I'd rather have 10,000-targeted leads than 1,000,000 non-targeted leads. Emailing a bunch of people who don't care about what you have to offer is a waste of your time and theirs. This technique is now commonly referred to as Spamming. Spamming can get you in trouble and cause you to loose your ISP.

There is absolutely no excuse for Spamming these days. There are many other legit methods for marketing your products or services. Email marketing is still one of most cost effective forms of advertising on Internet, but it must be permission based or opt-in email marketing. Opt-in email marketing will produce much greater results than unsolicited email or Spam.

Building your own list is an intimidating task for many people, but it is very easy to do. Basically you must capture email addresses of people who visit you site. This can be done by offering them a bonus and getting them to subscribe to your newsletter. The second step is to stay in contact with your list by providing them good information through a weekly newsletter or monthly bulletin. Make sure you provide your list with good, valuable content.

By building a list of subscribers, you will be building a targeted group of potential customers that you can use to offer your own products or affiliate products to. You can also use your list as leverage to participate in joint venture with other ezine owners and Webmasters. Your list is a powerful thing.

You'll always need to find new prospects for your business. But don't overlook prospects you already attracted. Many are close to buying. Use these four simple procedures to convert those "almost customers" into paying customers.

1. Make A Memorable Impression

Create a reason for prospects and customers to notice you ...and to think of you when they encounter a competitor.

Many prospects who do not buy from you first time will come back to buy later. Existing customers will also remember you. They'll come back to buy again - and they'll send pre-sold referrals to you.

One easy way to establish a memorable identity is to create an important reason for customers to do business with you instead of with your competitors.

The advantage you offer doesn't have to be dramatic to be memorable IF you promote it aggressively. It can be as simple as delivering faster results, more personalized attention or a better guarantee than your competitors.

Tip: Combine several small advantages like those described above to create a big (and more memorable) advantage over your competitors.

2. Follow Up Consistently

Most prospects do not buy first time they see or hear about you. But they will if you follow up with them.

Your follow up can be as simple as contacting them occasionally with a new offer. Or it can be more complex such as publishing a weekly newsletter with useful information and articles.

If you don't already have a way to collect their address, you can get it by offering a valuable gift that you deliver only by email or postal mail.

For example, offer a special report, a list of sources or some other valuable information they cannot get anywhere else. These are valuable to customers and prospects - but they won't cost you much to provide.

3. Make Sure You Answer These 7 Buyer's Questions