But with the Internet and the rise of social networking sites such as MySpace, you no longer have to leave the comfort of your home to meet hundreds of like-minded people every day. MySpace allows you to join their social network. For free.



As part of this network, you can meet your target audience and build relationships with them. For free. And the best part? You can invite them to your site. For free! In other words, MySpace is an Internet marketer's dream.

In its first two years alone, the site started from scratch and gained more than 45 million registered users. Now, after four years of operation, 10-20 million people register new accounts each month. And MySpace generates that kind of traffic with no advertising.

Originally, Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe launched MySpace in 2003 to solve a marketing problem for musicians. The traditional music labels were signing fewer bands and spending less money on promoting those they did sign. Passionate artists (like Tom himself) needed a way to have their voices heard.

Online social networking sites were beginning to grow in popularity, but such sites were strictly for socializing as friends. Profiles promoting music by bands, products for companies or ideas from people were not only discouraged but deleted.

So Anderson and DeWolfe realized they could attract a large community of people by allowing users to promote whatever they wanted to promote within a social networking environment. They encouraged the marketing of music, products and ideas to the entire MySpace community via friendship.

Although anyone could sign up, at first the co-founders targeted bands, persuading the bands to post pages and in turn invite their friends to those pages. Then they asked the bands what they wanted MySpace to do for them.

Based on that feedback and the continual interaction of users with Anderson, MySpace has become one of the top five visited sites on the web today.

Which means that this social networking site isn't just for bands and the teens attracted to those bands anymore. It's become a lifestyle brand for people of all ages, interests, hobbies, professions and nationalities.

And the myriad of groups people have formed around their varied interests clearly indicate that MySpace is indeed for everyone.

Translation: people in your niche are registering accounts everyday. You, therefore, have a targeted, captive audience waiting for you to claim your space and tell them about your website.