A few weeks ago there was a high profile product launch that was targeted at new online marketers. It was a package of information that you could get for the cost of shipping, along with a trial issue of a newsletter. If you didn’t cancel, you were charged each month for the newsletter.

That’s nothing new, and a popular and effective marketing technique. The only reason I bring it up is because of what they were recommending in their info.

The manual that you got walked you through how to set up a business. It included setting up and using PPC, creating landing pages, and creating ebooks and converting them to PDFs.

Good stuff. The problem I had with what I came across was the software they recommended. They taught how to create landing pages, and offered a template you could use. They taught about creating a sales letter for a product that you created. They recommended an HTML editor to create those pages. It was Dreamweaver. It was their only recommendation. And of course the link was an affiliate link.

The affiliate link was just smart marketing. What wasn’t as well thought out was that you don’t NEED Dreamweaver to create landing pages or sales pages. When you’re just getting started, you can do everything you need to do with free software. Search for Nvu or Kompozer and you’ll be able to get software that will do what they recommend for free.

What was really stunning was that they also mentioned in the course that in the future they were going to recommend free software you could use. After you pay for an issue of two. Come On!

Then they taught about creating your own ebook, and how you should convert it to a  PDF. They kindly included a link to Adobe Acrobat, which costs a few hundred dollars, as an affiliate link. You can do it for free all day long with Open Office! For Free!

For anyone just getting started online, money can be tight. It doesn’t make any sense to pay for software that you don’t have a need for. Once your business gets going, it may make sense to pay for software. But not when there are free alternatives that are able to do the same thing that the paid options do.

I feel like they were taking advantage of new marketers by not being up front and telling them about the free software.

You have a lot of options to spend your money. There’s no shortage of sales pages that try to convince you that if you buy their product, and a lot of the products are very good. Just don’t spend your money on something that you don’t need right now. Concentrate on getting traffic and building your business first. Then if you NEED to buy something, you’ll be able to pay for it without going into debt or running up the balance on your credit card.

Nvu: http://www.nvu.com
Kompozer: http://www.kompozer.net
Open Office: http://www.openoffice.org