Today’s article clarifies using MySpace as one base from which to effectively promote your services and products, and to eventually create and build large networks of relevant people, which is described in detail in my new ebook on self promotion.

Many people associate MySpace with established and emerging musicians and bands. Many musicians use MySpace for greatly boosting their online presence. However, the hugely popular site actually presents a massive opportunity for businesses and professionals of all other backgrounds and industries to promote themselves and create contacts.

The audience you have access to through MySpace can be a lot different to other social networks like Facebook and Twitter, which creates all kinds of additional benefits to just using something like Facebook.

Not only do a lot of people on MySpace tend to be media and trend-savvy, communicative and young, but there are also large numbers of people engaging with MySpace who are searching for talent, expertise and new ideas.

This includes more and more potential clients for professional creatives.

As well as this, there are many other reasons to make use of MySpace as a self promotional platform, including the flexibility behind the design and customization of your profile, which allows for truly original layouts, additional elements like video, driving traffic to your blog and portfolio, and the ability to connect with and communicate to relevant people to expand your business.

Here is how to get set up on MySpace so that you make the most of it for establishing an online presence within a powerful online network:

Create Your MySpace Profile

Even if you have your own personal MySpace profile at the moment, it’s best to set up a new one that centers on your business or work.

Go to www.myspace.com and select a profile type. You’ll find a few options, including a music or comedian profile, which will offer slightly different features according to your vocation. If you don’t match any of the extra profile types on offer, it is best to go for the personal page profile, which is the standard option.

Go through the sign up process, which you will need a valid email address for. You will be asked to verify your email and add pictures to your profile. If you have some pictures that showcase your work on hand, upload those to the site. You can change your main profile picture at any time, but now would be a chance to upload a logo or picture of you in keeping with your consistent brand.

Set your MySpace custom URL to include relevant keywords, or your name by clicking the pick your MySpace URL link in the top left of the MySpace dashboard area. Think about this carefully, as this cannot be changed in future, unless you open a new page from scratch.

The next thing is to fill in your profile details by clicking Profile > Edit Profile.

Put some thought into filling in all your details including your interests as this will all add to your personality and brand and will appeal to those prospects and users who could potentially add you as a friend, contact you, and so on.

Putting in these details will also bring people to you, as the keywords you put within fields such as ‘interests’ are searchable by people on MySpace.

Think about which keywords relating to your work you could incorporate into these details pages.

As with Facebook, you might want to hold back on your year of birth for security. Don’t forget to include a link to your website. Also consider incorporating your web link into the design (discussed in the next section), like you might have done through your Twitter background.

Designing your Profile

Next, you need to set about designing your profile so that it looks professional, is appealing and reflects your brand and your style. You want your profile to be an extension of your base site, and reflect the style that runs through your portfolio and brand.

MySpace is one of few social media sites that enables you to use code, including CSS to customize your profile. This means designing the various sections you want to put into your profile, through Dreamweaver for example, and pasting the code into the available profile boxes.

This allows you to make some very special and dynamic MySpace profiles with slide shows, Flash and more.

I would recommend taking advantage of the flexibility this provides, and either designing your own profile or getting someone to help you with it, although bear in mind that legibility and simplicity will benefit your profile.

If you don’t have to ability to input your own code into your profile, you can use any of the various third-party profile editors on the web, such as Mashcodes or you can use the very good MySpace Profile Editor within MySpace itself.

The Customize Profile link, which is located on the top right of your screen once you have clicked Edit Profile from your homepage, will take you to the MySpace editor.

The editor is very intuitive, and you shouldn’t find it too difficult to work your way through designing your profile.

When you get to customizing your modules, which are the individual blocks within your profile, make sure the Add to Friends link stands out, as this is something you want people to easily find as you build out your MySpace network.

Consider taking advantage of images, text and video to drive visitors to your mailing list landing page or blog, and/or base site. Effectively you are incorporating a call to action into your profile, which you can do in several places, which will attract people to your blog or base.

You’ll see many professional MySpace pages using this.

Adding Music

If you are a musician, you need to have prepared mp3music files to upload through the music player available with the musician’s profile.

There are also several other music widgets available for your profile, (have a look at the mp3section at Widgetbox) that you can get online.

Widgets come in the form of code that you incorporate into your profile by dropping the code in your About Me section.

Adding Video

If you have video to showcase, or have videos that you might be sharing as part of your marketing campaign through sites like YouTube, you need to follow these steps in adding it to your profile:

1. Click Video from the top navigation menu.

2. Click Upload.

3. Browse for the file and click Upload Video.

4. Under your newly uploaded video, click the Add to Profile link to bring the video to your profile.

The methods on building up a substantial network and promoting your products and services through MySpace effectively, are covered in Step 6 of the new ebook: ’10 Steps to Powerful Online Self Promotion for Creatives’.

Does everyone think these are the best ways to optimize your presence on MySpace for effective online self promotion?

Whether it’s lacking energy and focus, or believing that we are “not good enough” in the face of competitors, our drive to take action in promoting ourselves and the work we do can sometimes take a beating.

Fortunately, there several ways to regain a sense of confidence and purpose, so that self-promotion doesn’t feel like a chore.

I’ve put together a hands on step-by step-approach over at the 99% for getting fired up and getting organized to market yourself in the short-term and the long-term – an essential task that too many of us neglect.

To see the steps, head over to the 99%.

’10 Steps to Powerful Online Self Promotion for Creatives’ on March 10th 2010.

The book sells at $27 USD on launch and $39 thereafter.

.

Become an affiliate here to start promoting!

The 215 page book addresses in close detail an effective step by step system of online promotion aimed specifically at creative professionals, including:

.

• Establishing a target market and creating a USP
• Expertly building a personal site
  
• Setting up on social media sites effectively
• Building up large online networks to engage with
• Setting up and running an effective mailing list
• 18 Ways + of driving traffic to sites
• Free advertising
• Alternative online promotional strategies
  
• Blogging
• Collaborating
• More

Early Reviews (more on the sales page when revealed):

.

Scott Belsky (Founder of Behance, the 99%, Author of Making Ideas Happen)

Ben O’Brien (Ben the Illustrator)

The 10 steps are clear and concise. They explain how online promotion works, what’s best to do and how to best do it, and how online promotion can effect you, your business and your career. Alex’ book is going to really reduce your workload!

.

Jerelle Kraus (former New York Times Art Director)

Alex’s book is all you’ll ever need to become an expert yourself. He dispels the outdated “filthy lucre” myth to which artists have long clung & replaces it with the tools to give you confidence in your ability to promote yourself with integrity.

If you are interested in becoming an affiliate to promote this book through your own channels, and earning 50% of each sale made, sign up to the affiliate mailing list below. Doing so means you have access to all affiliate materials, including a range of banners, and a clear guide on what to do.

Become an affiliate here!

To be in with a chance of winning 2 months worth of free advertising here on Red Lemon Club check this out.

.

Scott, who has been focused on working to understand how creatives can best organize themselves and their projects since the start of Behance, provides some fascinating insight into the origins of Behance and shares with us some useful knowledge on self-promotion, organization and relationship-building. He also reveals what he’s currently working on and what’s due to be released through Behance.

What made you decide to get involved in the creative industry?

There are two things that really inspired me:

1. The stuff that makes our lives interesting – the art, the design, and all of the original content – is all created by the creative professional community. But, unfortunately, creatives in particular face unique obstacles when it comes to actually making their ideas happen.

2. There is so much discussion in the creative world about inspiration and creativity, but very little discussion about organization and execution. I found this very frustrating. It seemed that creative professionals would become more effective – and thus benefit society even more – with assistance on execution, efficient self-promotion, and organization.

We created Behance with a very specific mission: To organize the creative world. We are not trying to increase creativity. On the contrary, we are trying to help creative leaders harness their own creativity and actually make ideas happen.

How did you think Behance would benefit creatives on first starting the site?

Our goal with the Behance Network was to maximize exposure and help organize the creative world’s work. When we interview some of the world’s leading recruiters and agencies, they complain about typical “portfolio sites” and how difficult it is to organize and navigate creative talent.

We developed Behance.net to be a neutral, powerful platform that organizes creative work based on location, field, and – to some degree – quality.

Behance.net is not designed to be a “social network”. We don’t use the word “friends” in Behance. Instead, the platform is designed to push careers forward. When you add a new project to your portfolio, it is automatically displayed in any other network you are a part of (such as AIGA or MTV) as well as other galleries, circles, and collections across the web.

You maintain complete control and ownership of your work, you select privacy and copyright settings, and you are always associated with your content.

We have already received incredible success stories from members who report “career-changing opportunities” that resulted from the Behance.net platform. And, we have some incredible new features and partnerships in the pipeline that will bring Behance.net to a new level.

How do sites like Behance allow creatives to promote themselves?

We believe that promotion should be an organic process. It’s not about sending unsolicited emails or self-promoting yourself on twitter. Instead, promotion should be about building respect.

As you build your “inner circle” in Behance.net – and more people and recruiters begin to follow your work – you will start to receive exposure and opportunities every time you publish a new project.

In Behance.net, you are represented by the quality of your work – not your connections or affiliations. We believe that this is a powerful mechanism that I have come to call “creative meritocracy.” You’ll see more on this in the future.

What, in your opinion, do creatives need to prioritze the most when it comes to getting their work seen?

Since I believe that the greatest marketing strategy in the creative world is building respect for your work, I think that all creatives should prioritize building relationships with their peers and potential clients.

This means exchanging feedback with others, taking part in industry conversations, and soliciting advice from others. These are all steps toward building relationships that could result in mutual respect.

What are your current projects?

My latest project – which took years – is my upcoming book Making Ideas Happen. After interviewing hundreds of creative leaders and teams that are especially good at making ideas happen, I have collected a series of insights that are critical.

They relate to organization, execution, marketing, and leadership capability.

I have also been very focused on the next generation of Behance’s products, including the Behance Network and Action Method, our online and offline productivity tools for creative professionals.

Thank you Scott!

I personally think Scott’s focus on harnessing ideas we already have, instead of always searching for new ways of increasing creativity is a very good one. This is one of the main things that make the difference between success and procrastination.

What does everyone think?

–

I’m a big advocate of Twitter, for keeping your sanity if you have an isolated work place, for getting feedback and inspiration from your peers, and for publicizing your work and goings on.

Twitter is a pretty minimal experience, which I love. It’s as far from Facebook in terms of complication and usability as you can get. There’s something innately more interesting about someone who’s made some effort with their avatar and Twitter page, and will often lead me to believe they’d be good to follow.

Your Twitter page is a great blank canvas to represent you! Take advantage of this and use it to display a business card style list of links, along with your eye-catching and stylish imagery.

I will show you how!

Step 1: Prepare the canvas.

The size is important because of how people view your page; it’s the trickiest bit. Different monitor sizes, be it a 15inch laptop, a 24inch monitor or bigger, mean the placement of your background image behind the central Twitter panel will vary. You can’t cater to everyone, unless you are creating a simple repeating pattern with no business card.

I decided to go for 1600 x 1200px, it means that most displays will fit, with some smaller ones slightly, but not completely obscuring our info.

Click images to enlarge.

TIP: It might be tempting to put something snazzy on the right hand side, such as your logo, but as the center panel is not stationary and expands from left to right, anything in that area is more likely to be obscured.

Step 2: Setup the work area.

Make sure your rulers are in view (cmd + R) and setup to measure in pixels (crtl + right click + select ‘pixels from the drop-down). Now drag out a vertical guide from the left rule, and place it 245px from the canvas edge (to add a precise measurement type the amount into the ‘X’ field at the top).

The area we’ve marked out between the canvas edge and our guide is our safe zone – we need to keep our business card info inside this area.

TIP: Make sure you lock your guides so you don’t accidentally move them, got to: ‘View’ > Guides > Lock Guides.

Step 3: Bring in your design elements.

I re-used elements from other work to keep it consistent with my brand and in keeping with my own website. Not essential, but I think it’s a good idea to fade your backdrop out from left to right, it adds to the idea of having a sidebar, without having a harsh edge to it.

Step 4: Add your business card style details.

I suggest bringing in a logo and making sure you keep whatever info you have, web address, social networking links etc, inline with it. With ‘Snapping’ turned on your ‘safe area’ guide will come in useful for this.

Step 5: Save.

Go to: File > Save for Web, and save it as a jpg at ‘High’ quality. All that’s left to do is upload it to Twitter, pick a complementary colour pallet for your center panel, and you’re done.

TIP: Twitter limits the file size of backgrounds to 800kb, for loading reasons you’ll want to keep it under this anyway, you shouldn’t have trouble achieving this -any problems, have a play with the ‘Save For Web’ quality settings.

Having knocked heads and discussed some ideas together, mainly with JC’s eye-opening input, we have compiled some of the main issues that add to as well as detract from great online portfolios. The post is split into rights and wrongs.

Rights

Be mindful of your target audience. Ask yourself the question: “Who is this portfolio site aimed at?” Knowing this, whether it is aimed at potential clients or art-directors, will help clarify exactly how you present your portfolio site. Be aware that the majority of visitors will want your work to be accessed quickly and easily.

Make your best work visible from the start. If you are an illustrator, have your best piece clearly visible or at least easily accessible from the homepage.

Be honest. Try not to embellish facts and details to look more impressive. This will come back to bite you eventually. Have a portfolio that truly represents your work and who you really are.

Be descriptive. Explain clearly and concisely everything that is appropriate to write about (see this post for writing well). This doesn’t mean waffling needlessly about your work, your interests and your background. Give enough information to create a picture of the kind of person you are and describes your work with detail and clarity.

Be mobile phone compatible. Viewing portfolios from a phone like an iPhone is becoming more and more prevalent. JC views a great deal of work from his iPhone, and will likely skip over portfolios that don’t ride well in mobile format. Here’s JC’s comment on iPhone mobile compatibility:

‘I’ve seen that generally they work better with blog-like layouts because thumbnails might end up being too small on the iPhone’s screen. I don’t have much experience with other mobile platforms, but most art directors I know have an iPhone.

Creating an iPhone version of the site is a good solution as well (a la Poolga). Sites with lots of thumbnails could consider organizing them in a list format, so that they are more viewable on a phone.’

Make your work shareable. JC uses the example of an art-director wanting to share samples of the work they see with a client or other members of the creative team. Make it easy for people to email links of specific images, for example, or to be able to copy and save images and other files from your site.

You might also want to consider adding social networking buttons to your portfolio so that it can easily be shared amongst everyone, even going viral.

Have professional and accessible contact information. Include a physical address. People like to know where in the world you are and this will add credibility to you. Include your agent or representative details if you have one. Make sure it is obvious from the homepage exactly where the rest of your contact information is.

Showcase your work in context. Whenever you can, display work you’ve done in the way it was published. For example, if you created an illustration for an advert, you can present an image of the final ad including the illustration in its entirety. Not only does this allow for people to see your work in its applied context, increasing the confidence in your prospects, but this will add value to the work you present.

Be clear and simple. Don’t make the process of viewing your work any more complicated than it should be. The best portfolios are those that display all they need to without being excessive. Clarity means that your site is easy to navigate and avoids clutter. Think zen!

Have your work easy to keep up with. People perusing your stuff might not be looking for your style for their projects right at that moment, but they may need you in the near future.

Make it easy for potential clients and so on to follow your work through enabling RSS subscription, creating a small blog that people can subscribe to, having a Twitter and Facebook account linked to from the site and having a mailing list to sign up to.

Categorize your work. As well as breaking your site down into relevant and distinct pages, consider dividing up the work you showcase according to category, perhaps into separate pages. Categories like ‘editorial’, ‘advertising’ and ‘personal work’, make it easier for prospects and art-directors to distinguish between the types of work they want to see.

Wrongs

Never updating your portfolio. Try to keep your site fresh and ‘buzzing’. It looks unprofessional if nothing changes in a long time. Updates also benefit the way your site gets indexed in search engines, as Google loves active websites.

Small thumbnails. Taking the guessing game out of opening portfolio pieces is recommended for the sanity of people browsing your work! Avoid a page full of tiny thumbnails that, when clicked, take a long time to load. If you do use thumbnails, make them large enough, so that users get a feel for them before clicking on them.

Being trigger-happy with your window settings. Most web surfers prefer having control over the windows and tabs that are up on their screens. Avoid having your page maximize itself, and cut down on pages that pop-up in separate windows.

Use low quality images. I get put off sites that contain images with low resolution, or appear blurry. It looks unprofessional and is a shame to downgrade work that otherwise might have appeared nicely in higher quality.

Make sure images and other files strike the right balance between resolution and internet load time. Save images for the web through editing programs like Photoshop or Gimp.

Using Flash for the sake of it. Some flash sites are well designed and work well for the purpose of the site. More often than not, using flash on a site is unnecessary and overly ostentatious, often proving plain annoying. Other problems that come with flash sites include not being able to link to individual pages from elsewhere, not being compatible with many mobile platforms, including the iPhone, the site taking up the whole screen, the back button dis-engaging, non-selectable text and non-selectable images.

Watermarking images excessively. Placing large watermarks on images etc just makes a portfolio look ugly and tacky. Your true audience, those that care about the work you produce, will be unlikely to steal your work. It is those people who your site is for. Unfortunately it is almost inevitable that your files can be copied if someone really desired them. The good thing about the Internet, however, particularly if you have a following, is that stolen work will likely be reported.

If you must use watermarks, a small signature on an image can be ok.

One last thing…

Provide the option to browse further. Design your portfolio site, if you can, to cater for both people who are skimming your work, and for those who want to delve a little deeper.

This means having a simple opening page with easily accessible work straight away, but also having pages that provide further detail, including testimonials and awards, blog updates, archives, your about page and interviews. Keep these visible, but out of the way of visitors who first arrive.

What does everyone think? Have we missed anything glaring?

Be sure to sign up to the mailing list to get your free book and unique weekly tips.

If, for example, you specialise in logo design, you’ll want your site to come up high on the search rankings for whenever potential clients type in ‘logo designers’. The single most effective way to get ranked higher on somewhere like Google, is to have a large number of sites (with high Google page ranks themselves) linking to yours. Google loves this.

One way of attracting several links to your site or blog is by submitting it to a range of web directories. These are online databases that classify websites that have been submitted according to their content. Once a site has been added to the directory, it will attract links from category pages full of sites that are relevant to the niche of that site.

Here’s how you can submit your site to online directories:

• Create a word or text file containing two descriptions of your site. These will be one longer paragraph (70-80 words) and one short paragraph (30-40 words) containing a range of relevant keywords to the content of your site (keywords you want people who search with them, to find your site with). Use of either the long and short descriptions is determined by what is required by the directory.
ANY_CHARACTER_HERE
• Save the text file to your desktop, so that you can copy and paste when needed.
ANY_CHARACTER_HERE
• Some directories require a list of keywords, so create a list that directly relates to the content on your site and the work you do (if your site is about your work) and keep it with your descriptions text file.
ANY_CHARACTER_HERE
• Make sure you follow the style and submission guidelines of each directory, and tailor your descriptions and other elements appropriately.
ANY_CHARACTER_HERE
• Sign up to the directory site (if you need to) and submit your site.
ANY_CHARACTER_HERE

There are various options available to you when submitting your site to directories. They can be paid, submitted through reciprocals, and free. It is worth looking into paid directories if you have some spare cash, as sites take much quicker to be accepted. However, for those of you looking for free incoming links, here is a list of 10 directories you can submit to for free:

1. Dmoz – dmoz.org

2. Web World Index – webworldindex.com

3. Librarian’s Internet Index – lii.org

4. Jayde – jayde.com

5. Little Web Directory – littlewebdirectory.com

6. Simple Directory – simple-directory.net

7. Intestyle – intestyle.com

8. I Web Info – iwebinfo.com

9. Web Directory – bizdirects.com

10. Turnpike Directory – turnpike.net

Please be patient with using the free directories, as some can take some time for site approval. You should notice more incoming links to your site and an improved search engine page ranking for the keywords you specify over time.

You can check what links are pointing to your site by typing:

‘link:www.yourdomain.com’ into search engine search boxes.

More suggestions and comments are encouraged!

Every once in a while, I will get a discussion going on the RLC Facebook Page that aims to bring together a collection of Internet resources, ideas and methods real people have found useful for their own self-promotional efforts.

This post focuses on a handful of sites that enable you to showcase your work, while having all kinds of other benefits too.

The comments area at the end of this post aims to extend the discussion further, so don’t hesitate to send through some feedback. It’s great karma for you!

Society 6

A site for artists and creatives to promote their work, connect and interact with others. I like the layout and clean design of the site. I’m also a fan of the voting system, which allows people’s work to be bumped up to the front page if it is popular. Some good exposure is afforded shortly after submitting work to the site, and you can sell prints through here as well. Society6.com

Behance

The site provides a single point of contact for anyone involved in creative industries. The site is for photographers, illustrators and designers. The site is beautifully designed, with some great opportunities to share links, showcase your work, notify people of your working status, look at all kinds of stats, and interact with others. The site can even be used as your default portfolio page. Behance.net

Pinkmuse

Pinkmuse is a service for artists to present work, browse galleries, message, critique, buy, sell, and search art by specific criteria such as artist name, school, city, medium, colour, mood, genre, material, dimension and price. Pinkmuse.com

Carbonmade

Containing close to 160,000 portfolios, Carbonmade is a crowded online space, but is one of the main hubs of creativity on the web. This provides an excellent opportunity for further self promotion across all creative disciplines. Carbonmade.com

Artwanted

As recommended by illustrator Jade Boylan: ‘You get a great portfolio set up and fantastic page and visitor stats right down to individual image hits and artwork comments‘. Artwanted.com

Creative Shake

Artist Dave Hile has had good results from this site. ‘In the last 2 years it has generated around $30,000 and costs about $450 per year (it might be $600 the first year). That’s a good return on investment. I haven’t gotten a lot of jobs from it, but the jobs I did get were large ones’. The site is for all kinds of creatives willing to showcase their porfolios for a price. Creativeshake.com

FormFiftyFive

A site that scours the web for the best in photography and design work. Also a great place for network building, setting up collaborations, interaction and inspiration. Formfiftyfive.com

Everycreative

A really nice online resource to enable further networking, collaborating and pitching for designers and other creatives. You can also use the site in finding work experience and gaining valuable feedback and advice from established industry workers. This is a great one. Everycreative.com

Of course, you don’t need to sign up to all of these, but perhaps have a look through some of the sites here you haven’t heard of, try them out, and see if they mould to your own style of work, and fit in with your own self promotion strategy.

With the web’s ability to link together people who can interact (key word here) in constantly growing online networks, the knowledge, expertise and support of people, along with their pre-established networks has never been more accessible.

Particularly through social media platforms like Facebook or Tagged, it has become possible to get through to ‘key influencers’ that may have been previously inaccessible, especially for creatives in the early stages of their careers.

Key Influencer: This is someone in your industry that has power; Power to lead, have influence, make change, inspire and support other people. This is through value created over the span of their own careers and through the value created by the number and quality of people in their own networks. They don’t have to be people you see on the TV everyday or who you read about in magazines, although these are ideal. These are also people who are active in their niches, industries and networks, are well connected and well respected.

Engagement with these key people and having access to their online networks holds the key to a substantial part of your self-promotional strategy. Any recommendation of you by such a person is very valuable, as is access to their networks, referrals, expertise and support.

Social media, for example, has allowed this engagement through the ability to ‘friend’ others, build relationships and become visible to these people, and subsequently their networks too. For example, the friends of people you ‘friend’ on Facebook will be aware of you on their newsfeeds whenever your primary contact interacts with you, joins your group, page, comments on a link, and so on.

Key influencers can be found using search engines, printed magazines, social media sites, popular YouTube videos, writers of popular blogs and online magazines etc.

Find people in your field who are key influencers, link up with them with an appropriate personal message on social media sites or an email that isn’t directly advertising anything and get them into your network.

Some Resources:

Popular People on Twitter

Tweepz / TweepSearch /  Twellow / We Follow / Twubble

Popular Blog Searching

Technorati /  Blogged /  MyBlogLog / BlogCatalog

Popular sites search:

Delicious /  Stumble / Digg /  Reddit /  Furl /  Squidoo

Social Media

Twitter People Search /  Facebook Advanced Search

Searching through groups and fan pages on Facebook using the standard search tool can yield results on active and popular members.

Comments and further suggestions are very welcome!

There are lots of other places on the web that cater for creative people, that help you build networks, meet new and interesting people, display your work and record your valuable info.

I’ve been on a hunt to find a selection of sites that cater for creatives that are less well known than Facebook, Twitter and the key others, but that could prove to be potentially more powerful for your exposure. Every social media site is different, has varying, unique features and attracts different kinds of people and networks.

Many of these sites integrate well with sites like Twitter, so can actually compliment your social media arsenal very nicely. All of these are free as far as I am aware.

Here is the low down in no order:

1. Ning.com

Users at last check: 36 million

Ning has established itself as the social media site that allows people to join and create specialist networks, bringing people together around shared pursuits. This could be a great place for creatives to establish focused niche networks, make new friends and contacts, express interests and share ideas.

2. Brightkite.com

Users at last check: 5 million visitors per month

BrightKite allows you to post new information and images about you and your work and interests for others to see, and obviously this can be valuable to creatives. It also allows you to search for other people’s posts and get inspired in the process, not to mention finding potential new contacts for your network, which you can integrate back into Twitter for example if you like.

What sets this site apart is its asymmetrical friend model, meaning you don’t need someone to confirm your friendship like on Twitter, for them to see your posts.

3. Naymz.com

Users at last check: 1 million +

This site is aimed at professionals looking to work their way up the career ladder. From the site: Naymz has taken a unique approach by applying the best of online networking and offering additional tools focused on reputation, personal branding, and identity verification.

4. Plurk.com

Plurk is a social networking and micro-blogging service similar to Twitter, but displays user updates on a chronological timeline, and has more of a diary feel to it. Plurk claims it is more digestible, easier to read etc. It could be worth having a go to try out the different interface to Twitter.

5. Plaxo.com

Users at last check: 20+ million

Plaxo combines online networking with an address book service, which automatically updates contact information. From the site: Users and their contacts store their information on Plaxo’s servers.

When this information is edited by the user, the changes appear in the address books of all those who listed the account changer in their own books. Once contacts are stored in the central location, it is possible to list connections between contacts and access the address book from anywhere.

It also brings in updates from other social sites like Flickr or Facebook into Plaxo’s feed.

6. Tagged.com

Users at last check: 80 million

Tagged is a straightforward networking site for building up a network of relevant people to your interests and industry. This a popular service, so will provide good access to new people, as well as potential clients. TechCrunch, in June 2009, ranked Tagged.com as the 6th most valuable social networking site in the world.

And there they are. I’m planning on signing up with all of these if I haven’t already, then writing a post on my experiences with each, to follow in a few weeks.

Comments, experiences, likes, dislikes very welcome!