Social Networking Sites: Promoting Your Work and Making Money

You can always tell when someone is trying too hard to promote their work and themselves, and it's ugly and painful to watch. You get annoyed, and feel sorry for the person at the same time. You wince. You want to tell them to tone it down and knock it off, because it isn't working, for you or for them.

So how do you promote yourself on social networking sites without being a pain in the ass?

Really, it's easy. Just be yourself. But be yourself A LOT. Make a lot of friends, talk to people, participate in forums, comment on other people's work or articles. Focus on ONE social networking site for a period of time, say a couple of months. Go visit your other sites, but make one at any given time your main focus. Make sure you know and understand the site inside out. Know who the main players are, and make friends with them.

Spend a lot of time there, and you will get popular. People are popular for many reasons, so don't try to be fake. Some people are funny, some are helpful, some are sarcastic, some are just nice. Don't make up a fake persona, it shows. Just be yourself, but try to show the best parts of you.

Most social networking sites will have ways to promote your work, and there's usually places where you can put links to your articles, Hubs, blogs or whatever. JUST DON"T overdo it. You can occasionally make an overt promotion, but only once in a while, like say if you've published a book, or a really fantastic hub.

Basically, just participate in your social networking sites. If people like you, they will sometimes click on your links to find out more about you and read your work. It really is this easy.