Dear Forum Readers,

MySpace is probably the most popluar of all the social networking sites. They currently have over one hundred million members! MySpace, like many other social networking websites allows you to create your own profile, in fact, your own personal page.

Once your page has been created, you can easily invite other members to become a member of your network and visa versa. In addition to having a traditional profile page with your personal information, you can also display a large number of pictures, video clips, and music clips. And MySpace is completely free to use.

MySpace has literally taken the world by storm. This is because, in what seemed like no time at all, MySpace has grown to become one of the most popular websites in all of cyberspace.

Almost everyone knows about this site. It’s virtually a household name at this point.

And while at one time it was believed to be a place for teenagers to share pictures and talk about the latest pop concert, recent studies have indicated over 50% of the users at MySpace are over the age of 30!

Business people from every niche are now using MySpace to build their network of prospects and drive traffic to their business websites.

The first step in joining this popular online social network is to register for an account. This can be done in a matter of minutes. Although you can view a number of different MySpace pages without registering, you can’t fully interact without your own account.

Registration will allow you to not only create your own MySpace page, but enjoy many of the other features that can be found on the site. Again this service is completely free to use.

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Your Profile Page
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Once you join MySpace, you can create your own profile page. Don’t settle for the generic profile page they start you out with!

You need to customize this profile right away so it looks different. Use the profile editor to change the colors, add background images and photos, and fill in your bio information. Then add plenty of good content, including pictures and links to your other websites, on your profile page.

To make the experience easier, MySpace has a fairly large collection of profile templates. These templates not only have an impact on the background of your profile page, but the text fonts as well. In addition to using the pre-designed templates, you can also create your own, especially if you have basic knowledge of HTML. You can even purchase custom profile layouts or hire a pro designer to build you something really slick if you wanted.

Remember your MySpace profile is an extension of you in this cyber community so you want it to be a great representation of who you are and why people would want to get to know you. Add your personality and don’t just post a bunch of hype or business talk; remember people come to MySpace to find other people so if you seem fake on your profile you won’t do well with this site.

You can (and should!) even post an autoresponder form right on your profile page and offer visitors a free gift for joining your newsletter!

After you have created your own MySpace page, you can easily search for others. You can search for others with a wide variety of different keyword phrases. If you are looking for someone who lives near you, you can search for your town. If you are looking for someone who shares your love of animals, you can search for pet lovers. Once you have found the MySpace page of someone who you would like to become friends with, you can invite them to join your network. In addition to inviting others to join your network, there is a good chance that you will be invited to join others… this is the main benefit of being on MySpace.

In addidion to your customizable profile page, MySpace gives you a slew of other powerful options.

Interaction

When you find a profile page or blog that you like, get involved! Post your comments on the profile or blog, and give the owner an invitation to join your network.

Remember you should avoid leading with a sales pitch. This is cheesy, unprofessional, and will alienate you from other users. Just be yourself and add friendly comments and greetings in an effort to attract like-minded people to you.

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Friends
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The purpose of MySpace is largely to make contacts. And you do this by inviting other users to be on your friends list and accepting invitations from other folks in the system.

Here’s a great example of how this can be used to further your business cause.

Let’s say you are a wedding planner with a nice looking profile on Myspace that links to your business site and blog. This networking site is teeming with young ladies who are about to get married, so you could invite literally hundreds of these users to be on your Friends list. Of course once they join your network they will have the chance to sign up for your newsletter, view some photos of your portfolio, read your bio, and visit your website.

In the above example it is highly likely some of the people in your network will like what you have to offer (as long as you’re not too pushy about it) and become good customers!

You can use the Bulletin feature at MySpace to broadcast a message to your entire friends list. This can be an extremely powerful feature if used intelligently. You can offer free sample products to get folks in your network on your regular mailing list, inform them of special promotions, invite them to conference calls, and just about anything else you want to do with the Bulletin feature.

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Your Blog
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MySpace will also provide you with a blog. This is great because you can post valuable content about your field on a regular basis and give other members some good reading material. It’s vital that you provide good content because this is what will keep people on your blog actually reading, and if they like what you write they are quite likely to invite you to a group or add you to their friends list.

As with article marketing and blogging in general, when using your MySpace blog you need to really show people that you know what you are talking about, or at least that your opinion is backed by good logic. Any time you post content on the web, especially on a high traffic site like this your credibility is on the line so be sure to do a great job in providing readers with material that will compel them to regard you as someone who is knowledgeable in your niche.

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Classified Ads
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MySpace will also let you post classified ads. Of course your response will depend greatly on the quality of your ad, an frankly I would not expect a flood of traffic from this as most people don’t want to read ads in the first place, but it is an option and it takes only a few minutes to post.

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Forums and Groups
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MySpace is filled with forums and groups on all topics. This is a great opportunity for meeting new people in your niche and using something as simple as a signature link at the bottom of an intelligent post to drive quality traffic to your offer.

Remember though, to really take advantage of these groups and forums you want to honestly get involved. Contribute valuable content to the conversations and start your own discussions.

You want to become a member of the group that other users like.

Of course you will see a ton of ads being posted in these forums. And how do you react when you see these ads?

Exactly. And that’s how people will react if you go in and start posting ads right away too.

So start by joining the group and the discussions, and integrate your promotions when an appropriate opportunity appears. If the group you have joined is targeted to your niche and you have something of value to them the chance to tell them about it will arise.

If your product or service has an affiliate program you can even contact the group leader and ask them if they would like to promote it to the group in exchange for a nice commission. This way you don’t come across as a pushy salesperson; in fact people expect group leaders to promote products to them.

On that note, you might even want to start your own group. Once you have a good-sized network why not just form your own group and start drawing people into this. An active MySapce group could easily become the top of your sales funnel.

I hope I am here to help some of you to give you a guide about mastering the MYSPACE mythology.
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