How would you like to send your commercial emails to people you do not know, but are expecting to receive such mail from you? Wait a minute. That does not sound right. How can this be?

It is simple, if you know what is really going on. Everybody who is on these lists, also known as safe lists, knows that they will be receiving emails from other members. This is possible because that is one of the conditions of their “safe list” membership.

And those who join these lists are willing to agree to this condition because they themselves would want to send out their own commercial emails to the others on the list.

The result: everyone is sending emails to each other but no one is reading them!

It gets worse when some savvy members sign up for the membership using a free or less-frequently-used account to store the useless emails they will never bother to open and read.

Having said that, it is always wiser to start your own mailing list and build it with opt-in subscribers, no matter how tempting safe lists can be or how many members there are in a safe list.

I am sure that you have definitely come across advertisements that read: “1,000,000 email addresses for $29.99″. And these bulk mail companies can even offer you these names in a CD at your doorstep.

Sure, having 1,000,000 subscribers is the best thing that could ever happen to any Internet Marketer and often sounds too good to be true. But very often, it always sound too good to be true.

What many beginning marketers do not really know is that these bulk companies harvest the email addresses using robots and other wares on the Internet. That is how the 1,000,000 email addresses come about, whatever the amount is.

Now, the really awful part is that if you purchase the so-called 1,000,000 names even at a low price, not only is it a waste of money, you are risking being accused of spamming. It is no longer a surprise how you often receive spam mails on Viagra, OEM Software and things you do not even need in your inbox.

That is so possible, because of the 1,000,000 names, no one knows you or even ask to be subscribed to your mailing list.

On top of that, not all 1,000,000 email addresses are really in use because a portion of them can either be own by the same owners (one owner can own more than 1 email accounts) or are obsolete.

When you read such ads again, tell yourself that it is a waste of money.

Some Internet Marketers can get clueless when it comes to unleashing the full potential of paid eZine advertising. One of the most common dilemmas is that whether should the Internet Marketer advertise the product or service he is selling directly to the subscribers of the eZine he is paying advertising for?

This can be a wise method, but with ifs and buts. For one, the advertisement must be compelling and attention grabbing. Secondly, there is no telling if the eZine’s subscribers constantly practice a buying habit until you put some money to find out.

Investing even a small sum of money can be risky to a number of Internet Marketers who are on tight budgets. But in spite of the risk factors, eZine advertising can still be rewarding, if done right.

Thus the solution: the marketer would be wiser if he or she uses eZine advertising to build his or her mailing list. It makes sense, anyway. Since some eZines display more than one sponsored advertisement, you can grab the subscriber’s attention by giving a free or risk-free product or offer through your ad.

When the subscriber clicks on your ad, he or she can opt into your mailing list in exchange for the free offer, which can be a free report or even a trial service.

While you are not making a hard sell through your advertisement just yet, building your list by getting other eZineís subscribers subscribed to your eZine allows you to follow up with them in the future, as and when you have new offers.

I figured since I had absolutely nothing better to do I’d compile a list of social networking sites. 230 or so. . .

Enjoy, explore, good night, good luck

TECHNOLOGY:

Slashdot
Dzone - Developers
CSS Globe
DNHour - Domain Name News

Pixel Groovy - Web design
Design Float - Web design
Leet Daily
DevelopersNiche

INTERNET MARKETING:

PlugIM
Sphinn

NEWS:

Digg
Netscape
Reddit
Newsvine
News Heat - Politics
Sk*rt
Shoutwire

Wobblog
Content Pop
Blogg-Buzz

SOCIAL BOOKMARKING:

del.icio.us
Ma.gnolia
Furl
AllMyFavorites

Blinklist
Blogmarks
Blummy
BuddyMarks
BookmarkTracker
Chipmark
Connectedy
De.lirio.us
Dogear

Favoritoo
FeedMeLinks
Foxmarks
Fungow
Linkatopia
Livemarks
Mobilicio.us
Mylinkvault
Socializer

SHOPPING:

AgentB
Dealigg
Yub
BiddingBuddies - For Ebay members
ThisNext
Zebo
Judy’s Book

Deal Comet

MUSIC:

Purevolume - Music
Last.fm
Buzznet
MOG
Soundpedia

IM/MOBILE:

Twitter
Pownce
FlickIM
IMified
Radar
Zannel

PHOTO SHARING:

Flickr
Photbucket

Fotolog
Fotki
My Opera
Zoomr
Text America
Picli

VIDEO SHARING:

YouTube
Broadcaster

Panjea
Revver
Viddler
Video Bomb
Video Sift

EDUCATION AND LIBRARIES:

Shelfari
LibraryThing
BookCrossing

Good Reads
Book Tribes
Connect via Books
qoolsqool

ART:

Humble Voice - Art, music, video, photography
Virb - Music, art, fashion, film and more

imeem - Music, videos, photos
deviantART

SOCIAL ACTION:

TakingITGlobal
Care2 - Social Issues/Humanities
Hugg - Environmental

Planet Change - Environmental

LANGUAGE AND CULTURE:

Amina - Chechen Republic
Wamba - Spanish social network
Black Planet - African American

Hyves - Dutch
IRC Galleria - Finland
iWiW - Hungary
LunarStorm - Sweden
Playahead - Sweden

MiGente - Latino
Mixi - Japan
Nexopia - Canada
ClubGh - Ghana
Acelerame - Spanish (cars)

Scoopeo - French
Yigg - German
StudiVZ - German students

LINK/WEBSITE:

StumbleUpon
Blue Dot

Trailfire
Ensiting

CARS:

CarDomain
AutoSpies
Boompa
Motorpulse

TRAVEL:

TravBuddy

WAYN
Gusto
Couch Surfing
Travellerspoint
Woophy
EveryTrail - GPS
Trip Advisor
TripUp

REAL ESTATE:

Trulia
Zillow

FOOD, WINE AND THE GOOD LIFE:

RateItAll
Yelp
Cork’d - Wine reviews
Chowhound - Food

Epinions

PROFESSIONAL:

LinkedIn
MeetIn
Ryze
Xing
Biznik
Cofoundr - Entrepreneurial

Fast Pitch
Konnects
StartupNation - Entrepreneurial
Startupping - Internet entrepreneurs
Tapped In - Educational professionals
Ecademy

DATING:

Flirtomatic
OkCupid
Chemistry

SCHOOL RELATED:

Classmates
Friends Reunited
Dodgeball
Graduates

Meetup
MyYearbook
Reunion
ConnectU

MEDICAL RELATED:

Sermo - Doctors
Disect Medicine
Walker Tracker

Who is Sick?

TEENS:

eCRUSH
eSpintheBottle
Piczo
Profile Heaven
Sconex
Student.com
Stardoll

KIDS:

imbee

PARENTING/FAMILY:

Babbiz
Moxie Moms
GreatSchools - Parents review schools

FAMILY:

Geni

WebBiographies

CHRISTIAN:

MyChurch
Blogs4God
Xianz
GodTube - Video sharing

SPORTS:

Joga - Soccer (Football)

Sportsvite
Ballhype - Sports
ScoreGuru
SportsCast
SportsFlip

GAMES:

Gaia - Games and anime

Game Diggity
GuildCafe
WeeWorld

ANIMALS:

Dogster - Dog lovers
Catster - Cat lovers
Fuzzster

Pikapet

THE BIG ONES:

MySpace
Facebook
Trig
Friendster
Orkut
Bebo
CyWorld

LiveJournal
Grono
Tribe
Hi5
Jaiku
Multiply
Netlog
Passado
Skyrock

Tagged
AIM Pages
Yahoo! 360
Everyone’s Connected
Windows Live Spaces
Zaadz

9rules
Beautiful Society - List and vote for your favorite things

43 Things - Goal sharing
Consumating
Dandelife - A social biography network
DontStayIn - Clubbing
Experience Project - Share Life Experiences

Faceparty - “The biggest party on Earth”
Gather
Recruiting.com
Ning - Create your own network
Searchles
Vampire Freaks
Faqqly - Community of questions and answers

Ficlets - Collaborative writing
Global Voices
Spout - Films
Prosper - People to people lending
DigStock - Financial

Clipmarks
Listible

Here is a great video about SEO (Search Engine Optimization, whick I just did by the way).

Stephanie Leffler of Network Solutions gives SEO Tips. She talks about all the things I am constantly harping on. Whether you are an ecommerce site or a local business.

3 things you need:

1. Content - Write articles about your product or service
2. Get inbound links (super important to get keyword links) - If your website isn’t about “click here” don’t make these the words linked in a inbound link.
3. Title Tags and Meta Tags - Although some folks think these are becoming irrelevant, I beg to differ. Just make sure the tags are relevant

You can build your list simply by writing articles, whether you have thought of it or not.

Quite simply, you write and submit your articles on your topic of expertise or business nature to popular article directories where eZine publishers and readers are looking for the information you provide.

Leveraging your viral marketing efforts on article writing can be rewarding, if done right. In the real sense, you are actually proving your worth and demonstrating your expertise about your business through the articles you write.

So, how can this method in effect build your mailing list? The answer: the resource box you attach to your articles. In your resource box (also known as bio box), you include a brief detail about yourself and your business site together with its URL.

It is strongly suggested that your resource box URL links to your mailing list’s landing page where you can get your visitor’s name and email address, which will in turn help you build your mailing list at no cost.

If your articles are found worth sharing, eZine publishers will republish your articles together with your resource box for their readers and subscribers. The wonderful result: viral marketing without effort on your part!

You can start by writing and submitting your articles to trusted article submitter sites such as http://www.articlemarketer.com/ and begin your article marketing journey today.