Before considering joining one or more Internet discussion lists, you should read: Online Discussion Group Networking Etiquette Do's and Don'ts.

Mentoring Communities:

iMantri -- an online peer-to-peer community for seeking and offering mentoring and coaching. The site facilitates connections between mentors and mentees and also provides a framework and tools for fostering mentoring relationships online. Use mentor matching engine that is based on profile characteristics, demographic details, and other criteria to find mentors or mentees. No cost to job-seekers.

Business, Social, Job Networking and Online Communities:

Company of Friends -- Fast Company magazine's global readers' network. More than 10,000 business people, thought leaders, and change agents have signed up in more than 100 urban areas around the world. Fast Company readers are self-organizing local discussion groups, mentoring and networking organizations, and creative problem-solving teams.

Delphi Forums -- With more than 10 million registered members and over a million new messages posted per week, Dephi is one of the leading networks of member-managed online communities. Delphi's services enable individuals to build, manage and grow their own online communities.

Ecademy.com -- Ecademy's aims "to build the world's largest trusted business network by connecting people to each other - enabling knowledge, contacts and opportunities to be shared for world wide wealth." Ecademy believes networking and a philosophy of "winning by sharing" are key to success. More than 20,000 members from 120 countries learn, network, and develop their careers together. Membership to Ecademy is free. Listed as a Forbes Best of the Web site.

everyonesconnected.com -- The UK's Everyone's Connected allows you to do online what you already do in real life -- meet people through friends you already know whether to date or just have fun. Because each new member has to be validated by a friend to join, the result is a safer environment to meet genuine people and see who you really are connected to.

Friendster -- Friendster is an online community that connects people through networks of friends for dating, making new friends, and helping your friends meet new people. Friendster enables users to create their own personal, private community, where they interact with people connected through networks of mutual friends.

hi5 -- an online networking site for meeting new people, connecting with friends, and sharing ideas. Meet new people through mutual friends or interests. Personal profile required. No cost to job-seekers.

Jigsaw -- an online business contact marketplace where marketers, recruiters, and sales people can buy, sell and trade business contact information. The Jigsaw marketplace offers members access to an online database of fresh and accurate corporate contact information and increases efficiency by shortening the time required to find valuable business contacts.

Linked In -- strives to make your existing network connections more more powerful. LinkedIn lets you see the whole network of people you can reach through your trusted friends, and search for the contacts you need to get business done. If your 20 connections each connected with 20 more of their own, you would be able to make contact with more than 150,000 professionals. LinkedIn enables users to make deals, as well as find employees, industry experts, jobs, and contracts by making contact with the right professionals. Your friends introduce you to their friends, and they introduce you to the people you want to contact.

MediaBistro -- is dedicated to anyone who creates or works with content, or who is a non-creative professional working in a content/creative industry, including editors, writers, television producers, graphic designers, book publishers, people in production, and circulation departments - in industries including magazines, television, radio, newspapers, book publishing, online media, advertising, PR, and graphic design. The site's mission is to provide online and offline opportunities for meeting each other, sharing resources, becoming informed of job opportunities and interesting projects, improving career skills, and showcasing work. Listed as a Forbes Best of the Web site.

Meetup -- helps people get together with a group of neighbors that share a common interest. The site helps users self-organize global, monthly "Meetup Days" -- local group gatherings on the same day everywhere -- for almost any interest group. Meetups take place in up to 604 cities in 45 countries at local cafés, restaurants, bookstores, and other local establishments.

MyWorkster.com -- a great business-networking site, connecting business professionals and college students, where you can build and expand your network of contacts, begin networking for job opportunities and job leads, join groups, and post your resume. No cost to job-seekers.

NetParty -- Provides access to business and social networking events for young professionals. While most of the action take place offline, NetParty, offers an online opportunity to sign up for events in your city to network with each other on a business level and interact with each other on a social level. Listed as a Forbes Best of the Web site.

Networking for Professionals -- an online networking group designed for professionals from numerous occupations, where you can build your business, improve your client base, and/or advance your career. Privacy is controlled by the user. First month of membership is free; each month thereafter is fee-based.

PowerMingle.com -- where professionals can meet, mingle, and network with other professionals. You create your networking profile, and then can choose to be matched with other similar professionals or search for professionals you want to meet. The site also hosts events and exhibitor networking opportunities. No cost to job-seekers.

Real Contacts -- a networking site for job-seekers, where you can stay in touch with your network, discover job openings, and more. Job openings are communicated through extended network. No cost to job-seekers.

Ryze -- members get a free networking-oriented home page and can send messages to other members. They can also join special networks related to their industry, interests or location. More than 200 organizations host Networks on Ryze to help their members interact with each other and grow their organizations. Listed as a Forbes Best of the Web site.

Talk City -- One of the best-known chat and community sites on the Web. Offers free starter membership.

Tribe.net -- a service where friends help friends do everything from finding a job to sharing their favorite restaurant. Enables users to connect with people -- family, school friends, co-workers -- as well as join and create "Tribes" around interest areas. Users can get a friend's recommendation for anything from a great restaurant to a gentle dentist.

The Virtual Handshake -- a great resource for learning more about building relationships online -- for job-hunting or freelancers searching for new clients. Includes detailed reviews of online networking resources, as well as other networking tools. No cost to job-seekers.

XING -- committed to powering relationships based on trust for all professional people. Based on the theory that "No two people are more than six degrees apart," XING enables members to grow their trusted network by making their contacts' contacts visible to them. As an active and productive community, we constantly strive to create real value for the world's professionals, as an everyday online and live resource -- across all countries, languages and industries. XING crosses barriers -- for a sustainable world.

Ziggs -- offers a search platform for professionals for finding people in business online. By providing an index dedicated to up-to-date businesspeople profiles, Ziggs lets you search across more than 2.6 million public profiles from more than 66,000 companies, and find the accurate information on the people you seek. With Ziggs, you can create your own profile.

ZoomInfo.com -- premier business information search engine, with profiles on more than 35 million people and 3.8 million companies. ZoomInfo delivers a single site for quick and easy access to in-depth information on industries, companies, people, products, services and jobs. Job-seekers can post/edit your free profile, which can include your professional career details, bio, education, affiliations, contact information and Web references.

Online Discussion Groups/Boards:

CataList -- the online catalog of groups that operate using LISTSERV software. Browse more than 72,000 public lists on the Internet. A bonus: each list is shown with current number of subscribers.

ezboard -- consists of a network of more than 300,000 online communities inhabited by businesses and individuals covering a wide range of topics and interests. Join an ongoing community or start your own. A great networking tool. A bonus: shows average number of daily postings to groups.

listTool.com -- a free tool that makes the process of subscribing, unsubscribing and sending commands to 878 mailing and discussion lists (in categories such as law, art, music, computers, news, business, humor and more) easy. Search for lists by keyword(s).

Tile.net -- a comprehensive list of Internet-based resources, including discussion and information lists, Usenet groups, and more. Browse by name, description, and domain.

Topica -- enables networkers to search directory of thousands newsletters and online discussion groups in your interest area or career field by entering a keyword. (Formerly The Liszt.)

Yahoo Groups -- where you can join or start a group on just about any topic.

Employment-Issue Discussion Groups:

Monster.com -- offers a wide variety of interesting bulletin boards/chats that enable you to network on topics of interest to job-seekers.

WetFeet.com -- has a number of active discussion boards.

Ask the Headhunter -- registration required to participate.

Usenet/Newsgroups:

Google Groups -- enables you to search for Usenet and other discussion groups in your career field by entering a keyword. Powered by the best search engine on the Web: Google. (Formerly Deja.com.)

School Alumni Networking Groups:

Alumni.NET -- offers links to high schools and colleges located around the U.S. and the world.

Classmates -- really four databases -- high schools, colleges, military, and workplace. Claims to have more than 130,000 schools and more than 29 million users. Easily locate old friends, coworkers, and more.

High School Alumni, from Reunion.com -- includes more than 33,000 high schools throughout the United States. Alumni of any American high school can visit this site and register, update information, or search for an old classmate. This database can be used to locate a lost friend/acquaintance/business associate at a high school in any region of the country.

Employer Alumni Networking Groups:

Classmates -- really four databases -- high schools, colleges, military, and workplace. Claims to have more than 130,000 schools and more than 29 million users. Easily locate old friends, coworkers, and more.

Corporate Alumni Inc. -- designs, manages, and hosts communities composed of former employees of companies. The organization's mission is to make it easy to retain goodwill, renew friendships, and build on established relationships.

Chat/ICQ/Instant Messaging:

Numerous chat venues exist on the Internet. The best way to find out everything you need to know about chatting and download the software you need for it is to go to CNET.com.

You can also get free downloads of the three most popular instant-messaging applications:

AOL Instant Messenger and ICQ

MSN Messenger

Yahoo Messenger

Finding People on the Internet:

There may be times when you'd like to network -- or just reconnect -- with someone who doesn't fit into the usual categories of former co-worker, classmate, or military buddy. Maybe you'd like to find someone you went to summer camp with or a long-lost cousin. For freelance networking, a site like PeopleSpot is great because it's a portal for numerous search engines that provide E-mail Search, Reverse Searches, Special Directories, U.S. White Pages, International White Pages, Zip Codes. In addition, PeopleSpot offers links to lots of other online networking tools, such as Associations, Chat Rooms, Online Clubs, Listservs, Matchmaking, Newsgroups, Online Communities, Pen Pals, Personal Homepages, and Support Groups.

Free Hosting for Web Sites:

A Web page of your own can be a helpful networking tool because it provides a way for prospective contacts to find you. A number of portal sites on the Internet, such as Geocities, will host Web pages. For a search engine that enables you to find Web sites with free Web space hosting, go to FreeWebspace.Net.

Web Logs/Blogs:

NetLingo, The Internet Dictionary, defines a Weblog or Blog a "frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and Web links. A blog is often a mixture of what is happening in a person's life and what is happening on the Web, a kind of hybrid diary/guide site, although there are as many unique types of blogs as there are people." Like a personal Web site, a blog can facilitate online networking by enabling people to find you. In addition, these online journals often enable networking by inviting readers to comment through e-mail or a discussion board. Find out more about blogging and access blogging resources at these sites:

Blogger

Blogwise (Blog Directory)

Creative Journal.com

Greymatter

Journal Naked!

Journaling

Live Journal

MSN Messenger Journaling Plug-in

RootBlog (Blog Directory)

Xanga

Be sure to take advantage of all the career networking tools, articles, and resources found in our The Art of Career Networking section of Quintessential Careers.