In an effort to discover who is visiting their website, many companies install software that allows them to capture the IP addresses of everyone who comes to the website. In turn this allows them to locate Email addresses and thus know who visits and where they visit on the site in an effort to ascertain their interests. With this information they are able to develop a database of potential customers and have a means of contacting them. As long as you do not abuse this information you can achieve a nice list of potential customers. Keep in mind that many people do not like this practice, so you need to be careful not to overstep your bounds. A note simply stating you know they recently visited your website and asking if they need any help with anything should suffice.

How often should you contact someone who has visited your website? In most cases someone who visits more than one time is probably someone who will purchase something in the future, but you still don't want to become a nuisance. Keep track of those who have previously visited so you don't send another Email—that means you want to track these manually or have a program that recognizes the IP address of someone who has previously visited. If you continually send Emails to the same visitors you may drive them away as they quickly become irritated with your monitoring of their activities.

Some people consider this process an invasion of privacy, but it is something businesses do on a routine basis. On the other hand, some people do use the software on personal websites just because they want to know who is visiting. This practice sometimes creates havoc for businesses because it forces people to invest in software to hide their IP addresses thus making it difficult for owners of money making websites to know who is visiting their website.

If you are capturing IP addresses to create a database of potential customers you want to monitor how often you contact those visitors. Do not consistently contact them but you may choose to notify them of any special offers—you may even create a special offer just for each visitor in order to gain their business. You can use this method even if you are offering services or want to send invitations to a network marketing organization. Build your email list. The money is in the list.