Why You Should Avoid Paid Social Networking Sites
Read More: We all know that social networking sites are growing very fast. In fact, while the total internet audience grew by 11% last year, the number of new social networking site users grew by 25%.
Facebook holds the top spot among social networking sites, with 153% growth in the past year. MySpace still holds the No. 2 spot, but its growth over last year was just 3%.
Despite this tremendous growth, so far advertising on these social networking sites is nothing short of anemic, according to a report by market research firm IDC.
According to the IDC, more than three-quarters of social networking site users log on at least once a week, and 57 percent do so daily. And more than 61 percent of users spend at least half an hour on these sites per session, with 38 percent staying at least an hour.
Despite these numbers, social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook significantly underperform when compared to overall online advertising. Only 57 percent of social networking users report clicking on an ad in the past year. That compares to 79 percent of all internet users.
These numbers are part of the reason behind the evolution of a fairly new trend, which is paid social networking sites. There are too many to mention, but a few that come to mind are Yowie, Yippi, and Mylot. Before you spend any money or invest your time in any of these sites, educate yourself on what social networking is all about.
The paid social networking sites have largely developed a platform to take advantage of the tremendous success of sites such as Facebook. Their pitch is that they will become just as huge as Facebook and allow you to share in a piece of the pie. So they encourage you to pay to join (although some like Yowie offer free membership) and then recruit other people to join as well.
This sounds a lot like network marketing, doesn’t it? But stop and think about it. Why would you want to befriend anyone whose sole purpose of wanting to interact with you is due to money? The people using the paid social networking sites aren’t interesting in “social networking”. Their goal isn’t to share information with people and meet new people. They want to make money. Just like there are some people who join a network marketing business not because they like the products, but because they want to make money. I would argue that both groups are missing the point and will ultimately fail.
Social networking sites are a great opportunity to share information, make contacts, learn new things and create a community support. To be successful at social networking, you have to be a solutions provider and a thought leader. If you’re not sure what to write about, think about where you can add value, and specifically, think about what makes you unique in terms of what other people want. How can you help people be successful?
I have met some absolutely incredible people thanks to social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Hubpages, Squidoo and Digg. While even at the free sites there are people there just out to make a sale, by and large, I’ve met some amazing people who really get it. It’s about helping others, giving freely of your time and knowledge, and opening your mind to learning from others as well. If you go into it with the right mindset and educate yourself on how to conduct yourself on social networking communities, you’ll be amazed at the value you can gain. And for free.
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Comments: 5 
Great Article!
That's a great article Cindy.
You're absolutely right. There are so many people just trying to make a buck with an opportunity who aren't there because they love the product. I have some rules when evaluating a business and one of them is that I would buy the product and tell people about it even if there were no business opportunity attatched to it. You're so right, they are missing the point!
All the best for your success, Adrian Armstrong
Great article
Thanks Cindy for sharing this information, its helped with some guidance about social networking sites, now I can look out for some you have mentioned.
True Friendship
Bethune
Another great reason to ..
Cindy you have highlighted one of the best reasons for being a part of the BetterNetworker site.
Like you, I think there is a lot more money to be made by making friends and sharing ideas than there is by trying to pick up a few commissions.
The only advantage I can see to a paid community site is if it is run by someone you are looking to study under, and they actively help and guide you. These sites avoid the large quantity of spam and junk posts.
However, as you say if one looks around you can pretty much find someone who is able to tell what you need to know for free.
Sometimes the obvious is right in front of our nose.
Hi Cindy,
Just a thought !
Are we not all interested in making money ?
On the internet or whatever...? Or why are we here?
OK! I agree it is a very good site for social networking...Wait ..
But have we not got the best site overall. ie,. socially and we can also pitch our opportunities
in the right places of course....
So while we are here waiting for our downlines to appear as if by magic ..what can we do about it !!
Good now that we are being honest that is why we are all here !
The good thing about Better Net Worker is that we do have areas that we can push our Company!!
I have just started a new group on Better Net Worker called..How to Generate Leads... (not I repeat not My Main Company)Just a way for people to get paid....WOW factor believe me.
Feel free to call by and offer some Ideas ...
What do you think about a place where you can create as many real time leads as you need ..
And get paid every 5 days low investment ..this is what is needed for everyone we know to give them seed money..ultimatly bring them over to BN.
Wayne Iremonger
Interesting article
I don't think you should pay to join a social networking site either. Social Networking is about passion and voice.
I do think it's OK if the site generates revenues through advertisements and sales on purchases.
The reason we created our company is to target specific social groups. I'm a happily married man with a great family. When I'm on Facebook, Myspace and some of the others I'm bombarded with advertisements and pictures I don't prefer to look at. So we decided to develop a software template for social networking sites.
Now if you're an expert and passionate about a particular subject you can own your own social networking site. For example my friend is a Christian business women however she does not know how to program and build a social networking site. We licensed her http://purposeforchrist.com/ and now she is running her own social networking site.
This allows her to write blogs, matte releases, network and produce blog radios with other Christians. She is passionate about this subject and we call her a Subject Matter Expert. It just so happens she is friend with the VP of sales of a major Christian publisher and once she gets a certain amount of unique members they'll pay big bucks to advertise on her site and give her, her own online store which she'll make money off the purchases.
They told her since her Social Networking Site was targeted to Christians in the market place they would pay more for the advertisement because of the target market.
So she is pursuing her passion and soon she'll make enough money to quit her JOB and grow her site. She will not become insanely rich, but she'll earn a great living doing what she loves to do.