A few months ago I was talking to my family about my internet marketing business and when they found out what I make they wanted me to set them up a site… Not so easy I told them, what I have learned has taken year but there is so much that I have wasted in time but fortunately not money.

So how much does it cost to start an internet business from your basement. Well let’s look at what I think that you need. I thin k that these are real costs. Real to me and therefore realistic for anyone starting out.

Computer – Almost any computer will do. I have a three year old computer and all I wish I had more of was screen real estate. I look longingly at 30 inch LCD monitors but realistically the 17 inch monitor works fine.

Internet – I pay about $30 a month for my internet connection and can’t complain much about that. Dial up would even be good enough but in this day and age it is common for most people to have an internet connection

Hosting – First new cost for most people. Hosting is pretty cheap. I use 1and1 internet for my hosting and this costs me just under $10 per month. The hosting gives me 50 MySQL databases (good for Wordpress blogs or other apps), lots of storage, and apparently unlimited traffic. This is all good. The only problem with 1and1 internet is that anytime that I have had to call customer service it seems to be a hassle. I hope they are getting better with this but fortunately I don’t need to call more than once or twice a year for anything. Oh one more thing, the uptime is really good, my sites rarely go down.

There are lots of hosting companies but really the trouble is that often the gurus and others talk about setting up these all in one systems for $100 or $150 per month. I would never pay for that when a shared server at a big facility is all I need, and that is still all that I need.

Autoresponder – If you agree with most in that the money is in the list then there seems to be only two real choices for a list building and autoresponder service. Autoresponders cost between $15 and $20 per month, a lot at first but quickly this seems like a cheap cost.

I use Get Response and the only other company that offers this really is Aweber. Both services are good and allow you to create a list (empty at first) a signup box for people to get added to your list and then an editor to send messages, either one time emails or a whole autoresponder service. As I said these guys are both kind of the same, offer the same service and like features but I read a couple of reviews saying that GetResponse has better deliverability so that was why I chose them.

Originally I cheaped out and tried a free autoresponder script and in the forums I find that this is pretty common a free way to build a list. The trouble with this I found quickly. You can’t manage the people and send new messages as easily. The other problem is that you mail can get blocked easily or your whole site could easily be blocked by just 1 person calling you a spammer. The worst thing is that I spent probably 100 hours setting up and admining the free autoresponder script and this is time that I coupld have just used a service instead, you know the old adage trip over a dollar to pick up a dime. Do not use a free script for an autoresponder, bit the bullet and pay for one instead.

So in total, the fact that I already have a computer and internet means that I only have hosting and an autroresonder to deal with. My total cost for those two things for me is just under $28 a month. This is all it takes to compete with the big guys and to have a real site and real hardware and software out on the internet to get you going.

These are your core costs. I do not pay for anything else. I will post a new post about free tools that you can use for the rest of your business and I do not pay for any of those other services like Tell a friend scripts or other services.

I will instead pay for directory or article submissions occasionally and anything that will save me time for little money.

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