MySpace: A Place for Everyone

In today's world having a Myspace is almost standard for all net users. It is a place for friends, networking, self expression and so much more; all at your fingertips and provided free of charge.

Whether you are a musician, artist, writer, salesperson, or homemaker you can find something on MySpace for you. It is an excellent place for networking, advertising, and promoting as well as making friends.

Adding graphics and text into your MySpace profile allows you to express yourself in ways you just can't do out in the real world. The possibilities are endless and it is so easy that you can change your profile each time your mood shifts. It doesn't matter whether you are interested in meeting new people or strictly keeping in contact with a few friends, MySpace has the tools you need to make it happen. With a simple search you can locate your best friend from 1st grade, your first boy/girlfriend, or that long lost family member.

For those of you who have been skeptical, there are settings to ensure your privacy. There is a wide range of settings for each profile and the choices are all yours. You can set your page where it can't be viewed by anyone who is not on your approved friend list, you can restrict it from all viewers under 18, or leave it unrestricted for all users to browse. Your wish is MySpace's command, you get to be the ruler in your own little cyber world so why not try it out? I will help you get started with a step by step guide on how to set up, and maintain your own MySpace.

The first thing you will need is a valid e-mail address, it will not be shared with other users but you must verify the account so be sure you provide one that you can access.

~If you don't have an E mail account you can get one free at yahoo.com, hotmail.com, or gmail.com (just to name a few). Simply follow the easy step by step instructions they provide.

Now that you have that done lets get started,

Go to http://www.myspace.com

This link will take you to the MySpace home page, at the upper right hand corner of the page there is a link that says "sign up"; click that link and proceed to the next step.

Enter your e mail address and choose a password. Remember, the password should be something hard for others to guess, yet easy for you to remember and must contain between 6 and 10 characters (at least 1 must be a number or punctuation character).

On this same page you are asked to enter personal information, I want to share with you a little about why you are asked and what you should do. They ask for your full name, this is not shared with anyone unless you choose for it to be shared however, if you enter your real name you will then be search-able in the database. Many people want to be search-able, this allows friends/ family members to locate your profile by entering your name into the search engine. If you enter an alias in this field no one will be able to find your page, the choice is yours. You are also asked for your birth date, this insures you are above the age of 14. Children under 14 are not supposed to have MySpace and those under 18 are not search-able, their profiles are also automatically set to private for safety reasons. Entering your age is strictly up to you, you can simply opt to choose the earliest date available and appear 99 years old. Users know that this usually means you don't want to tell! Your age, sex, and location appear on your profile and are visible to everyone even if you have privacy settings. Next you are to choose a preferred site and language, MySpace is available all over the world so this helps insure you have a site in your native language.

The last step on this page is to prove to MySpace that you truly are a human being. The characters you see must be typed correctly in order to proceed. They are not case sensitive and you are not to enter any spaces. If you get it wrong you will be given another chance and if you are having a hard time reading them you can press the small round button below it for different letters. You are going to find this all over the site due to phishing, spamming, and automated Web sites attempting to gain access. Although it can be a pain at times it is another way MySpace is keeping the site safe for us.

(Don't forget to check the box agreeing to the privacy policy and terms of service before proceeding)

Once you have everything entered you can go ahead and click the sign up now button at the bottom of your screen, this verifies all information and takes you to the next step.

Now the fun begins, you get to express yourself with pictures. Don't fret if you don't have time or need to take a few first you can always skip this step and come back to it. If you do have a picture on your hard drive you would like to use then you just need to click the "browse" button to find the one you want. once you have located it on your computer just click open and it will put the URL for it into the box provided for you.

Be advised that MySpace is pretty strict on policies involving photo's, no nudity, and they must be GIF or JPG format. they also need to be less than 5mb in size. Now, if this all sounds foreign to you it's OK, if your picture is the wrong format it will tell you when you attempt to upload it. If this happens and you don't know how to format it differently you can use a site such as www.photobucket.com to host it for you.

Once you have added your picture click the "upload" button and it will do the work while you wait.
If you want to skip this step the link to skip is located at the lower right of this screen. You can always add photo's later!

Now it is going to automatically open the next step, this one is tricky. I always suggest skipping it because it wants to find your contacts and invite them. Now this doesn't sound so bad but my friends got a little angry when I bombed them with "please join me on MySpace " e-mails unknowingly. Once again, the choice is yours, it will send an e mail to everyone in your contact lists asking them to join. Should you choose to skip this step the link is in the lower right corner.

The page you are seeing now is your "home page", this is what you will see each time you log in from here on out. If you have added a picture you see it at the left of your screen. You are also seeing a couple of red highlighted boxes at this point, these are things you will need to address so lets get started.

The first and most important is to verify your e mail address, your account is not active until you do this. At the center of your screen you see in red where it says "verify e mail address" just below those words in smaller blue font is a link that says "click here", once you click that link it will redirect you to a page that gives you two options; you can either request a verification e mail or contact customer service. If you have provided a valid e mail address you should now click the "send verification e mail" button. MySpace has now sent an e mail to you providing a link to verify your account, once you receive it and click the link it will open a page that says e mail verified, this page also has a link that will take you back to your home page. Click the link that says "return to home" and you are ready to take advantage of all MySpace has to offer.

You will notice that you have 1 new message, it is your welcome message from Tom so read it. There are a couple of basic pointers in there on how to get started with your profile. Also notice that Tom is your first friend, some people delete him from their friends list but it is advisable to keep him on there. Whenever there are important messages or changes to MySpace Tom lets you know. These may include security risks or phishing attempts so he really is a good friend to keep.

Now is a good time to fill in your profile, this is where you get to tell what you like, dislike, etc. Go to the link that says "edit profile", it is located to the right of your name and just above your picture. Once there you can add and change everything about yourself so just have fun with it.
Basic safety measures such as not stating your home address, telephone numbers, etc. should always be practiced when using the Internet but beyond that just be you, be creative, be unique!

It is time to familiarize yourself with MySpace, find your friends, coworkers, anyone you want. You can browse through users based on any criteria you wish, such as location, age, sex or marital status, or you can do a specific search by name or e mail address. You will be amazed at what you see when you begin to dig into MySpace! My best advice at this point is to just start surfing, check out the various links and see what you like. You can find horoscopes, news, classified ads, videos, music.... Virtually anything you are looking for, and nearly anyone you are looking for!

Once you learn your way around a little you are going to want to know how to put all those glittery, funny, or cute graphics on your page. Check back and read my next piece where I will explain all the tricks and tips on posting graphics, music, and everything else!

Best of luck and enjoy your space!