On checking out the popular social networking sites, I noticed that a number of the most successful internet marketers have a high presence. These sites, however, are not meant for promoting your own business or affiliates. The general idea, is to interact with others, getting to know them, exchanging ideas and knowledge and then when it seems appropriate, sharing information on opportunities that might help them.

There are new social networking sites being added daily. Twitter, Facebook and MySpace are presently the most popular. The ‘new kid on the block’ is BetterNetworker. It is my prediction that its popularity will grow very quickly and by this time next year it will be receiving a large piece of the pie.

TWITTER — This is a micro-blogging service and there is no cost to join. You send messages to other users and these posts are called “tweets”. They are only in text form and you are limited to 140 characters per post. This is where you can put your copywriting skills to the test! You can connect your Twitter account to your Facebook account and when you post on one it will appear on the other site also.

FACEBOOK — Facebook is privately owned and operated by Facebook Inc. It is also a free site, where you can join networks that are organized by workplace, city, school or region to enable you to connect and interact with others. You can add friends and also post messages on the ‘wall’. Facebook allows you to upload pictures and short videos. It actually attracted 132.1 million unique visitors in June, 2008.

MY SPACE — It is also a free website, with an interactive network of friends, blogs, groups, personal profiles, music, video and photos and it is international. Back in June, 2006 it was the most popular social networking site in the United States. However, in April, 2008 it was taken over in popularity by its main competitor, Facebook. MySpace still attracts approximately 230,000 new users per day.

BETTERNETWORKER — The latest social networking site that appears to be headed for major success was created by Mike Dillard. His partner in this endeavour is Perry Belcher. These are two very successful internet marketing gurus. Their site is dedicated to providing great content amongst its users. To date, I have been very impressed with the quality of the posts on BetterNetworker. They also police their site to ensure that spammers are identified and thrown out.

A word of caution when it comes to using these sites…..many useless hours can be spent reading through posts, blogs, watching videos etc. Some people think that it is a quick fix to adding hundreds of people to your mailing list and it definitely is not. However, if done right it can produce great results. A good friend of mine has developed a very large following on Twitter and recently he sent a ‘tweet’ about a new opportunity. His followers went to the recommended site and a week or so later my friend had earned in excess of $40,000.00 in affiliate commissions. This was his reward for building a large group of followers who trusted, respected and liked him.

Social networking sites appear to be an integral part of doing business on the internet these days and you will find all the top producers involved in this activity. If it wasn’t lucrative, they would certainly not be spending their time on it. If done properly, it can definitely reap rich rewards.