Social networking websites, over the past few years, have rapidly increased in popularity. In fact their growth has been so fast that many are wondering why…

If you have used a social networking website before, it is likely that you are already aware of how popular they are and the reason for their rapid growth. There is just something about these websites that draw in millions of Internet users whether musicians, business owners or the average internet user. With such a wide variety of different social networking websites available to the general public, there are a wide variety of different reasons for their popularity and crazy growth. One those reasons being the ease of use.

Social networking websites are, for the most part, very easy to use. Most sites are easy to navigate, which is a plus with any website. In fact, most of the networks require little knowledge of the Internet other than point and click.

In addition to being easy to navigate, social networking websites also make it much easier to meet new fans and contacts online. There are many musicians and internet users who would love to make new friends online; but that can sometimes prove difficult to accomplish. However, with the use of social networking making these contacts can be easily accomplished and in a very short time.

Without social networking websites, you would have to connect with Internet users in chat rooms and by using random contact methods like email. You’d also have to learn about their interests before deciding if you would like to even consider them as your “buddy.” Well, now social networking sites allow you to learn a ton of information about another person before making contact with them.

Yet another one of the many reasons why social networking sites have become so popular is because most are free to use. In fact, the majority of today’s social networking sites, like MySpace, Facebook and Yahoo! 360, are free to use.

But despite being free to use, most of these websites do require that you register with them before you’ll be granted access. Registration will not only allow you to create your own profile and your online webpage, but it also allows you to begin contacting and networking with other members.

Although most social networking websites are free to use, there are some that are not. Classmates provides free registration at this time but also includes 3.5 million paid members as well. Some of these websites will give you a free trial period or a free membership and the trial or free membership can be used to help you determine whether or not the website you’ve registered with is really worth paying for.

What can be nice about paid online social networking websites is that they can be considered exclusive. Because most Internet users don’t or won’t pay for something that they can get for free, paid social networking sites are limited on the number of members they have. This can work out to your advantage because it tends to eliminate those who create fake accounts or whose sole purpose is to cause and generate controversy online.

Social networking websites are also popular because they come in a wide variety of formats. For instance websites like Yahoo! 360 and MySpace focus on a wide variety of different topics and this means that pretty much anyone can join. On the other hand, there are social networking sites that have very defined and particular focus. These focuses may be, as I mentioned in the first part of this series, a particular religion, musical genre, political following, or hobby and of course for the most part these specialty social networking sites restrict the type of individual that can participate in their network. This can make your experience more enjoyable as you’ll be able to gel with peers having a common goal or outlook.

Finally, social networking focuses on meeting new people, and in the case of musicians, fans and industry contacts are the type of people you’ll be most interested in meeting. This is especially true online, but during recent months, and I have no reason to believe that this will change any time soon, many have started including additional features made only available to their paid members. Many social networking members can receive their own free webpage; get free access to popular music videos, a free blog, a location to have fans download their music and many other value added features.

Although social networking websites are popular enough to bring in members on their own, these additional features are, in a way, providing musicians and internet users with an added incentive to join and more and more social networking sites are beginning to pop up as a result of the popularity and the added revenue streams they provide.

I previously mentioned some of the more popular social networking sites available online but I’ve recently come across a brand new one that in my opinion is going to set the Internet on fire. It’s a social networking site that allows musicians to upload their music and get paid for any downloads that are made.

General (non musician members) can download all the music they want for free and artists get paid. It’s a match made in heaven and should prove interesting to the debates over the legalities of illegal downloading. We’ll have to wait and see if they can solve this problem that appears to be a very big thorn in the record industry. Who knows, maybe Kerchoonz will become one of the new Big Boys of the record industry.

Only time will tell…

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