Truth be told, spam just doesn't work if you're trying to build a home business. You might get a few new affiliates or sales from spam, but then you get busted and your hosting service cancels your account and you have to pickup shop, get another host, setup your bulk mailer and start all over again. This cost time and money which some spammers chalk up to "cost of business" but ultimately it's just not worth it.



Now knowing this simple fact is what makes your spam so valuable. Of all the spam emails that you receive there are plenty of potential clients; however there are more useless leads. The key is finding the diamonds in the rough, the people who really are trying to build an online business but obviously don't know how. The emails to ignore are the vast majorities which are selling Viagra, Cialis, penis enlargement drugs and other similar products and services. I would also steer clear of any spam with pornographic content or you could get yourself on multiple spam lists which send nothing but pornographic material.

Now that you have found a few potential clients you need to really take a look at what they are offering. Don't just send them an email advertising your affiliate program or product, because then you would be spamming. Take a look at what they are offering and really critique it. Look at the positives and negative aspects of their business and ask them questions. Ask them how they are doing, ask them what techniques they are using to advertise and network. Ask them about their business and compensation plan. Put all of these questions into an email and explain how you received their email and checked out their website and now would like a little more information. It is important that the email subject have the name of their business in it so they will likely open and read it.

Then you listen and honestly try to help them, this technique is not an advertising campaign it is a way of building long term business contacts. Who knows, their product or company might be something you need, or maybe you can synergize and work together so you can both benefit. The key is not to advertise to them, you must restrain and build the relationship first. You must give them something, weather it is help, guidance, free e-books or marketing tools that you have picked up, whatever it is just be sure to show them that you want to help.

Going back to my statement before, where I stated that spam is not profitable. This tells us that most of these people are willing to listen to other ideas and techniques that do work, and that's where you come in. You should also be thinking about a back end product that can really benefit them, not just something you can sell to them and make the most commission on, I mean something that can truly help them. For instance you could offer them an alternative to spam, maybe teach them how to build an opt-in email list which is much more profitable in the long term than spam. Help them install an autoresponder or refer them to a good autoresponder company. Then maybe you can mention that you are an affiliate of a list building company where they can purchase some real leads. Or you can teach them about search engine optimization and give them some free information about linking, blogging and article syndication. Then let them know you are an affiliate of an article syndication automation website.

Do you get my point, get involved with their business and educate them on effective marketing strategies and feed them a back end product down the road. This is a very effective method of networking, if you can restrain from advertising to them and just give them information when they need it.

Using this method on a continual basis can produce a great list of contacts that respect and listen to you, which of course will eventually lead to sales and duplication.