I have named this article "Swiss Army Knife of Internet Marketing Tools," as I will list out the tools that I would find not only necessary, but mandatory for anyone beginning their quest to start an internet marketing business.



In fact, I would even take it one step further and say that if you dropped me off in any city in the world (well…a city with internet capability…I know…demanding aren't I) that I could have an internet marketing business and products for sale within 5 or so days. (In part II of this series I will tell you exactly what I would do in those 5 days to create this business, with part III of this series being an overview of the Luxury tools that I enjoy that can take any internet marketing business to the next level).

Ok, so let's dive right in with the basics.

First, and most obviously, you would need a domain name for your product or service. This is an essential element, as this is the location that you will store your product or service and the website it sits on. You would need hosting to accompany this domain; however, I generally don't recommend buying your domain from the same company you plan on hosting with.

There are numerous reasons for this, most of them logistical, but let me simply state that it is not in our "best practices" to buy the domain from the same company we plan on hosting with…and generally you can find great prices on domains.

Next, you would need some form of ability to create web pages. Now, this can be done in a variety of ways, obviously depending on an individual's skill level, but in the end you need some way to manipulate HTML code. Front Page by Microsoft is one popular program, with Dreamweaver being a much more robust and feature rich program. Now, bear in mind, both of these programs are going to require the user to have some form of HTML knowledge, so, for the purposes of this article, and the "Swiss Army Knife" approach, I will assume that the average user does not have any HTML capability.

So, in my searches high and low throughout the vast world of the internet, I would definitely recommend a product like the "Motivated Marketing System". This is a system, rather than one simple tool, that enables someone to build an entire site and infrastructure without knowing a stitch of HTML. Written brilliantly, with a huge degree of intuitive programming, this is one tool that needs to be on the "Swiss Army Knife".

Now, while I can think of a myriad of tools that I would like to have at this point to begin promoting my site (Part III will get into those tools), I am going to keep these to a minimum.

Now, that we have the domain, we have a hosting account, we have the site produced, we need to get the site from the computer to the domain by using some form of FTP product. Not being a very technical person myself, it is important to use products and services that do not require me to have a vast degree of technical ability. I have found "Smart FTP" (a free service) to be just that. By simply installing this program on your computer, adding your user name and password one time, you are set to upload anything you want to your new domain.

Now, if you are going to be selling a product, you have a couple of routes. You can simply use "Clickbank", in which case you would not need your own shopping cart, and again to stress that this is a "Swiss Army Knife", this is the direction that we will go. If I had the luxury (Part III) of the added flexibility, I would definitely be selling this product from my own site as well with the benefit of a Shopping Cart.

Ok, if any of us have been exposed to Internet Marketing for any length of time, we know that we must be building a list; otherwise the majority of our efforts are being wasted. Well, there is a very simple tool that assists us in accomplishing this. An Autoresponder.

While there are a number of Autoresponders out on the market, varying in price, the one Autoresponder that I would chose hands down over all the others would be Aweber. Not only has it proven to be the market leader, it has also proven to be the one Autoresponder that is going to deliver my emails all the time…all while being quite affordable.

Well, that is it! I have my "Swiss Army Knife of Internet Marketing Tools". I have my domain, my hosting, my site software, an FTP program and my Autoresponder. This is it, and as I stated above, drop me off in any city in the world with these tools (with my handy laptop as well….although you could even do this without your own computer obviously…with all of the internet cafes worldwide now) and I would be in business in 5 days.

The real purpose of this article was to help many people put things into perspective. While there are many people that have decided to engage Internet Marketing on a full-time basis, others have remained on the sidelines for fear of the unknown. If the later is the case, I encourage you to make that first step and reach out and get going. Part II and III will really assist you in gaining that perspective.

Take care!

Richard East