Every shoulder has its cost

Social network marketing need not be a painful endeavor. The MySpace Man says he can find marketers 6,000-10,000 MySpace friends in a week for a neat $199, according to The Globe and Mail.

Friend-adding sites, called friend trains, speed up the process of online relationship-building by joining users eager for large numbers of friends. Users generally pay a higher figure for a position in a user's Top 8.

MySpace Man, who writes for Mysocialmarketing.com, places customers at the top of a number of friend trains. His blog illustratively totes his offer as the "Whore ME!" package.
Marketing experts are generally wary of friend trains. "If someone ever figures out that you're paying for MySpace friends, your credibility on the Internet instantly turns to zero," said Nick Barbuto of Cossette Communication Group, Inc.

MySpace also frowns upon these tactics, having threatened to shut several such services down.