I have written this article because of a huge and growing interest that there is in MySpace, the sort of explosion of interest that has not been seen for quite some while. I hope that this article will provide some helpful guidance to those people who are just getting started on this.

MySpace is an online community which offers members the tools they need to create a website for other members of the community to view. MySpace also hosts these websites and provides search features which enables visitors to find information about particular members or members who have certain hobbies.

Opening a MySpace Account

The process of opening an account is fairly simple and takes place almost instantly. Members who wish to join the online community only have to provide some basic information and agree to the terms of service to be granted membership. The basic information which is required to request membership is a full name, a valid email address and a password containing alpha and numeric characters. After supplying this information and checking a box which states you agree to the terms of service your application process is complete. You are then sent an email with a welcome letter and a link which will activate your account. You only need to click on this link and enter your email address and password to activate your account.

Understanding the Terms of Service

Reading and agreeing to the terms of service is required for membership to the MySpace community but members should review these terms regularly and should be sure they understand all of the terms. This is important because violation of these terms could result in the members account being deleted or legal action being taken against the individual. Some of the highlights of the terms of service are:

Members must be at least 14 years of age and must report their age accurately.
Members are responsible for keeping their password secret and reporting suspected cases of others using their password.
Commercial use of MySpace is prohibited unless prior authorization from MySpace is received.
Users must not publish any copyrighted materials on their website without permission.
Members may not post content which is prohibited by the terms of service.

Now if all of this sounds a bit negative then fear not, most terms of agreement do, but this need not hamper your involvement in the community.

Designing a MySpace Website

The process of designing a MySpace website is one of the most exciting parts of membership for many. It is also one of the most complicated parts of the membership. However, it is not incredibly difficult and even those with limited HTML or other design skills can create a great website.

MySpace members have a great deal of control over the appearance and content of their website. They are only limited by their own design skills. The homepage for your MySpace account features the following links,

Edit Profile
Account Settings
Add Edit Photos
Add Change Videos
Manage Calendar
Manage Blog
Manage Address Book

The Edit Profile section is the one which allows members to add the bulk of the content to their profile. This section is broken down into subcategories such as interests and personality, name, basic info, background and lifestyle, schools, companies, networking and profile songs.

Some of these subcategories, such as the interests and personality section, contain titles with text boxes where members can add text and HTML code to modify the appearance of their website. During the design process, members can preview either individual sections or the entire profile. Other sections, such as the background and lifestyle section, have a series of questions where members can supply answers with pull down menus or radial buttons. These features make it easy for members to supply basic information about themselves in a quick and easy fashion. They only have to answer the questions and MySpace integrates the answers into the design of the website.

Now this has just been a brief overview for those people interested in getting started. There is a veritable ton of information out there on this subject and time spent on research will be well rewarded. May I suggest that you make a visit to your local bookstore, your local library, find a helpful Blog on the subject, and spend some time looking up this subject on the internet.

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