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Too many sites choose profiles that are busy and difficult to read or navigate. You want your profile to be clean, easy to load, easy to read, and easy to negotiate. If not, people will click off your profile quickly.
Let’s revisit the dating page I set up on MySpace…
Next, you want to write some copy about who you are and what you do. This is your chance to introduce yourself and tell people about your benefits and company. Avoid sounding like a sales letter, subtlety is the name of the game. MySpace has it’s own search engine, so take the time to add lots of text and keywords relevant to your product or service. With the basic layout of your page setup, let’s add some toys!
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| Hot Tip: Purchase a Friend-Bot to get Friends added quickly and build targeted lists of prospects. |
These programs do all the work for you. What is important to know, however, is that MySpace is aware of these programs and not particularly fond of them. You will need to limit the number of friends you add per day. Currently, you want to request no more than 250 friends per day. Just set the Friend-bot to stay within those minimums.
Of all the “Friend-bots” on the market, we personally recommend FriendTools. It was the easiest and most cost effective of all the friend-bots we tried, and using it did not get my profile flagged, which I cannot say for some of the other friend-bots I tried.
Just set the FriendTools to the keywords and activities want, press start, and go to bed. You will be generating friends, posting comments, sending emails, automatically while you sleep!
In just a matter of weeks, with the help of FriendTools, I was able to add hundreds of other users to my friends list who were all members of romance and dating groups. With thousands of groups on MySpace, you can find users who would be interested in your product or service. Once you add friends to your profile, you can begin to market yourself.
2. Using Groups To Network And Attract
Highly Targeted Traffic and Buyers!
With all of MySpace's groups, forums, and other community-building tools, it is simple to target and reach niche users. For example, say your company makes a unique motorcycle part.
A search for "motorcycles" in MySpace's groups results with 78 pages of groups with some interest in bikes, with names such as "Motorcycle Savvy and “All Motorcycles" to name a few.
Most of these groups have hundreds of members apiece who participate in the group forums and bulletins - if you manage to hit some of these forums with a subtle plug for your product, you will be appealing to highly-specific, highly-targeted traffic that is more likely to buy your motorcycle parts.
You can also search for your targeted demographic in MySpace groups, be they teens, males, females, sports enthusiasts, etc...
You are used to paying more for targeted traffic and the reasons are obvious: people interested in your benefits are more likely to buy your product.
MySpace offers you a chance to reach potential customers who have conveniently segregated themselves into interest groups, giving you the opportunity to market yourself to people who are specifically interested in what you are selling.
“But I don’t see a group that is relevant to what I am offering.”
With the diversity of MySpace, there is almost always a group out there that has revevant members. However, the beauty of MySpace is that this is a community, and it is run by the community, which is you!
If you don’t see a group, start a group! This gives you one more opportunity to get out and spread the word! Aren’t we always looking for reasons to ask people to view our website?
Inviting random users to check out your new group guarantees that a large number of users will view your profile to check out your group. This is just one more way to attract attention to yourself in an acceptable way.
3. Utilize The Benefits Of Blogging In The MySpace Community!
There is enough written about blogging to fill, well, a blog! Blogging is all the rage and I don’t think I could teach you anything new about the how to blog and why you should blog.
However, don’t discount the power of blogging on MySpace! More content on your page of course will increase your profile searchability on Google and on MySpace, and more importantly, you can rant and rave about your product and how great it is all you want!
Remember, this is a social site, and people like to read about their “friends” opinions. Write interesting things. Post articles you find on the net that are pertinent. Post customer testimonials. Post advertising videos.
Your blog has it’s own separate unique URL that can be found on the front page of your profile. I use this address to post bulletins to my friends, inviting them to click the link and read my latest blog. You will find if your blog is interesting, friends will subscribe to it, giving you a captive audience.
Unlike services like Xanga and Blogger that let you monetize your blog with services like Google’s AdSense, MySpace does not allow JavaScript, so you cannot place Google ads on your MySpace blog.
You can however add links and invite readers to check out your website or visit another monetized blog. Click back over to the MySpace Date Doctor and notice that I added a button to my Blogger page and invite people to check it out.
| Hot Tip: Posting blogs is another excuse to send mail to your friends and group members inviting them to check out your product. |
Unlike spam, inviting other users to check out your blog, your band, or your group, is not construed spam. I encourage you to find something to write about at least weekly and take advantage of the opportunity to attract attention from the MySpace Community!
4. Attract Traffic By Participating In Forums!
Before MySpace, there was the chat room. Click on the Forum button on the header and you will find tens of thousands of conversations about everything under the sun.
Like groups, you’ll want to find threads of conversations and topics of relevance and put in your two cents. Here is another chance to find pools of users interested in what you have to sell. And then use your Friend-Bot to add their friends too.
When you post in forums, it places your comments for all to see, along with your picture and link to your profile! Yet another chance to market yourself.
| Hot Tip: Start your own threads of relevance to your target market! |
Start your own conversation threads. Try to avoid trite and obvious ploys to get page views with questions such as “Please visit my page and tell me what you think?” You will get a thousand negative notes.
Instead, be creative. To attract attention to the dating site, I posted a conversation thread, asking people to tell me their worst dating experience. I use the responses in my blog and am saving them to make an e-book later, which I will give away on my blog, which I will promote to all my MySpace friends.
Monetize everything!!!!
5. Want To Send As Much Acceptable Advertising
As You Can? Use The Bulletin!
Once you have established an extensive friends list, you have effectively compiled a double opt-in mailing list, as these people have agreed to include you in their network, and they will accept communication from you.
One very effective way to capitalize on this relationship and promote your product is through the use of bulletin posts. Bulletin posts are messages/advertisements that are sent out to everyone on your friends list.
They are not considered spam because these people have agreed to be your friend and bulletin posts and comments go along with being a "friend." You'll need to think of a catchy title for your bulletin post in order to increase the likelihood of it actually being read. It's a good idea to view other people's postings to get an idea of what kinds of things get your attention.
Though you can post any bulletin you like, remember to always err on the side of subtlety. Bulletins are one of the places you can lose friends by posting too frequently and/or posting junk.
Your friends can always “opt out” by deleting you if you are “spamming” in any form. It is generally acceptable to post once or twice a day though, as long as you are posting different bulletins.
| Hot tip: A good rule of thumb is that when posting, be sure to write a bulletin that if you clicked on it, you would find helpful. No one likes to open a bulletin and find junk. |
You can put anything you want in bulletins; videos, music, links, blog address, announcements, invitations, etc. It is essentially an email to your friends with the option on their end to read it or not.
Personally, I find the most effective use of bulletins to be invitations and announcements. Using the bulletins to invite your friends to read your latest blog entry or announce a special event or new link or product is generally acceptable.
An invitation to sign up for free to receive your newsletter or visit your webpage to view your new specials would also be generally accepted. Avoid using deception in your subject line as this would not go over well. Here is a good example of an acceptable posting…
6. Free Classified Advertising On One Of The
Most Trafficked Websites In The World!
As of this writing, MySpace is in the top ten most trafficked websites online. MySpace affords you not only the opportunity to reach friends for free, but post classified ads for free as well.
Located at the top of the toolbar, classified advertising on MySpace is a simple, geo-targeted option for reaching the MySpace community.
Because of all the other communication options on MySpace, classifieds seem to be under-utilized. This makes classifieds a great place to get the word out about your products, advertise you website and invite people to add you as a friend.
| Hot tip: Use MySpace Classifieds as a way to send traffic to your profile. |
Find the listings that are relevant to your product or service and post away! Remember though, classifieds on MySpace use a user-directed flagging/spamming system so others can report inappropriate activities. Use classifieds wisely by only posting relevant ads in the appropriate categories.
7. Use Your MySpace Profile As A Link To
Your Product Or Website!
Your MySpace profile is an amazing opportunity to drive traffic to your commercial webpage. In fact, you may find that you get more free traffic at your MySpace profile than from other sources.
| Hot Tip: Submit your MySpace URL to search engines just like you would your commercial website! |
Now that we have all this wonderful targeted traffic visiting your MySpace profile, making the most of every visitor is important.
Adding links to your page is a great and accepted way to direct your visitors to another page, such as a commercial blog, website, etc.
In this example, I have provided links to my Blogger site, which is monetized with AdSense. I copied the Blogger logo, hosted it on ImageShack, then turned it into a link on my profile.
I also added the logo to my commercial site, MeetQualitySingles.com, and linked that to my site as well. Since this is a fairly new profile, I chose to make it a subtle reference. After I have established myself in the community, I will then make it a more prominent part of my page.
Besides using images to add links to your commercial site, I would also suggest adding links to words in your MySpace blog, encouraging your readers to learn more about the subject you are writing on.
Links are a very subtle but very effective way to monetize your site and your content.
8. Post Your Free Billboard Online With Ads In Your Pictures!
A picture is worth a thousand words, and MySpace gives you the opportunity to post as many pictures as you want, giving you a chance to show the world what you have to offer!
The MySpace community LOVES photos, so the more you post, the better. There are several places and ways to display photos on your page. As discussed earlier, the first photo that the community sees is your profile picture.
This is the most important photo you post, as it is what accompanies every communication you create on MySpace. When someone clicks on your photos link, it takes them to your photo album.
| Hot Tip: Load up your album with photos that are diverse and fun, but pepper in photos of your product! |
Once you have posted photos in your album, the next place to post photos of your product is on your front page.
You can post static photos, but I suggest using a scrolling photo bar, which creates more motion on your page, draws attention to your ads and gives you a chance to have more photos seen by your visitors who never get past your profile page. The scrolling photos are a simple widget you can get at freeweblayouts.net.
Take a picture of yourself or a friend wearing a t-shirt with your web address on it. Photos of your truck with your signage. Just about anything that ties into your product. Be creative! That is what the masses want! You can even put your message on your dog!
9. Videos Are All The Rage On MySpace! Create
Content And Tell The World About Your Product
With Your Own Infomercials!
One of the most popular television shows of recent memory is America’s Funniest Home Videos. It was also the one of the least expensive to produce. When I was a kid, it was Candid Camera. The allure of these shows is simple: people are voyeuristic by nature and video allows your visitors to see into your life or escape their own.
MySpace has always been a place for people to share their favorite videos, and recently added an option for you to display multiple videos, much like the photo album.
| Hot Tip: It’s time to get into the movie business! Set up your camera and make your own informational video to display on your MySpace page! |
The same criteria we talked about displaying photos apply to videos. You can post them on your profile page, in bulletins, in blogs and in the video section.
You can use videos of seminars you have recorded, use professional commercials you have produced or have video professionally produced for you.
Just think if you went to your local cable provider and told them you wanted to run a commercial to be viewed by a potential audience of 60 million. How much do you think that would cost you? Here is your chance to get viewed by millions for free!
| Hot Tip: Create a funny or interesting video, then just add an opening and closing credit sponsored by your product. MySpace users LOVE funny or interesting videos and will pass them around to their friends, creating a viral marketing campaign! |
10. Utilize Audio To Welcome Visitors To Your Page
And Personally Tell Them About Your Product!
If you don’t choose to use video on your MySpace page, then I would suggest utilizing the MySpace music players that are available. You can visit www.mygen.co.uk/ again or many other sites on the net that advertise free MySpace music players.
Getting a music player for your site is as simple as copying the code and pasting it in your profile.
| Hot Tip: Utilize the music players available to record a message, thanking people for visiting your site and invite them to check out your profile, highlighting your company or product. |
As earlier stated, it is my suggestion that you do not put music on your page, as you could easily turn people off.
In order to record your message and access it with your player, you will first have to record your message. Take the time to write down a quick script so you stay on subject and read your message smoothly.
Once you record your audio track, you will need to host it online. I would suggest MediaMax as you can host your audio files for free. When you host your file, it will generate a URL, which you will paste into your music player generator. Once you have all your audio files entered, generate your player.
When you are generating the code for the player, it will give you the option of setting the player to start when your page is opened or manually. I would suggest having it play automatically upon the visitor arriving at your page.
If you are utilizing video and audio, it is important to remember not to have both playing at the same time! I suggest having the audio play automatically, but letting the users start the video on their own.
You can add anything you like to your audio files, such as a cute kid’s voice announcing your product or a professional radio advertisement. Like all the other marketing tools, have fun with it!
Now You Are A MySpace Marketing Genius!
This isn’t your kid’s Internet anymore! Millions are being made daily on the MySpace and other social networking sites. MySpace is an amazing tool that gives you 10 ways to reach their users millions for free!
1. Friends. Utilize the power of targeted users in Groups to zero in on users who are interested in your products and services, then use the FriendTools friend-bot to add those users to your network.
2. Groups. Users are grouped together, making it easy for you to find potential customers. Join several that are pertinent to your products and try starting your own as well.
3. Blogs. A popular feature of MySpace, don’t neglect this powerful tool in building loyal followers to your profile and letting the world know in detail what you do and the products you offer.
4. Forums. What a great way to start conversations with potential customers! There are tons of forums, find the one that is relevant to your product, or start your own!
5. Bulletins. This is one of the most powerful of all the MySpace advertising tools! Use bulletins frequently to invite page views, announce new products or blog entries. This is the billboard on the MySpace Super Highway!
6. Classifieds. Another place to post for free to access millions of geo-targeted potential customers.
7. Links in your profile. Once you get traffic, drive it into the your commercial website!
8. Ads in your pictures. Use the power of pictures to tell the world about your product!
9. Ads in your videos. Produce your own commercials or direct some funny content as a way to reach millions.
10. Audio files on your page. Use the power of voice to interrupt the user experience and introduce your product or service!
Have fun!
Respectfully Submitted,
Joe Alexander
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