A crucial first step in getting your business online is to select and purchase your own Domain Name. This makes it easier for potential clients to easily remember your web address and gives the impression that you are operating a serious, reputable and professional business.

Owning your own domain means that you will have your own email address. Instead of advertising your email address as 'personalemail@hotmail.com," it can be 'John@yourdomain.com.'

The benefits of owning a domain name are numerous. It costs roughly two cents a day and for that measly two cents, you can drastically increase your site's traffic volume.

Search engines are a great way for subscribers to find you and you want to be found. Many search engines will only include you in their results if you have your own domain name and you need to be listed in the results of search engines.

Purchasing a domain name is one of the best investments you can make for your online business and after you expense it to your company, it will cost a fraction of a penny!

Be creative in finding a domain name. Write down a few good keywords and piece them together.

Try going to the Nameboy.com website. This service gives you the option to search for and create a domain name using primary and secondary keywords, hyphens, and rhymes.

The second step is finding a hosting service. Building huge lists needs a lot of disc space, so I recommend choosing a hosting company that gives you room to grow. An easy way to do this is to go to Google.com and search for 'web hosting.'

Next, you will need to automate your business with an autoresponder, which is a way to capture the contact information of your visitors and automatically send them your marketing messages.

Most web hosts provide a single autoresponder service which works like this: you send an email and instantly you get a reply that says something like this: 'Thanks for your email. I am currently away and will return on such and such a date and will respond as soon as I get back.'

What you should want and need is a sequential autoresponder, which allows you to plug-in any number of pre-written messages and have them sent out at various sequential times as determined by you.

There are many benefits with an autoresponder; benefits that include the ability to personalize your messages and broadcast the same message to your entire list, regardless of where you are in your sequence.

After choosing a sequential autoresponder, another decision to make is purchasing a client-side software, third-party software or server-side software.

I will tell you that the server-side software is better because you or your programmer can install this software directly onto your Web host's server.

Personally, I use version three of Auto Response Plus as do most of the publishers I work with. To check it out for yourself, visit AutoResponsePlusv3.com.

Now once you have a Domain name, a hosting service and a sequential autoresponder, you are well on your way to a lucrative email marketing business.