One of the greatest things about running an online business is the
extremely low operating costs it has compared to a brick and
mortar business.

However, there are still many tools online marketers need.

In essence, web hosting, auto responders, list servers, ad
trackers, and payment processors are the basic tools we use.

There are a wide variety of services available for handling these
facets of our businesses for us.

However, these simple services can add up to hundreds of
dollars of unnecessary recurring monthly expenses if we allow
them to do so.

Auto responder services run anywhere from $15-$30 a month.
Paid list servers run anywhere from $25 a month to 1000s of
dollars a month depending on your list size. That may sound
hard to believe, but trust me, I've researched that topic to death
and they can.

Ad tracking services rack up additional charges as well, as do
payment processing fees. All these together can become quite
an expense, depending on what services you use.

And while there are free services covering some of these tools,
they typically are not as good, don't appear as professional, and
are limited on features.

From what I see around, however, there are many who don't
realize that paying these recurring monthly fees is unnecessary.

The reality of it is this. If you have a good web host, that allows
you full CGI access, you can buy scripts for these tools at a one
time expense and never have to pay recurring monthly fees
again.

After having gone through the process of searching for the best
services myself, I've always come to the same conclusion. I'd
rather own a copy of a script that can do these things right off of
my own site so I don't have to keep paying others to do it for
me.

Yes, it may require a slightly more expensive web hosting
service, but what's a few more dollars on one monthly bill in
exchange for getting rid of 3-4 other monthly bills altogether?

As well, to me, it is more professional to run these things from
my own site. My auto responders have my domain name in the
address, not the domain name of some auto responder service.
Same with my ad tracking.

All my links reflect my site, not someone else's.

The price required to purchase CGI scripts for auto responders
or ad tracking or running a mailing list IS higher than the price of
ONE month of service through an auto responder, ad tracking,
or list server company.

But what about after 6 months? What about after a year? A
one time script purchase is done quickly and paid for, usually at
about the same price as 3-4 months of paying recurring monthly
fees for other's services.

Even if you don't know how to install CGI scripts at this point,
you can learn, or you can pay someone to do that for you.
Often the script owner is willing to provide that service. While
that may be an extra expense it is still only a one time fee and
less than paying recurring fees month after month, year after
year.

If you're in business to stay in business, it's easy to tell which is
the better alternative. And that's without even figuring in the
added professionalism you get when running everything from
your own site.

Now, I realize everyone's situation is different, but this is
something I believe everyone needs to think about. Recurring
monthly fees are just plain not justified if you can get the same or
better quality tool without them.

It's the same thing with merchant services that expect you to pay
recurring monthly fees. It's unnecessary. All payment
processors will take a commission off your sales, yes, but why
pay them monthly fees as well?

To help you out, I've prepared a list of the services and tools I
use and recommend. The list includes payment processors,
scripts for mailing lists, auto responders, ad tracking, sending
referrals, web hosting, and more. You can access it for free here:
http://www.netplaynewsletters.com/rectools.html

I think you'll agree that trimming your recurring monthly
expenses is a good idea. Some of the monthly fee services are
quality and they do market themselves well around the Internet.
And I don't mean to knock them.

Still, when it comes to saving money and increasing profits, don't
forget there IS a less expensive alternative you can go with.

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*written by Joe Bingham of NetPlayNewsletters.com
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