Have you considered using myspace to build your online business? It is probably one of the best forms of free advertising you could get. You can find targeted leads easily by narrowing your search based on people's interests, networking categories, and myspace groups. It is the form of advertising that most sites aren't able to provide alone; that is, personal touch. When a potential customer sees that there is a real person behind a product, they are much more likely to make a purchase or sign up for your newsletter, or view your blog, etc.

It is also the worst way to promote your business. There's even rules in the TOS that tell you that you can not use myspace for commercial purposes. You can be fined up to $50 per unsolicited message you send. Spammers cover the site. If somebody takes you as a spammer, you've earned yourself a hater who just might report your account. And before you know it, the 2000 person friends-list you've built is suddenly gone when your account is banned. There is such pain and agony in building a friend list of that size. All those captcha codes, 900mb profile pages that freeze your computer, etc.

Myspace is cracking down on the spammers more and more. Last I heard, one profile is limited 500 friend requests per day. But now if you send any more than 100 you risk losing your account. Since these limits seem to change so quickly, you can forfeit your "leads" by unknowingly submitting too many bulletins per day.

So as of April, 2007, this is probably the best way to promote your business on myspace:

1. Make a profile that is personal. That means it is about you, not your business. Mention your business and site in your about me section or your blog postings. But don't make it an ad.

2. Make it obvious who you want to network with on myspace and why. And send out friend requests to the same networkers (online marketing, puppy grooming, etc).

3. Don't be selfish and blantantly promote. Share ideas.

4. Have your website linked on your page and blogs to do the selling for you.

5. Post regular blogs (which are picked up by google), or bulletins, but never post the same one twice. Use articles you've written, or somebody else's, or just write something to have people to remember you're there.

6. Be Human. Caps lock and using words like "ACT NOW" and "FREE" don't really work too well in the Personal internet realm.

7. Leave Comments regularly and respond to people who send you messages.

After a while, you can get a nice group of people who enjoy your myspace-company, and therefore hold a stronger interest in your blog, business, and website.