Lead Generation is generally regarded as necessary to run a business. Whether you have a Fortune 500 company or a small home-based operation, people who are interested in what you have to offer are essential if that business is to be viable and you are to make a profit.

Of course, word of mouth benefits all sorts or businesses - and there are ways of stimulating this - but getting started in a small business, or growing an already existing operation, requires more proactive steps.

A common approach is to buy leads. However, very often buyers will simply lose their money doing this, especially if you buy generic leads or those who've shown only a marginal interest in your business.

One of the worst strategies would be buying a list of email addresses for generic leads, especially those sold to multiple users. When someone receives an email and doesn't know who you are, forget about selling to that person. You can send out many thousands of emails and the response will be negligible - except for hostile, abusive replies!

Safer, and more profitable, is developing an automatic lead generation system that is either free or else costs very little to set up and maintain. In particular, you require the exact steps that will put your lead generation on auto-pilot - techniques that come with step-by-step instructions. The yellow brick road will then be paved with gold.

If your business requires phone numbers, this can be taken into account when you set up your free lead generation system. Design it so that your leads are not only pre-qualified but you are able to obtain telephone numbers at this time.

Postal leads are another solution - meaning the snail-mail variety. This is also risky, as well as being expensive. For instance, a common mistake is to mail a full package to unqualified leads. A better, and cheaper, approach is to first send a post card so that you aren't incurring costs on people who simply aren't interested or who may have already joined your program.

However, it isn't easy to even recover costs with postcards. Many find it really hard.

It isn't all just doom and gloom, though. You still need leads and there are methods which enable you to set up an automatic lead generation system, put them into an autoresponder for a series of emails, and send them a postcard later! However, to just buy leads and mail postcards has been a huge money loser for thousands of people.

The secret is to pre-qualify. The essential ingredient in building a lead generation system is to be sure you pre-qualify them for your offer! Fortunately, there are free and low-cost methods for doing this. Some of them will be mentioned briefly here. You should follow-up with a fuller, in-depth study of each.

Method 1. Viral List Builders. Techniques that encourage users to pass the product onto others, such as ebooks, jokes, cartoons, pictures, and important information.

Method 2. Ad Co-Op Publishing. Co-operative ventures with others who agree to place your advertising on their web pages in exchange for you doing the same with their ads.

Method 3. Forum Tricks. There are thousands of forums covering just about every topic. These provide opportunities to become known and to introduce readers to your informal advertising, as with your forum signature.

Method 4. Article Marketing Strategies. Articles are valuable as sources of content and information, as well as providing back links to your web site and pages.

Method 5. Special Bonuses. There are many ways incentives can be used to join your email list and to convert visitors to buyers.

Method 6. Reverse Marketing. Join every offer you can find that is related to your market and contact the person making that offer. They have already demonstrated an interest in your particular niche and are likely to require more quality information.

Method 7. Joint Ventures. Contact others who have shown a similar interest and invite them to JV with you. They provide leads and you just close the sales, offering a discount to their list.

Many of the costly lead generation approaches are costly failures for internet marketers wanting a profitable online business. However, it is possible to set up a successful low cost system that will automatically capture leads and build a long-term, profitable relationship with them.