There are many social networking sites, and more to come, for sure, as it's such a good idea. How much nicer is it to make your business contacts in a friendly atmosphere, with an online chat, or exchange of views, rather than just hit them with splash pages, and emails, promoting your business? Far better to build a relationship, and learn to trust each other over some time.



Social networking sites are excellent ways to advertise your business, or your website. The easiest way is to have your URLs in your signature, then every time you post in a group or a blog, your business or website will be getting some promotion.

Another way to utilise social networking sites is to start your own group or blog, and write about your online business opportunity.

A couple of my favourite sites are Apsense, and Squidoo. There are many others, but I haven't much knowledge of them yet. A search of Google will probably give you plenty of sites. Just try entering "Social Networking sites"

Apsense has a section purely for promoting your online business, called the "Apsense Business Center", or ABC. It is very easy to use, as there is a variety of templates available, and help is also easy to get, either in the FAQ, or by asking in a group, or emailing Admin.

Squidoo is slightly more comples, but is very good. You can write about just about any topic you like, add photos, links, and RSS. You can list your favourite Lenses (What Squidoo calls its blogs) in a Lensroll on your page, and hopefully, get yours listed on other peoples pages, in their Lensrolls!

Both of these sites will pay you, either for content, or for the adverts which are shown on your pages. It may not be a large amount, but depends on the degree of participation. The more you write, the more you can earn! Just make sure the content is interesting and well-written - there's plenty of badly written junk online already! :-)

Even if you don't have a business or a website of your own, you can still get a lot of enjoyment out of social networking sites. Use them for meeting people, blogging, learning how to write articles, running a group, and many more things.

It's important not to use other people's groups or blogs to promote your own website or business; it's bad manners, to say the least. You really can't blame the owners of them for getting a little upset, and either asking you to delete your article, or deleting it from the group or blog themselves.

Read the guidelines for the area you want to write in - there may be topics which are unsuitable. For example, you wouldn't want to post an article about skiing in online business discussion, or one about business in a thread discussing parenting skills . Use your common sense, and you won't go far wrong. Oh yes, don't swear!

A lot of the people you'll meet have plenty of experience and are willing to share. You can learn a lot from them, then when you are ready to start your own online business or website, you'll already have some knowledge, which will give you a good start. Good luck!