Marketing Automation Tools For Affiliate Marketing & Small Business MUST HAVE 2018 + How They Work! — affiliatemarketingmc at YouTube.com
Today we’re going to map out all the tools that you would need to start an internet business. When you’re starting out, you don’t need to have all these tools up front. You want to get in the habit of getting tools as needed. (For example, when you decide to build a mailing list, then you get an autoresponder. When you decide to sell something, then you get your shopping cart.)
Depending on where you’re at in your business, you might be ready to get all these things. Or, you might be just starting, and we’re going to show you how to do it. I’m going to put a list of all the tools we talk about over at www.AffiliateDude.com/tools, so you can go there and get all the tools and links.
- A Domain Name
First of all, if you’re starting an internet business, you’ve got to have a domain name. This is kind of like your business storefront. It’s where you’re going to put your business. I tell people to start with a hub site so they have somewhere to put everything. I prefer to have a .com name, but sometimes those are taken. So if you have to get a different one, that’s okay too. I like to also stick to .net or .org.
If you go through the web hosting process that we teach you (you’ll learn more about that in a moment), they give you a free domain name. But if you don’t use that, a domain name usually costs between $8 and $15, or something like that.
- Web Hosting
Next, you need to get yourself web hosting. We have our recommendations over at www.AffiliateDude.com/tools. Web hosting is where you store everything. Your host will give you two different addresses of where your stuff will go, and then you’ll have a folder on the web with all your files, and you can install different things like content management software, or you could simply use it to host static files. It’s just like a folder on your computer, only it’s on the web and everyone can see it.
Now your domain has something to link your stuff to. Web hosting is usually around $6 a month until you get into really big stuff. If you have serve massive video files or something like that, you might want something more robust. But for 99% of internet marketing people, it will be about $6 a month.
- A Content Management System
The next thing you choose is what we call our content management system. This is where you decide if you want your site to be a blog (which I highly recommend), or a static site, or a membership site, etc. I tell most people to start with a blog, specifically with WordPress. WordPress is an open source software that goes on your server. That might sound complicated, but it’s pretty simple. The web host gives you the software, and they give you one button to push that installs it on your site. It can take literally less than five minutes to get your domain name and set this up.
WordPress is free, and they come with all kinds of tools and plugins. A lot of those are free too, and some of them cost money—it just depends on what you want to do. Now you can start posting and running affiliate offers, and you can start making money. You can make a little blog, maybe about traveling, or video cameras, or mortgages, and you can put some affiliate offers on there.
- A Mailing List
A lot of people say that the money is in the list. A mailing list is a way to collect names and emails of people who visit your site, so you can market to them over and over and make lots of money. Personally, I’ve made millions of dollars with my mailing lists, and I make money with them every single day.
You have to have what we call an autoresponder. They give you a little code, and you can plug this into your blog. That allows you to have an opt-in page, where people can enter their names and emails, and you can get those emails onto your mailing list. Autoresponders are usually about $17 a month. Some of the fancier ones cost more. We have a list of our top-rated autoresponders over at www.AffiliateDude.com/tools. These are very easy to integrate with your content management system (like WordPress).
- A Payment Option
So now you have your mailing list, and you’re sending out emails to your people. You have your blog, and people are coming in. Let’s say you decide that you want to sell your own product. Maybe you have your own book, or coaching program, or you want to sell something on your own.
Next, you want to add some sort of payment option. These are what we call merchant accounts. They allow you to take money via credit card, or whatever it may be. The person buys something, and the money goes right into your account. There are popular options like PayPal and Stripe that are free to sign up, but they take around 3% of whatever your sales are. So if you make $1,000 in a month, they’re only going to take around $30 or something. You only have to pay if you make any money, which is cool.
- A Shopping Cart
Now that you have a merchant account, you need to get the account up on your website with an order form so that people can pay you. This could be in the form of a shopping cart. There are all different kinds of shopping cart softwares and customer management solutions that integrate with lots of different merchant accounts, and they are pretty easy to set up.
Most merchant accounts will give you a link to your order form, and then you’ll just put that link somewhere on your blog, or you can put it in the emails on your autoresponder. There are some downsides to having that link on your site: 1) it’s hosted on a different site, 2) it’s not very customizable and sometimes really ugly, and 3) you can’t really automate things very efficiently.
Review
You have your content management system, and you have an ad, or you tell someone to go to your domain. That brings them to your website. Your website has all of the WordPress blog stuff. People like what they see, and they put their name and email in the box. They go into your database, and it’s all stored on your autoresponder. This means you can now email them whenever you want (within reason, obviously). Then you have your merchant account, which is linked to your credit management software / customer management software. Then you have the order form that you put on your blog.
You make a new blog post for people, and you say, “Hey, check this out. I have this new blog post for you.” On the bottom of the blog post it says, “Here’s a link: push the big button.” The button is going to take them to that order form. They order something, and you get the money in your account, usually in 1-3 business days.
Don’t get all of these tools until you’re ready to use them. Just start with the basics.
To learn more about these tools, visit www.AffiliateDude.com/tools.