Other great articles:

Selling and promoting your products on myspace

Affiliate Marketing For Beginners

Avoiding Affiliate Marketing Scams

How to Start Your Affiliate Business

How To Build Massive Traffic To Your Site By Mixing many Different Methods

Winning the Search Engine Wars -- Paid vs. Organic Traffic

Selling and promoting your products on myspace
By Stian Cantona Farovig

Many people have the impression that such sites are for teenagers and fun only.
And yes, there are millions of teens on myspace. But there are also all other kinds of humans and interests represented. It is a «mini» world and whatever you are selling, there will be thousands of potential customers on myspace. It can serve to aid the knowledge of your business website and/or product(s).

The first thing you should do is to register on myspace and put an effort in making a really good profile. The registration is free and simple. All you need is a valid e-mail address and some spare time. You need to fill out all details and make your site look attractive. You should also consider changing your profiles design to give it a more personal look. Include photos and business logos. It will not hurt the case if the photos are a little attractive and nice. Face it. A bald 50-year-old salesman is not attracting customers to your page. Sorry! On the other hand, a young, half-naked woman in your profile photo will not attract the right people if you are selling stamps. So think it through and try out a few alternatives on your friends for different opinions.
Do NOT overdo it with colours and flashing banners as it will make your site look messy and it will distract viewers from your content.

Make your profile exciting, interesting and easy on the eye. That will increase your chances on making a successful and large «friends-list»

If you do not know anything about designing sites and coding then there are loads of free sites on the net that will guide you through the process. A quick google search will help you find those sites.

You should also keep in mind that myspace have strict commercial rules. They will not tolerate active use of advertising and they will ban you for life if you get caught.
Therefore, although very effective, you should be very careful with fancy links and advertising.

There are however ways to avoid the strict non-commercials rules if you want to promote a product.

As mentioned earlier, it is very important to make an exciting profile-site.

When your site is ready, you should start looking for «friends» to add. You should search by very strict definitions and only add persons inside your business «niche» That way all your «friends» will be potential customers and the risk of being reported will be much smaller. Spamming is illegal at myspace, and adding and sending out mails to all kinds of people will get you banned.

Once you have gathered a few «friends» you can start taking advantage of the free commercial opportunity you now have.
Bulletins (will be seen by all friends in your list) is a great way to spread the word easily.

Blogging is another important way to advertise. You should write in your blogg at least twice a week and you should write about topics where you can use links to your sites and products. However, try to make the blog interesting and funny as well. That will attract more readers.

It is very important to maintain your profile, site and blog at all times. Never let it get outdated or old. «Dead» links are also a big no-no. That would be crucial for your business.

I would also strongly recommend browsing through all the groups on myspace that could be within your «niche». Here there can be thousands of potential buyers. Add yourself to the most interesting groups. However, remember to be careful with mass posting of mails and ads as it is illegal. Try adding them as friends instead.

You should also take the time to answer all questions that you may get and on a regular basis make comments to your «friends». That will maintain the conversation between you and you avoid being seen as a «professional advertiser». That would certainly give you a bad reputation.

If you follow these simple rules, you will soon see that a tidy site, a good reputation and some hard work will start to pay off. The word of mouth will help you further if you have happy «friends».
You now have a group of people, small or large (depending on your product and the effort you have put in), that are interested in your products and you have easy access to free advertising towards them.

This article is written by Stian Cantona Farovig, a 30-year-old commercial adviser. He can be found on http://www.psreturn.com/