There are millions of people who use social networking sites every day. In fact, the largest social networking site, My Space, boasts well over one hundred million users. Now I'm sure that not all of those users are active, or that this many people log onto the site every day, but this site still has a lot of users. It's a great site to log onto if you really like meeting people, but if you don't like the fast pace, it may not be for you.

If My Space isn't your cup of tea though, there are still hundreds, probably thousands of other great social and business networking sites you can join. Depending on how you plan to use the site, you may need to search for these sites differently.

Now, if you want to find the most popular social networking sites online, the easiest way to do it is to go to Alexa and go through the lists of the top 500 websites.

You can choose sites by geographical location as Alexa offers sites by country. This way, if you're more interested in networking in your own country, or your own language, you can find networking sites in your country or language.

These lists will only give you the most popular social networking sites, and a lot of different factors go into determining which sites are the most popular. Of course, traffic is a major factor in determining which sites make this list.

One thing to keep in mind here is that the top sites, like Google and Yahoo, both have their own version of social networking in Orkut and Yahoo 360. If you already have a Yahoo or Google account, then all you need to do is start signing up and getting started. MSN is slightly different in that it offers Live Spaces. These different sites allow yu to do different things so try them out and use them based on your preference. Other top sites besides My Space include Friendster, HI5 and Facebook.

If you're not interested in the most popular, or you're looking for more topic specific sites, then you should do a search on your favorite search engine.

From my experience, it was somewhat difficult to find good sites, especially business. (There was certainly a lot of press on the topic.) So, if you want to try finding good topical sites, try these different word combinations, as well as searching with and without quotes.

For example, if you're looking for a networking site for pets, try searching for both pet networking or "pet networking". (Using quotes will narrow your results.) You can also try terms like your topic plus social networking sites, social networking websites, and networking.

There is also a third way to find social networking sites. You can either talk to friends, family, or business associates to find out what sites they have joined. You might also consider joining networks based on where others in your field have joined. Because social networking is so popular right now, you may want to consider the recommendations of those in your field. The tricky thing about going on the recommendations of those you only know by reputation is that you may have to actually join a few networks and then search for your particular expert.

When searching for social networking sites, whether you do your own search or get recommendations from others, you shouldn't have any trouble finding a number of sites The best part about social networking is that if you decide it isn't for you, or you're dissatisfied with the sites you're on, you can always delete your account. There are also plenty of other social networking sites for you to choose from.

About the Author

Want to learn how top marketers use social networking to expand their businesses? "Social Marketing" teaches you how to easily bring in more profits in just a few minutes a day. Meet me on MySpace.

Jinger Jarrett is the author of "Internet Marketing for Free: The GUIDE." (On Amazon).