Automation.

By Stuart Reid

To automate your business is everyones goal. You can't, no matter
what people say, automate *everything* but with a few simple
tools you can do most of it.

The first tool is the Autoresponder. You've probably know a lot
about these already. You often hear quoted the `fact` that on
average your product needs seven exposures per visitor. An
autoresponder will keep a product in a prospects mind and will
keep on relentlesly promoting for you. It takes a bit of
effort to set one up, yes, but for example a 10-letter
autoresponder will save a LOT of time later on. And with modern
autoresponders features such as inserting names etc. the person
on the receiving end feels as if you are contacting her
personally all the time. There are free autoresponders if you
are on a budget - such as Webmailstation. Beware using other
`free` autoresponders such as HotResponders or at least read the
small print - you can find yourself unable to access your e-mails
after a trial period! Backup your subscribers often. If you save
your subscriber lists you have something to fall back on if your
service goes down. Software like World Submitter will let you
use saved lists to e-mail your subscribers.

Another is your credit card payment system. Again, you have free
and paid for options. One good choice is PayPal - they are free
and charge a percentage per transaction. They also let you
transfer funds between accounts and to bank accounts. They are
easy to set up for single-payments or web stores. Other credit
card services such as ClickBank are recommended as well but
charge an upfront fee. Clickbank also has other services such as
letting you make an affiliate program for your product. The
beauty of an automated credit card account is the buyer can
enter their details then get forwarded to a special webpage
where they can download your item. Automation again!

Your website obviously runs on automatic when it is set up but
services such as Moreover.com can add dynamic content to it, in
this case news headlines, giving the illusion that your site is
constantly updated. Your web site should be funelling visitors
to your autoresponder and to your purchase page. Your
autoresponders will funnel people to your website and your
purchase page. As you can see once all this is set up, and it
needn't take long, it becomes an automatic business! This is how
those adverts tell you can make $1000s while lying on the beach.
It is kind of true but like anything the system will require some
maintenance.

Customer service can be kept to a minimum with some good
documentation on your site. You can never totally automate
customer service so you should include plenty of ways to contact
you. Providing a FAQ, a terms & conditions and a privacy policy
can reduce customer service requirements.

Once the basics of your web business are running your time is
mainly spent researching and promotion - and these are things
that you *cannot* automate.

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Stuart Reid is the publisher of Netpreneur News and
webmaster of Netpreneur Now! Visit us for weekly
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