Time is precious. We have so little time to get all the things done which we want to do in our hectic lives. This is especially true when it comes to running your own online business or site. I have been constantly looking for ways to automate my online sites and marketing for over 3 years.

In that time-frame, I have found some simple tools or systems which automate my workload in order to take some of the pressure off. These automated marketing tools are essential if you want to do less work and enjoy life more. So here are my top tools or programs to automate your online business and/or marketing:

1. Autoresponder – Without a doubt, this is one automation tool which you simply can’t do without. You must have an autoresponder to do all your follow-up emails and marketing. An autoresponder is simply what the name suggests, it will automatically respond to all communications from your site or business. These communications are crucial to your bottom line and for the success of your business.

An autoresponder is also essential for building your list of contacts. I use list building with all my sites and have follow-up emails loaded into these autoresponders to stay in contact with my subscribers. Currently I use aWeber but have also used other autoresponders in the past such as GetResponse. aWeber and GetResponse are the two main autoresponder services that I recommend you use. Remember, you can also buy autoresponder software and set it up on your site or server, but I like to leave this vital chore to professional third party sites like aWeber or GetResponse. These companies have years of experience sending emails and they also have robust software and tech staff to handle all and any situations which may arise.

2. Paypal – This is the popular online payment system which is owned by eBay. Paypal will automatically let you collect and pay all your cash transactions. It will accept payments from your business partners or affiliates and automatically deposit these funds into your account. Plus, you can make automatic payments to all the services and programs which you use to run your online business. I can’t believe how much I rely upon Paypal. All my hosting, advertising and marketing programs are all set up through PayPal which automatically pays these each month. Paypal also provides excellent records so that you can easily see where your money is coming from and where you’re spending it. Great for when tax time comes around.

3. Java Scripts – These are handy little scripts which update your web content automatically so that you don’t have to go into your hosting account and manually update your pages. These can be site wide updates like CSS Style Sheets where you can easily change or update all the pages of your site at once. Another example would be an XML sitemap which can automatically update as you add webpages. For me, I like using simple scripts which update the time and date on my sites… this makes your site look current and timely. I also use a simple script to automatically update the Copyright Notice each year, without me having to go in and update these manually ON EACH PAGE. Since I am into affiliate marketing, many merchants will supply product feeds and banners which automatically update without me having to change them myself.

4. Content Delivery – If you’re running an online business or site, you need a way to automatically distribute your content to anyone who wants it. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a quick and automatic way to get your content on the web. You should be using blogs and RSS feeds to distribute your content. Twitter is one popular offshoot of this type and you should be using it to quickly get your messages out. For me, article marketing is still vital to my overall success, so I use major online article directories like Ezinearticles and GoArticles. With some of these directories (with a paid membership) you can program your articles so that they can be timed for release. I also like using SubmitYourArticle which automatically submits all my articles for me when I want them published. This automates my article marketing and can be programed weeks, even months in advance and everything flows like clockwork.

5. Google Analytics – While the stats (in my opinion) are not entirely accurate, Google Analytics is a priceless program if you want to automate and track all your online endeavors. You simply place a simple code on your webpages and Google will automatically track all the vital data you need to see how well your site or marketing is performing. It also offers excellent ways in which you can adjust your content or marketing to increase your conversions. While it may take some time to setup some of these tests or metrics… once you have everything in place, it will automatically track and record all your site’s stats. Knowing what your visitors and customers do on your site is essential to your marketing. Such things as Bounce Rate, Time Spent on site, Number of Pageviews, Traffic Sources… can all
be collected automatically and presented to you.

While there are other ways to automate your site and marketing, these are the major ones which you should have in place if you want to save yourself some time and a few headaches. Put all of these in place and you will have plenty of time to devote for developing marketing strategies and/or enjoying your life, whichever comes first for you.