Chapter 5 My Space

Chapter 5, My Space

"Every Online Step.com Training Course"

The web site MySpace.com has received a great deal of attention the last couple of years. But what is this site all about? Is it just for kids or does the site work well for other ages as well? What can you do with the site? Here is some basic information about MySpace.com and some ideas on how the website might be helpful for you.

The first thing to understand about MySpace.com is that the foundational purpose of the site is one of communication. MySpace.com provides a means for you to create your own little corner of the Internet and devote it to your interests. Then, you can invite other people who hold similar interests to come on board and interact with you.

One example of a fairly common use of MySpace.com has to do with education. As many of us know from the news media, a number of kids use MySpace.com. A large number of the kids who use the site do so as a means of communicating with one another on homework assignments.

The site allows kids who are members of the same class in school to collaborate on projects, help each other study for upcoming exams, and to help each other communicate on homework assignments.

At the same time, a growing number of college age students are finding that they can use MySpace.com for similar purposes. This can be a great application, especially when study partners have a long-term project that is to be turned in at the end of the term.

Even with holiday breaks and other interruptions in the daily schedule, college students can go home for long weekends, but still communicate about projects. The miles no longer make a difference.

MySpace.com is also an easy way for younger siblings to keep in contact with their older brothers and sisters who have gone off to college. The chat feature allows siblings to keep up with what is happening at home, and to relay information quickly if needed.

This can be a real help to freshmen college students who need a little bit of home while they adjust to student life. It can also be great for the brother or sister who is still home, as the contact through MySpace.com helps him or her to still feel connected to the older brother or sister.

MySpace.com, at it's best, is a great communication tool that can help people interact on just about any subject. To learn more about MySpace.com, go to their website and check out some of the features. You may find this would be a great tool for you and your family.

Is MySpace.com Just for Kids?

It seems like most of the media attention directed to MySpace.com has been on its use by school age children and teens. The fact of the matter is that the site is a great tool for all ages. Here are a few examples of ways that adults could utilize the features at MySpace.com.

One of the key features of MySpace.com is the fact that it is a communication tool. For persons who are involved in just about any type of business endeavor, the importance of timely and effective communication is obvious.

MySpace.com can be a great way to network with other people who are involved in the same line of work. As an example, salespeople who work in different industries can get together and share sales strategies with one another, even to the point they can bounce ideas for sales pitches off one another, getting valuable and constructive criticism from their peers.

In addition to helping each other hone their sales skills, MySpace.com can also afford them the chance to share leads with one another. For instance, should Salesperson A become aware that a client of his is looking for a new long distance provider, he may tell Salesperson B, who sells commercial long distance services.

MySpace.com is also a great place for persons who share a common hobby to gather together. One of the perks of MySpace.com is that people do not have to live near you, so anyone who enjoys the same hobby can join in the conversation.

Perhaps you enjoy woodcarving, but there are few people in your towns who share your enthusiasm. Set up a profile on MySpace.com and feature woodcarving prominently. You will soon have a community of folks that will be able to share tips and discuss your hobby at length.

MySpace.com can also be a great place for adults who are devoted to a particular community project to come together in between live meetings. This can be especially helpful when sub-committees need to collaborate on assignments before the next group meeting. With MySpace.com, there is no travel time. Everyone simply logs in at a pre-arranged time and can community freely with one another.

MySpace.com has a number of features that make it a great communication tool for all ages. Log in at the site and explore the many options. You may find that there are already several communities you would like to become a part of. .

Why Choose MySpace?

Given all of the social networks currently available, why should you specifically choose MySpace as the place to setup your profile and begin marketing? There are a number of reasons, but perhaps the best is that it is the largest network currently in existence.

MySpace boasts well over 100 million members, which is significantly larger than any of its competitors. In fact, for all demographic groups that MTV targets, MySpace has a higher rate and percentage of contact with a those same demographic groups. Additionally, direct network competitors, such as FacE-Book, have much smaller membership numbers than MySpace.

If that isn't enough, MySpace also gives you more freedom to search profiles than most of its competitors. FacE-Book, by contrast, only allows account users to search profiles of people who are in the same college or high school. This is highly restrictive if you are making some type of attempt to segment a niche.

Another benefit of using MySpace is that they have dozens of different forums and groups that are related to specific niches. This allows you to find the exact people you need to invite as friends in order to sell your given product or service.

Yet another benefit of using MySpace over other social networks is that they have superior communication mechanisms. Large-scale bulletins and individual private messages allow you to choose the right medium that you need in order to convey whatever your message or pitch happens to be for a given product or service.

Last, one of the biggest benefits of using MySpace is that they do not restrict the amount of images, information, or videos that you upload. This means you can absolutely saturate your page with all sorts of information about you or your business – and you can do so without paying significant hosting fees, which you normally would.

Who Can Use an Account with MySpace?

If you have been thinking about getting an account with MySpace.com, but are not sure if the site is right for you, here is some good news. MySpace.com is right for just about everyone. Here are a few examples of why getting an account with MySpace.com would be an asset for you.

If you are like most people, you find that you never seem to have the time to get away and see friends and family the way you would like. At times, the main obstacle is simply one of time and distance. Loved ones live far away and taking the time from work and other obligations make it difficult to visit.

Here is a classic application of MySpace.com. When you and your loved ones sign up with MySpace.com, you can begin to use the services to stay in touch, even if you just have brief pockets of free time scattered through the week. Make arrangements to get together for quick chats using MySpace. There is no travel time involved and you get to catch up on how everyone is doing in less time that it would take to coordinate telephone conversations.

For single persons, MySpace.com offers the ability to create a profile and seek out other single people who live in the same general area. This can be especially helpful if you are newly single after being in a relationship for a long period of time, or perhaps have just moved to the area. MySpace.com will allow you to get to know a few basic facts about other people and then decide if you want to meet in person at some public location. Many people have made new friends this way.

If you want to network with people who work in your profession, MySpace.com is an easy way to go about it. Whether your desire is to create a network of local range or something the covers a much larger geographical area, the application is still the same. By networking with others who understand your industry, you have the ability to share tips with one another, recommend resources, and just in general help one another deal with a challenge that is being faced in the workplace. This type of community building can do great things for your morale, as well as open up a valuable way for you to keep on top of what is happening across your industry.

These are just a few ways that people from all walks of life can benefit from having a MySpace.com account. Visit their home page today and see how easy it is to set up an account. You will be glad you did.

Making Money on MySpace – Possible?

MySpace is absolutely loaded with all sorts of mechanisms for making money – all built into the system, but not for that purpose. As a marketer, you can think of MySpace as a massive network of potential affiliates and customers, all interwoven in a somewhat disorderly way. In order to make money, you must figure out how to overcome that disorder with a clean system.

The best way in which you can do that is to begin finding ways to break MySpace users into categories. Unless your product or service appeals to a general audience, you will want to zero in on the groups you feel will be your most responsive customers.

You can do this in several different ways.

One way is to use the search and browse functions to find people who have certain interests or use certain words in their profiles. For instance, if you're looking for someone who might make a good affiliate, you may search for people who have a background in computer science or in advertising. If you already have a profile at this point, you can simply add them to your friends list. If you find any unusually good prospects, remember to record their names in some database, so you don't forget why you added them.

Another way in which you can do this is to look for people in forums and groups related to your topic. Do whatever you can to add useful information to threads; and then attempt to get as many people to join your list from those specific groups and forums.

Once you have added these new friends, you may want to contact them periodically to develop some type of personal relationship. For instance, you may want to send out bulletins that are related to your shared interest, but have nothing to do with your business.

Get them to visit your profile and to check out your business, rather than sending them bulletins that tell them to do so.

More Reasons to Get an Account with MySpace

You've probably heard some of the basic reasons to get a MySpace account. It is very true that it is a great way to easily keep in touch with distant family and friends. Also, it can really be a help for someone who is single and looking for new friends. And we hall have heard how many teens use MySpace.com for collaborating on schoolwork as well as hanging out with friends. But there is still more to MySpace.com. Here are a few more examples of how getting and account with MySpace can be helpful for you.

MySpace.com is an excellent way for faith-based organizations to interact with one another. As an example, a number of denominations today have very active peace and justice programs that run the span from the local congregation all the way through to denomination headquarters. Wouldn't it be great if there were some way that Peace and Justice coordinators could interact quickly and easily with their counterparts not only in other places around their denomination, but also with persons in other denominations who are engaged in the same type of work? MySpace.com allows people with a common goal to come together, with no regard to distance.

We've discussed on the ability of MySpace to allow families to stay in touch, even when the family members live all over the world. But did you know that MySpace.com allows you to construct a family tree? This service is great, as you can find out many interesting anecdotes about family members as you work with relatives near and far to expand the branches on the tree. For someone who is an amateur genealogist, this particular feature is very attractive.

Finding long lost acquaintances is another potential use of MySpace.com. With the network growing every day, there is the chance that you can re-connect with people you went to school with, or who grew up in the same city or neighborhood. You can catch up on how people are doing these days, see who still lives in the old neighborhood, and perhaps even renew some old relationships that you have not thought about in years.

MySpace.com has something for just about everyone. Visit their site and you will quickly see how easy it is to sign up for this free service. Then search the site; you may find several ways that you can get a lot from your membership.

Getting a Basic Account

Here's a quick overview of how to set up your basic account with MySpace.com and begin enjoying all their services.

One of the first things you need to understand about MySpace.com is that there is no charge to establish an account with them. What's more, there is not a single feature or function associated with basic MySpace.com services that is not free. At the present time, the funding for the site all comes from advertising revenues. While at some future point, there may be additional premium style services that will involve some sort of fee, there will always be plenty to choose that carries no charge.

When it comes to establishing your account, the process is similar to joining a message board. You will be asked to read the rules and regulations for the site and agree to them. From there, you will have the opportunity to establish a screen name and password that is unique to you. After you have been approved and your screen name and password is active, you can begin the process of creating your basic profile. The basic profile is already compiled as a template; you simply have to fill in the blanks.

The entire process of creating a MySpace.com account can take just a few moments. Once you have the account established and your basic profile in place, you can begin the process of using the search engines to find friends who are already signed up to MySpace.com, as well as begin to invite your friends to join and network as well.

There are a lot of things you can do with MySpace.com. Visit their home page on the Internet and read about the various applications. One of them is sure to be a good fit for you.

Creating an Attractive MySpace Profile

If you are thinking in terms of MySpace.com as being a great place to network with other business professionals and promote your business at the same time, you are right. The potential for expanding public awareness of your business through MySpace is virtually unlimited. However, if your profile is to stand out, there are a few basic ideas you need to keep in mind.

First, you want your profile to be easy to load. You know from your own web searches that nothing is quite as exasperating as researching for a vendor on the Internet, finally coming across a likely prospect, only to find yourself having to navigate through animation and other bells and whistles. For people that want to get to solid information, including contact names, emails, and phone numbers, having to wade through slow loading special effects can be such a turn off that they back up and look elsewhere.

MySpace.com does allow for both fixed backgrounds as well as animated backgrounds. If you really want to make sure the page loads quickly (and if you are targeting a residential market, where dial-up connections are still the name of the game in many parts of the country), then you will want to go with the fixed background.

Artfully created repeating backgrounds are great for many purposes, but if you want people to stop and read without visual distractions, keep it simple. The faster your page loads, the more quickly your potential customer will find out what you are all about.

Second, don't use a lot of filler in your descriptions. You want to put a lot of fact in relatively little space. This allows people to quickly see what you do and how it can be helpful to them. Because of the blog feature on MySpace.com, you can easily include links to parts of your blog to expound on various points that you highlight on your home page. Keep the verbiage snappy and to the point.

Last, make sure the arrangement of information represents a logical succession of thought.

As an example, if you are reselling teleconference services, don't begin with a laundry of list of how to make a conference call. Instead, lead off with information concerning the many ways people use conference calls. Once someone understands they need a conference call service, then you can educate them in proper conference call etiquette.

Using a MySpace profile to further your business interests is a great idea. By paying attention to a few basic concepts, you can ensure your profile is attractive, readable, and easy for your potential customer to navigate.

How to Design an Attractive Basic MySpace Profile

Once you've made the decision to create a presence on MySpace, one of the things you want to do is make sure your profile will catch the eye of people that you would be interested in getting to know. In order to do this, there are several matters you should consider.

First, there is the matter of the content of your space. MySpace.com provides you with some basic fields that you can use to share information about yourself and the reasons why you have the MySpace presence.

Before you dump just any old bit of information into these fields, consider carefully what image you want to project. In many ways, what you say about yourself and your interests on your MySpace profile is no different from what you would share on a job resume or some other public document. Make sure the text is informative and at the same time makes the reader want to know more about your or your subject matter.

Next, there is the matter of visual images to help enhance the look of your profile. When you select photos to upload to your profile, do so with an eye toward presenting the public persona that you want to portray.

As an example, if you are a single person who wants to meet other singles in your area, it is probably not the smartest move to upload a bunch of pictures of you with love interests from years past. Instead, focus on using recent pictures of yourself that show you at your best. If you look great in business attire, then have one shot that shows you dressed up.

Perhaps you like to play tennis or bowl; include a shot of yourself having a good time engaged in your favorite sport.

Remember! That the photos should show you as you are today and honestly portray part of your life.

Color schemes are important as well. You may want to include some sort of cartoons or sketches as part of the images you upload. That is great, as long as the images tell something about you and your outlook on life. Make sure the look of your pages is pleasing to the eye, not jarring or hard to read because of the template choices. You want people to find your page and settle down to read your profile, not take one look and head for the next site on the search engine.

MySpace.com offers a number of tools to help people with their profiles. Check out the tutorials they have on the site, and you are sure to find some great ideas that will work for you.

Jazzing up your MySpace Family Profile

If you have established a MySpace.com profile as a way of sharing with the world about your spouse and children, there are several ways that you can ensure your profile is one that catches the eye. Here are a few tips to help make your family MySpace profile very inviting and attractive.

First of all, make sure that you include recent photos of all family members. There is nothing wrong with having baby pictures or a shot or two from your wedding. But the profile should focus on your family as it is today. Let the world know how each of you look currently and be sure to use as many shots of different family members engaged in some sort of activity as possible, whether it is washing the dishes or tossing around a football in the back yard.

Second, if there is no one in your household that is an HTML guru, do not despair. There are quite a few things you can do to mix and match elements that are already provided by MySpace.com. Play around with the different elements until you come up with a look that pleases you and your family.

If you do not see any of the basic templates that work for you, then do a quick Internet search. A number of folks who are very savvy with HTML and writing code have developed some templates that will work just fine with MySpace. They usually have these available at no charge, and provide user-friendly instructions on how to apply them to your MySpace profile.

Setting up an attractive profile on MySpace.com is easy. The nice thing is that updating the profile from time to time is also a simple task. If you need assistance in setting up your profile, MySpace.com provides several excellent resources on the site.

Whether you are completely baffled by anything technical, or if you are right at home with laying out web pages, you will be able to come up with a look that will be pleasing to the eye.

Creating an Attractive MySpace Profile for your Hobby

Most of us have a hobby or an interest that we would like to share with the rest of the world.

One of the great things about MySpace.com is that you can do this very thing without having to pay anything for the online space to share your enthusiasm. If you have thought of creating a MySpace profile that is dedicated to an interest or hobby of yours, here are a few tips to help you create a profile that will be sure to catch the attention of visitors and members alike.

Many people have to see something that catches their attention in the first few seconds they look at a site. In order to not only attract attention but hold that attention, it is imperative that you maintain the attention with some factual information that lets the visitor understand that you know what you are talking about. Pick your words for the home page very carefully, and you will be sure to make a positive first impression.

Next, be sparing in your use of videos and other types of clips. Yes, they can be eye catchers. They also can greatly increase the amount of time it takes for your site to load. For people who see this as a waste of time, they will most likely not be back to your page again. You may want to include a single video that you change out on some sort of recurring basis, just to keep the feature fresh. But don't overload the site with too much information.

Music bites is something else that can be overdone. A little background music is great and usually will not slow things down, even for a visitor that is accessing your MyPage profile via a 56K modem. But try not to use anything so complicated that it will bog down the loading, or lead to frequent buffering.

Background color of your pages is another important aspect. You may enjoy vibrant bright colors, but keep in mind that some color combinations that work great in some situations are not right for others. The same is true for your pages. Use colors that enhance the look of the text or the images you have loaded on the pages, rather than obscure or draw attention away from them. The result will be a page that is easy to enjoy and will most likely be visited again.

Creating an attractive MySpace profile for a hobby is pretty easy to do. For help designing your profile, consult the tutorials available on the MySpace site.

Creating an Attractive Matchmaker Profile on MySpace

As any single person knows, there is always someone in our social circle that will not rest until they find us the perfect mate. With the advent of the Internet, there are more ways to search for and match up people than ever before. Now your well-intentioned friend can set up a MySpace profile and start bring people together. Here are a few ways to make sure the profile works.

One of the first things to be made clear is what the profile is all about. Make sure that any visitor knows that this is a place for people to be matched up with potential love interests, and whom it is that will be doing the matchmaking.

Some basic information about the matchmaker should be presented, so that any visitors can be assured that a real human being is behind this endeavor, not some faceless conglomerate that will attempt to sell something later on in the process.

Part of the way the profile will convey the impression that the space is set aside for matchmaking will be the color of the pages themselves. We all know there are certain color combinations that are associated with matters of the heart.

In like manner, there are specific images in most societies that immediately bring to mind romance. Make sure that you utilize these images in creating the background and color schemes for your pages. This will reinforce the idea of what is going on here.

One thing that needs to be kept in mind is that under no circumstances should you reveal more information about an individual than he or she is willing to reveal on the Internet. If you intend to post photos of anyone, a good place to start would be to post a photo that the individual already has on the Internet.

Remember! That matchmaking involves the personal introduction of one person to another. So make sure there is the ability for you to act as the medium for the original contact. After that, you can let the two individuals decide for themselves whether to stay in contact, and how much information to reveal.

Don't clutter the pages of your profile with too much information. Keep the look clean and crisp. If the page appears to be disjointed and unorganized, chances are people will give your profile one look and then move on. You can always revise the content from time to time, if necessary. But remember that sometimes less is more.

Matchmaking is a time-honored practice, and one that you can perform with great gusto via your MySpace profile. Just keep a few simple ideas in mind and you will sure to be a hit.

Using Adder Robots

When making money on MySpace, you may want to consider employing an adder robot to aid in the building of your friends list. Currently, there are several different software programs available on the market that will do this to varying degrees.

So what is an adder robot? Quite simply, it is a software program that allows you to set certain parameters that relate to MySpace and adding friends. The “bot” will then spider its way through MySpace, adding friends until it has reached the quota you set for it.

There are a number of important things you should take into consideration, however. The first is that MySpace has changed the number of friend invitations it allows per day.

If you pass this limit, they will more than likely flag your account for a potential banning. To stay safe, you will probably want to invite less than 100 per day, even though the generally-accepted cut off value is much higher than that (300).

The other important thing you will want to take into consideration is the quality of the friends the adder bot is adding to your list. If they fall into the right demographic group, they may be entirely worthless prospects.

In fact, they may be more inclined to report you for commercial activity than they would be to buy a product or check out a site.

Last, you will want to consider the features each individual adder robot offers users. Some adder robots are inexpensive and simply add friends to your list.

Other robots include more extensive features, as auto private message-sending features. This would allow you to contact each prospect in a more personal manner, but without sending out individual private messages.

Currently, a number of adder robots allow buyers to use a trial version for 30-45 days before they purchase it. I personally suggest testing out Badder Adder, which you can find at the following URL: http://www.badderadder.com. See if you're satisfied with the quality of the program before you buy it.

Expanding to Networks Other than MySpace

By now, you are aware that MySpace is the largest of all networks; however, that does not mean that you should rely entirely on MySpace for all social network-related marketing campaigns. In fact, expanding to other social networks can have a significantly positive effect on your business.

One of the reasons why this works so well is that you can use simple replication to decrease the amount of time you spend working on each profile. For instance, if you create a profile on MySpace, you have to take the time to come up with descriptions, pictures, videos, and boilerplate private messages and bulletins. If you spread to 2-3 additional networks, you have all of this material pre-made for your new profiles. The only thing you need then is to build friends lists, which you can actually automate on many of these social networks.

One thing you will want to look for specifically when considering other networks are “niche networks,” which are networks designed for specific groups of people. Golf Spinner, for instance, is a community of all people who are interested in golf. It allows people to communicate as they would in MySpace, but it has other features, such as mechanism for setting up golf outings or comparing results with certain equipment.

These new social networks exist for a number of other niches, too. Aviation, football, and writing are just a few examples of some of the types of niche social networks that have already been created. More than likely, if there is not a niche network for what you are selling, there will be soon.

So don't rely entirely on MySpace for building social networks. Look specifically for other niche networks, as well as other large networks, such as Friendster and FacE-Book. All of these social networks can provide some benefit to your business; and since you can simply replicate when you did on MySpace and automate the friends list creation process, setting up these additional profiles wont be time-consuming.

MySpace Resources and Tools

There are a number of resources you will want to check out when selling on MySpace. I personally suggest at least checking out the following resources to determine whether or not they can help you close sales:

1.    Badder Adder – http://www.badderadder.com.

This is a must-have if you plan to create a large friends list on MySpace. Not only will it automatically add 300+ friends to your list each day, but it will also search for people using parameters and will perform other functions, such as sending out bulletins or private messages on a schedule.

Another major benefit of this piece of software is that it is programmed to avoid adding the same friend twice if they decline. This will decrease your chances of getting flagged.

2.    MySpace Layouts – http://www.MySpacelayouts.us/.

There are dozens of these different sites available. You will want to use them to find layouts, graphics, and videos to put up on your MySpace if you decide to use a personal profile, rather than a business profile. This will actually give you more credibility; however, it is advisable to keep your profile low-key.

3.    Friend Messenger – http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Business/Misc__Applications/Friend_Messenger.html.

This tool will help you to contact all of your friends “individually” by simply filling out a boiler place personal message, setting parameters, and then sending out private messages to all of them. The entire process is automated.

4.    CamTix – http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Multimedia_and_Graphics/Video_and_Animation_Tools/Camtix_Web_Video_Publisher.html.

This tool allows you to convert all videos into a format that you can put on your MySpace profile. This is especially important if you have a flash movie created for your specific product or service.

5.    Image Compressor – http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Multimedia_and_Graphics/Graphics_Palette_and_Compression_Tools/Image_Compressor_5.html.

This tool will help you to compress all of your images before you put them on your MySpace profile, so they do not slow down the load time for your page.

All five of these tools will make marketing on MySpace considerably easier by providing you with one-click short cuts. In addition to these, you can find more open source solutions at places like http://www.sourceforge.com.

Benefits of Making Money on MySpace

There are a number of important benefits to making money on MySpace. The most important is that the market is extremely easy to tap. All you have to do to find prospects is to begin searching for people who have interests related to your given product or service. You can then add these people to your friends list.

This is a significant advantage over other methods of finding prospects, as it allows you to do so completely free of charge. Furthermore, MySpace has built-in mechanisms that help you to contact these prospects and to warm them up for selling.

One of these mechanisms is a “bulletin.” A bulletin is a message that you send out to all of the friends on your friends list at the same exact time. Regardless of whether you have 10 friends or 40,000 a bulletin will reach them all in a matter of minutes. Next time they open up their profiles, they will all have that bulletin you sent.

How can you use this in your favor? You can send out a bulletin about something related to your business; and then use that to lure them into reading your MySpace.

For instance, you could stage a giveaway event – and then mention that in your bulletin. This will be especially effective if your friends list is composed of people who you selected based on their interests.

You can also send out private messages to individual users. This is a good method to use in conjunction with a database. If you are taking the time to invite people individually, also take the time to add them to a database, along with some notes about them. If you think they might want something particularly, you could always send them a private message to let them know you are a seller. You can then offer them a discount if they are interested.

There are a number of different benefits of using MySpace to make money. I have listed only a few of the things above.

Risks of Making Money on MySpace

MySpace is an excellent tool to use for selling virtually anything on the Internet; however, it is important to take into consideration that certain uses of it could put your business in jeopardy. For this reason, you should exercise caution when creating and using a MySpace account.

The biggest risk of using MySpace to make money is basing your entire business model on a MySpace profile. This is a big risk because MySpace technically owns your profile and can do with it what they wish. If you send out bulletins to your friends and one of them takes issue, your account could be flagged and banned. This means that all of your source of new customers would grind to a halt in an instant.

Another significant risk of using MySpace to make money is that MySpace's terms of service are somewhat unclear about business use; however, the generally accepted understanding of the ToS is that you cannot use MySpace for most commercial uses, including sending out bulletins that include links or putting up links on your profile. Additionally, business profiles are almost certainly not included as a valid use of MySpace.

Additionally, in different sections of the ToS, there is some indication that MySpace reserves the right to sue anyone for commercial use of bulletins.

If, for instance, you send out a bulletin to 40,000 friends, they could fine you a certain amount for each of those individual friends. In most cases, this isn't something that happens, but it is a possibility if you abuse MySpace for commercial purposes.

Another risk of making money with MySpace is that many segments of MySpace users simply do not convert well. They are teenagers, who do not buy things with credit cards online. If you spend all of your time building up a MySpace account to promote your business, you may end up wasting a considerable amount of time and energy, but without many rewards to show for it.

For all of these reasons, you will want to be cautious about the way in which you use MySpace and the amount of effort you put into it.

What to Sell on MySpace

If you already have a product or service that you want to sell, this is not a question for you. You will probably setup a website, create a profile, add friends, and then use that profile to direct friends to your website, where they can purchase your product or service.

If you have no product or service ready, that is an entirely different story. If this is the case, I suggest selling private label electronic products in specific niches. For instance, you could purchase a bunch of private label content E-Books about do-it-yourself home repairs and then you could target that specific crowd with your products.

I personally suggest that you begin by looking for a target niche on MySpace. For instance, determine whether or not there are a significant amount of people who are interested in carpentry or soccer. Then determine whether or not there are places where they usually congregate to discuss these topics. If this is the case, then you have a market at your fingertips.

Once you have your market determined, then begin looking for private label products, including software, E-Books, and reports. Begin compiling a stock of these materials and then figure out how you will sell them to your customers. For instance, do you want to create a membership site? Or would you rather sell each component by itself?

The last step is to find some way in which you can market these products to your target audience. For instance, should you simply mention to your friends that you are having a sale at your site – and give some sort of a discount to everyone on your list? This is definitely one option.

Another option is to specifically find people who might be interested over forums and groups and send them private messages with the information. Ideally, however, you will want to restrict all marketing efforts to your friends list, as your chances of being flagged will be much smaller.

Selling Advertising On Your Account

When most people talk about making money on MySpace, they're usually either talking about striking it rich by getting noticed by someone in a position of power; or they're talking about selling some product or service and reaching a massive audience. Interestingly enough, there's an entirely different way to use MySpace to make money.

Rather than trying to sell your own product, you can simply concentrate on creating profiles and stocking them with friends who fall into a particular demographic. Perhaps you have decided to seek out all people who are interested in aviation or in bowling. Create a specific profile for that demographic and then seek out everyone who is interested in that activity.

Once you have done this, your next step will be to find advertisers who you can match up to your specific niche profiles. For instance, if you have created a niche profile for outdoor sports, you can then look for companies who sell mountain bikes or tents or campers. You can then contact them to let them know the amount of “warm prospects” you have access to, as well as some rate for advertising to them.

One place you can do this is http://www.sitepoint.com; however, the advertisers you find may not be well matched to your specific niche. If your audience is “general,” this may not matter to you or the advertiser.

To make this even more effective, you will want to consider finding advertisers who are willing to create a contest. This will allow you to blatantly advertise for the company, but without giving overt overtones about your intent. In fact, you may even want to create one large, general MySpace account for announcing contests.

Regardless of the way in which you decide to do this, you will want to remember to segment your prospects into different groups according to profiles. You will also want to make sure that you are able to find warm prospects for a given topic. Last, you will want to make sure you match up the right advertisers to those lists.

Tricks for Making Money on MySpace

There are a several important tricks to making money on MySpace. In this section, I will go over some of these tricks – and how you can best use them to your advantage.

The first trick to making money on MySpace involves leveraging all power available to grow your friends list by adding “interested prospects” (friends). You can do this by contacting people who have massive friends lists and offering to pay them to send out a bulletin. You should do this in conjunction with some contest you are having on either your MySpace profile or on your website.

Simply have the account owner announce that you have started a contest – and that all people who fit a certain profile (i.e. swimmers, football fans, etc.) should enter. This will allow you to build a list of prospects, rather than people who simply join your friends list unwittingly or because you have invited them.

Now that you have this list of prospects, you will want to begin making your pitch to them by baiting them with contests and money – and then slowly revealing your product or service to them in an attempt to gain long term customers.

Now, another trick you can use for making money on MySpace involves creating some contest around adding friends to your profile. For instance, you could offer to do something interesting and videotape it if you get a certain amount of friends (100,000, for instance) or you could offer to give away $500 to the person who gets the most friends to join your MySpace.

Regardless of what you do, it is important to find ways in which you can leverage any power that you do have to get people to join your friends list at an increasingly faster rate. Additionally, if you are able to find warm prospects, rather than random people, that as an additional bonus.

Making Money on MySpace without Creating an Account

Making money on MySpace without an account is perhaps the best way in which you can make money through MySpace. Not only does it remove the risk that other methods require (i.e. putting your account at risk, risking a lawsuit, etc.), but it also requires a considerably smaller amount of work.

In order to make money on MySpace without an account, all you have to do is find people on MySpace who can make money for you. This is especially inexpensive if these people do not know that making money with their accounts is a possibility; however, on the other hand, it will be a lot easier to find the right people and convince them to do this if they already do it on a regular basis.

So how do you go about doing this – making the connections and then setting up the ads?

You can start by finding people who are outright selling MySpace bulletins or private messages. Before you ask them to send out a bulletin for you, you will want to join their list as a friend and monitor them for a minimum of a week. See whether or not they send out bulletins every day. If they do, chances are that few people are reading them.

Once you have tested the person selling bulletins, you will then want to check out their offer and compare it with others. How many friends do they have and how much are they charging? Is their list composed of any specific segment of the population? Are they sending out bulletins or private messages? These are all important things to keep in mind when considering price.

You will then want to test out various bulletin sellers with various friends list sizes. Determine which one has the best response; and then stick with that one as much as possible.

Additionally, remember that you are attempting to sell to the same crowd, so you will want to take a different approach each time. Use contests, giveaways, and events that attract customers for purposes other than buying. This will ultimately yield more sales.

Advertising on MySpace

In addition to setting up a MySpace profile and advertising your business through a network of friends, you may also want to consider advertising directly through MySpace. MySpace allows you to do this in a number of different ways.

One way in which you can advertise on MySpace is through “video ads.” These flash videos are placed in various spots throughout MySpace. These can either be in the form of a video screen or a banner, which pops out into a movie with a viewer hovers his or her mouse over the banner.

These are the most expensive of all forms of advertising MySpace sells; however, they are also reputed to have the highest click through rates, too. Depending on the price you want to pay, you can select the places in which these videos play and the amount of views you receive.

If you're looking to pay less for advertising, you may want to purchase something cheaper, such as a regular banner ad, a text ad, or an image ad. All of these are relatively inexpensive; however, MySpace may require you to purchase a high volume of impressions, as most of their advertisers have budgets well in excess of $5,000.

This advertising certainly isn't free, but it may be more effective in the short run, as it will allow you to immediately drive visitors to your profile or to your website without spending the time to build up a massive friends list, to join groups and forums, and to post semi-regular bulletins, reminding people to check out your profile.

Another major advantage to advertising directly through MySpace is that they will segment the demographics for you. For instance, if you just want to advertise to people who are in bands, they will set your ads up in the optimal place to reach that demographic.

With that being said, if you are serious about advertising on MySpace, you may want to send them an email to inquire about their rates and positioning. They will send you a media kit to help you determine what is best for your business.

Summary of Techniques

At this point, it is a good idea to look back on what we've talked about so far and reiterate the different techniques and steps needed in order to make money on MySpace. Let's start with the basics:

Create a profile on MySpace.

Before you do anything else on MySpace, you will have to create a viable profile that will actually convince buyers one of two things: 1) you are another human being; or 2) that you are a serious, professional business. Either option is fine; however, you must clearly demonstrate either in your profile.

Advertise on MySpace.

This requires some start-up cash, but if you have it, it may be one of the wisest moves you make. This is especially potent if you already have a profile setup on MySpace. You can simply advertise, drive traffic to that page, add friends to your list, and then send them periodic bulletins, as if you were sending out mailings to a list.

Purchasing bulletins on MySpace.

This is another effective technique for marketing on MySpace. Rather than going directly through MySpace, you can find people who have large friends lists and ask them if they are interested in “selling” a bulletin to you. You can either write this bulletin as you would a solo ad; or you can use it to announce some contest, which is probably a better option.

Use private messages to make sales to individuals.

Private messages keep the tone somewhat more personal than a bulletin would. Additionally, you will want to use first names when communicating through messages.

Don't ever spam your friends lists.

Remember that commercial uses of MySpace are not exactly encouraged; however, they may be tolerated, provided that your efforts are not overt and disruptive. For this reason, you will want to remain low-key. Avoid getting flagged or reported.

Follow all five steps and techniques I've outlined above and you'll have a good chance of making money on MySpace. All you have to do is find the right market and then figure out how to segment them from the rest of the crowd.

Avoiding MySpace ToS Violations

One important consideration to make when using MySpace to make money is whether or not you are technically violating their terms of service with your specific use. In the case of most sellers on MySpace, they are actually violating the ToS; however, it seems as if MySpace does not have a particularly big problem with their doing so.

If you plan to sell a product or service through bulletins, you are technically violating the MySpace ToS and can be fined for each individual message you send out. Additionally, if you attempt to sell anything as an affiliate on your actual MySpace profile, you are technically violating the MySpace ToS (although you more than likely will not be called on it).

So what are some forms of activity that do not technically violate the ToS? It's unclear, but there are a few that are debateable.

One such use is selling ads through an account with a lot of friends, provided that each ad is for a contest. If you do this, you are simply announcing contests are not necessarily in conflict with the ToS; however, it may be arguable that you still are.

Another debateable use of MySpace for commercial purposes involves creating a profile, inviting friends, and then simply advertising your business as your hobby. You could, for instance, put something up about your business in your interests area. You could then direct people to your profile by posting bulletins frequently that are somewhat related to your business.

Another arguably fair use of MySpace involves using it to drive traffic to non-monetized sites. If this site isn't currently monetized, there isn't necessarily a problem with directing traffic to it. For instance, if you created a forum and wanted to drive traffic to it, you could technically do it with MySpace, provided it wasn't a commercial forum. You could then later monetize the forum once you stopped driving traffic to it.

These are all examples of how you can potentially use MySpace to make money without violating their terms of service. Please note that all cases are arguable – and will not guarantee that you do not get banned or fined.

MySpace is a powerful new marketing tool that literally thousands of business owners have begun to exploit. MySpace can be an effective tool for you, too; however, there are some important things you should keep in mind.

The first thing to keep in mind is that creating a friends list purely with non-targeted members will yield conversion rates akin to what you might see with “guaranteed traffic” programs. People will view the bulletins you send out; they just wont actually buy anything. For this reason, you will want to carefully target friends when you create a list.

The next thing you will want to keep in mind when creating a friends list is that commercial activity is discouraged by MySpace. In fact, some forms of commercial activity can potentially get you banned or fined. While this is not what usually happens, it is a good idea to consider what is allowable and what is plainly unethical and against the the MySpace terms of service. You may want to consider contacting a representative for advice first.

Once you figure out how to overcome these two problems, you will want to begin formulating a strategy to make money on MySpace. You will want to figure out how to find friends, what type of profile to create, and how to sell your product, as well as what your product or service will be if you do not have one yet.

You will then want to determine if there are any tools you can use to make the entire process easier. For instance, can you automate messaging? Can you automate the friend-adding process? If so, try to find a piece of software that will do that, rather than adding all of the friends yourself. That will save a tremendous amount of time.

Last, you will actually want to execute your plan and follow through. Once you have had success, take what you have learned and apply it other social networks by simply applying the same profile, approach, and messaging techniques.

Continue To Chapter 6, Blogging...

HomeBusinessMarketers