I cannot imagine doing anything on the internet without knowledge, but knowledge can come very expensive.

I also realise that communication is of the utmost importance. If you want to tell people about your product or service, you need a good and reliable form of communication. So now what??? You have tried eMail marketing and classified Ads, you have tried Traffic Exchanges and Safe Lists, but you still don't see any results. You are still looking for the magic figures to show up in your PayPal account, but there is zero to very little activity.

You have heard somewhere along the grapevine that Social Networking is THE THING OF THE MOMENT, but, alas, you have no idea of where to start and what to do.

Networking is definitely the way to go. This may take a little more of your time (MAYBE) than safelists and such like, but it brings in better results. Let me explain...

You are selling broom handles, so you go to a lot of trouble writing the perfect messages to promote this in Safelists and other email marketing. You explain in detail what material the broom handles are made from, what advantages it has over any other product...it is light weight, it adjusts to fit any kind of broom, you can adjust the lenght to suit your you height, etc, etc, etc... After carefully checking your message to make sure you didn't forget anything, log in to your advertising resources one by one, and send the message to thousands of people. Then you find that some places have a limit to the number of characters or words you may use, so back to the drawing board...cut, cut, snip, snip....aahh - at last the word count is right, and you have still more or less kept the message to the main points (hopefully), so you post more adverts. Then comes the placing of the links in Traffic Exchanges,

Don't forget the surfing of Traffic Exchanges and reading of hundreds of emails to have enough credits to send your adverts and place your links!! By now you have spent half a day or more at your computer and can only HOPE that someone reads your advert.

Unfortunately for you, Jack Sprat, Tom, Dick and Harry and their mates are all selling broom handles too, and are using very much the same advertising as you are - Result - Potential customers don't know who to buy from, so they respond to the first advert for broom handles that they see. It may be yours, but it could be one of many others... not to even mention how many thousnads are not looking for broom handles, and another few thousand don't even bother to read your carefully worded message.

There is a better way!!

If you are a member of social networks, interact with your contacts on a personal level, getting to know them, and vice verse. You build a rapport with them getting them to like and trust you, so, if there are people looking for broom handles among your contacts (who are really your friends now) they will be more likely to buy from you than someone they don't know at all. They will know where to find you in case of a problem, or if their friends want to buy some they would be willing to recommend you.

That is the difference between networking and promoting in other ways.

Now for the good news. Remember I mentioned knowledge in the very first paragraph...You can gain a lot of knowledge by attending some free webinars on how to make the best use of Twitter, Skype and LinkedIn. Yes I said FREE!!

Be sure to make a note of the following events and dates:

• Twitter Tips: June 16th Noon ET

• Skype Skills & Strategies: June 23rd 6pm ET

• LinkedIn Lessons: June 30th Noon ET

Check the time here to see what the time will be in your part of the world

You can attend any one, or all three...just be sure to register as soon as possible. Please complete the poll at the bottom of that lens to make it easier for us to establish your needs.

If you are unable to attend one or more of the live teleseminars, sign up anyway - there will be audio recordings available as a download, BUT you will not be able to access the recording unless you sign up first. It's a good idea to do that right now, to make sure you have the recording available to you!