Networking is more about developing relationships , more so than selling yourself. Develop strong enough relationships and they will sell you for you, if that makes any sense
The more people you know, the better the chance one of them will will be in the right place at the right time and tell someone, "hey, I know a guy".
If your developing the relationship solely for the purpose of using them, generally people can tell that and it often has the opposite effect. If your doing it out of a genuine interest in others, the effect can be multiplied. In other words, the less you try to "network" and the more you try to just get to know people, the better off (and happier) you will be.
It also has the side effect of getting to know some genuinely interesting folks.
Just my