Using MySpace as a Promotional Tool for Your AC Content

MySpace is a enormous online community filled with millions of people from all walks of life. Many may have heard about MySpace on their local and national news programs as having a bad reputation for harboring stalkers and pedophiles but that could be said about thousands of other online communities. Unfortunately for MySpace it has just been publicized more often by the media because of it's large number of members. In actuality, MySpace can be used as a great promotional tool whether you are a writer, musician or a tattoo artist because of those millions of members. All it takes are a few minutes of your time and a desire to get your name out there into cyber space.

When you sign up for a MySpace account you will have the option of making your page public, meaning that anyone on the internet can see your page, or making it private, meaning that only the people that you approve as a friend can see your page. If you want to use MySpace as a promotional tool then making your page private is kind of defeating the purpose. It is much easier to promote your work to strangers if your page is set to public. That way when people are just strolling around MySpace and come across your page they will be able to see what you want promoted rather than seeing a message saying that your profile is private and they will have to become a "friend" in order to see it. You could deter a lot of people because most will not want to sign up to be on your friends list but if your page is public they may very well read your articles, listen to your music or look up more information about your tattooing skills.

One of the reasons that I have heard people say when they explain why they don't have a MySpace page is that they don't know anything about HTML codes. Many people think that you have to know a lot about HTML and other computer coding in order to have a nice page on MySpace. This is completely untrue. Sure, to do some things, like adding backgrounds, you will have to insert some HTML into your page but most of it will only require you to know how to copy and paste. Some websites will even do it automatically for you. You can do a simple web search on Yahoo, or whichever is your favorite search engine, looking for "MySpace backgrounds" and you will be bombarded with sites that provide free backgrounds as well as the HTML cods and directions on how to use them. Backgrounds and other graphics are very easy to find and not as hard to install as most people think. You aren't writing codes, you are just pasting them into your page. A nice background will hold a visitors attention but try not to over fill your page with graphics, as that can cause people to leave quicker or even slow down your audience's computer so much that they will just exit your site without even reading it.

An RSS feed, or Real Simple Syndication, is another great tool when you are promoting your work. Placing one of these on your MySpace page will allow others to have a quick view of your most recent articles published and allow them to visit your articles quickly. It's kind of like an impulse purchase. If your visitors spot an article that interests them the RSS feed gives them the chance to hurry up and read it. That in turn gives you a pageview hit on your article and possibly creates a fan that will return to read more of your articles in the future. Adding your RSS feed is just as simple as adding a background. All you have to do is copy and paste the code into your MySpace page. While you are adding your RSS feed, why not go ahead and add a banner with your referral code attached to it? That way if someone who comes across your page is interested in becoming a Content Producer just like you, they can just click on your referral banner and sign up. You will then be able to get a referral bonus once that new person starts publishing their writing.

Once you have your MySpace page set up and you have lots of friends and family members added to your Friends list it is time to start using the Bulletin section of MySpace. When you send out a bulletin it is a simple message that it sent to all of the people on your friends list all at once. Everytime that you have a new article to promote you can send out a bulletin to all of your friends telling them about your new article. You can even include a direct link to the new article so that your friends and family can click on it right then and check it out. The bulletin option can become your best friend on MySpace.

In the end, MySpace can be a great promotional tool for anyone who is wanting to promote anything. You just would not believe just how many people, companies, writers, artists, radio stations, movies, etc. are on MySpace promoting what they want you to know about them. You can use MySpace to your benefit just like these people do. You could even add your MySpace web address to your business cards, email signatures, message board signatures and just about anywhere that you can fit it in so that you are able to send people straight to your page. I find it much simpler to send them to my MySpace page with a short web address, http://www.myspace.com/christiesilvers , rather than sending them my long Associate Content web address, http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/14919/christie_silvers.html . Try it, you may be pleasantly surprised!