Every business needs a steady supply of fresh leads. This needs to happen on a daily basis and has to be kept track of. The conundrum many of us find at the beginning is cost. It looks expensive and, in truth, it CAN be expensive, but thee are some things to take into consideration that will lower that cost.

When many people start their business, they simply put up a sales page and sell an item. While this might be profitable, it does nothing to encourage the growth of the business. Although an email address is probably obtained with each sale, no follow up is made to it.

This type of business model allows you to sell a single item one time to a single customer. A better model is to have a way to sell multiple items to that same customer over time through following up. Of course, getting the person to buy multiple times or even the first time requires skillfully written sales page or follow up emails. Most people do not have the skill necessary, so to get the best results, consider having someone else write your copy for you.

Copywriters that have a proven track record don't work cheap so this is one of the major expenses involved with setting up a sales website. However, this is an expense that pays for itself over time. You will need a certain number of sales to offset the initial outlay before you realize any profits, but this is true of most any business you would start.

Besides the sales copy, you also need a website that is designed to sell, a domain name, and hosting. These costs mount up quickly and if you rely on single sales to pay the bills, you may not see the profits you want as quickly as you want.

A site that is set up to generate leads on an ongoing basis on the other hand is more profitable in the long run and can pay for itself many times over. The site doesn't even have to be anything fancy or expensive. You can simply offer a free report in exchange for an email address and name. As long as this person stays on your list, you can market to him multiple times and hopefully he will buy from you multiple times over the years.

Because people agree to receive email from you in exchange for your free report, you don't have to worry about spamming. Set up your list to be double opt-in because when you do this, the person must confirm their email address by clicking on a link before they get your free report. This stops anyone from putting in someone else's email address. You know that the people on your list want what you are offering and have signed up for it willingly.

Your lead generation website will collect new prospects for you day after day. Treat these subscribers well and they will remain on your list for years giving you an every growing base of people to market to. You receive all these great benefits at far less cost and effort than setting up a single sales website, plus you will see more profits too.