How to Make a Professional MySpace Page with Profile 2.0

Do you wish you had a professional appearance on your MySpace page for others to see? MySpace is fast becoming a reliable networking tool for professionals, not just teens and geeks, but it can be difficult to see how you can create a professional looking profile, especially if you have little knowledge of graphic design. Luckily, you don't need to rely on premade templates, as Profile 2.0 allows you to easily customize your MySpace page for a professional look. Here's how to have a professional MySpace page using Profile 2.0.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. The first step to take is to collate any business logos, portraits or other images which you might use as profile pictures or backgrounds for your MySpace page. If you don't have any suitable images that you want to use, check the resources section for sites which offer stock images on varying licenses. MySpace can handle most standard image files, but they must be no bigger than 5MB.

2. Rather than going into complicated lessons on graphic design and color schemes, we are going to let someone else do the work for us. The easiest way of creating a professional color scheme for your MySpace page is to use one of the many color pickers and schemers available online. Some allow you to preview the results, others provide the codes in both hex and rgb. I have listed some good ones in the resources section. Go to one of the listed sites and play around with color until you have a scheme you like. Leave the browser window or tab with this page in it so you can refer to it as you customize your MySpace page.

3. Next, have a look around for some good fonts which seem to reflect what your professional page wants to say. Arial is an excellent font for readability, but there are a wide variety available. Once again, I have included some links in the resources section to good sources of MySpace fonts. Once you have found the ones you want, again keep the window open so you can copy the code if necessary to your page.

4. ) Now that we have all the ingredients we need, it is time to set about making our professional MySpace page with Profile 2.0. Log into your MySpace account and click on the edit profile link. The first thing to do is to fill in all the appropriate information. Make sure your contact details are accurate and use the about me section for your business statement, or a blurb about your business. Go to Networking and choose the appropriate industry and sub-field if necessary. Add some data to the calendar, even if it is only public holidays, or maybe local school events and the like, it doesn't look great if you have “No data for this module” all over your MySpace page. Be careful when filling in your interests for MySpace however, make sure that you don't add any thing which conflicts or interferes with your professional image. It is a good idea to consider using a business logo or a decent portrait of yourself as your MySpace profile photo. This is an easy way of showing who you are. MySpace now gives you the option of choosing your URL, you should aim to make this as close to your business or professional name as possible. Once you have filled in all the information appropriately, it is time to move on the next step.

5. Click on the Customize Profile link, which takes you to the new Profile 2.0 editor. The first thing to do is to click on the icon appearance, and then advanced edit. The first item is Background. This is a great place to use a modified company logo, or a nice stock image. If you are using an image, enter the url into the text box labeled url. If you prefer a plain color, simply pick the color you have chosen by clicking on the drop down menu and either selecting it or entering the hex code. If you have used an image, you need to decide whether it will tile or stretch and if it will scroll with the page.

6. Step through each of the items, setting the backgrounds and other settings to your liking. if you have used an image as your background, you probably want to use a plain color for your other backgrounds. Choose a definitive border color, so it is easy for people to see where things start and end. You can use a different color for the module background, or the same as the others you have already set. Check in on the Preview button frequently to see if you are happy with the results.

7. Once you are happy with the theme you have made for your MySpace page, click on the modules icon. Here we will turn on and off appropriate boxes for a professional MySpace page. I suggest that you have the following as a minimum: Status and Mood, Blogs, Calendar, Comments, Companies, Details, Local Reviews, My Space Local, Networking, and Post Comment. You don't need to limit yourself to these, but I wouldn't leave any of them out either.

8. Now it is time to go back to appearance and decide on the layout. There are nine layouts to choose from, pick a couple and check the preview to see which looks best.

9. Once you have done that click on the Preview button one last time to make sure you are happy with your new professional MySpace page. Once you are happy, click on Publish and you are away. You have just made yourself a professional MySpace page to help promote yourself or your business in a new medium.

Tips & Warnings

• Be wary of using flashing texts or graphics on your professional MySpace page, as they can be difficult to read and discourage users from finding out more about you.

[NightowlMama]

on 7/11/2009 this is fantastic thanks for sharing