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Just a couple of months ago, I decided I would try to figure out what this whole MySpace thing was about. I was hearing the name "MySpace" more and more on television, the radio, and virtually everywhere.

I began to realize that I needed to check into MySpace and explore the unique opportunities that MySpace offers. I wanted to know a few things. First, I wanted to know who was using MySpace? What were people doing with MySpace and how could it benefit someone like me, a webmaster and business owner?

I assumed that MySpace was being utilized as sort of a teen dating type of place where teens got together, chatted, met other teens, and things like that. All of the advertising of MySpace had seemed to me to have been directed at young audiences. I created a profile and was on my way to researching this latest phenomeona.

At first, it seemed my initial assumption was correct. There were indeed a lot of teens utilizing MySpace. After awhile I noticed that the users of MySpace weren't all teenagers. There were a number of independent label bands there to promote their music, business owners, webmasters, artists, web designers, and young entrepreneurs to name just a few. They were promoting themselves, their businesses, their talents, and anything else they could.

MySpace offered the unique opportunity for anyone to create a simple webpage, build membership by adding mass amounts of friends, get spidered quickly, and advertise through the use of bulletin postings to their friend base. I was blown away by the possibilities. I then wondered, how many of the other "beautiful people" profiles were actually beautiful people, and how many were actually creating these profiles for another purpose.

Used in the right way, MySpace can be a very useful tool in advertising of any kind. You can quickly get a profile up and running with only an email address needed. It helps if you use a picture of some type in your profile. Some choose to use a revealing picture or just a great looking "spokesmodel" for their profile. Having a picture on your profile will greatly increase your ability to add friends. Another way to improve your ability to add friends is a great looking profile. This is just a matter of finding or creating a great layout, generating the html code and pasting the code in the "about me" section of your profile. There are many MySpace resource sites out there which make this process super-easy. The one I suggest is http://www.friendstorm.com. A lot of the MySpace resource sites are covered with pop up ads and flashy advertising. Friendstorm.com offers some great ready-made MySpace layouts, generators, codes, videos, led scrolling signs and a lot more. They're the largest MySpace resource site I've found and it seems as though they keep rolling out new features all the time.

After you "pimp your profile" as they call it, now it's time to gather friends. You can achieve this any number of ways. If you want to target "friends" in a particular area or demographic, simply utilize the search feature on MySpace and enter the criteria that you're looking for. Then you simply visit their profile and click on Add Friend. An email will be sent to that person and they will either accept you as their "friend" or deny you. Chances are if you have a picture and a nice looking profile, most people will add you because they too like to collect friends.

Another way to increase your friends on your profile is to become a featured profile on a high traffic MySpace related site. Again, Friendstorm.com offers featured profiles on their front page and a profile train which you can join for free. Usually a featured profile will get you more friend adds than simply joining a friend train but every little bit helps.

After you accumulate a fair amount of friends you can do a few more things to promote your website, band, talent, or business. After you become someone's "friend" you are able to post comments on their pages. Most will even allow you to include live links in your comment on their page. It's helpful if you include some type of personal message about that person or their profile above the link. You can also send a message or an email directly to any person on MySpace, however I find this method to be the least effective for advertising/promotion. It's a good way, however, to network with other people with the same interests as yourself.

One last, and very effective way to promote or advertise 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 accept everything that goes along with that. Allowing 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. Beware however that if you bulletin too often or use the same title every time, you may be deleted from some people's friends lists thereby undoing some of the hardwork that you did.

MySpace, it seems, is around to stay. It is a great way to promote yourself, your business, your cause, your dog, or whatever it is that you want to get out there. Don't overlook this easy tool in your quest for advertising and promotion. Big name companies, celebrities, models, actors and lots of others have recognized what an important tool MySpace can be, you should too.