Any jerk can send out spam, any geek can learn how to hack, and any bum can leech off of websites and other people. But you don’t have to be one of these goons in order to make money from sites like MySpace and Facebook. In fact, it’s entirely possible to exist in a mutually beneficial state with these big sites, just like pilot fish exist in a symbiotic relationship with sharks. And more importantly, it’s possible to be ethical about it and help improve the communities in those sites.

Pilot fish aren’t parasitic or harmful. They feed off the extra food provided by the shark’s natural and chaotic existence. In return, they help keep the sharks and the ocean clean and healthy. It’s a natural balance that suits the sharks, the pilot fish, and their environment.

Well, the metaphor couldn’t be any more straightforward: pilotfishing (as opposed to spamming or phishing) is a mutually beneficial method of making money off the markets of major websites, with an emphasis on improving (as opposed to harming or burdening) the sites that provide the opportunity. It’s business as usual, but with a few important stipulations:

• Don’t spam. - Choose your audience carefully. If you want to collect the largest number of loyal followers without being labeled an evil spammer, be sure to choose quality over quantity. Don’t just ask everyone on MySpace to be your friend. Make sure there’s a reason (or, at least, a pretty good reason) to send them a message.
• Don’t post so many bulletins. - If your only way of getting attention is by posting a ton of bulletins all the time, you need to re-think your plan. Bulletins should be a limited thing that you use only when you need it. If everyone used them all the time, no one’s bulletin would matter because they’d be pushed off the screen before anyone gets to see it.
• Death to the spambots! - Be sure you adjust your settings to require CAPTCHA for everything, that way the spambots won’t bother you. Then make sure that you approve all posts and comments to your profile, or else the spambots will spread their crap even further while using your profile to do it. Bad karma. It’s okay to let people plaster your comments page with self-promotion (because that’s what the internet is all about), but don’t let the guys selling porn or tainted marijuana get beyond you.
• Be kind. Rewind. - This is pretty straightforward. Except the rewind part. Forget that.