How To Get Staretd At MySpace, on a Blog, Or Other Social Network

        We left off with the display name change. OK, let's log back into MySpace and start again. You type in your email address and password that you used to get started and that will take you to your friend, the home page.   Did you get acquainted with this page and explore around awhile? If not, take some time and do that now. Pay particular attention to the "edit profile" link and the boxes on the page. After you click the "edit profile", a description of the boxes on that page follows.   The Headline space contains whatever you want to show just above your picture on your profile page. It will not be the same thing as on your home page. Remember, your home page is for your eyes only, but your profile is what your friends see. So feel free to type whatever you want here and change it as often as you wish to. Some, like myself, leave it the same all the time. I just type Wavecritter here so it is easy for all to know my username. Some, like to change it every week or so, depending on their mood. It is entirely up to you. When you start venturing out and making friends, you will see what others do. I recommend making one change in one box at a time. After you add the type for Headline, click save all changes. You will then see a red typed "profile updated" above the save all changes button.   Before we get into the other boxes, starting with the "About Me" section, I think we ought to cover the other type click areas along the horizontal line of the "interests and personality" link. The one next to the "interests and personality" is "Name", this one we covered last time, then, there is "Basic Info", let's click there now. Most of this is already filled out for you, but if you want, you can choose to type in your occupation, your ethnicity, your body type, height (if you fill this is be sure to unclick the little no answer box under height), and what you are here for, I click friends and networking. Then click "save changes". Again, you should see the red type "profile updated above gender.   On to "background and lifestyle", here you have options for marital status, sexual orientation, hometown, religion, whether you smoke or drink, if you have children, your education, and income. Feel free to leave any of these as "no answer". The only one that you will need to choose is the marital status, this is set to single as a default choice. Under "income" click "save changes" and once again you will see the red "profile updated". It's getting kind of easy now, isn't it? That is good, getting your comfort level higher, raising the bar.   Next is adding your schools, company you work for or wish to promote, and then "song and video on profile". Let's go over this one next, I am certain that you can handle the other two solo.   This link is fairly self explanatory as well, but I will walk you through a bit. First, decide if you want a song to play on your view profile page. If so, click on "find a band in MySpace music", (you can still see the home page link, you can always go back home and start over), the search artists box is where you will type in the artist or song title you are wanting to put on your site. After you type it in, click search. Don't stress over a song title or band name if you can't think of any because the next page you can just choose a type of music to search. Like Rock, Pop, Country, Hawaiian, or Jazz and many more. While you look around, remember that you can click on the blue type names of the bands and then go right back by clicking your back arrow button located by the address bar way up in your browser window. Also, there is a search criteria box on the right where you can change what music you are viewing. This is also a great way to make some celebrity friend while you choose your music. When you click on an artist name in blue type, you then go to their profile page. Find the "add friend" link under their picture or close by, click that, click confirm add, then it will say "an email has been sent to add this user. You then have the option to view the artist profile again, click the back button until you get back where you want, go home and start over, or go back and add a video.   When you do find a song that you would like to add that is on a player box, look next to the song on the right, there will be an "add" click. Click it, and a page with a box saying "Do you really want to add this song to your profile?" will show. Click yes, and it will say that the song has been added to your profile. You can now either go back to the artist's profile or go home.   Back at the home page click edit page again, and song and video on profile. This is all starting to come natural, isn't it? Now, the same process for a video, if you want to look for one. Although, when you get into the Myspace TV section, the home link is all the way at the top more toward the right side. It says MySpace Home. The link to add the video is directly under the playing video as you choose to view them, not in the long list of potential viewable videos. Then return to your home page.   Now, we will explore your account settings link just below the edit profile next to your picture. We already covered the time settings. The next link is your password. If you ever want to change your password, click here and fill in the boxes for current, new, verify (just retype your new password here) for passwords, then type in the letters from the safety box and click save changes. The privacy link is for your general privacy settings, here you can choose to show others your birthday, when you are online, profile viewable or not by everyone, photos, or you can choose to block a user here. The spam link is for more specific privacy settings. Read through the list and check or uncheck the "x boxes" and then save changes. Remember that whatever you do can be changed if you redo the step and click save changes. The notifications link is for e-mail and newsletter notifications. You choose whether or not you wish to receive these here, then click save changes. The mobile and calendar links work just the same way.   The miscellaneous tab has settings for your music to start automatically or not, your profile settings for HTML comments (the cool pictures that people like to post), and if you are going to be away from MySpace for a time to set a message for your friends.   Now, back to the home page and I will point out some important areas here. Just below your friends area will be a view birthdays. People love to get birthday wishes and this link will take you right to the friends having birthdays soon so you can click on their picture, view their profile, and add a comment to their profile page.   View your own profile at this time, the link to do that is directly under your picture, it will say view profile, pics, videos, blog, comments, friends, groups and get used to the layout. The message, add friend, view friends, add comment, subscribe to blog, and bulletins.   The difference between a message and a comment is that the message is private to your friend, and the comment goes directly on the profile page for everyone to see. Now, your blog listings do not get sent to anyone except people who subscribe to them. And the only way they can see them is to go to your profile page and click on your blog listings. The bulletin post section is for you to be able to post one comment for all of your friends at the same time, listed in their bulletin sections on their home page, not their profile page.   So, to view another persons profile, you click on their picture, and you will be taken to their profile page. From here you can add them as a friend or interact with them in other ways. The search and invite links will help you find friends, I am teaching you how to fluff your page, so I won't get into that. I am certain, once we are finished, you will be navigating like a pro.   The biggest and fluffiest part is yet to come. So, again, play around and get comfortable with the view of the boxes on your edit profile page, because part three will make your space shine.   Stephanie Haile AKA Wavecritter