Repeat after me, not everyone is your customer

Much as I wish I could agree with the idea that everyone is a potential customer, I can't.  If you target everyone, you are targeting no one.  What the web 2.0 era has ushered in, is the ability to target customers more effectively. 

The niche is everything.  You need to speak to a constituency and meet their needs.  Why care?  You need to know what bloggers they read, what information sources they like and how and where they receive information.  If you think you know that intuitively, forget the Web and open a fortune-telling booth.

To this end, check out Newt Barrett's blog Succeeding Today for this post on market research: Doing Market Research Is Both Easier and More Important Than You May Think  In it, he writes about how you can make an inexpensive effort with a big payoff.  He outlines options and costs.  It's a must read for those of you who think you can't do market research.