Get with "age wave" now, and find ways to profit from this incredible, growing group of consumers.

Instead, put together a six to ten issue newsletter that has timeless information. Include offers and purchase tips. Load it into your autoresponder, then advertise your newsletter on your web site and in your print materials.

4. Create your own course. People love to get how-to information to solve specific problems. Make a list of question or problems your customers bring to you most often. Write down questions along with their answers. You can combine these with articles by experts to create your own email course.

I have a number of email courses that have been consistently popular for years. One has been requested by thousands of people--which leads us to strategy five.

5. Build a house email list. Most autoresponder systems keep a list of everyone who has requested your information. You can use list to send out a periodic update or newsletter. We use list from my email course to send out a "Course Newsletter" once each month. It is a great way to reach thousands of people who have a proven interest in our information. They make great customers.

You can get good autoresponders from a lot of places. Your web site host may provide them for you. aWeber.com, one of original autoresponder providers, is one of best with reliable service, a great control system, and fast response. Infogeneratorpro.com is also popular. Both cost about $20 per month. One good free option is Freeautobot.com.

Expect free services to be a bit slower in delivering your message and experience outages from time to time. If a service offers a trial period, try it and watch for messages that get lost or slow delivery.

Keep in mind that spam filtering will sometimes filter out your messages even though prospect requested them. Keep your messages on hand. Invariably you will get a few interested prospects who say "I missed message 5..can you send it to me?"

While lots of Internet systems promise automated ecommerce, autoresponders are one of few ways to put important aspects of your operation on autopilot.