networks http://www.webupon.com/tags/networks New posts about networks Blogging Doesn't Count as a Job? http://www.webupon.com/Blogging/Blogging-Doesnt-Count-as-a-Job.163345 When I first retired, just a year ago, two of my goals were to complete my memoirs and to write a novel. The memoirs have languished so far; just random bits and pieces of memories-some painful-set down on paper but not organized, and nowhere near completion. I wrote the novel-in thirty days-when, along with several thousand other "writers," I participated in National Novel Writing Month in November 2007. Those 50,000 words, although a complete story, still need lots of editing. I've barely begun that process and it has been several months now.

I have long deluded myself that I was deprived of the joy of writing because of my career and family priorities. Procrastination was the real reason. Whether fear of failure or fear of success, I never pushed myself to get to work. I would finally have the time when I retired-that was my plan.

So now, each morning in retirement, I first complete all my chores around the house so I can get to the computer. I sign in with the best of intentions to write something "good" but first I check e-mails, review counter "hits" on blogs, read private messages on social sites. See what my "friends" and "favorites" have been saying and doing (which usually doesn't amount to much more than what I am saying and doing). What am I doing? Has this become my job?

Originally, joining social networking sites and blogging was just kind of the cool thing to do because you see others doing it. (Now doesn't that sound like something teenagers do?) So, one blog leads to another, one social site membership leads to another. Before long, I started to feel like all my time was being spent in front of the computer. Wow. That sounds a lot like my job before I retired. And that's it, partly. Isn't it? Wanting to feel like you have something to accomplish every day? In retirement, I thing many of us fight the feeling of uselessness, of not contributing anymore. And as blogging and social networking begins to take up more and more of my time, I start to think of it as my job. Just wasting time? I wonder.

My wife wonders too, first of all, why I would want to share my life and thoughts with "just anyone" out in the world. Secondly, she wonders why anyone "out there" would care? Who reads these blog "things" she asks? And I reply that I don't know. "Just other people like me, I guess. People with too much time on their hands, or folks who make believe, as I am, that they are actually accomplishing something." So as I have second thoughts about how I am spending the hours and days of my life...here in late middle age...wow, I am 61...perhaps it is fortunate for me that I have a spouse who cares, who questions, who challenges, who doesn't just walk away and let me sit here, day after day, with the remaining days of my life. We do deserve more.

I live in one of the best places in the country. So now I have resolved to get outside and do something active every day. I will schedule fitness into my routine. I have many home do-it-myself projects that need doing. I have grandchildren to take on hikes, and adult sons to take camping and flyfishing and golfing. So I must limit my participation in Facebook, MySpace, WindowsLive, Gaia, Blogger, Eons, YouTube, Blurb, Pageflakes, Popfly, Yahoo360, iGoogle, Buzzdash, Mahalo and Wiki(anything). Can you imagine? Look at all these "sites!" That's where my life is spent. ("Spent" is a good word here, if you think about it.) I don't think there is anything wrong with participating in any of these sites; but if THIS IS ALL I DO-well, I'm not "doing" much.

No more soft life just sitting around for me. I will be working harder on living hard.

 

]]> Thu, 10 Jul 2008 05:49:40 PST Why Social Networking Sites are Popular http://www.webupon.com/Social-Networks/Why-Social-Networking-Sites-are-Popular.158447 There is a simple answer - you connect to all your friends in one go and you can interact with them on an almost personal level, no matter where they are. And with these sites there is an opportunity to meet new friends from all over the world in the same way as “pen pals” wrote to each other in the past.

But there is something more and it goes back to our instincts. Let me explain.

Ever since before we could walk upright, humans have lived in tribes or groups. We have always needed to bond with other members of our species because that is how we developed into being the dominant animal on the planet. We hunted and gathered together, we reared our young together and we survived because of it.

Over time, we have moved from the trees, to living in caves and then to developing agrarian methods of food production. This again is something we did together. We built towns and villages and, over time, developed new methods of living but the constant has always been social interaction with others of our species. This has served to propagate the species and bring diversity into our gene pool. It allowed the strong to find food whilst the weaker members of society were protected from normal predators.

Technology developed with our increasing intelligence and we used this to protect and enhance our “tribes” - this is why we have wars because we want our tribe to be the dominant one.

This situation evolved over time until the 1980's when there was a sudden shift in the psyche of humans, especially in the west. It didn't happen overnight in terms of a single human being's existence but in the scheme of our evolutionary development it was in the blink of an eye. We became oriented around greed and selfishness.

I would say that this was due to the influence of two people, namely Ronald Reagan as President of the United States of America and Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. These two people, between them, told us that there was no such thing as “community” and that everyone was responsible for themselves. As this notion took hold, so a culture of greed and selfishness became ingrained upon the peoples of the world, particularly in the “developed” nations.

At the same time, technology has allowed us to become insular within our lives. Theoretically it is possible to live, to earn, to shop and to go about your life without leaving your house. You can work from home, you can shop for everything you need from home and you can communicate with your friends and family from home. There is no need to actually go into the real world at all.

So what has this got to do with social networking sites? An awful lot, actually.

Because we have lost our sense of community we are denying something that is within our own nature - to work together for the benefit our “tribe”. So in order to fulfil the void that is left, we use Facebook and MySpace and other sites to give us a sense of belonging and a sense of sharing.

Take a look at Facebook. There are a huge number of groups on there, some of them just devoted to making as many “friends” as possible. I joined some of these groups and randomly requested people to be my “friend” just to see if they would. In less than a week, I had over one hundred new “friends”.

I took this experiment one stage further and started looking at groups that I would never consider joining but nonetheless randomly requested members of those groups to become my “friends”. At the time of writing this, two weeks into my little experiment, I have over five hundred “friends”. The strange thing is, I have actually only met or had any real interaction with about sixty of them (people that I have actually met either on a personal or professional basis).

The thing about these social networking sites is that they can be used by the unscrupulous for many ways. There have been a number of recent cases where Facebook, Bebo and MySpace have been used for bullying, harassment and intimidation. A lady had a fake profile put on Facebook which claimed she was a prostitute and it even gave her mobile number and there was a man who suffered distress when a former friend created a false profile and suggested that he was a homosexual.

Even worse, there has been at least one instance where a child has taken their own life because of bullying on a social networking site. That was perhaps the darkest day for our wonderful new technology.

But it isn't only bullying. These sites have huge potential for fraudsters to prey on people when they are at their most vulnerable. Again, going back to Facebook, there is a little thing on there where you can say what your status is. Recently, when my mother passed away, I stated on my profile that I was sad because I burying her.

Whilst this brought genuine condolences from people that I knew, it struck me afterwards that had I begun my experiment before my mother's passing and had posted the same message, would I have someone of less than honest character act as a friend in order to defraud me of any inheritance.

At times of bereavement, and at other times of personal stress, people become vulnerable and accept guidance, assistance and condolence without thought. We've all heard stories of people befriending widows and widowers just to get their money - I am sure there are cyber scams of this type but that we haven't heard of them yet.

It is our need to be part of a community, any community, that drives our vulnerability in this sense. Because so few us no longer take an active part in the physical community in which we live we have extended our needs to our technology.

Of course there is the fact that advertisers have caught on to the idea that social networking is a powerful marketing tool. All of these social networking sites carry advertisements for something or other and they know that they can be a part of our on-line “community”. They are our friends and our cyber-neighbours. And the social networking site operator makes a fortune from charging them to display their messages.

But don't get me wrong. I am not saying that social networking sites are in any way bad or to blame for our own vulnerabilities. We bear sole responsibility for those ourselves.

I personally like Facebook and log into every day, sometimes two or three times. I'm also registered with MySpace and Bebo. They are extremely useful sites and most helpful when I want to keep in touch with people. They have also helped me re-connect with friends that I had lost contact with years ago.

All I am saying is beware. Don't let your need to be part of a community drive you to use these sites as a shop window for your private life. Be careful what you say and where you say it but enjoy your social experience.

]]> Sun, 06 Jul 2008 03:35:19 PST Information on Forums http://www.webupon.com/Social-Networks/Information-on-Forums.109845 Forums have a number of features to them. For instance, you can have a reputation system where members can give people reputation for doing something right. You also can have different ranks in the forums, such as administrator, a banned member, or just your normal, plain member. You can give different styles to your forums. The different things you can do are amazing, the question is, are you ready to discover it?

But, if you are considering making a forum, go for it! You have nothing to fear except for the occasional rule-breaker of pest every month or so, depending or you situation. But you have a feature to permanently delete them, so no problems there. Forums are very easy to make as well, you do not need to be an expert, it is literally about clicking a button.

Well it's time to get started on your forums. Here is the top 3; most used and most trusted forum providers in no particular order, linked so if you are considering setting up your forums, you know where to look.

These forum providers are used by hundreds of people around the world. They are safe and trusted, what a winning combination. Good luck on your forums, I hope you get a rapid amount of members and have a great time making friends and meeting people around the world.

]]> Tue, 15 Apr 2008 10:35:18 PST Setting Up Your Own Website http://www.webupon.com/Hosting/Setting-Up-Your-Own-Website.109721 People set-up or use websites for a number of reasons. It may be to sell or advertise a product, it could be to give information about something, and it could be to explain your business. All of these and more are reasons why we have them. The other good thing about having a website is people would much rather go to their computer and look through a website then use the phone or have to drive around to find the answers you need.

But, before you set-up your very own website, you need to know the basics. A lot of websites, most in fact, require some sort of coding experience. Whether it would be HTML, Javascript, PHP, MySQL or others, you will need experience in this sort of coding. The most common would be HTML. I have gathered a few HTML coding guides below. Don't worry! HTML is apparently the easiest language you can learn.

Now, once you have learnt HTML Coding, it's time to move onto planning. Write out a document on what pages you are going to have on your website, what they will contain etc. This is important.

Unfortunately, there is more coding. CSS Coding is coding that allows you to have the background on your website that you want, instead of just having a plain white background. Here is a few guides that will teach you CSS Coding.

Once you have planned out, and are ready to get working on your upcoming site, it's time to find a web hoster. Now, remember that it is important what hoster you choose. There are 2 types of hosting you can have. Free website hosting, which would have your website name as the sub-domain and if you pay for hosting, most of the time it would just be www.yourname.com. Having just your name is a lot better, you will get a lot more visitors to your website.

Once you have chosen if you want free hosting or paid hosting it's time to move onto choosing who will host your website. A website hoster, in case you didn't know, is the organization that registers your domain name and keeps your website online. Now you can research a number of website hosts by just searching Google, but I have put together a list of my most recommended hosts.

These hosts are according to Hosting Review, the top 5 hosts out there. (April)

Well, from then onwards, you can play around and make your website. But hold on, there is something for them people who know nothing about HTML and CSS and don't want to know. It's called a "Website Builder".

Website builders are actually used by a lot of large, often visited websites. Although, website builders may limit you to the amount of actions you can do, and they are sometimes difficult to work, they are very useful to a lot of people. So I have put together a list of website hosts that have a website builder.

That is all for this guide. I hope you like it, and have a great time making your website, whether it would be for your own personal blog, a company or to support something. It's up to you.

]]> Tue, 15 Apr 2008 06:22:34 PST Get in the Loop & Stay in the Loop: Social Networks That the Big Boys Did Not See Coming http://www.webupon.com/Social-Networks/Get-in-the-Loop--Stay-in-the-Loop-Social-Networks-That-the-Big-Boys-Did-Not-See-Coming.106989 This article is about Internet social networks and what other exciting options that you might be missing out on. The vast expansion that is known by many names, but more infamously known as the Internet, Web, or Net, is truly a world that never sleeps - and while you sleep, the world that you remember has zipped right past you.

Major social networks such as Myspace, Facebook and YouTube attract millions of new unique visitors and registered members everyday, so this is where this article gives an honorable mention to those already worldwide well known “Super Mega Corporate Branded Giants leading the social networking industry”. Cool!?

It is suspected that there are millions of social network members that could potentially be reading this article for the first time and grumbling inside that their social network isn't mentioned in this article, well there is always Google. There is absolutely no way to mention every single one of the thousands of social networks existing on the web today or yesterday.

This article is about the social networks that are uniquely different than the other guys that we all should know about by now. If you are scratching your heads after that last comment, then let me save you some time - you need to return to re-education camp and let friendly corporate proxies direct your attention to the hypnotic sights and sounds of the modern day “Big Top Traveling Circus”.

The social networks that are popular today - could be replaced by one of these other social networks, tomorrow. You are the future, so lead the way!

SocialSplash is a social network that offers its members all of the bells and whistles that the most familiar Internet social networks have to offer, but with one obvious difference that sets this online community apart from the rest; SocialSplash.com rewards its members with free gifts in exchange for their participation. Earn points for sharing your photos, videos, and blogs, and then exchange these points for cool gifts in the SocialSplash.com Store. Pretty cool!

Finally, a social network for people who love canine companionship and appreciate meeting other people who enjoy socializing with like-minded individuals. Perfect place for people to swap stories, exchange photos, post blogs or participate in group activities that are designed to bring the canine community closer together. Now your dog has a place online to call home and mingle with the other lovable hounds excitedly wagging their tails to meet you.

With the US elections looming on the horizon, this social network is geared to empower the Democrats to take control of the future of their party. Members are provided the tools that are needed to manage groups, or activists to organizing and managing real-world events. Create your own blog and easily connect with other members of the Democrat party by joining a Partybuilder group.

FriendWise is an adult-only online social network that connects individuals with the best and most up-to-date tools to make the FriendWise experience a memorable one. FriendWise is not affiliated with Myspace, Facebook, Tagworld or other my space social networking sites.

This social network is a comprehensive Hip Hop destination, featuring broadband TV, a social network and the latest news about the Hip Hop community. Members can blog about their passions, watch videos, participate in community forums, meet new people that share a common interest and get the latest news relating to the Hip Hop culture.

This is an ultra exclusive social network for individuals with a high net worth and famous friends that search for a place to socialize with more people sharing their economic lifestyle. This social network is by invite only, so even if you have millions in the bank, you still may not qualify for membership in this enclave of super rich and ultra elite community membership. Personally, I am still waiting for my invitation, but I won't hold my breath, because I am just a lonely writer and not an ultra elite superpower processing an equally high net worth.

4chan is a simple image-based bulletin board where anyone can post comments and share images. If you are in the mood to join a community that is always lively and entertaining and always have something interesting to share, then you are missing the fun at 4chan.

Are you the type of individual who enjoys socializing by way of live Internet chat rooms? If so, then ChatGab.com is the social community that you have been looking for. ChatGab.com provides its members with free chat rooms, a forum, blog and other community and personal features that will make finding new friends a snap.

PunkRockEmo is a social network that brings rockers and music lovers in general closer together. Share music. Join a forum. Debate and argue your musical knowledge with other like-minded people from around the world. If you love all things music, then this might be a new social network worth checking into to you.

RV Scrapbook is an online social network that's sole focus is related to the RV traveling lifestyle community. RV Scrapbook is the social networking experience for people who are living or desiring to live an adventurous over-the-road RV lifestyle and meet other RV'ers that want to share their knowledge, experiences and passions of this lifestyle with other like-minded people from around the world. This social network is for you Mom and Dad; so don't say that I am never thinking about you.

So, you are thinking about now, that this was a stupid article about social networks that just doesn't offer the tools or the environment that you would offer to your members. Now, you are thinking that you could have done a better job organizing and building your own social network that would just blow anyone of these social networks out of the water and you are determined to let your thoughts be known in the comments section at the bottom of this page. But, Wait! Let's just see how good and different your ideas are and then - visit Ning to actually build your very own social network for free. Build it the way that you want it to be. Grant your members the tools that you want them to have and use. Once you have finished building your own social network, then return to this article and leave a link to your social network masterpiece and let the chips fall where they may.

]]> Wed, 09 Apr 2008 08:31:03 PST Are Our Kids Really Safe on Social Networks? http://www.webupon.com/Web-Talk/Are-Our-Kids-Really-Safe-on-Social-Networks.89181 I think the key is to keep a close eye on your kids while they use the internet. Use parental controls on your computers at home. I know it's impossible to keep tabs on our children all the time, so we must communicate with them, and let them know what is acceptable and what is not.

To prove my point about the social networks, I actually made a fake profile. I created a fake email address, then found a stock photo of someone and used it as my picture. It's that easy. And it's that scary. Everything I posted on this fake profile is all a lie. No one asked for my age. I can be anything I want, and no one would question me. If I can do that, then who's to say there aren't people out there, grown people, pretending to be children; just waiting for the perfect moment to abduct an innocent child, or even worse.

I created this profile just to see if it could be done. It was so easy. Someone with excellent computer skills could do all sorts of horrible things, as I'm sure they already do.

It's important we talk to our children and let them know that if they have a profile on one of these social networks, that they only talk to people they know, and keep their profile private.

Even doing all of these things, it can still be dangerous. You never know what some sick people do to get to children. I know these social networking pages will never be outlawed, but they need some type regulation to keep children safe. The rules they have now are just not good enough.

]]> Mon, 03 Mar 2008 06:10:33 PST 10 Easy Steps to Build a Successful Internet Marketing Social Network http://www.webupon.com/Social-Bookmarking/10-Easy-Steps-to-Build-a-Successful-Internet-Marketing-Social-Network.70914 This is the second marketing article in a series of five articles related to Internet marketing that I have written, so to assist those Internet marketing novices and bloggers who really desire learning how to get started on the right foot in this crazy, mixed up world we call the Internet. If you missed the first article, then below is a link to the first article in the series, so you may catch up with the rest of the class:

Understanding Social Bookmarking Services So You Too Can Build A Successful Internet Marketing Network

In this lesson, we will be discussing the importance of friendship on the Internet and in social networks more specifically. While the Internet can be dangerous and scary at times there is a right way and a wrong way to finding and making friends on the Internet without putting yourself in a dangerous situation. We are discussing making friends on the Internet as an additional way to build a successful marketing network and not for any other purpose such as dating or hanging out at the local café.

Step One: Join a Social Bookmarking Network

One of the most valuable lessons that I could teach anyone, is to join at least one social bookmarking network such as one of the following:

  1. StumbleUpon

    One of the biggest and most active social bookmarking websites on the Internet with a very friendly community that enjoys light and humorous articles, websites and photos. For me, poetry does not do well on this site, but for some poets, StumbleUpon is the best place to win over new fans of poetry.

  2. Digg

    The biggest and most active bookmarking community on the Internet with millions of page views and tens of thousands of new Internet content being shared 24/7 amongst the millions of members. This is the best place to bookmark more serious topics and subjects for the community to read, vote and leave comments on.

  3. Shoutwire

    If political and religious websites, photos, articles and topics are your type of thing, then I have found that this is the best social bookmarking community for this sort of thing. Like with other social bookmarking websites this community enjoys other types of bookmarks besides political and religious subjects. You can submit just about any type of bookmark, but the two already mentioned above are the best performing on this site.

  4. Faves

    This is the best social bookmarking community to use, so to learn how to use a social bookmarking service. The community is smaller and moves at a slower pace than the other social bookmarking communities that we have already discussed, but is still a useful community to be part of.

    Light and humorous articles, websites, blogs and photos rule the day at Faves. Poetry does not do so well here.

  5. Slashdot

    This is an excellent social bookmarking community that is heavily involved in anything tech or computers. There are a whole bunch of intelligent nerds and geeks that get their tech news from Slashdot and tech; computer and Internet blogs, websites and articles can do very well here in this community.

Once you have joined a social bookmarking community, then the next thing that you need to focus on is your personal profile page.

Step Two: Read The Terms and Conditions

Be sure to read carefully the Terms and Conditions and any rules that the social bookmarking service has made available to its community members. You do not want to break the rules and risk being banned from using the site and/or service. I know, none of us enjoys reading all of the legal stuff that these websites have for us to read, but it is necessary, so that we don't lose the right to use the service.

Step Three: Creating A Personal Profile Page

Nearly all social bookmarking services allow their members to create and build their own person profile page, so that their members have the chance to introduce themselves to the rest of the social bookmarking community in which they now belong to. With this in mind, it is extremely important to take your time and do this right, because this is your first chance to make a lasting good first impression on those visitors who have chose to visit your profile page.

It is not important to give your real name or location, but it is important to divulge a bit of personal information like your favorite hobbies, books, music and other pieces of personal information such as these things. The reason why this is so important is because it makes your friends and visitors feel like they are getting to know who you are, just like making a real world friend. The better your online friends get to know you, then the stronger and more successful your marketing network will be at the end.

When creating your personal profile page, be sure to include hyperlinks to your personal blogs, favorite articles, and website if you have one. This is an excellent opportunity to expand your marketing network to include other projects that you have going on at the time.

Step Four: Setting Up Your Personal Profile Settings

Nearly every social bookmarking service allows their members the choice of making their bookmarks available to the public or to keep it private (only for personal use/viewing). If you are joining a social network partly due to building a Internet marketing social network, then it is extremely vital to make your bookmarks public, so that other members in the social bookmarking community can visit, read, vote and leave comments on the websites and articles that you have discovered or liked.

Step Five: Getting To Know Your Surroundings

Before you start getting bookmark crazy, you should first take time and explore the social bookmarking community that you have joined. Checkout what other members are discovering on the Internet and take the time to visit, read, vote and leave comments on other members' bookmarks. Explore the forums and groups that many of these social communities have setup for its members to enjoy and interact with each other in. Just get to know who and what other people are doing, so that you will be in the know (in the loop) always.

Step Six: Make New Friends

One of the single most important steps to building and maintaining a successful Internet marketing social network is to make as many friends as possible. Social networking is all about your friends and how many quality friends that you are able to make in the longrun.

One of the best ways to make friends in social networks is to invite anyone to be your friend that has left positive comments on any of your bookmarks that you have added and introduced to the social network(s) that you belong to. Just don't get disappointed if not all of the people that you have invited to be your friend choose to make you their friend in return. Some members of these social bookmarking communities are not interested in making friends, because they are rather using these bookmarking services to replace the traditional search engines, so to discover new and exciting places to visit on the Internet.

Another good way to make quality friends (the kind of friends that will be most likely to visit the articles, websites, videos, games and movies that you discover and bookmark) is to invite any member in the community that routinely bookmarks subjects and topics that are of interest to you. Just remember, not everyone will be interested in making friends, so invite as many members as you are able to, to be your friend. Especially, invite any member who is interested in the same things that you are interested in or write or blog about on the Internet.

Step Seven: Get Personal With Your Friends

It is one thing to invite and make new friends, but it is something else entirely to make new friends with a personal touch. After you have made a few new friends make sure to send each of them a private message, just to welcome them into your friend's network. This type of personal touch makes your new friends feel special and leaves a good impression on them about you.

Step Eight: It's Bookmarking Time!

Now, that you have joined a social bookmarking community, setup your personal profile page, explored your environment and made a few new friends, it is time to start bookmarking your favorite websites, blogs, articles, videos, music and photos. Yes, you can bookmark your own blogs, articles and websites, but don't stop there - bookmark all of the places that is of interest to you whether it's yours or somebody else's.

Try to avoid bookmarking anything or place that contains adult content that children should not see. The places and things that you choose to bookmark will either reflect positively or negatively on your social reputation.

Step Nine: Building and Maintaining A Positive Reputation

As we discussed before, the reputation that you develop on the Internet and especially in the social networks that you are participating in is very important not to screw up. Some people believe that they can have it both ways, but once you develop a good reputation, and then reverse course the other direction, just kiss everything that you worked for good-bye. People do not like peopling who are mean, nasty, crude, or bookmark anything that would generally be unsafe to visit. Be nice and show respect for everyone even those people whom not nice to you. Just ignore those people are disrespectful and move on with your good reputation still intact.

Step Ten: Create or Join A Group

Most of the social networks on the Internet offer tools to its members, so that they can create or join a community group to get to know other members better. The groups vary widely in topics and subjects, but joining or creating one for you is an excellent way to make more friends. The best thing is that these friends share many of the same interests that you have and are more likely to want to visit your blog, website or read an article that you have written.

Step Eleven: Be Helpful

It is very important to be friendly and respectful to everyone that you meet in these social networks no matter if the people that you meet are nice to you or not. Be helpful and help other new members find their way around the social community when they need some help. Always invite anyone that you helped to become your friend as you and that person have already something in common. You both have established communication with one another in the form of helping each other in a time of need. People do remember the kindness of others, even if they say nothing at the time.

This concludes the second article in the series of five Internet marketing articles that are being written, so to help anyone wanting to learn Internet marketing basics and techniques. Bookmark this article for easy reference and subscribe to Nelson Doyle's RSS Feed, so that you do not miss out on the future articles in this series.

The third article will be published in the next couple of days.

]]> Thu, 03 Jan 2008 07:57:22 PST 10 Useful Internet Tools to Customize Your MySpace Page http://www.webupon.com/Web-Talk/10-Useful-Internet-Tools-to-Customize-Your-MySpace-Page.66624 Customizing MySpace profile pages is a very popular pastime for millions of MySpace members and leaves a good first impression on all visitors. Add videos, music, games, cool layouts, backgrounds, and much more fast and easy, now.

So, who hasn't ever heard of MySpace by now? The last time I checked, there were over 112 million members interacting on the extremely popular social network owned by the leading search engine company Google. Not that's more cybercitizens than most countries and many nations combined. Now that is a huge cyberstate of differing personalities as proudly displayed throughout the millions and millions of MySpace member profile pages on the world's largest social network.

MySpace kindly resembles “King Arthur's Round Table”, because no matter who you are every new member starts out with a MySpace default profile page void of any personality and flare. In the beginning, everyone starts out equally and after that, it's up to the new member to creatively transform his or her profile page into something personal to him or her.

Since some members are more computer savvy or process a higher degree of creativity, many MySpace profile pages reflects the talent and hard work of these members. It is always entertaining to visit a profile page that employs fantastic background art and graphics. Coupled with interesting videos and music maybe followed with photos of people, places or things that is alien to other visiting members. All of this work translates into a very cool MySpace profile page.

The following list of websites are dedicated to provide quality and creative Internet tools and widgets to help make your MySpace profile page burst with personality and flare that will leave a good first impression on all who visit your MySpace profile page. Even if you already understand html, this list can make getting the job done a bit easier.

  1. Freecodesource

    This is the perfect online source of MySpace customizing Internet tools of both the novice and the advance computer user. Here visitors can choose from a enormous collection of MySpace layouts, graphics, cursors and games that can be used to customize MySpace profile pages. Membership is free and turn-on your popup blocker, because I did encounter popup ads.

  2. Pyzam

    This is a great website for anyone who has a MySpace, Facebook, or Friendster presence, because of its entertaining assortment of flash toys and games that can be used to add deeper and richer personality to any social network that they're involved in. These games and toys are 100% original and hand made by the talented designers at Pyzam.

  3. Zoomza

    If you are shopping around looking for some of the hottest layouts, graphics, backgrounds and proxies, then this is the site for you. Choose from thousands of professional looking layouts and graphics to add to your MySpace profile pages. Registration is required

  4. SnapLayout

    This is a great MySpace profile editor that makes customizing your profile page quicker and easier, then working with the default profile page that MySpace provides to new members. The drag and drop features that SnapLayout provides allows users to quick and easily change layouts, backgrounds, colors, patterns, and slideshows to their MySpace profile page. This is a wonderful tool for beginners especially.

  5. Widgetbox

    Games, games and more games, this is a beautiful website with hundreds of flash video games to select from and add to a MySpace page or a blog. Widgetbox offers more than just video games, but also offers an array of other useful widgets that can make any MySpace page or blog even more interesting and keeping the visitors coming back for more.

  6. MyGen 2.5

    This is probably one of the simplest MySpace profile generator Internet tools that I have seen. Its instructions are pretty much straightforward as all you have to do is select one of five tabs that represent, each of the five sections of your MySpace profile page and start editing it to your satisfaction. MyGen 2.5 will generate the MySpace code to be added to the MySpace account belonging to the user designing their profile page, once the user has finished editing. A very easy editing program to use whether you are a beginner or a pro.

  7. Photobucket

    This handy website is fantastic for anyone who desires to have more storage space for their photos. Members can store their photos, share them with the world on the web or keep them private it the user chooses or cut and paste a little code and add them to their MySpace page, Facebook, blog or include a picture into an email. Membership is free and required to gain access to the sites full benefits and tools.

  8. Flikzor

    This is an excellent website for anyone looking to add a little technology to their MySpace page or blog, so that they can send and receive video messages from their friends. Membership is free and required.

  9. SNOCAP

    This is an outstanding opportunity for musicians to expand their marketing and distribution capabilities on the Internet. Members of SNOCAP are given the abilities to sell their own music on MySpace and beyond. You set the prices that your music sells for, and then SNOCAP collects the money for the songs purchase and they pay you. Members can easily monitor their sells and the musician owns their copyrights to their music. Basic membership is free.

  10. Sploder

    You can never have enough games in the video game age and Sploder offers a unique collection of flash video games that users can add to their MySpace page, blog or even email to friends or family. The game quality here isn't the top of the line, but is more along the lines of many old DOS games, not pretty to look at, but fun to play. Membership is free and required.

Disclaimer: The websites on this list are not affiliated in a business relationship with the author Nelson Doyle. The websites on this list are not paid advertisers and were selected by Nelson Doyle, because of their creative contributions to millions upon millions of MySpace users and bloggers worldwide.

]]> Fri, 14 Dec 2007 06:15:10 PST Facebook - For New Users http://www.webupon.com/Social-Networks/Facebook---For-New-Users.55974 On February 4th, 2004, Facebook was released to the general public. Mark Zuckerberg, who graduated in 2006 from Harvard University, founded Facebook but it was primarily restricted to Harvard students only. It receives its revenue from banner ads and advertising.

As of September 11th, 2006, Facebook was already widely known throughout the world, usually basing its population towards those in high school and colleges or universities. Nowadays, as of October 2007, Facebook has a total of around 42 million users!

This article will guide new Facebook users to learn how to use Facebook, have fun with it, and join the rest of the 42 million who do! By the way, I have Facebook. Therefore, by the end of this article, you should add me. :) My real name is not Nik Fall, by the way.

Basic

First of all, Facebook is a social interactive network that bonds you and your network of friends (or strangers) together. You can check out their lives, and they can check out yours.

The Home Page & News Feed

Firstly, we have the login screen. So make an account and we can get started. Login using your confirmed email address and password. The first window you will see is usually called your Home. At Home, the most part is your News Feed. You can view updates and have a basic overview of what's happening with your friends and their lives. The News Feed loads up every time you login so you won't have to miss anything important.

This, however, might not be true all the time. The News Feed summarizes only some activities that occurred. You can edit the Preferences of what you want your News Feed to display simply by clicking on Preferences. It should be pretty straight forward.

Left Hand Side of Home

In the left-hand corner of Home you will see a search bar. You can type in a friend's name, a stranger's name, or a group name, whatever. Say you wanted to find a co-worker named John X. The search engine will lead you to pages where you have the eligibility of browsing through many John X's in Facebook and also groups, events, and applications that have the term “John X” in them.

Going back to Home (which you can access in the Blue Bar in the top right hand corner), you will see, under Applications, a total of about 5-6 applications. Applications in Facebook are mini-programs that can function if you add them. Some applications will allow you to check out your daily horoscope, raise a pet, or throw a pizza at a friend.

You can add an application by simply knowing its application name, typing it into the search bar, pressing on it, and adding it…You can choose to display it on your profile or not. Displaying an application on your profile will enable many users to see your application and IMHO, if you have too many, it can get annoying!

Right Hand Side of Home

The right-hand side of Home can have many subheadings. You might see Requests. Friends can Request you to join an event, a group, or an application. Non-friends can send you friend requests. You will see Notifications. I don't access this usually, because it's a list of what you've done with Facebook lately, and it's not like it matters. There can be Pokes. It's a function where anyone can “poke” you. A poke is nothing more than just a way for someone to nudge you for attention basically. It has no special purpose, and no meaning - but you can come up with one.

If you poke a non-friend back, they can see some parts of your profile even if you don't want them to. You will see Status Updates. Yes, you can input a “status” here. A status will begin with “Your name here is ________ (e.g. fishing, hungry, wanting to bathe in bubbles)”. You can fill in the blanks with whatever. If so, you might also see Birthdays. Facebook is awesome because it helps notify you every friend(s)'s birthday who is coming up a couple days before so you don't forget! Then you will see Invite Your Friends. Do so if you'd like. Other things are straight forward.

The Profile/Your Life

Alright! Now we can finally get to the more interesting part. Go to the Blue Bar and click on Profile. Your profile is basically your life. This is like your front page when somebody finds you on Facebook. If they decide to add you, or if they're in your network (I'll explain networks later), they can see your profile. Or, if you'd like, you can set privacy levels to low and everyone on Facebook can check you out…

Facebook accounts can have multiple uses. For advertising a company/business, for uploading photos, for chatting, etc. You can upload photos to Facebook simply by going to the Photos application on the right side. You can edit your information by clicking edit beside Profile on the Blue Bar. You can see and browse your friends. You can do a lot.

Hey, you can change your status here too.

There is a small section called the Mini-Feed, similar to the News Feed at Home. Mini-Feed is not an application. It publishes some things you do on Facebook. You can choose what to publish, and what not to publish. Below it should be the Wall. This is the main feature of Facebook. It simply allows for friends to write/comment on your “wall” and communicate with you. There is an application called the SuperWall which will allow you to input videos, photos, music, and loads of other stuff to your wall or a friend's wall. Using the wall is easy, it's common sense. Somebody posts something on your wall, and you post back on their wall.

You can also comment on photos, or notes that friends create or you can create.

Friends & Networks

The reason for Facebook is usually to keep in touch with old classmates, co workers, friends, family, or random people from halfway around the globe. Sometimes the only way to see somebody's profile is by adding them as a friend.

To add a friend, you have to know their first and last name. If you know their first name, it will be pretty hard to find somebody, now wouldn't it? But then again, this is where Networks come in. Joining a network allows a user to contact other people in the same Networks or view their profiles. You can browse throw a network. You can join a regional network. It is a geographic network. You can also join a business network, if it exists on Facebook. You can create a network. Or you can join a school network. Simply go to Networks and get started.

You also have an Inbox, which is like a message centre. You don't have to add somebody as a friend to send them a message, but you do have to add them as a friend to post on their wall.

Have Fun! Honestly, that's what you should do. You will be addicted to Facebook in no time!

]]> Mon, 05 Nov 2007 01:06:18 PST