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By: Gef Smith, Mon Dec 11th, 2006
As you know MySpace is a heaving hive of activity with millions of subscribers each vying for each others friendship and attention. If Kinsey is even close to right at least 10% of those people are gay or at least looking for some sort of attention from a member of the same sex. The fact is that the gay scene on MySpace is huge and growing at a rapid daily basis. Are you gay and love roller coasters? Guess what there are others out there! What if you like to hit the circuit each season, baby there are plenty of fish in that sea! Even the home body that only goes out to collect the paper and milk would be amazed at just who else loves labradores almost as much as he does. As a brief guide this article will give you my seven top tips to meeting and greeting on MySpace and other networking sites (yes there are even gay ones!)....
1. First things first you need an account! If you don't have an account you aint welcome to the party! It's pretty cut and dry like that. Dont stress, setting up an account is actually really easy. If you set aside a lazy 30 minutes you will be able to set up a profile that will have your ideal friends flocking in to join thier networks.
2. I don't care how deep you are in the closet, you have to have a photo. Lets face it a picture tells a thousand words and if you dont have one what exactly are you saying? People are fickle and they want to see what they are in for. I highly recommend a good head shot, dont forget to smile (forget what those hard core EMO's are doing, I would rather have one smiling friend then a hundred grumpy sullen people on my friends list. Ok Ok I understand that some of you are the left hand man of the president and you cant possibly have your picture on the net (national security you know). IF you cant have a head shot at least have something interesting and probably not stolen from the latest edition of playgirl. Gay people are smart and tend to know thier porn stars... Do you really want to be the 37th Jeff Stryker out there on MySpace? ... Or perhaps you do.
3. Be honest! Call out to exactly the sort of people you want to meet. If you like rose gardens great! THere are tonnes of other gay gardeners out there just begging to meet you. There is not point in saying you are an avid gardener if all you are looking for is a torid one night stand with a United flight attendant. Let them know what you want, after all you might just get the upgrade you have been begging for.
4. Having made your space you can even pimp your space if you like. There are dozens of places now were you can add bells and whistles to make your site even more suited to yourself. You can add backgrounds, music, video... It really is amazing what you can do. As long as you can copy and paste, you can use these sites to make your space shine like you. Do a google search on mod myspace to find the better ones. One caviat tho. Remember that other people will have to read it, if you have so many things flashing that your ideal mates are going into fits, you may have gone over board. A little tinsel is nice, the whole freeking tree can be a bit overwhelming.
5. Get out there and find some friends... Ok you have set the ideal cyber love nest, lets get some friends to check it out. My number one trick is to do a search for what I am looking for. Almost all the social networking sites have search boxes, some more complex then others. I have found that the word gay and then what you are looking for will find you pages and pages of potential new friends. Check the top few out. Like the look? Go on be a devil and hit the "add to friends" button, you have nothing to lose and a great new friend to gain. What will happen is that your request will be sent to you new mate and they will either add you or not, no sweat most people are more then happy to meet new people. Guess what, they were in the same position as you some time, they will usually be there with open arms. Some people like to send a message with thier invite, if you like the personal touch, great, I have found that the chance of being added are much higher with a friendly email to introduce yourself.
6. Get to know your friends friends... Guess what if your new friends is a total roller coaster freek, chances are that his friends may be as well. Have a look at the friends of your new mates. As they say, birds of a feather flock together. As you expore and add more friends you will soon discover why these social sites are so addictive. As you add each new friend you are being introduced to a whole bunch of their friends... Before you know it you will have more friends then you can poke a stick at!
7. Don't get too serious. This can be a fun activity and a great way to meet some cool people. As you go along there is a good chance that you will get a few rejections, it's no sweat. Just give them a pass and check out thier friends :) I have found that just be being there, answering messages and engaging in some of the more fun aspects you will meet more then your share of fun, interesting people. Not everyone is going to be your cup of tea, thats life (not everyone like tea!) By not sweating the small stuff you will have a huge horizon of fun and potential.
I hope that this has been a useful primer to you in getting started in some gay social networking. More info is on it's way so keep an eye on the horizon.
Gef is a webmaster who was crazy enough to start his very own gay social net working site, 100% gay, exclusively for the gay market. Check out this hot new site today and begin your social network at My Gay Zone today, I'm waiting for ya!
http://mygayzone.com