MySpace for Creativity: A Website and Portfolio All in One

I found MySpace.com by accident in late 2004. I was collaborating with several nervousness.org artists that would both complain and rave about this corner of the web. I had to investigate. I set up a profile and was immediately turned off by the wide variety of friends requests I was receiving. I wanted to hook up with old friends from high school, other artists, other writers and anyone else who had that creative spark I was looking for. Instead, I found myself being bombarded by people looking to hook up in different ways.

My first instinct was to delete the account completely, wash my hands of the experience and never think of it again. I decided against that, though, and though using MySpace as a tool would be a better decision.

My first step in this plan was taking all my personal information off. I used an alias instead of my first name, I removed my age, I removed all of the demographic information and I removed the chatty profile that was there previously. In addition, I removed all the people I had friended, all personal pictures, comments and blog entries.

My second step: I uploaded all the art images I had saved on my computer to the "pics" section. Next, I set up the "networking" section to reflect my desire to meet others with similar career goals. Then, I wrote about my previous credits, where I post art frequently and other projects I'm currently working on in the profile section. In the "who I'd like to meet" section, I posted a kind of "I'm not interested in anything but business" type comment.

My third step: I posted blog entries that specifically had to do with my art and writing career.

My fourth step: I sent friends requests to 50 people sharing my interests.

My final step: I chose a template that loaded quickly and had a clean and simple style. I took away all mult-media elements (songs, video) so the page would load quicker.

What I was left with after making all of these changes is what I consider a website, rather than just a simple MySpace profile. From here, I gather interest from customers, feedback, advice and support. I'm able to advertise new work, new products and plans for upcoming projects to a large audience with ease. And, all the while, I was able to connect with eight friends from high school.

Now, each of my updates include adding to the blog, adding updated links to the bio section and deleting comments that don't fit the scope of the page. Ever since those initial 50 friends requests I sent out, I've received between five and ten requests per day. I deny the majority of them if I feel they'll taint what I'm trying to achieve for my space on MySpace.

Taking control of the situation like this has really proven to be a positive experience, despite the bad press and complaints made about this site. I won't deny the negative flavor that still exists, but this reality is true all over the web.