Free Internet Tools and Resources the Steptoe (Sanford & Son) Way

Can you build up a successful Internet marketing business with low cost and free tools and resources or should you take a big risk and blow all of your capital before you learn how to become an Internet marketer? Yes you can! Read on to learn more...

Today I was just about to get into the shower when I heard a once familiar call and the clip clop of a horse. I couldn't believe what I heard and had to look out of the window to check that I was hearing right. I saw a sight which I haven't seen for many years - a scruffy man with horse and cart collecting other peoples junk from which he was planning to make money - a rag and bone man.

It reminded me of Steptoe and Son (Sanford and Son in the US) the popular sit com from the sixties and seventies, the rag and bone man even looked like Harold Steptoe from a distance. Harold and his father Albert ran a scrap yard and the rag and bone men went out on their rounds daily collecting junk, some free some paid for, the junk was recycled for profit proving the saying that one mans rubbish is another mans treasure.

I used to love watching Steptoe and Son and I'll never forget the phrase "You dirty old man" said by Harold to his father in such a despising way. The humour probably wasn't politically correct, but sometimes I think that PC has gone too far anyway.

Seeing the rag and bone man made me think about entrepreneurship and Internet marketing in a roundabout way. It made me realise that just as he collects free products for resale you can use free products and free tools and resources to build your Internet business and there is no better time to start than now.

We keep hearing about the credit crunch and how it is affecting the lives of millions. When recessions hit many people lose their jobs and struggle to find other employment, but it is also a time when entrepreneurs rise from the ashes of high unemployment. Some create empires from real world businesses like my rag and bone man. Others get involved with business opportunities on and offline. Many don't succeed but some do and it is because of those success stories that so many try.

New businesses need different levels of start up capital depending upon the type of business that is being launched. Real world businesses generally need more start up capital. For instance the rag and bone man would need a horse and cart and somewhere to store his 'stock'. He would also need the know how to renovate or recycle his 'stock' and where to sell his goods.

An Internet business can be started with nothing except a computer, an ability to search and learn, a commitment to hard work and patience. There is no need to throw your life savings into Internet marketing because there are an awful lot of free products and free tools and resources waiting out there for you to make money with providing that you realise that it takes time and that you have a lot of patience.

Following you will find a list of the types of low cost or free tools of resources available on the internet to help you to build your internet business:

Webspace (hosting, blogs, Squidoo, Hubpages)

Website and Blog Templates

Products (ebooks, software, templates, graphics and scripts)

Product & Service Affiliation

Free Advertising

Search Engine Submission (limited)

Article Directories (mostly free to submit articles)

Auction Sites (small fees

Forums (For knowledge & marketing)

Marketplace (Payloadz & Tradebit – small fee)

Free Informative Courses

Link directories

Email Marketing

Autoresponders

Google Publisher Tools

Just do a search for any of those and you will find that there is a massive amount of free tools and resources for Internet marketers out there, plus more than I have listed.

Be Warned

This is sad but the other day I read a forum post from somebody new to Internet marketing. In his late fifties he had just been made redundant and believed that at his age he wouldn't get another job. He was planning to blow every penny that he had on starting up an Internet business. I don't think that it was because he believed in himself, more likely that he believed the BS 'you'll make a fortune' sales spiel that you see everywhere.

I wanted to tell him not to be an idiot, that only a small percentage ever make fortunes, that those who blow all of their money on pipedreams and without knowledge are the ones who go away broke and disheartened, but hey somebody got there before me!