Any one can find enough money to pay for an good paid autoresponder service.
I have to disagree with that statement Ron, no disrespect intended, just
one man's opinion. (and bare with me, I feel another one of my long-winded
posts coming on, lol)...
It's not just a matter of being able to afford an autoresponder service, you
must also factor in the other costs associated with running a decent online
business -- hosting ($20 per mth), domain ($10 once off), an autoresponder
account (another $20 per month), paying outsourcers to do the stuff you
know nothing about (anywhere between $5 and $100 initially and perhaps
even some recurring payments for stuff like maintenance or seo deals)...
It's so easy for many of us who have been online a while to sit back and
say "If you really believe in your business or what you do, you can surely
come up with $XX, if it's really that important to you".
Now, I am an honest believer in "if there's a will, there's a way", however,
for many, it really isn't as simple or straight forward.
Allow me a moment (or 30) to elaborate.
I remember when I first started out full time on the internet.
I was working as an EMT, making decent money, not decent
enough, but I loved what I did so it wasn't about the money.
I was off duty one day and witnessed a car accident on the
highway. Being a paramedic, of course my first reaction was
to pull over and help out anyway I could...
Well, little did I know, my life was about to get turned upside
down, in the blink of an eye -- no exaggeration.
I was standing on the side of the road helping a couple of the
"vics" and out of nowhere, some a*shole flying down the road,
doing 80+ MPH, (police later determined it was closer to 90MPH
during their investigation) swerved a little. He hit me dead on,
literally swept me off of my feet.
Come to find out, the guy who was drunk and hit me, had no auto
insurance, so, initially, all my medical bills were up to me to cover.
Now I found myself in a position where I couldn't work, not for a
couple of months anyways. I had to find a way to start making
some money using a different avenue.
So, here I was, out of work, under doctors orders (and rightfully
so since I was in almost a full body cast for almost 6 months and
then a leg cast for another 18 months with many many surgeries
in the interim of all that...
My wife and I had a newborn so my wife was out of work at the
time taking care of the baby (I could barely sit up on the couch
without assistance at times, never mind take care of an infant)
so money was
not tight, it was
non-existant. I had come online
hoping to find answers to questions I had and every time I would
ask a question, I would get pretty much the same responses I'm
still seeing provided now a days...
"Get this and that, it only costs $10 or $20, surely you can manage
to find or come up with a measly $10 or $20".
Sometimes, as much as we all like to think it is, its not as easy as
everyone makes it sound. Sometimes, even trying to come up with
$5 can be a struggle. It all depends on the persons situation at the
time.
There were days back then (when the accident stuff happened) that my
wife and I struggled hard just to put $3.00 together for some pasta noodles
and spaghetti sauce or even good ole hot dogs and mac-n-cheese, LOL.
So, I know how it feels to constantly hear people saying stuff like "Oh,
if it means that much to you, you'll figure out a way to afford just $10.
Again, sometimes, it really isn't a clear cut as we make it sound. Some
times, it really does come between spending $20 in
HOPES of making it
back
quickly enough, or taking that same $20 and trying to figure out
a way to stretch it enough to feed your family a few more days with it.
Again, Ron, please please please do not take any offense to my statements.
I mean no disrespect to you, your post or your opinion, but I hear people
saying the same thing all the time "Oh, think of it as an investment, after
all, it's only X dollars."... Depending on the situation, what seems like $1
to us may be like $1,000 to someone else (in retrospect of course)
And again, I do FIRMLY believe that a $20 investment is a MUST for anyone
trying to make money online, and that $20 is definitely a very small price to
pay, but, like I said, for some, it may truly be very difficult to come up with
even $10, especially on a monthly basis.
Another example.
I am now legally permanently disabled. The amount I get every month is
definitely not enough to cover any of my expenses. My mortgage alone
is twice what my disability check is. If it weren't for my online business
being as grown as it is today, I'd NEVER get my "basics" covered each
month, never mind trying to throw $20 out there for an autoresponder,.
If, God forbid, something ever happened to my business and my wife's
income, we would be in the same boat as I am explaining above. We'd
be screwed, and yes, even spending $3 or $5 a month, on a crappy
hosting account, would NOT be within the budget, sadly, but that's
exactly my point. We don't know what the situation is, so it's easy
for us to say something like "anyone can afford X or Y" because, NO,
not everyone CAN. And again, perhaps one could find enough, if
that were the only thing needed, but, everything else has to be
taken into consideration as well. Most of the time, it's not JUST
an autoresponder fee, but then a hosting fee, paying someone
to do the stuff we can't or don't know how to, etc. and so on.
OK, I have rambled on long enough, and probably upset some people,
but I just had to get that off my chest.
Thanks for listening to me rant, LOLOLOL.
[EDIT] Funny, after writing my post I noticed I received an email from Aweber. Announcing a new system. So far doesn't look much different or better than GT, but maybe. I'll have to check it out more. Any one see the new system as incredible?
I am actually about to cancel my current AWeber account and try out
GetResponse. Their (aweber) "new" system, really isn't anything spectacular,
in my opinion anyways. It definitely isn't even enough to make me want to
stay with them, LOL.