How To Set Up MySpace

You might have some fears about creating a MySpace. Some of the biggest fears I have heard are:

• Being exposed to porn and things that are distasteful to you


• Meeting creeps

Unfortunately these fears are not unfounded. They exist and are a part of getting out on line. HOWEVER, just like turning to a T.V. show that is distasteful and quickly turning the channel, so can we turn from distasteful things on MySpace.

When someone invites you to be a friend you check out their Myspace profile and make sure it is someone you want as a friend. I have turned down a handful myself because there sites did not represent anything I wanted a part of.

As far as creeps approaching you.....well that will happen as well. But again, you have the option of rejecting them.

I have some simple rules and I suggest you create your own set of CYBERSPACE RULES:

• I check out everyone's profile before accepting a friendship.


• I show all inappropriate invitations to my husband (accountability and honesty are key in a marriage). We often have a good laugh.


• I try and show professionalism and courtesy. Never be rude or obnoxious, even if they deserve it.


• Don't include MySpaceTV on my site as you never know what you are going to get.

These are MY rules. Create your own.

The PROS for getting out on MySpace, especially if you have a business, way out weigh the negative. Just enter cautiously and with wisdom and I promise you will have a ball.

1. Go to http://www.myspace.com

2. You will be asked to invite your friends. I recommend skipping this step until you have your site ready for viewing. You can invite them later.

3. Verify your email address. Click on Verify Email Address and then Request Verification Email

4. Go to your inbox and look for MYSPACE EMAIL VERIFICATION in the subject line. Click on the link to verify your email address. Your email address is now verified.

5. Select RETURN HOME

Now the fun begins!!

There are many ways to create inviting layouts. I am going to take you through using the design editor MySpace provides. Below you will find instructional videos on how to add other layouts once you become familiar with the basics.

There are two views we will be working on:

• YOUR VIEW you see when working on your MySpace page.
• The VIEWER's VIEW will see.

Let's first work on YOUR VIEW. This is NOT the view viewers will see. It isn't a critical piece of this but if you are going to spend a lot of time on MySpace you will want your time there to be pleasant.

Let's create your PAGE THEME.

You are currently on your HOME PAGE. This is YOUR VIEW of your MySpace page. The viewer doesn't see any of the advertising, videos, etc. Unfortunately you cannot control the advertising or videos on this page. I just totally ignore them myself.

Let's go to work on creating your PAGE THEME.

Click on PAGE THEMES in the upper right hand corner of the page.

As you click on each of the theme boxes you will see how it changes your background. Choose the one that is most appealing to you and then click SAVE.

There! You are done with you first step. This isn't so hard, is it?

Let's create the view your VIEWERS see.

This is the fun part. In creating your Layout you are expressing your personality. It is amazing to see everyone's choice in this area. You will find some that are so busy your eyes will cross. I can't imagine what their bedroom looks like (messy and lived in). Others portray a message of their likes and dislikes. If this is a business site it should be easy to see what your business is about.

You have to decide what kind of message you want to give when people find you.

If you are a pursuing this just for personal use it can be fun and exciting, but I encourage you not to make it too busy that people can't read what's on your page.

If you are pursuing this for your business I recommend you watching the video below on "How to create a professional MySpace profile, theme, layout." He has some really good advice.

This will be a two part process:

• Create your PROFILE CONTENT
• Create your PROFILE LAYOUT

Let's get started on your PROFILE CONTENT

Select EDIT PROFILE just above FRIEND STATUS.

You have arrived at the page where you will enter your PROFILE CONTENT.

HEADLINE: This is a great place to put a quote that represents who you are, a place to highlight the content of your site, etc. You may change this headline as often as you want. My headline reads:

Building into others as she is www.at-home-networking.com

ABOUT ME: This is where you share a little bit about who you are, what your journey has been and what your intention is. I like to include where I have lived so that others I meed might find a common connection with me based on us living in the same area.

If you were going to put in a Customized Layout you would paste that HTML into the very beginning of this section. (If you are confused don't worry about it. You will understand more on this topic after viewing the video below on "Make Your MySpace Background Fun!"

Fill in the remaining information with the content you would like to share.

I'd Like To Meet:
Interests:
Music:
Movies:
Television:
Books:
Heroes:

You may leave blank any area you do not want to share information on. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell there is no way to remove the box title. BUT, you may use it for some other purpose.

You can see on my own
To add special fonts, links, slide shows etc., I have shared some HTML codes below.

When you are done select bSAVE ALL CHANGES./b

Now go to the top right hand corner and select bVIEW MY PROFILE/b. This will give you an idea of what your content looks like.

Select bHOME/b at the top left and it will take you back to YOUR VIEW.

Select bEDIT PROFILE/b again.

Across the top you will see all the PERSONAL INFO CONTENT areas to still fill in. Go through these and enter the appropriate information you want others to know. you may leave blank information you do not want to share.

b* Interests & Personality/b
b* Name /bi(If you are using this for your business make sure you use your full name. This will help in the search engines when people are looking for you. Also, if you are looking for clients/customers/prospects, people want to know who they are dealing with)/i
b* Basic Info/b
b* Background & Lifestyle/b
b* Schools/b
b* Companies/b i(include your most current business)/i
b* Networking/b

You have now completed your bPROFILE CONTENT./b

Lets get started on your bPROFILE LAYOUT./b
">

NOTE: This next application currently only works with WINDOWS INTERNET EXPLORER. If you use Firefox or some other application you will have to copy in a FREE template or enter your own HTML to create Layout Design.

Don't have WINDOWS INTERNET EXPLORER? Skip to the video below Make your Myspace Background fun!.

This is where the creative side of you will come out. If you don't have a creative side then just do the basics.

You are still in EDIT PROFILE.

At the top right hind side you will see:

View My Profile
Account Settings
Profile editor

Select PROFILE EDITOR
Select START

You will see two tabs at the top; CUSTOMIZING and THEMES. You may choose to go either route.

I prefer the CUSTOMIZING as there are not a many templates (themes) to choose from so your site could look like a lot of other's sites.

If you choose to CUSTOMIZE, go through the various sections:

Backgrounds/Images/Text/Links

Play around with them until you get the desired look for your site.

SPECIAL TIPS:

TILT MODULE - To create modules that are a little off center select MODULES in the PROFILE EDITOR and adjust the ROTATION to reflect the way you would like to see your module tilted. This will only work with Internet Explorer.

COLOR SCHEME: - To create a welcoming color scheme choose colors that complement your picture. Use accent colors to frame your modules and MySpace Page. Remember, you want this to be inviting, not overpowering. If you are using this for a business MySpace you want people to pay more attention to the content, rather than the pictures and background.

Now that you have your LAYOUT, let's look at adding some MUSIC.

Music can have a great impact on your site. You can create a place for your viewer to turn on your music, or you can have it automatically turn on.

Go to http://www.music.myspace.com, OR, you can click on MUSIC under applications on your HOME PAGE.

If you have some music in mind find SEARCH ARTISTS on the right hand side and enter the artist you are looking for.

Click on the artist's name and their site will come up. They often have a section where you can scroll through their songs and choose the ones you want to share on your site. Select ADD

You will then be asked if you really want to add it to your profile. Enter accordingly.

Select VIEW MY PROFILE to see where the music shows up and how it sounds. You can always delete and start over if you want a different selection.

To manage your Songs & Videos go to EDIT PROFILE. Select SONG & VIDEO.

To Change auto-play settings select Account Settings > Miscellaneous Settings

You will find settings for:

PROFILE
MUSIC SETTINGS
AWAY MESSAGES

Go through and make the necessary desired changes.

The AWAY MESSAGES is handing for when you are traveling and want people to know you are not ignoring them.

To add a slide show to your site you will need to first upload pictures

Go to your HOME PAGE and select PICS

Select UPLOAD PHOTOS

Make sure you read the policy about what kind of photos you can upload and then in the upper right hand corner where it says

"Upload photos to share with friends and family. If you don't see the Upload Photo form below, click here." Click on HERE

To start uploading photos click on BROWSE. Find the photos you want to upload and click on them. If you have multiple photos to upload press
CTRL and then press OPEN. Your files are ready to download.

Select NEXT

If you want to create an album for our pictures, select Create a new album and then enter the name of it.

Select UPLOAD

Once the files have successfully uploaded select NEXT.

You may now label your pictures if you would like or select SKIP THIS STEP. You should now see all of our pictures.

To create a slide show with these pictures select CREATE SLIDESHOW

Make sure the photo album you would like to create a slide show with is selected.

Choose either SLIDER or RANDOM

You can then select the color of your borders, the width and height of the pictures and how fast they process through.

Put your cursor on the HTML coding and press CTRL + C.

Now take that code and PASTE it in the area of your PROFILE where you would like it. It can go in any of the boxes; ABOUT ME, MUSIC, HEROES, ETC.

You've just completed your very own MySpace page. How do you feel? I love accomplishing a task I didn't think I could do or I kept putting off because I knew it would be so hard.

Now the fun begins!!

Remember when I said you would invite your friends later? Well NOW is the time.

Use this opportunity of having something new to share with your friends and relatives by sending them your new link. Get THEM into the MySpace game. Send them a link to this Squidoo to help them get started.

I will be creating a squidoo soon on HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR MYSPACE....keep an eye out for it.

First off, you may be asking, "What is HTML Code"

• HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language
• An HTML file is a text file containing small markup tags
• The markup tags tell the Web browser how to display the page

Here are a few standard HTML codes:

BOLD: <b> or <B> starts boldface, and the marker </b> or </B> ends it.

ITALIC: <i> or <I> starts italic, and </i> or </I> ends it.

Use both BOLD and Italic together: <i><b> to do bold italic; and close both (in either order) </b></I> to end it.

INDENT: <UL>indents your paragraph and The Code </UL> ends it.

DOTS IN A LIST: <LI> creates dots for a list and The Code </li> ends it.

Example: (I've also added the <UL> to indent the list.)

• Bold
• Italic
• Center

FONT COLOR: To select a font color go to MySpace Fonts and copy the Font CODE; i.e. #CC0000. Then, create the HTML code <FONT COLOR= "#CC0000"> which generates a RED font and The Code </FONT> ends it.

INSERT A LINK:

I link like the following one to my home page: www.at-home-networking
looks like this in HTML:

<A href="http://www.at-home-networking.com/">www.at-home-networking.com</A>

This consists of the following parts:

• It begins with the mark "<A", followed by at least one space or blank line,
• followed by "href" (for "Hypertext REFerence"), with NO spaces,
  
• followed by "=" (the "equal sign"), with NO spaces,
• followed by the URL typed out, surrounded with DOUBLE quotes, and NO spaces,
• and terminated with ">", and NO spaces,
• followed by whatever text you want to be blue and underlined
  (i.e, the link name itself; this can be as long as you want and can have spaces in it),
• and ending with the mark </A>.

Any URL can be linked this way. Clicking on it will go to that page, just as if you had typed it into Netscape, or "opened" it from a menu.

The idea behind "On-line Social Networking" is to build relationships with people. Lasting,strong relationships do not happen over night, nor do they happen by just standing there. It takes action.

Here are a few Do's and Do Not's I have put together:

DO NOT

1. Make all of your correspondence about your business. This sets you up to be a SPAMMER and it is a HUGE turn off. You'll probably find yourself deleted pretty quickly.

2. Hound your friends with Broadcasts Messages. Be selective about what you share in a Broadcast message. Make it something of VALUE. Something worthy of their time. If you show up every day with three or four broadcasts people will begin to tune you out. It's kind of like that dripping faucet.....

3. Make all of your MySpace friends people in your own business. You are out there to make NEW friends. If you want to interact with your other work mates, at least, do not put them in your Top 10 Friends. By doing this you make them competitors, instead of friends. Why send your new friend to someone else in your business?

4. Create a MySpace that is so busy your eyes don't know where to land. Create a simple, pleasing page that the eye enjoys.

DO

1. Build friendships. The typical MySpace user creates a MySpace to find friendships on-line. Get to know the person for who they are. Read through their Profile and find points of commonality. Practice building into THEM, and not worrying what you will get in return.

2. Be consistent. Just like any friendship, if you don't stay in touch the relationship fizzles. Make a practice of at least once a week building into the relationships of your new on-line friends.

3. Become a tool of information. Bring value to your new friend's lives by finding information that will enhance their lives. It doesn't have to be all about business. It can be recipes, cool sites, books you've read, places you've been. If you are a provider of great info, people will feel drawn to come back to you.

MySpace CAN be used to market your business. But it can also be a great place to meet new friends who bring value to YOUR life.

If you spend time building into others than you won't have any time to worry about what you lack.

As one networking business has coined, "Givers Gain!"