My Home Biz Journal

http://www.homebizonlinethatworks.com/

It is possible to build a home biz online without out of pocket expenses. However, I believe that most successful internet marketers would not recommend going the free way. The main reasons are (1) the free way often means that it takes more time even to the point of stunting the business growth, which defeats the whole purpose; (2) some free tools may not be as reliable as paid services, and this can be detrimental to building a business.

So what kind of business investments are the most essential to building an online work from home opportunity? Here goes the simple list:

1. WebHosting

There are free web hosting services out there. However, it is the general concensus that you pay for what you get when it comes to web hosting. If you don't want your website to be unexpectedly down, enlisting a reputable web hosting service is the wise way to go. A solid web host like Host4Profit is24.95/month.

2. Auto Responder

Having an auto responder is like having administrative staff taking care of your connection with your prospects and/customers. It is a must if you expect your business to grow. A top notch auto-responder like GetResponse costs 17.95/month with cheaper annual payment option of $145.

3. Article marketing

Article marketing is the most powerful method to promote your web based business. The complete article marketing can be done free of cost. However, submitting articles to many directories can be tedious and time consuming. Also the writing part may be challenging to some people. To the extent that practical handicaps aforementioned are preventing effective article marketing, professional services should be enlisted in order to keep building on your work from home opportunity's web presence. A 500 word original article can be found for as little as $6 dollars. Article submission service can be about $30-50/month.

4. Blogging

Blogging is just as important as article marketing. It is a tool that can catapult your traffic magically if you contribute enough unique content relevant to your niche. This means blogging every day once or more times. There is certainly considerable time commitment required by this strategy. To the extent that you can't find time to do blog posts consistently, you should consider buying shorter articles for your blogs (about $5/piece).

5. Submit to web directories

This is another strong method to build backlinks, which essentially builds your web presence. Just like submitting to aritcle directories, this is free to do by hand but a tedious, time-consuming job. To the extent you have better use of this time, you should consider either outsourcing it or buying a software (such as DirectorySubmitter) to help automate some parts of this job. You may be able to find submission service ranging around $0.08 - 0.15/submission. DirectorySubmitter has a one time cost of $97.

The last three methods mentioned above can really be done manually with no out of pocket cost. However, they will work their magic only if they are done consistently over a period of time, which requires significant time commitment. If you cannot afford the time, it is worth it to invest in professional service to get this aspect of the marketing going.

To conclude, having free service/tools may not necessarily mean the best for your business. However, investments in the above five areas are essential and worthwhile.

Copyright by Ying Hong 2008

You have my permission to reprint this article as long as my web url is also included.

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