Getting Started Tutorial - Step 5: Increase Profits and Efficiency by Using Technology .

Let’s take a look at a few technologies you may want to consider for your business:

1. Website. Your business must have a website. Even if you only cater to your local community, you will want to have a website that at a minimum lists your business hours. People like to search online for business information. If you’re market is broader than right outside your front door, your website is how they will find you. Visit http://www.internetbasedmoms.com/freebies/web_design.htm for information on how to build your own website or go to www.internetbasedfamily.com to find out how easy building a website can be.

2. Autoresponder. Autoresponders are handy software programs or services that make communicating with your customers easy. With an auto responder you can email regular newsletters to your entire contact list, you can send automate ‘thank you’ notes to customers that make a purchase. You can even deliver electronic products with autoresponders so if you’re in the information marketing business, they’re a must have.

3. Blogging. Blogging is a great marketing tool because it enables you to communicate with your customers and your target market on a regular basis. Unlike a newsletter, which is emailed to your customer, a blog post can hang out on the world wide web for a long time and drive traffic to your website. For example, if you have an information website and write a blog post about gluten allergies, people searching for information about how to deal with gluten allergies will find your information and visit your website. Blogging has its own set of technologies including RSS, Tags and feeds. For more information on blogging visit http://www.internetbasedmoms.com/freebies/blogging-resources.htm

4. Shopping cart software. If you’re the proud owner of a business that sells physical products you will want to have software on your website that enables your customers to make a purchase quickly and easily. There are many shopping cart software products available and some website hosts offer their own. You’ll want to do a bit of research. Take the time to investigate the company, its reliability, and its privacy and security policies. Your customers trust you to keep their information secure.

There are the standard Microsoft Word and Word Perfect, however there are also free or open source word processing programs too, which means if you don’t already own the software you don’t have to spend any more money getting started.

Both Google’s WP program and Open Office are excellent tools. Graphic design software is a bit of a different story. If you plan on designing your own logo and graphics whether for your website and/or print you may want to find a good graphic design software. http://www.internetbasedmoms.com/freebies/graphics.htm offers some solutions.

These are just a few of the technologies and software products you may need to get started. There are many more software products and technologies available to make your life easier, accounting software, ezine software, HTML software, virus protection and more. The FREE WEBMASTER TOOLS area on our website is there to help you find what you need.

Our final step in this tutorial: --> Getting Started: Drive Business To Your Door By Marketing & Networking