A Detailed Guide to MySpace

If you are looking forward to keeping in touch with friends and family members, MySpace is an excellent place to join. You will also meet many new friends. The first thing you need to do is register at http://www.MySpace.com for an account. When you get to the webpage you need to click on sign up, which is an orange button in the login section. You will then be redirected to a sign up page, where you will be asked for your information, such as email address, name, password, birthday, and gender. You must check the "Terms of Service and Privacy Policy" agreement check box or you will not be able to register. You are then registered and will need to check your email at this point. You have to open the email from MySpace and click the confirmation link inside. You will now be able to log in. Once you log in you will be taken to your personal home page.

This is where everything happens. You can see your friends, if you have new messages, new comments, friend's bulletins, and you can also edit your profile from here.

On your home page you will see "Hello Your Name" and underneath that there is a blue box that has links to edit profile, account settings, add/edit photos, add/change videos, manage calendar, manage blog, manage address book, and also view my profile, pics, videos, blog, comments, and friends. Scroll down to about the middle of the page to the "Tell people about your MySpace" box. You will now click on the set your name for your own URL. Enter in the name you want people to be able to directly know it's you when they type in the page URL. If you type in John Doe, your link will be http://www.MySpace.com/johndoe.

You will now need to click on the first link which is edit profile. You will be taken to a page that will have no information in the boxes. You will need to fill these in. The first box is a headline; you should choose something to draw attention to your page. This can be as simple as "Welcome!" or as complex as your favorite saying. Next is your about me section, where you can give some background about yourself. You should always remember to never give out any information such as your actual street address, phone number, or any other identifying information because MySpace is accessed by billions of users daily. In the next box, you will type who you would like to meet, which can be basic, such as friends or can be as in depth as a certain band or actress. The box after that is interests put some of your simple hobbies. I have music, movies, and fishing, which are my top three favorite activities. The next box is music, here you can add who and what type of music you like. You can also add your favorite music videos here, but we will get into that later. The next box is movies, which are as you guessed it just like music. Put your favorite movies and actresses or actors here. And the next box is television, as you guessed it; you enter your favorite TV shows here. You do the same with books. Heroes is the final box on this page, these can be your personal heroes, such as your mom or dad, or someone else special to you. You will then hit save to save all of your changes that you just made.

You now need to scroll to the top of the page if you aren't already there. Click on the link that says "Name". You can now decide what name you would like displayed with your profile, whether fake, real, or nickname. You can also enter your first and last name, which will be used in the search feature of the site, which we will talk about more later. Then you need to "Save Changes".

You then need to scroll to the top of the page if you aren't already there. Next, click on "Basic Info". Fill out all the information on the page, which asks for gender, birthday, occupation, and city where you reside, country, state, zip code, ethnicity, body type, height, and what you are here for. You then click "Save Changes". Scroll to the top of the page if you are not already there and click "Background & Lifestyle". Here you will fill out marital status, orientation, hometown, religion, if you are a smoker or drinker, if you want or have children, education, and income. Click "Save Changes".

Scroll to the top of the page and click "Schools". You will see an add school section on this page. You need to type the name of the school where you have attended starting with high school. You also need to select the state where the school is at. Once you do all that you click "Search". Schools matching the name that you typed then appear. Select the right one. You will then be directed to fill out more information about this school. This includes whether you are alumni or currently attending, the dates you attended, year you graduated, degree type, major, minor, Greek clubs, clubs and organizations you were a part of. Then you hit "Submit". You will then be taken back to the original schools page where you can go onto the next step or add more schools.

If you are not already at the top of the page scroll up and click "Companies". You can add any companies that you have worked for here. You can include the company name, city, state, country, your title, division, and the dates you were or are employed. Click the "Save Changes" button. Scroll to the top of the page once again and click "Networking". You can then add a network you are involved in, such as Dance or Music. Click "Save Changes" when you are through.

Scroll to the top of the page once more and click "Song & Video on Profile". Here you will see "Profile Song", "Profile Video Player", and "Profile Video Slider". You can now click on "Find a band in MySpace Music". When you are redirected you will see a search box where you will type the desired band or artist for your song. For example I will use Three Days Grace. After you type it in click on search and you will then be directed to your results. You can then click on the artist. You are then taken to the artists MySpace page where you can see what songs they have available. On the right or left of their page you will see a song player where you can click add next to a song that you like. You then need to click "Add Song to Profile". After you do this you need to click "Home". You can then go back into "Edit Profile" and click on "Song & Video on Profile". You can then search for a Video to add to your profile when you click "Find a video in MySpace Video". When you are on the video page you can search for any type of video that you want on your profile using the search box on the page. Let's say that you want a video with funny cats. You would type in funny cats and then click "Search Videos". You should notice your results, which for this topic there are 1000. You then click on a video and watch it play. If you like the video, then scroll down and click "Add to my Profile". It will then say "Video added successfully". You can now click home.

If you would like to add a picture to your profile, you should now click "Add/Edit Photos". You will now click "Browse" and choose the photo you would like to upload from your computer. Select the photo and click "Open" in the dialog box. Then click "Next". You will now select a folder to put this photo in, select it and then click the "Upload" button. Your computer will now upload the photo, please be patient as this might take a few minutes depending on the size of the picture and the speed of your internet. Then click "Next". You can now type in a caption for the photo if you would like to. If you type one in click "Save" and if you don't then click "Skip this step". The photo is now added to your pictures. The first photo you upload will be your primary and will be displayed as your main photo. I will now tell you how you can change this. After you upload all of your photos, you will be at the viewing page with all of them displayed. Find the picture you would like as your default and click the "Set as Default" button underneath. You will now have a popup that says "Your new default will appear on your profile instantly. It may take up to 24 hours for the change to appear when users 'Browse' and find your profile". Click OK. You can now click "Home".

If you notice while you are browsing MySpace that other people have fancy profiles, you may be interested in changing yours too. You first need to find a profile that you like by going to websites such as http://www.pimp-my-profile.com/layouts/ or http://www.mygirlyspace.com/. Copy the layout code, which looks like a bunch of messed up html. Then click on "Edit Profile". You will now click inside your "About Me" section and paste that code. Click "Save Changes". Now scroll up and click "View My Profile" on your right to see if the code worked. Keep in mid that it might take a few minutes for your profile to load depending on the speed of your internet. If it looks good you are done. If it doesn't simply go back to the edit profile page and delete the code and save the changes.

Now you need to add friends. Click on "Search" at the top of the page. You can find people you know in two ways: through the "Find a Friend" feature or the "Classmate Finder". Using the "Find a Friend Feature" you will simply type in the first and last name of the person you want to add. You would type in John Doe and click "Find". The results will then come up. There will probably be a lot of them so you need to narrow your search. If you look to your left you will see a "Filter your Friend Search" box. You should then put the number of miles of your zip code that you want to include and click update. If you are searching for someone in your town then you need to put within 5 miles of your zip code. Once you find the person, you should click on their profile. You will then be taken to their MySpace page. You will need to scroll down and click the "Add to Friends" link or some might say "Add Me". Then you are asked if you are sure you want to add. You need to click "Add to Friends. The person you are trying to add will then need to approve you. After they approve you, you will see them under your "My Friend Space" section on your home page. To add through the "Classmate Finder", you go back to the "Search Page. Type the School Name in the "Classmate Finder" and enter the state. Click Find and you will then need to click on the school. You are then taken to a page of all of your classmates and alumni of that school. Find the person you want to add and click on their profile like we did earlier. Then go through the "Add Me" steps. You have now added your friends.

If you would like to comment your friends, you need to go to their profile and click "Add Comment". Type in your comment and then click "Post a Comment". Then confirm the comment by clicking "Post a Comment" again. Your comment has now been posted.

If you would like to write a web log, better known as a blog, you can do this on MySpace too. Simply click on "Manage Blog" from your home page. You can then click "Post New Blog" about halfway down the page. You then type the title in the "Subject" space and then type your thoughts into the "Body". When you are finished hit "Preview & Post" and then click "Post Blog". Your blog is now posted.

There are a few more things you need to know. When you log in you are taken to your home page. Here you will see if you have new comments, messages, and friend requests. IF you do they will be above the "My Mail" Box. Simply click on the link and you will be taken to the according subject. If you have a new "Friend Request", you will be taken to the Add or Deny area. You can then view their profile before you choose. I would not add anyone unless you know them. There are spammers on this site that will try to phish your email and password or also advertise to you. This is just a fair warning.

MySpace is a fun and exciting place. You are sure to have a lot of fun with your friends and family. It is a great way to keep in touch. I hope this is helpful. If you have any more questions, feel free to contact me.