Automation makes running any online business a total breeze. More importantly, only by automating your whole online business will you achieve the freedom and lifestyle that makes Internet Marketing so attractive to millions of people worldwide.

The Internet is tailor made for automation. It can retrieve, process and transmit data at a lightning speed. It can keep track of billions of pieces of information on a single server. In reality, the whole system is one giant automated machine run by countless servers and an ever decreasing number of wires as the web goes wireless.

And then there is the computer -- your main business automation tool. The computer is the perfect automation tool. It can handle incoming data, process files, and dispense information all within the blink of an eye. Computers are the real workhorses of our modern age -- they do most of the work for us. They are so important, running any competitive online or off-line business now without a computer would be hard to imagine, not to mention foolhardy.

Combine these two key elements with automated marketing software and running any business on automation will indeed seem like a total breeze. It all comes down to numbers, with the Internet and computers, you can handle, sell and process a million units as easy as you can handle ten units.

Computers and the web make these large numbers possible. They make marketing online not only viable but also very lucrative. Whole automated marketing systems can be put into place, bringing in revenue automatically. Virtual auto income machines can be created.

Let's look closely at some examples and discover what you need in order to put these automated marketing systems to work for you.

Let's say you have a digital information product that you wish to sell online. Your automated marketing system will probably start with the acquisition of a domain name www.widgets-info.com and construction of an online website where customers can purchase and download your product.

Designing your own site and sales letter will take some work and you must know what you're doing or all the automation in the world will be pointless because if your online site doesn't convert traffic into sales, it's game over. Your site or online business MUST convert your visitors into paying customers.

Many marketers hire or get someone else to design their profit generating sites for them. You may have to pay highly for a good professional quality site and high quality sales copy but it is the key to the success of your whole marketing operation.

A well optimized website will pull in free targeted traffic from the different search engines automatically. A high quality sales letter or copy will then convert this traffic into sales and income automatically. To increase sales many marketers buy their traffic from Pay-Per-Click advertising such as those services offered by Google Adwords or Yahoo's Overture.

Once you have targeted traffic hitting your website... all your marketing procedures can be automated. In most cases, with simple software programs that will run your online business on auto-pilot.

Most professional marketers capture the contact information of their visitors. They follow up with the grand daddy of all automated systems -- the autoresponder. Studies have consistently shown, it usually takes from 6 to 7 follow-up emails before a customer buys your product. The autoresponder is one automated tool you must use with your online business.

Many marketers offer ecourses or free newsletters as a way of automatically keeping in touch with customers or potential customers. An autoresponder can draw visitors back to your site and marketing page again and again, to hear your sales pitch. It is the vital element in your automated marketing system.

Automation of your whole checkout system can be done with programs like ClickBank, PayPal or 1ShoppingCart... these automated checkout systems will take your customers through the checkout process and can deliver digital products or software downloads immediately.

Here Are Some Automation Tips:

* Use autoresponders for follow-ups and building contact lists
* Use automated checkout systems like ClickBank or 1ShoppingCart
* Use simple online videos to explain complex tasks or products
* Use Google Sitemaps to automatically index and update your pages
* Use organic SEO tactics like keyword rich articles to get traffic
* Use RSS feeds to automatically syndicate your content and articles
* Use RSS feeds to automatically build content and webpages
* Use datafeeds to automatically update your products or content
* Use audio testimonials to warm up visitors (the net is a cold place)
* Use a well defined Frequently Asked Questions page or pages
* Use Paypal or a similar system for paying your online business bills
(hosting, advertising, promotions) and for receiving payments/commissions
- this way you can be away from your business for long periods
of time and everything will still run smoothly, on auto-pilot

Once all these elements have been put into place: your targeted traffic, your website with sales page and checkout cart, your autoresponders with follow-up messages, your delivery of purchased products, and a payment system to pay your bills/receive your commissions or payments... you will have constructed an automated system that will deliver sales and income 24/7/365. There are countless websites and businesses on the web doing exactly that -- automatically running and earning money for their owners.

Another popular online business model uses affiliate programs and advertising such as Google Adsense as their main sources of income, instead of offering products for sale.

These automated marketing systems are set up in the same way. Only no actually selling is done on the site... these sites pre-sell by giving away valuable information, product reviews, or comparison shopping tips to their visitors. Then and only then are potential customers sent to affiliate sites to make their purchases. With the affiliate (site owner) getting a percentage of the selling price for having referred the customer or client. Some great third party affiliate programs are Commission Junction, LinkShare, Shareasale, and Amazon.

This automated affiliate/advertising website business offers the most freedom and the least headaches. It is an ideal automated business system that if done right can be extremely lucrative for those who put these automated marketing systems into place.

It can be pure perfection where automation meets the Internet, computers and the marketing process. It can be a marvel to behold and a complete joy to experience in action. For those savvy marketers who have perfected this system it spells only one thing -- freedom. And a whole lot of it!

Titus Hoskins

This author's articles have appeared on such sites as 'Thetechzone', 'Promotionworld' and 'Addme'. His main web site is 'Bizwaremagic' -- offering free Internet Marketing Guides on such Topics as RSS Guide, Spyware Removal Guide, Notebook Computer Guide, Opt In List Building Toolkit, and much, much more!