12meet

You've set up your profile and now you are ready to start mailing, so where do you begin? What do you do if you are spoilt for choice? Chances are you're going to mail more than one person. Before you hit the send button here are a few tips:

• Keep a record of what you said. Use the 'CC Me' feature on the contact form to send copies of your messages to yourself. This way you'll avoid repeating yourself or getting confused. This could be embarrassing!
• Make it personal. Try to avoid cutting and pasting the same message to lots of people. A personal message is far more likely to get a response than one that sounds like a telesales script. A good approach is to let people know what it was about their profile that prompted you to contact them. 'I found your profile interesting' just doesn't cut in the originality stakes, so you'll need to be more specific.
• Don't be a pest... If you mail someone and they don't respond, wait a while before you consider a follow-up message. If you haven't got a response in a week or so, move on.
• If someone is bugging you repeatedly, don't forget that you can use the 'Block Him or Her' feature on their profile to prevent them from contacting you again.