5 Essential Tools For StartingAn Internet Business To Support Your Homestead

with Dave Westbrook

Country Home BusinessWork From Home - Live In The Country

www.CountryHomeBusiness.com

© 2015 CountryHomeBusiness.com

Be sure and check out Backwoods Home Magazine where you can learn more from Dave about how to start an online business. See the March/April 2015 Issue. !Click here for more information or visit: www.BackWoodsHome.com

When people find out that I support my country homestead lifestyle with an online home business, one of the most common questions I get is, “What web tools do you use to do this?” !So it’s in answer to that question that I’ve put together this resource guide listing these essential tools. !Of course there are many more tools that you could use, and in fact, I do use more than just these. However, when it comes right down to it, these are enough to build a successful online business. And when you’re just getting started - simplicity is key. !But I’ll go further than that. I’ll say this: if I had to start over today, I could do it with just these tools. !The prospect of having the freedom to work from home and live anywhere - even in the sticks of north Idaho like I do, is an exciting one. !So here are the essential tools that make that possible.

© 2015 CountryHomeBusiness.com

About this resource guide…

Note: Some of the links in this resource guide are affiliate links. In other words, if you purchase services via these links, we will receive a commission from those sales. This has nothing to do with why we recommend these services. We recommend them because they are the services we like and use. That being the case, it just makes sense to also get paid for any new customers we refer to them since they offer to do that. We recommend that you set up affiliate relationships with services you use and like as well.

#1 - Aweber - Email Marketing Software

I consider this my most important tool. Aweber is not the only company providing this type of service, but from the best that I can tell, Aweber is the leader in the industry. Here’s a link to their site: http://aweber.com !Being able to build a list of interested prospects and develop a relationship with the people on that list has been a key in building our business. It’s also important to have a system that allows you to put follow-up emails on auto-pilot using an auto responder. This means that people receive messages relevant to their interests and in response to actions they take on your websites - all on auto pilot, even while you’re sleeping. !The most important question to ask yourself when considering an email marketing company is, “How is their deliverability”? The old saying is, “The money is in the list”. But if the list doesn’t get your messages, than you’re pretty much “up a creek without a paddle”. I’ve tried different email managements systems and so far, found Aweber to be the best.

Page 2

#2 - Hostgator - Website Hosting

There are many different companies offering website hosting, and I’m not going to try and prove that Hostgator is the best. I will say that I’ve been happy with my experience with their service and our business has thrived with our web pages on their servers. !One thing I have learned over the years is that all web hosting companies have times when servers goe down. Based on our experience, Hostgator has not been worse than others in this regard. !So far we’ve done fine with a shared business plan, which is much more reasonably priced than a dedicated server. For most people starting out, this type of plan should work just fine. !Note: Please keep in mind that Hostgator was running a sale when I created this resource guide and took the screenshot above, so the price may be different when visit their site. They do offer specials frequently however, so check them out here - http://hostgator.com

Page 3

#3 - Optimize Press - Website Design/Templates

Gone are the days when you have to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars for your website design. Now you can have beautiful and professional websites within minutes using pre made templates. !Once again, there are multiple solutions for this, but I have found Optimize Press to be absolutely amazing in handling every kind of web page that I ever need to create. !And it’s not just about the design, but also the functionality of the pages. In other words, Optimize Press pages do things that you would otherwise need a coder to set up. For example, you can have multiple videos in a launch sequence, with certain videos released on certain days, or even with email links in an evergreen promotional campaign. Optimize Press handles all the behind the scenes programing to pull it off and look great in the process. !What’s more, the Optimize Press tutorials are thorough, walking you through each step. Here’s a link to their site: http://optimizepress.com !You really can do this, even if you’ve never built a website before.

Page 4

#4 - Paypal - Payment Processing

Paypal is what I started with, so I’m mentioning them first. The down side of Paypal is that their page layout can make people think they need to set up a Paypal account before they make their purchase. This distraction can cause you to loose a sale. So even though most of our customers prefer to use their credit card directly with our own merchant service, a significant percentage of customers still choose Paypal when purchasing our products, thus I still use it along with my own merchant services. !Stripe is another very popular option, and I’m told that it’s more user friendly than Paypal, so I recommend it for those just getting started as an alternative to Paypal. !At some point, you’ll want to set up a full merchant account so that you can offer customers the option of making their credit card transactions directly with you. I find that this is the preference of most of our customers. For that service, I use E-online Data.

Page 5

#5 - 1Shopping Cart - Recurring & Upsells

While Paypal does offer the ability to handle recurring payments and upsells, only having this option will force prospective customers to use Paypal. Since our experience has been that most of our customers prefer not to use Paypal, we use 1Shopping Cart. !The nice thing about 1Shopping Cart is that it works seamlessly with Paypal, so it serves as your shopping cart from which customers can choose whether they want to pay with Paypal, or use their credit card directly within your shopping cart. !It also provides a way to handle recurring payments and one-click upsells, which are one of the most powerful ways to increase revenue. !I’ve had a great experience with 1Shopping Cart and have found their customer support to be excellent. !Here’s a link to their web page: http://www.1shoppingcart.com/

Page 6

© 2015 CountryHomeBusiness.com

Don’t forget to check out Backwoods Home Magazine where you can learn more from Dave about how to start an online business. See the March/April 2015 Issue. !Click here for more information or visit: www.BackWoodsHome.com

Would you like more help getting started?…

I hope you found this resource guide helpful. !If you’d like more help getting started with your online home business, check out our free webinar. You can register for that here… !http://CountryHomeBusiness.com !All the best to your pursuit of the freedom and independence of a home business online!

© 2015 CountryHomeBusiness.com