The Best Social-Networking Sites

Social networks have been dominating the internet for the last decade and not a month goes past without a new site being developed. Every second hundreds of people are signing up to a social network.

So what is a social network and why would you want to join? A social network is basically a collection of people who share some similar interests or values. People normally join social networks to meet that someone special, keep in touch with friends or else find old schoolmates and promote their business. Social networking is extremely addictive and fills many a dull hour with members posting comments, videos, photographs, blogs, sending private emails, doing quizzes and playing games.

There are many social networks, with many successful ones earning millions of dollars from advertising. The majority of these social networks do not share their revenue with user's but new social networks do share revenue in a bid to encourage their site to be the next 'myspace' or 'facebook', ultimately they fail.

The most popular social networks

Myspace

Myspace graced us with its presence in 2003 and used to be the most popular social network. Now it is replaced by Facebook, however the site has over 100 million members and earns millions of pounds through google adsense advertising. Many bands upload their music on their myspace pages in the hope of generating a loyal following and album sales.

Facebook

Facebook was launched in 2004 by a group of college students who are now making around 300 million a year from advertising revenue. The site is the most popular of the social networks, and boasts an immense member database of 200 million spanning many countries throughout the world.

Bebo

Bebo came onto the internet in 2005 and stands for 'Blog early, blog often'. The site now boasts over 40 million members from countries including Ireland, UK, US, Canada, New Zealand and others. It is not as popular in the US as Myspace and Facebook and appears to cater for a younger crowd.

Linked in

Linked in has a more professional feel, and is geared towards online business. It was launched in 2003 and since then has gained 35 million users and earns 100 million in advertising revenue on a yearly basis.

The most popular newcomers

Twitter

Despite Twitter only being online since 2006 it is already the third most visited social networking tool with the number of monthly visitors increasing month by month. It is home too around 5 million members who post messages to update their followers.

The paying social networks

These networks pay you for adding friends, viewing and commenting on your friend's pages, uploading videos, pictures and blogs as well as a variety of other tasks. Many people interested in making money online tend to jump at these type of opportunities only to realise that three hours spent daily earns you as little as a few cents. If you are interested in paying social networks try Mypage 5 and Yuwie.

Social networking can be extremely beneficial if you are running a business and trying to get your product shown to millions. They are also of use to those showcasing their writing talents or some other highly sought after skill. Additionally many people have found old relatives or indeed love whilst networking. Networking is the new going out with thousands preferring to Facebook or Myspace than go to the local pub.