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Here’s an exclusive interview I did with Doug Aker, Business Development Manager at Kual Media on how to generate massive profits from social-networking web sites:Larisa: Doug, it’s great to have you with us here. You’re popularly known as the social-networking expert who got invited by Yanik Silver to speak at one of his events. First off, what is social-networking and why is it so profitable?

Doug: Social-networking is simply a medium for users to interact, share, and meet others. The real reason why it’s so profitable is becausers it’s far from being tapped to it’s potential. Honestly, there is such little competition. It focuserss on your ability to market to like-minded users as opposed to how advanced your marketing skills are. So, anyone - newbie to advanced - can get a piece of the pie with the right kind of marketing style.

Larisa: What was your motivation for using social networking?

Doug: I’ve been involved with social-networking for years, before it became a big trend in the internet marketing circle. It just seemed like the right fit at the right time - knowing that since I’ve already been engaged in a lot of web 2-related apps, it was time to get involved. But, more importantly, what really sparked my interest was:

- How can one include some other style of marketing that’ll allow you to set yourself apart from all the other traditional MySpace marketers.

And, I’ve spent a year seeking that answer out, fine tuning it, and now have a solid system at Ready.Aim.Wired.

Larisa: Excellent. How did you get started in social networking?

Doug: Sometime last year, just wanted to stick away from selling internet marketing-related products, so I moved into the dating niche promoting affiliate products through Clickbank and other popular ‘pick-up’ products in the dating industry.

Larisa: The dating niche is pretty hot. What problems did you face in the beginning?

Doug: My rule has always been to go where the money is. It’s a waste of time to seek out untapped niches.

Let’s see,. in the beginning I was still relatively new to internet marketing. In fact, I’ve only been involved with it for over a year. But, the main problems were how MySpace always counteracted over and over which really pissed me off and others. In terms of ‘patching adder bots’ or some security flaw, things like that made it more difficult.

Larisa: ‘Patching adder bots.’ What did it do?

Doug: MySpace friend adder application, like Badder Adder, had an ability to bypass the ‘captcha’ codes so you could perform more friend requests. MySpace would continuously try to patch it so no one could users those application tools.

Larisa: I see. How did you overcome those problems?

Doug: For a long time, I didn’t. I realized that the process was just very laborious until I discovered the whole concept of outsourcing the task on freelancing websites. Totally changed everything. I don’t even touch it anymore.

Larisa: Outsourcing is a great concept, indeed. What specific tips would you give for looking for the right freelancers?

Doug: First things first. I don’t recommend outsourcing till you’ve built profiles pulling in a profit. Some key pointers:

- Make it as wasy and simple as hell for these guys. Don’t complicate it.

- Search web sites like GetAFreelancer, Guru, eLance, Craigslist, ScriptLance

- You have to specifically state what you need done and qualify your prospects. Example - at the end of my postings I’ll say something like, “Do not bid if you are not serious,” “You will put a placer bid,” “You have no experience in MySpace marketing,” or “You have no feedback.”

You need to weed out the crappy prospects and focus on the more qualified ones for the job. I won’t deal with anyone who has no feedback. Seriously. That’s the best advice I can give.

Larisa: There’ve been so many horror stories in outsourcing, you can’t be too careful.

Doug: I’ve had my fair share before coming to the realizations I just mentioned.

Larisa: If you had to do social-networking everywhere again, what would you do differently?

Doug: I would read my own ebook. Seriously, I actually would. I’d focus on selling high ticket products through MySpace. Only now I’ve been making that shift.

One of my coaching students in my program I helped out tremendously, and learned about a ‘direct sales system’ he crafted incorporating MySpace. I ended up helping the guy out and he’s cranking sales up to $15,000 for a service on MySpace, utilizing a lot of techniques described in Ready.Aim.Wired. Now that isn’t to say everyone should focus on that. That’s just me personally - always depends where you’re at in your business.

Larisa: There’s a lot of ways to make money online but MySpace is one of the great marketing tools these days. And Ready Aim Wired really provides some cutting-edge strategies for profiting from MySpace. Is there any hard and fast rule you would recommend to someone new to MySpace and social networking?

Doug: Focus on building qualified groups of prospects through relationship/interaction, pre-sell them to your landing pages, and capture leads. Best way to put it , but that’s a story in itself on how to do it . Of course, Ready.Aim.Wired discusses that.

All in all, if you want to do MySpace marketing in a much more proper, ethical style that actually provides value to prospects and runs on a long-term system with solid marketing strategies, this is how it needs to be done. And, after a years worth of research, it really won’t get any more cutting-edge than this.

Larisa: What other social networks other then MySpace works well with this form of marketing?

Doug: The strategies can be applied to pretty much any social network. But, each social network is also structured differently and requires you to market to them in a more different way. For example: I can’t market on Facebook like I would with MySpace. Facebook is a closed social network and MySpace is an open social network.

Larisa: That’s interesting. What do you mean by ‘closed’ and ‘open’?

Doug: Open means that the site promotes the idea of meeting, interacting and making new friends, colleagues, and contacts. Closed is the opposite. It means communicating around your ’social circle’ of friends already. That’s why I feel a bit more awkward to receive friend requests from users I don’t know on Facebook. Again, that’s why marketing on Facebook is different. It doesn’t promote the idea of adding new random friends and building interaction like MySpace does. The mechanics are different.

Larisa: Do you have any advice for those who have yet to make a single sale online?

Doug: Yet to make a single sale, eh? If you’re interested in what I talk about, you’ll need to focus-focus-focus at it, and I assure you if you take the necessary actions you’ll do more than just a sale. Plus, I’ll be running a support desk and forum and the occasional webinars as well.

I’m a big believer in helping.

Larisa: Perfect. Well, thanks again, Doug. You shared excellent stuff with us here.