Setup

What You'll Need.

You're going to need a domain and hosting. I always recommend using your OWN domain and not using other blogger services wherein you don't always have full control over your assets. Plus getting a domain is cheap. Do it. Hosting is another thing you'll need and is inexpensive. If you're really wanting to stay on the cheap side, you can go with HostHoarders. They have an annual plan that will cost you a whopping $5. With domain you're at a $10 investment (look for coupons for Godaddy domains.)

Next you're going to need a Wordpress theme and a couple plugins. We're not going to go over those yet but they're free so no added expenses.

You'll also need an autoresponder. An autoresponder allows you to capture emails into a database and automate emailing, sending emails at timed intervals in relation to when the subscriber signs up.

For example:

User signs up to your list 

Email 1: Follow Up (Sent Immediately)

Email 2: Follow Up (Sent 1 Day After Previous Email)

Email 3: Follow Up (Sent 4 Days After Previous Email)

Etc etc etc.

That's just an example of what it can do, along with giving you the tools to actually capture your emails and contact information. Plus you'll be sending out broadcast messages down the road and your autoresponder will handle that as well.

So how much will a nifty piece of software like this cost and which one should you get? I use Aweber as I find it integrates with just about anything, from Paypal to Wordpress plugins. But there are other options such as Getresponse and Constant Contact. Going with Aweber will set you back $1 for the first month, then it starts at $29 and scales up as your list grows (but so will your profits.)

If you're finding you don't already have an autoresponder I would recommend Aweber, if you do, just ensure you can schedule followup emails as well as broadcast emails to your list. Also you must have the ability to setup new list within your autoresponder (great as you move into other niches and split test conversions.)

You're also going to need a good email. Not a Gmail account but an email relating to your domain. Lets say you're in the anxiety niche, and your website is ModernAnxietyTactics.com - setup an email for that site. Something along the lines of

Info@ModernAnxietyTactics.com. The reason for this is two-fold: it gives your emails more authority when they hit someone's inbox, and it decreases the chances your email will show up in someone's spam folder (NOT GOOD ! )

You will also need a Paypal Account and an account to promote products. I use a variety of these, including Warrior Plus, JVZoo, Clickbank and a few others. We will go into more details about this later however it is a good idea to have these lined up as some of them require a few days to verify different aspects for identity protection, bank verification and so on.

There are also a few other things you'll need down the road that are not worth mentioning here as we go into details later. Don't go out and register a domain yet until you read the rest of this section and the next section.