10 Ways to Make Money with MySpace

How can I make money with MySpace? Or rather, should you even bother with developing MySpace as another source of online income? As a social network that sees very heavy daily visitor traffic from millions of users, MySpace has been the target of aspiring entrepreneurs, internet marketers and webmasters.

As everyone knows, traffic of all sorts can be transformed into profit through various monetization methods. MySpace is no exception.

A large number of webmasters, marketers and businesses are trying to promote their products on websites on MySpace and the effects can be seen in the large amount of spammy advertisements across the MySpace network.

It would not be inaccurate to say that making money on MySpace is incrementally more difficult now because of market saturation, due to the entry of so many businesses or individuals who are trying to get a piece of the lucrative MySpace pie.

Personally, I’ve always been interested in MySpace marketing and MySpace related websites because of the sheer market size that MySpace commands.

I’m also one of those optimistic enough to believe that it’s still possible to make money with MySpace. In my opinion, one just needs to be skilled at selecting the right monetization method and knowledgeable about the different tactics you can use to market your product or business.

MySpace and Commercial Activity

It is important to know that you can’t promote affiliate programs or commercial services openly on MySpace since its against their Terms of Agreement. This is something to keep in mind before you begin any type of marketing or promotional method.

Point 5 on MySpace’s TOS talks about Non-Commercial Use by Members:

The MySpace Services are for the personal use of Members only and may not be used in connection with any commercial endeavors except those that are specifically endorsed or approved by MySpace.com.

Illegal and/or unauthorized use of the MySpace Services, including collecting usernames and/or email addresses of Members by electronic or other means for the purpose of sending unsolicited email or unauthorized framing of or linking to the MySpace Website is prohibited.

Commercial advertisements, affiliate links, and other forms of solicitation may be removed from Member profiles without notice and may result in termination of Membership privileges. Appropriate legal action will be taken for any illegal or unauthorized use of the MySpace Services.

What this actually means for MySpace marketers is that aggressive and blatant advertising will not work. Everything that you do will have to be somewhat under the radar, especially when it comes to selling products or services.

10 Ways to Make Money from MySpace

I’ve dug around the web and haven’t really found any useful guide to making money with MySpace and so I’ve decided to come up with my own list of methods you can use to earn some extra money from MySpace.

Most of the items on this list came from several webmaster friends who earned a consistent income through the funneling of MySpace traffic to highly relevant websites with various monetization options.

Depending on your personal ethics, some of the methods on the list may not be methods that you will want to pursue. That’s perfectly fine. My aim was just to record down a list of the ways that one can possibly use to make money through MySpace.

Here is the list in full:

1. Bulletin-based Advertising. Mastering this is the first and most fundamental step towards making money with MySpace. Add as many friends as possible (either manually or through automated software) and learn to send out bulletins or comments which drive traffic towards your money-making sites.

   Depends on how targeted or aggressive your broadcasting, these methods can be regarded by MySpace and other users as spam.

2. Use Affiliate programs. Direct Myspace traffic to your website which contains your affiliate links or product feeds. I suggest going for Cost Per Action programs which only require the visitor to submit his or her email address or sign up for a free account with any website.

   Dating network, free X360 offers or ringtones would generally do well although some affiliate networks may not be too pleased if you primarily get all your affiliate traffic from MySpace alone. Mixing MySpace into your overall affiliate marketing strategy will be more balanced and useful.

3. Start a MySpace Resource site. Your aim is to make money through Adsense and other advertising by driving MySpace traffic to your site.

   The main attraction of your site will be the availability of free MySpace resources such as templates, codes, graphics and survey generators etc. Note however, that many webmasters have reported poor click values for MySpace resource sites because of the low paying ads.

4. Create dozens of accounts everyday and sell them to webmasters which are looking to promote their website on MySpace. There is actually demand for multiple Myspace accounts in webmaster and affiliate marketing forums.
5. Offer Advertising Space for webmasters and businesses. This will only work if you have a large number of friends on your MySpace accounts. You can probably charge webmasters a fee for putting up a link to their website or business.

   This is usually done through bulletin-style notices that go out to multiple members or mass commenting. Think of it as something similar to an email list.

6. Partner with independent musicians and bands to reach out to their fan base. This will allow you to get some sales for your products if they are highly relevant. I suppose that T-shirts and fashion accessories will do well when they receive personal recommendations from musicians.
7. Create and Sell Myspace scripts or templates. You can either set up your own website to sell these templates or sell them to MySpace Resource websites, who are always looking for new material. Keeping the price competitive is an important factor here.
8. Build a MySpace website around your business. For example, if you are selling shoes, you could build a MySpace page which highlights a specific section of your website (E.G. sports sneakers, vintage shoes) which would appeal to the MySpace market. This will usually get some visitors to your website and may lead to actual sales.
9. Start a Proxy site. Proxies are websites, which allow users to surf websites which may be banned in a specific locality. They are usually monetized by Adsense or other types of contextual based advertising.

   Proxies are popular with the MySpace crowd because it allows them to bypass web filters that are set up by the schools or businesses to block Myspace websites. There are a lot of proxies out there and competition for MySpace and other internet users is quite strong.

   I suggest getting into the Proxy business only if you really know how to promote your proxy effectively on both MySpace and the search engines.

10. Use MySpace Groups for targeted marketing. Visit the category relevant to your business and carefully drop targeted links to your website, which should contain useful content alongside affiliate programs/Adsense.

A List of MySpace-friendly Websites and Affiliate Programs

Like any other type of market, picking a highly relevant affiliate program or website and promoting it through MySpace is absolutely vital for monetary success.

The MySpace market is made up of mostly teenagers, so choosing products or websites which appeal to their interests would be very useful indeed.

Here is a list of some websites and affiliate programs which will work well with the MySpace crowd.

• Humor and Entertainment websites
• Social Video websites
• Free music and games download sites
• Wallpaper download websites
• MySpace Resource websites
• Free Ringtone download websites/affiliate programs
• Free software/application download websites
• Music related websites
• Dating/Social networking websites
• Online clothing/T-Shirts websites and affiliate programs

Just to point out that I’ve not included any specific MySpace scripts or tools which can automate the profile building or marketing process because there are just far too many of them out there.

If there’s enough interest, I might cover these scripts and the overall marketing/traffic directing process in a separate post. Leave a comment and let me know what you think.