It seems you can’t open your email client these days without some complete stranger inviting you to be their newest, best ‘friend.’
[
Hi James,
SexyGirl69 would like to be added to your MySpace friends list.
By accepting SexyGirl69 as your friend, you will be able to send SexyGirl69 personal messages, view SexyGirl69’s photos and blog, and interact with each other’s friends and network!
Click the following link to view SexyGirl69’s profile and accept or reject this user as your friend: blah-blah-blah…
But what has this all got to do with making money using the worlds currently largest social networking website. Heck, if you believe all the hype about MySpace then every Tom, Dick or Harriet can sign up, start ‘socializing’ and retire… all in the same week!
What a pile of horse manure!
In fact, the basic “advice” I’ve found suggests the same thing:
[1] Join MySpace
[2] Search the Groups for people you can flog your stuff to
[3] Use a ‘friend finder’ or other User ID scraper to build your list
[4] Then fake some interest in these new found friends and ask them to join your network
[5] Then… when they least expect it, SPAM the heck out of them.
Sounds like a plan to me. And if you missed it, that was SARCASM!
By the way, those folks who are claiming to make about $100 a day might want to rethink their strategy, here’s why:
On June 15, 2006 MySpace updated their terms of service…
Have you read their TOS recently? If you plan to buy some of these ID scrapers and start building a monumental list so you too can make $100 a day, you might like to know that using MySpace means you agree to the following:
[Excerpt from June 15, 2006 MySpace TOS]
5. 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. Illegal and/or unauthorized use of the MySpace Services, including collecting usernames and/or email addresses of Members by electronic or other means for the purpose of sending unsolicited email or unauthorized framing of or linking to the MySpace Website is prohibited. 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.
That doesn’t bode well for all those money making schemes… But that’s not the worst of it, heck no! Check this out:
17. advertising to, or solicitation of, any Member to buy or sell any products or services through the MySpace Services. You may not transmit any chain letters or junk email to other Members. It is also a violation of these rules to use any information obtained from the MySpace Services in order to contact, advertise to, solicit, or sell to any Member without their prior explicit consent. In order to protect our Members from such advertising or solicitation, MySpace.com reserves the right to restrict the number of emails which a Member may send to other Members in any 24-hour period to a number which MySpace.com deems appropriate in its sole discretion. If you breach this Agreement and send unsolicited bulk email, instant messages or other unsolicited communications of any kind through the MySpace Services, you acknowledge that you will have caused substantial harm to MySpace.com, but that the amount of such harm would be extremely difficult to ascertain. As a reasonable estimation of such harm, you agree to pay MySpace.com $50 for each such unsolicited email or other unsolicited communication you send through the MySpace Services;
Did you catch that last part about $50 per spam ‘communication’ you send.
So if you think you can easily, or quickly, make a quick buck on MySpace – THINK AGAIN.
Sure there are ways, but the new rules of use that MySpace has put forth make it clear that they will not tolerate their special venue becoming a free for all spam-fest.
Guess it’s back to the drawing board for all those get-rich-on-MySpace-quick schemes…
JAMES BURCHILL is an experienced Internet Marketing & Business Development specialist providing strategic and tactical solutions to select clients seeking to architect their on and offline marketing success. James is a published author, a passionate advocate of technology and the Internet, as well as an avid study of classical advertising and marketing strategies. Prior to establishing his own unique consulting practise, he served as VP of Professional Services and VP of IT & Consulting and implemented multi-million dollar solutions for Oracle, the British and US Governments, Rolls Royce UK and many others. James even taught Computer Science at one of Toronto’s leading colleges and continues to coach private clients on a select basis. For more articles and information visit James’ blog at http://www.jamesburchill.com/blog or checkout his main site at http://www.jamesburchill.com
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