Some people have set up their autoresonders to send 5-7 follow-up notes. I refer to these as "nag notices". They must feel that if they "nag" you enough, you will give in and buy their product or service. I don't know about you, but with each one I get, my resistance stiffens.

Some people actually have their autoresponders set up so that after they send you all notices, they start over again. I have one person trying to sell me their MLM that sends me several notes a week. As a point of interest, I allowed it to continue for awhile to see how far they would go. After I saw that notes were simply starting over, I put a filter in my email to trash any notes from this person. At this point I would never buy anything from them, and they could be selling five dollar bills for ten cents apiece and I would never know it.

We have all met pushy MLM salespeople who we avoid at all costs at a social gathering. Well these same obnoxious characters have now enlisted technology using Wonderful World of Web, but they are still obnoxious. These people, pure and simple are spammers, and to make matters worse, they don't give you any way to get off their mailing list.

Don't fall into this trap. Sure, it is cheap and easy and you can market with almost no effort on your part. But if you want to build an ongoing business on web, learn "The Meaning of "NO".

Any promotional message to this group would have to be very general. But people don't respond to general talk. They respond only when they feel you are talking directly to them about their individual needs.

SPECIAL ADVANTAGE: A highly defined, small niche market can insulate you from competition. Other small businesses are likely to overlook it. Large businesses will find market segment too small to bother with.

HOW TO FIND YOUR OWN NICHE MARKET

One way to find a good niche market is to evaluate your existing customers. Can you uncover a segment of customers with similar characteristics?

For example, I recently talked with an MLM distributor for a health products company. About a year ago she noticed that many distributors in her downline were health or physical education teachers. She now has a lot of success targeting a niche market of female physical education teachers who are married, have children and are members of same professional association.

Another way to find a niche market is to work backward from benefits you offer. Start by listing all benefits provided by your product or service. Then list some of characteristics of prospects whose current situation can be dramatically improved by those benefits. You should begin to see a narrowly defined group emerge as a niche market.

IT'S YOUR BOTTOM LINE

How specific is your target market? Can you develop sales messages so sharply focused your prospects believe you're talking specifically to them? If not, use information in this article to help you find a niche market of your own. Then tailor your sales messages to specific interests and needs of that niche market. You'll see an immediate increase in your sales and profits.