Recommended Essentials


If you want to be taken seriously in any business, whether online or offline, then your reputation is paramount. Nobody is interested in working with tire kickers and time wasters. So if you want to be seen as a professional business owner, then you must be a professional business owner. And that is the image you must present to the world and to your prospective business partners and customers.

You cannot do that if you don't have the essential tools,associated with running a home business. And you certainly can't do it with a free subdomain, or with an ugly looking affiliate url. There are certain investments that you have to make in your business. These are not things that will improve your chances of success. These are things that if you don't have, you will never have success. Period.
 
  • Domains - You will not find a single, successful, home business owner that does not have their own domain name. Whether you are into affiliate marketing, Internet or Network Marketing, doesn't matter. To achieve success you will need your own domain name. Again this comes down to being a professional. And home business professionals own their own domain.
  • Website - Your website is what sets you apart from every other online business owner. Replicated websites not only brand you as unprofessional, search engines don't like them. You can either design and build your own site, (really easy to do with Weebly.com/) or you can outsource it to a reputable firm. What you cannot do is try to build a business without a site that brands you and your business as professional.
  • Reliable Hosting - A website without a home is of no use to anyone. Hosting needs to be reliable. A visitor who turns up at your home and is turned away because your server is down is highly unlikely to try visiting you again.
Finding all of these in one place is rare, but is possible. Top recommendation for such a company would be IX Webhosting. Great service, low prices, and you can do everything in one place. Their HTML editor is also pretty easy to use so no huge learning curve and saves having to upload your site once it's done.

Depending on your level of expertise you may choose to opt for a smaller hosting company that offers a more personal service. If you're unfamiliar with the technicalities of uploading, HTML, FTP, PHP, then I suggest you check out LowCost-Webspace. My first hosting company and I still use them. They offer one of the most reliable, personal services I've ever come across.

The other 'essential' tool for your business is an auto responder. While we would all love to believe that every visitor is going to instantly sign up and become a customer, the reality is that it doesn't happen that way. that doesn't mean your product or your business isn't right for that visitor, it just may not be right for them at that particular time. And even if it is, and they do opt in to whatever you're offering, you still need a way to keep in touch in case they want more!

Because your auto responder is your relationship builder it's critical that you invest in the best you can afford. You have to be assured that your messages are going to be delivered - but there are a whole host of other features that you need to look out for, not least of which is how easy it is to set up and use! For that reason, there is only one auto responder that I would recommend you use and that is iContact. Check out their 15 day free trial and you'll be hooked.