Michael is one of my best friends. He's very bright and sophisticated in some ways, and a total idiot in others. Can you tell we're great friends? He has definite ideas, some of them I really don't like, and he has his own unique design sense, which is completely opposite my own sensibility. He is Felix Ungar and John Waters rolled into one, with a sense of the ridiculous to the point of being surreal. He argues with me all the time about just about everything. Shopping with him is hell. Having dinner is tough because he gobbles up everything on my plate. You don't ever want to cook with him because he questions every l-i-t-t-l-e thing. I don't even know why we are friends.  Odd. We were probably prison mates in a past life. That being said, I really appreciate how funny he is. I even like the way he makes hideous things come together and work, design wise. For instance, He asked how I like the boulders he uncovered in his woods. I said they're fine, too bad the one on the left isn't further in the background. He said, no problem, I can fix that. He picked up the rock and moved it. Scared me at first. Hah! it was styrofoam. The whole idea is so funny. What happens if we have a hurricane or a twister? His neighbor will have a heart attack seeing rocks flying around the back yard.

All  this being said, I think the "Michael prototype" can be an excellent customer for my site, and representative of a segment of Internet shopper I don't want to ignore. No, I'm not trying to recruit Michael. As a matter of fact, I live in terror that family or friends will buy something from me and not be happy. I'd never hear the end of it. Though, Michael did buy something. Ohhhhh, it was exhausting. They enjoy it when I give them treats though.

Ideally, you want to target the perfect exact match customer, hungry, and ready to buy. Those folks should make up the major part of your customer base. Michael represents a potential customer who you have to win over, but once you do, he buys quite a bit, if he trusts you. He's intelligent, well educated, and he loves to acquire things for his home. He isn't a designer, so he has limited knowledge of some things and he's a know it all too, so his first impulse is to be skeptical and reject. I recently led Michael to a vintage wool Persian rug worth $7000 which he purchased for under $700. He refers to it as a "used" rug, LOL. That's where relevant information is important. You can't assume people know that a vintage rug is different and has value.  Fill up your site with excellent information, try to field any and all questions, anticipate objections in your website, and hope your visitors can read. Be sure to give your visitors access to you. They love it if they can reach you. Provide free information and free fun stuff that will entertain. As a customer myself, I often go for the fun stuff first and not bother with the serious. All this wins me over as a customer. I return and I buy because I feel the website is friendly, so the people must be honest. We know we are all friendly and honest, but sometimes we have to reassure people who don't know us yet.