Brian Campbell, best selling author and successful internet marketer taught me the first commandment of internet marketing, “You cannot promote anything online without first capturing the email address of your website visitors.” Otherwise, your most valuable asset (visitors, traffic) passes right on by, without you even knowing who they were and giving you no way to follow up with them to get them back to your website. Most people visiting a new site have no intention of buying anything. They are usually casually surfing for information and happen to find your site. Unless they are totally impulsive, they will leave your site without buying anything. You see your site visitor counter increase everyday, but wonder why your sales are not increasing at the same rate. Here’s the answer. On average, it takes seven exposures to one product or new idea before a person will buy in. So you need to have a way to systematically follow up with your website visitors and at the same time build your most valuable asset, an email list that you can market to over and over again. How would you like an automated salesperson working for your site 24 hours a day seven days a week? This salesperson never gets sick, is always available to greet your customers and does not take a “no” personally. They continue to follow up with your prospects just as you instructed them until the prospect opts out, but continually adds new prospects to your database without any trouble. The magic tool to accomplish this is called an autoresponder. An autoresponder is an account that you subscribe to that captures and manages an email database collected from the traffic of your website. When you log into your autoresponder account, you can generate a sign-up form that will capture the name and email address and any other pertinent information you want to collect from your website visitors. You can then set up a campaign, a predetermined set of emails that you create and design with the purpose of getting the visitors back to your website and to buy your products or services. Autoresponders can be used for other valuable and important purposes too. You can offer a free newsletter or a mini course promoting different aspects to your site. By offering something of value and at no cost, more people are willing to give you their email address. Once you have developed an email list, you can send a broadcast message to the entire list at the same time with a special promotion from your website or a joint venture with another internet marketer. Thousands have been made over one weekend with this kind of special promotion. The possibilities are endless, but have to have the system in place for it to work. Where can you get an autoresponder program? There are scripts available that you can upload to your site but I would stay away from these. It is best to use an online service with a third party service. Where can you find one? A quick autoresponder Google search will provide you with many options. Most autoresponder sites will charge you a monthly fee and will allow you to run multiple campaigns and websites. The fees can range from free to as much as you are willing to pay for, depending on the services you need. However, I have found a very reliable autoresponder that you can test drive for free. You can try it out and learn how to work it with the basics you need to run a successful campaign. As your needs grow, they do have upgrade options you can subscribe to for a reasonable monthly fee to expand your service options. You can find this service at Getresponse.com. If you are currently not using an autoresponder on your website, you are potentially missing out on thousands of dollars in potential sales. Don’t miss out on any more sales! I strongly urge you to get an autoresponder set up today. To Your Success! Steve Scoresby