Leverage the "idleness of your past" into marketing for today

I have always been a bit of a "chat-nut". I remember even back in the mid to late '80s, i used my Commodore-128 (state of the art at that time) and got "online" over a 240-baud modem. It was my first online chat experience.
In subsequent years the "Chat Industry" really exploded. Millions upon millions were signed up w/ AOL, or MSN or Yahoo. I was a big AOL user back in the late 90's. And as a bachelor, i actually ended up meeting in real life, women who i had established contact with online. I think i did this 6 or 7 times.
Now that i am married - i pretty much try to stay away from the chatrooms as there is really nothing to be gained .... or is there?
A couple nights ago, i logged into Yahoo Messsenger and went into one of their small business chatrooms. It was there that i had kind of an "aha moment". I struck up a conversation w/ a young lady from Indonesia who was promoting her business and i noticed that in her "status" she had a link to her website. It dawned on me there that i could do the same and get some absolutely free advertising from it.
My experience that night brought me the realization that I could actually use the tools of my "former idleness" and leverage that today to grow my own network. If you are currently a Yahoo Instant Messenger user and have a nice long "friend's list - then you are perfectly staged to do this. Here is how:

1. Login to YM
2. Right-click your name at the top of the window and select "New Status Message"
3. Type in something like... "Home Business Opportunity: www.myurl.com"
4. Click ok.

You are now setup and all of the people who have added you to their frineds list will see that message next to your name in their YM window.
If you are not currently a YM user i probably would not advise you to "drop everything and join". But if you are a current user - then why not scrape up a few more contacts.
Lastly, I like to login to YM daily and keep it open. I usually go to one of the small business chatrooms, and leave that window open. Normally, i will get 5-10 IMs a day for people inquiring about my business. You can also just read the traffic in the chatroom and when you see someone submit a message about his/ her busieness - then send them an IM like ... " Hi (name) i was curious as to know how you are promoting your business...." This is a good started for getting a Yuwie referral or even getting a referral to your main business.

For what its worth....