It Takes Mud Tires to Build an Internet Business

Thousands upon thousands of people are facinated with the question of how the "average Joe and Josephine" are getting rich selling things on the internet.

You've heard the promises...

"Make money while you sleep!""Earn a 6-figure income; no experience necessary!""Start your own profitable business overnight!"

And you're like -- "Whoa! Look out money, here I come!" and getting ready to walk the golden road to success.

But somehow that golden road always turns to mud and, before you know it, you're reading the next big sales letter and putting your gold-road-walking shoes on for yet another journey into the land of disappointment.

Let's break the cycle of doom and get you started off on the right track for your next (or first) online business venture. Get ready to go tool shopping. First -- you need a catchy name to hang on your brand new web site, so it's off to the domain name registrar for you. Plenty to choose from; pick the one you like best. Shop around; prices vary widely.

Next you need a parking place for that double-wide website, so it's time to find a web hosting service. Windows or Linux? It's your choice. The type of PC you have doesn't affect the type of web hosting you need to buy.

The next must-have goodie in your bag o' tools is software called an autoresponder. That's the software that automatically responds to people who join your list by sending them pre-written email messages.

You'll want to feed those people's names and e-mail addresses to your autoresponder by using a "squeeze page" that entices people to trade you their email address for whatever shiny object or pearls of wisdom you are offering in return.  You need one if you're planning on building a mailing list.

Then you are going to need a way to read people's minds. If not their entire mind, at least the part of their mind that saw your home page sales letter and made the decision to line your pockets with money, or let you eat cake.

In order to pull of this Svengali stunt, you're going to need a bit of software called a "split tester." What a split tester does for a living is to serve up different versions of your home page to different visitors. Then it keeps track of who bought what from which page and, in the end, tells you which version of your sales letter is raking in the most cash.

There are some other good-to-have tools to round out the must-have collection above. But grab a hold of these first so you can build a solid footing for that soon-to-be-built road of gold.