I’ve had a few emails this month from people who want to know more about marketing via social networking on myspace. I’ve been asked to write a review on the ebooks that are selling now, or provide an instructional piece on how you can do this.

Friends, it isn’t going to happen.

Not only that but every marketer’s list that I’m on that is promoting such rubbish and waste of time has seen my finger on the unsubscribe key. I suggest you do the same because your best interest is not the heart of their emails – selling you short term rewards for their own gain, is!

I know the stats in for the final quarter of 2006 and that MySpace was kicking statistical butt for traffic (some say double google’s traffic).

But…

There’s are a huge host of reasons why you don’t want to market your wares or run a social networking campaign there.

I hope you find some of these shocking and disturbing. Disturbing enough to stop taking traffic advice from people who just want to sell you something…anything…just to earn a buck.

Marketing on MySpace

First off, creating profiles on MySpace isn’t a sound investment of your time regarading the future of your business.

Taking time or expending energy to build content and links from websites you don’t own or control is a serious mis-use of your work day. Unless you can accomplish this with a click of a button (such as posting a new link on del.icio.us or quick cut and paste of one of your pre-written classified advert on craigslist, etc.).

Don’t ever work hard to create a presence or space on a free resource without reading the fine print.

This is precisely the reason why I’ve been telling people for years to get serious about their business and get their content off blogspot (google’s free blog accounts). So many have been misled into thinking that because google owns blogspot that their content will receive more traffic and higher PR if they host their blog there.

That was a ‘concept’ that spread like wildfire and never tested! The idea was promoted by big names that were too lazy to explain to people that online real estate is a commodity that has value. Hosting your blog on blogspot increases google’s value – not yours.

Not to mention the fact that your business will never be taken seriously if you can’t even afford a $5 a month hosting fee!

There are advantages to having some content on blogspot, I’ll talk about that another day, but certainly don’t build your assets or base your credibility on someone else’s land.

It is far more advantageous to set up your own website on your own .com and build your business from there. Not to mention the fact that when you’re ready to retire you’ll actually own something that has value and you can sell. Can you sell your blogger account or MySpace profiles?

My argument is that MySpace profiles, just like a blogger account, can be wiped clean and deleted by the admin team on a whim.

The chances of this happening on MySpace are even more likely than on blogspot as you can clearly read in their user agreement…

“Non-commercial Use by Members. The MySpace Services are for the personal use of Members only and may not be used in connection with any commercial endeavors except those that are specifically endorsed or approved by MySpace.com.”

“Commercial advertisements, affiliate links, and other forms of solicitation may be removed from Member profiles without notice and may result in termination of Membership privileges. Appropriate legal action will be taken for any illegal or unauthorized use of the MySpace Services.”

“…Content that…provides any telephone numbers, street addresses, last names, URLs or email addresses…”

A list of activities deemed illegal and prohibited by MySpace in the terms of service states that MySpace may take legal action and/or report to the authorities, any violators of these items including:

“…advertising to, or solicitation of, any Member to buy or sell any products or services through the MySpace Services.”

MySpace: Not A Viable Venue for Real Business

There are more reasons why MySpace isn’t a viable venue for your Web 2.0 social networking or internet marketing efforts.

One of which is that the site is loaded with teens and younger children. Aside from the fact that youth isnt’ generally loaded up with a disposable income, if you’re caught soliciting to them or targeting them you’ll soon find that the authorities are never lenient about ignorance of service terms.

I’m not going into the rest of the reasons. I’m hoping that you’ve got enough fodder to expend your time and energy away from this beast – no matter what some marketer trying to sell you the latest $47 ebook has to say about his income skyrocketing because of marketing on MySpace. There are a huge host of other Web 2.0 sites, with an audience that suits your product or services, to be found than this online hangout.

To your serious marketing efforts,

Laura Childs
www.stampedesecret.com

p.s. Here’s one last snip from the MySpace terms of service, in case the others above weren’t quite explicit enough…

“…displaying an advertisement on your profile, or accepting payment or anything of value from a third person in exchange for your performing any commercial activity on or through the MySpace Services on behalf of that person, such as placing commercial content on your profile, posting blogs or bulletins with a commercial purpose, selecting a profile with a commercial purpose as one of your Top 8 friends, or sending private messages with a commercial purpose…” – you can’t even have friends on MySpace who solicit or you’ll be deleted, fined or charged.

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