does become magical in a way.

So whether 2006 was your worst year in business or your very best, strive to finish this year’s race better than last years.  Set your mind to it and get on the gas!

I’ll tell you, NOTHING, NADA, ZIPPO.

Let me tell you a secret. The BIGGEST sites on the Internet are not very pretty. In fact, some of the biggest are quite plain. The Internet is not a beauty pageant - the most attractive sites are not the pretty ones.

I’m all for great design and function, but I’ll take my cr*ppy designed website against your pretty website all day long, because I spend time on what counts - traffic.

I spend 14 hours a day figuring out ways to drive more and more traffic to my sites and my client’s sites. I’ll take any traffic source that is profitable. Yes, I’ll even pay for it, because I know something else most people don’t know - how to convert visitors into cash.

Most of my clients that come to me have very pretty websites. They would look nice hanging on a wall, but they simply stink at getting traffic. Even if some of them got traffic at all, they’d be ticked because their website can’t convert those visitors into cash.

So I guess by now you think I’m pretty cocky and brash, but frankly I’m exhausted at looking at run-of-the-mill websites. If businesses stopped thinking their web site is all about pretty and flashy and started thinking about their website as a money making advertisement, then there wouldn’t be so many businesses in financial trouble.

Listen, you probably don’t know as much as me about traffic, so stop doing it yourself. Let me handle that for you. And since you ask, "yes", I’m expensive.

Since I spend all my time online, you wouldn’t want to pay me 5 cents to fix your car, repair your roof, do your taxes, or recommend a good stock. Don’t try to pay me to do something I’m not good at.

Get the point? Your business is your baby! Why are you abusing your business by doing things to it that you clearly are not capable of doing? You wouldn’t try and perform an operation on your own baby son or daughter, you’d pay for expert services in that case. So if your business is your baby, why do you insist on doing things to it you clearly should not be?