Net Biz Boardroom / According to Billy Mays...

LIST BUILDING

List Building for Rookies

This is a full blown course that I produced for people that are new to list building. This course takes you from absolute ground zero and teaches you everything you need to know to start a list of your own. Check it out.

HOSTING PACKAGES

For reliable hosting I rely on Host Gator. Attentive service and fast connection speeds are critical. I get that and more from Host Gator. At less than ten bucks a month, the price is right too!

AUTORESPONDER

If you are serious about having an internet business, then an autoresponder system is a must have. There is only one company I am willing to depend on, and that is Aweber. They have never let me down.

SITE DEVELOPMENT

Learning to build your own sites will make building your business much easier. My Spin Your Web video training system will show you how to proudly build your own sites quickly.

The Internet Marketers Toolbox

Any skilled tradesman will tell you that having the correct tool for the task at hand makes all the difference in his quality of work.

Having the correct tool also means that you are using your time efficiently, and that saves you wasted effort.

Internet marketing is no different. We have our tools of the trade as well. I am often asked what tools are necessary, how much they will cost, and where to find them.

Listed below you will find the basic tools that you will need to start marketing online. There are of course several other tools that can be used in your day to day operations and some of them are quite costly. But the tools I have listed will allow you to produce a product, build a site to market that product, upload the site to a server and build a mailing list. These are all the basics of internet marketing hence the necessity of these tools. You will also be glad to know that I have listed free solutions where possible.

	Firefox. The Fireworks web browser is an internet marketers friend. Very stable and user friendly. The plugins that are available for this browser are incredible. The first one you should install is the SEO for Firefox plugin from the good folks at SEO TOOLS. This tool is invaluable for your search engine optimization efforts. Price: FREE Download Firefox Download SEO Plugin

	Kompozer. If you are going to be in business online, then you are going to be building websites sooner or later. The tool to do this is a web editor. The Kompozer is a "What You See Is What You Get" (WYSIWYG) web editor. This means there is no need to learn html code to build sites. This software works much in the same way a word processing software works. Very easy to learn. Price: FREE Download Kompozer

	Filezilla. Once you build a site you will have to upload the site files to your server. File Transfer Protocol (FTP) software is what you will use to do this. There is no shortage of paid ftp software available, but this one works just as well as any of them. Easy to learn and easy to use. Price: FREE Download Filezilla

	Open Office. If you don't have Microsoft Office then this is a great alternative. Ebooks are excellent products to market and this is an easy way to produce them. Create your content in the Open Office Writer, and then convert to an Adobe .pdf format with the click of one button. This is a very large download, but not a problem for broadband connections. Price: FREE Download Open Office

	GIMP. You will need graphics for your websites and product ecovers. Photoshop has always been the tool of choice for graphics designers but the cost of the software makes it out of the reach for many marketers. GIMP is an alternative. It is a fairly easy software to use and many tutorials are available. If you intend to become heavily involved with the graphic design, I would recommend springing for Photoshop. GIMP will get you by until then though. Price: FREE Download GIMP

	CAMTASIA. This software is a very exciting tool that is particularly helpful in product creation. The screen capture technology allows you to record your computer screen while you are doing whatever it is you do. It is a little pricey but worth every penny. They do offer a 30 day free trial. A free alternative is CamStudio. My understanding is that Camtasia does a much better job at compressing the files which results in a quicker load time for the videos you create. Price: APPROX $300 Download Camtasia Download CamStudio

	AUDACITY. Another excellent way to make products is to create audios. This software allows you to record and edit audio from your computer. Easy to use and editing is a breeze. The price is right also. Price: FREE Download Audacity

	AWEBER. Building an email list of customers and potential customers is critical to your marketing success. An autoresponder service makes this possible. Aweber is the best in the business. The cost is very reasonable especially when you consider the return you will get on this investment in your business. Price: $19.95 MO. Setup Aweber

These are the tools that I feel are absolutely necessary for internet marketing. I understand that a multitude of other IM related software exists. But for someone just starting out with internet marketing, the tools listed above are critical. Download them all and set them up on your machine and they will be there when you are ready to use them.

If you can think of another tool that needs to be listed here, please let me know.