One of Ron McDaniel’s 57 buzz challenges is to Join/Participate in an Online Group.

Like social networking sites there are plenty of online groups through Yahoo, Google, MSN, etc. that offer ways of connecting with peers and people who share your interests. Typically these groups are fairly small (a few hundred members), but if they’re active you can gain a lot from them – using them as a resource, feeding them news and success stories and answering other people’s questions and requests. Oftentimes people will be looking for contacts in other industries, etc. and playing matchmaker in online groups is a ticket to success.

The other day I came across Marketing Gorilla by Greg Hoffman thanks to blogtipping by Easton Ellsworth. Greg had a post about a Yahoo Group called Internet Marketing Super Group. They were looking for a few additional members.

So I decided to sign-up. It’s only been a couple of days – but looking through the archives of posts I can tell the group is quite active and discusses many topics I’m interested in — social networking, affiliate marketing, blogging, business blogging, etc.

The best way of finding groups is through others – getting referrals or reading other people’s blogs. If you search randomly you’ll find too much and it’ll take too long to judge quality. Better to have a close friend or contact recommend a group to you.