Questions about advancing your career? Enriching your life? Perhaps acid indigestion? Just ask Liz Ryan. Well, ask–away in her lively online community that’s focused on networking.

Ask Liz Ryan is a popular Yahoo! Group (26,269 members, at last count) based on the workplace, work/life, and networking advice of expert and author Liz Ryan. Members use the group to gather advice from Liz (and each another) on careers, business, networking, and work/life issues. Topics range from making connections in the dog-eat-dog business world to diaper changing services.

Ask Liz Ryan began eight years back as a meeting of minds, when Liz found herself buried in a mountain of contact’s business cards from her Chicago-based consulting service. While the stack had names and numbers, it was cold, impersonal (and ultimately useless) information. So she started the email list to get together with like-minded folks and to share information and bring networking to life.

Ultimately, Liz moved up to Yahoo! Groups as the vessel for Ask Liz Ryan. She chose Groups because unlike other networking websites, it emphasizes the “community” aspect. According to Liz, her group now offers a true “knowledge transfer” of ideas. “Today one piece of information can save a business thousands of dollars,” she noted, “but companies miss the boat if that knowledge never gets passed on.”

Ask Liz Ryan has now branched out to include nearly eighty local versions of Yahoo! Groups (like Ask! In Boston and Ask! On Earth) where people can connect with others nearby. What about you? How do you use Yahoo! Groups for networking? Tell us your experiences by commenting to this posting.

Darrell Jones

Yahoo! Writer