Regardless of what you do online or in an offline business, you can always find a way to benefit from networking. The smallest tie to another business person is networking, and the more you do it the better it gets. You don't need a degree in anything to successfully use networking. As far as skills go, you can learn some that will help you or not. The reason you want to read about and remember the following networking mistakes is to avoid them.
Meeting someone for lunch is networking unless it's a personal friend, and business people are different. It's very common to attend an event and then you walk away with some appointments. Use common sense with this and be business appropriate at all times which includes leaving out personal questions. Do your research before the meeting, but it is okay to not know about someone when you happen upon them randomly. If you're a guy, then be careful about how you speak with female business people for obvious reasons.
The thing you have to avoid doing is coming across like you're very eager to get some kind of business outcome. But who knows, you may meet other people who are desperate for business, too.
Do what you know how to do if you are really that hard-up for business, and there are more profitable ways to spend your time. Networking is best left for when you want to expand your business circle. But these things can be fun to attend, and it won't hurt to unwind and meet local business people.
You can spot many typical kinds of activities at networking meetings and events. Try to find the movers and shakers in your market or field, and then be bold and engage them. It's really pretty easy to create the wrong impression, and being insincere Freedom Factory is one of them.
Your only goal is to build the structure or outline of a bridge, make people remember your face and name and what you do. You'll be able to meet people and then at the next one they'll be more friendly to you. So have a plan before going in because you need to have a strategy to make any progress.
There are all sorts of things you can do to be a better networker. You generally don't want to push things or cause something to happen to fast. Nothing beats real world experience, and that's why it's very important to take positive action then spend all your time learning and reading.