Bio: Google my name

I just received a message from Twitter that I have a new follower. This happens many times a day.

So I clicked and checked out Lana Benton, and love her Bio in Twitter -- it simply said:

Bio Google my name

This is simply perfect!

Why? because if anyone cares, if they matter, unless they already know us extremely well, they ARE going to Google us!

They will not simply accept our "bio" as we present it; they will check us out.

And yes, I'm following Lana now. And yes, I did Google her.

And that's what my 100% free ebook Effective Internet Presence is all about

Spreading Ideas: 3 Ways Besides Blogging

I was talking to an old friend who wants help sharing their thoughts and ideas with others. Basically get information 'out there.'

Obviously blogging is a one great way, but blogging is not for everyone. This gentleman doesn't really have the time nor the inclination right now. How about some other techniques?

Here's three.

1) Create a viral report. Maybe a 'special report' or 'white paper' or ebook, like I did with my free ebook Effective Internet Presence.

NOT requiring any registration or email address will  spread it as far as possible. Of course there are reasons to require an email address as well.

2) Write articles. You can stick them on your Web site or perhaps other people. Web site owners are often looking for content. Hey, some of them might work as guest posts on targeted blogs.

You can also contribute them, or perhaps shorter versions, to the free ezine sites like EzineArticles.com.

3) Google AdWords. Yes, Google AdWords driving traffic to a specific Web page.

It costs money, but it may be worth it depending on your ideas your trying to spread (and if there is a backend -- i.e. money to be made).

I have a couple of Adwords campaigns going right now, and spending less than $100 a week to get some very targeted traffic.

There are lots of other techniques that help spread information, both new and old:

• Videos on YouTube and other sites - I WILL do this.
• Direct Mail - I love direct (a.k.a. junk) mail, and am currently using it for my College Speaking and a small volunteer community project. I am selling speaking, but more importantly it's information I'm pushing.
• Email - no spam; opt in lists. I've got three lists and a few thousand friends I occasionally email.
• Write a book! -- Perhaps not the easiest nor best technique for everyone, but I'm still writing books.
• Get on David Letterman -- OK, this is tough. I wish I could. You listening David? I promise to rant and rave well within acceptable good guest guidelines.

The 'best' way?? There is no one best way, BUT:

A combination of techniques always works better than just one. Let's make that an 'intelligent' combination -- which can involve a lot of trial and error, better known as testing.

In other words, what works for you??

Some Hopefully *very* Helpful Interviews now online

I've put a couple of audio interviews you might find interesting online.

The first is an interview on blogging with Peter Anthony Holder on radio CJAD -- Peter always does a great job!

Click here to listen or download the mp3

Also an interview on developing an Effective Internet Presence for professionals on MySuccessGateway.com:

Click here to listen or download the mp3

There is also a complimentary teleseminar this Thursday on using video in Blogging with Brian Edmondson on Blogging with Video. Click here to signup for this and some future teleseminars, including one with me.
I'll be listening for sure.

Last but not least, this one costs just a few bucks, Is a Blog Right For You?, a teleseminar with me and Dianna Huff of DH Communications next week.

Effective Internet Presence, new version online

A new version of my 100% free/no registration/zero tribute/email not required/animal sacrifice discouraged ebook, Effective Internet Presence, is available.

What's changed?

Well, David Meerman Scott's advice was, "Your new ebook is a great read. But like a beautiful model wearing mundane grey sweatpants and a black t-shirt it is not dressed up as well as it could be. Why not have it re-worked with some professional design and re-post it?"

OK David, new cover not designed by me, and some pretty (and appropriate) pictures inside.

Mark Brown thinks the title is boring, and I should change it. Nope, I like it and the feedback on the name "Effective Internet Presence" has been 99% positive. Thanks for your input though.

Also, a couple of corrections and additions, nothing very extreme.

 

A few people have commented that it flows a little better.

Whattayouthink?

Thanks too:

Lancew for uploading to scribd.com
Jason Alba at  Jibber Jobber Career Toolset for his comments
Lora Adrianse at Success Connections for her comments

Yes, link to EffectiveInternetPresence.com or the ebook itself and say something at least half intelligent and I'll also link to your comments gladly .

Rumplestiltskin Interviews Ted

(Originally from Personal Branding Magazine)

An interview with the author of the free ebook, Effective Internet Presence, Ted Demopoulos
Get your copy today at www.EffectiveInternetPresence.com

Rumplestiltskin: Ted, what is an Effective Internet Presence and why should I care?

Ted Demopoulos: First impressions matter and today first impressions are often online.

People look you up online all the time. People google you if they’re going to meet with you, if you’re dating their sister, if they’re going to be working with you, if they are considering hiring you. Even your mailman and your kid’s teachers might google you – mine have!

Rumplestiltskin: What does this have to do with personal branding?

Ted Demopoulos: When people look you up online, your personal brand has to immediately come through. This isn’t always easy since you don’t control what the search engines report or where else people may look, but you absolutely do have some control.

Rumplestiltskin: Ok, I’ll admit it, I’ve got a personal branding problem!

My personal brand, the REAL ME, is invisible online. I’m not a mean dwarf; I’m actually a very kind spiritual dude working to better our world. I kiss babies. I volunteer at the homeless shelter. I drive a hybrid. I’m the chairman of the Troll and Dwarf Union Children’s Charity! What should I do?

Ted Demopoulos: Well, first see what others see: Google yourself, Yahoo! yourself, and more.

In your case, you’ve got a problem with that fairy tale thing. It doesn’t portray you well.

Rumplestiltskin: I was framed! It’s just a make-believe story! I have an alibi!

Ted Demopoulos: Next, let’s get some accurate and positive stuff online about you. We can do it simply, quickly and for free.

Download Effective Internet Presence, Now required for success in business and life. It has simple, fast, and free techniques to help you create an Effective Internet Presence, to get the real you online, to supercharge your personal brand, to help cure your male pattern baldness, to make you more attractive to – errr, perhaps I exaggerate slightly.

Effective Internet Presence, Now required for success in business and life
The 100% Free ebook. Get it today at www.EffectiveInternetPresence.com

5 Rules to Avoiding Email Overload

From a Guest post at Slacker Manager. Read the full post and a great discussion in the comments here:
5 Rules to Avoiding Email Overload

We all get email, too much email. Remember when getting an email was exciting? Well, oceanfront property used to be cheap too.

Here are five simple rules to help avoid email overload.

1) Always place time limits on email.

2) When in doubt, throw it out

3)    Remember that email is not the right medium for all communications

4) Respond to email during down time

5) Don’t use email to procrastinate

This is just a SUMMARY! Read the full post at Slacker Manager

Viral Marketing -- The New Rules

The New Rules of Viral Marketing: How word-of-mouse spreads your ideas for free is a great new & free ebook by  David Meerman Scott you should download and read now -- it'll just take a few minutes.

David knows viral marketing, as evidenced by his last viral ebook which has had hundred of thousands of downloads and which he can directly track hundreds of thousands of dollars revenue too, including a book contract and speaking gigs (and he's a great speaker!).

His book includes great examples and simple advice. There is also an enormous dose (of often missing) reality: "viral" is an art, not a "science." For example, it better be remarkable and memorable.

How can you tell if something will go viral or not? You can't! You can increase the odds greatly by following some simple advice though.

How do you make a successful viral YouTube video for example? Make a whole mess and hope one takes off -- really.

David also gives some very specific advice for creating a viral ebook, of immense interest to me as I released my somewhat viral (OK, maybe only bacterial so far) ebook, Effective Internet Presence, Now required for success in business and life, a couple of weeks ago.

It's doing well. My server's been overloaded a couple times from several thousands of downloads, the media has been quoting me and my ebook, I've been doing podcast and radio interviews on the topic, and one publisher so far has approached me with the thought of writing a full blown paper bookstore book on the topic.

I didn't follow all of David's advice. No surprise, I rarely follow all of anyone's advice. I'm not a gifted leader by any means, but I'm a poor follower :)

I agree with and did most of what David advises, but I don't have many pictures or images as he suggests (hmmm, do I have any??), I didn't use a professional editor or proofreader (I should have, but was in too much of a hurry to get my ideas out), and I am going to use conventional advertising to help promote it; My ebook will appear on the Good Year Blimp at the Superbowl.

OK, I'm lying, but I will have a facetious ad in Personal Branding Magazine in a few days -- will post it here too.

David's book is a very fun, interesting, and remarkable read. I'm not posting about it because David's a great guy, or because I like it, but because it's remarkable and I think most people will like it.

Quite viral indeed.

Squidoo Lenses vs Blog Posts

Squidoo Lenses versus Blog Posts, both can gather high search rankings and traffic, and Ben Wright of Hack-igations asks which is best.

As is often the case, it depends . . . :)

With a blog post, once the post is no longer on the front page, most people won't see it, and typically/traditionally bloggers do not update old posts. Now search engines quite well may send lots of traffic and rank it highly, but most visitors to the blog won't see it once it's off the front page.

A lens is a simple website built by opinionated experts (is there any other kind?) that doesn't contain much material, but which has links to LOTS of useful information. Squidoo is a free platform/company that makes building lenses very easy. Much more here.

With a Squidoo lens, you actively update it periodically. In fact some parts you may setup to update automatically, for example from an RSS feed from a blog for example. All visitors to the Squidoo lens will see that main content, unlike with a blog post.

Which will the search engines rank more highly? Could go either way. There are so many variables involves that "it depends," however there are basic differences between a post and a lens as outlined above.

Also of course you need a blog in order to write a blog post, but anyone can create a lens for free.

Here is the horribly out of date Ted Demopoulos Lens.

I’m on Facebook -- Now What ??? Book Review

I learned more about Facebook from this book in fifteen minutes than I have in the entire year I’ve been using it. I learned not only what I can do and how to do it, but what should I be doing to help myself and my business.

I’m not exactly a newbie online – we’re getting up to 30 years since I first used email and got on the Internet (amazing!), and I’m been on Facebook for about a year.

I’ll admit it though, I barely understood Facebook until I read a review copy I’m on Facebook -- Now What ???  by Jason Alba and Jesse Stay.

It's pretty much the indispensable guide to professionals and business owners using, or considering using, Facebook. It's preorder now and available really soon, maybe a few days.

Effective Internet Presence comments

Some great comments on my ebook Effective Internet Presence -- over 5 million downloaded (I'm exaggerating, although the server buckled under the downloads a couple times!)

Morty Schiller at Wordrider  says:

It's not enough to be online.

Alfred Thompson the Cyberspace People Watcher says :

"I recommend to people who either don't think they need an Internet presence or who have realized that they do but don't know how to get started building one."

Becky McCray SmallBizSurvival mentions Effective Internet Presence in her brag basket, and also interviews me in An effective internet presence for your small business.

Phil Gerbyshak, at Make It Great! says:

One the most web 2.0/Internet/blog savvy people I know is Ted Demopoulos   
The ebook is a fantastic primer for all who are getting started developing their web presence, and I recommend you download it and read it right away. It'll only take 20-30 minutes to read, and then more time to follow Ted's suggestions, but it will change the way you think about your Internet presence.

Dianna Huff at Marcom Writer Blog says "great guide" and

In fact, I recently had someone from my son’s school email me with this opening line, “Hey! I Googled you. I didn’t know you were a writer!”

In other words, it’s really hard these days to remain anonymous, so it really pays to ensure your online presence shines the best light on you possible.

Dianna and I will be collaborating on teleseminars later this year.

Raven Young at Raven's Brain says:

If you blog or are simply looking to build your understanding of creating and developing an effective Internet presence check out the free ebook Effective Internet Presence, you can't go wrong!

Liz Fuller at More Than We Know describes it as a:

Free gift for reading through a somewhat lengthy post full of great resouces on "take advantage of all the opportunities that present themselves in our lives"

Liz also talks about How to get quoted in the Wall Street Journal and other msm using me as an example

John Kremer was kind enough to mention the ebook in his excellent Book Marketing Tip of The Week newsletter.

Wayne Hurlbert and I will be talking about an Effective Internet Presence at 1/31/2008 8:00 PM Eastern on Blog Talk Radio -- Wayne always has a great show as I mentioned before and it'll be good to be back!

Kristen Havens at The Post Pub says:

" . . . essential (and quick) reading for anyone who's just starting to get their feet wet with personal branding online.  This is a primer on how to manage, control and improve your reputation online -- not a guide to aggressive online marketing.  But it's a good, solid starting place for anyone overwhelmed by the possibilities and wondering where to start."

My old friend Andy Piper at The lost outpost  says:

I really do encourage you to take a look at the full book - there were a number of snippets that resonated or made me think.

Christopher Penn at The Financial Aid Podcast and I discuss an Effective Internet Presence, especially from the student perspective, for quite a while on the podcast. Christopher understand this stuff at least as well as I do! This was picked up by the mainstream media as well.

Ricky Mondello at Eposay says:

The information is great, and I recommend that every online citizen, especially those who are on the job market, take a listen.

Mark Lloyd at Without Prejudice says

I think I'll have to read Ted's book.

I'm sure I missed a few more recent links and comments, but just want to thank everyone!

Addendum:
Thanks to Beth Kantor for all the delicious links!

 

Do you own your name URL?

Do you own your "name" URL, for example (in my case) www.TedDemopoulos.com??
(to help figure out what your name is, see What's Your Name?)

If it's available, you want it. You might not use it right away, and who knows, it might not matter in a few years, but for about US1$ a day you want it -- it might matter a lot.

For starters, it'll enormously help you be the #1 hit in the search engines for your name. Yes, the search engines pay a lot of attention to the URL. And that matters becuase people are always googling you -- yes, you.

Did you know that their are no 3 character .com domain names available? And just about any word .com is gone too. .net and other extension URLs are disappearing rapidly as well.

Soon all the name URLs may be gone, bought both by people with those names and others who think they will be valuable. It's the current Internet real estate land rush. Hey, sex.com sold for $14 millions dollars. joesmith.com and maryjones.net must be worth something too.

If you can't get yourname.com, maybe yourname.net or yourname.us or yourname.name etc. are available?

Or maybe you can try firstname-lastname.com or mryourname.com or something similar.

I bought teddemopoulos.com -- even though no one can spell it except for we Demopouloses.

I use Dotster to lookup and buy domain names -- cheap and reliable.

One upon a time oceanfront property was cheap too . . .

Managing Your Online Reputation - New Years Resolution

Everyone should be aware of their online reputation, from large organizations with multi-million dollar brands to individuals like you.

Christian at SaasStream.com has a great post on the topic. as he says:

Every day, a blogger or forum member is discussing something important to your business, being your company’s brand, your key executives, your competitors or your industry.

and

Managing online reputation is fast becoming a growing problem for businesses.

Yes, both a potential problem, and possible opportunity if you do it better than your competitors!

Great post - I recommend you go read it here

It's online, Effective Internet Presence, the ebook

Effective Internet Presence, Now required for success in business and life is now online.

I've posted this late in the day, as the Web server has been sluggish (and sometimes downright dead) from my newsletter subscribers downloading it alone, and I wanted to give them the first crack at it.
Join them by subscribing -- upper right hand corner.

Please be patient if you have any troubles and just try again, or I'm happy to mail attachments.

PASS IT ON Please!

Those who can benefit from the info the most are probably not reading this blog or any blogs.

And of course, feedback is always encouraged!

Click below to download:
http://effectiveinternetpresence.com/articles/effective-internet-presence.pdf

And a big thanks to my reviewers, especially Bob Porter and Nupur Maskara, for managing to review during the holidays.

Effective Internet Presence, Why You (Need To) Care

An excerpt (draft) from Effective Internet Presence, Now required for success in business and life, coming Jan 3rd, an absolutely free ebook.

For early 'Front of The Line' access, sign up for my newsletter in the upper right hand corner.

First Impressions Matter, and They are Often Online Today

• I asked the 500 people in my keynote speech yesterday how many had googled me. Almost everyone’s hand went up.
• A senior hiring manager at a Fortune 500 company trained all his people how to look up potential employees online last year, going well beyond a simple search engine lookup. The results affect who gets hired and who doesn’t.

“18% of working college graduates report that their employer expects some form of self-marketing online as part of their job”
   -Digital Footprints, Pew Internet and American Life Project, December 2007

• A reporter from Investors Business Daily interviewed me yesterday. It was obvious he had googled me online before we spoke. If he had found nothing or nothing interesting, we wouldn’t have been speaking.
• My friend Chuck has a new girlfriend. He definitely googled her before considering dating her, and she looked him up online as well. Is “Love at first google” possible?

People google you all the time. They google you before they meet with you, they google you if they may be working with you, they google you if you’re dating their sister.

If they really care, or are Internet savvy, they will do more than simple search engine lookups.

83% of recruiters used search engines to learn more about candidates in 2007, up from 75% in 2005 according to ExecuNet.com.  43% eliminated candidates based on the results on 2007.

If You Don’t Exist Online, Do You Really Exist?

Good Question.

Certainly people are googling you, and if they find favorable results it’s much better than if they find unfavorable results or nothing at all.

People Look for Businesses and Organizations Online Too

In fact I haven’t used the phonebook in years, how about you?

Now Available, the whole ebook!:
Effective Internet Presence, Now required for success in business and life

What's Your Name? An Excerpt

A draft from Effective Internet Presence, Now required for success in business and life, coming Jan 3rd, an absolutely free ebook.

For early 'Front of The Line' access, sign up for my newsletter in the upper right hand corner.

What's Your Name?

I, Ted Demopoulos, am lucky. So is Seth Godin. Ditto for Zaphod Beeblebrox, and Rumpelstiltskin.

If you google me, you find me. Yes, there are a couple of other people named “Ted Demopoulos” out there, and you won’t find them on the first 50 or so pages of search engine results.

Are YOU lucky? What if I google you? Is your name Jim Smith, or Bill Bailey, or Sue Jones?

Are there hundreds of you in the New York City phonebook, never mind on the Internet?

Worry not, Dear Jim/Bill/Sue, people CAN still find you (details coming up!), but I STRONGLY (hence the obnoxious all caps) recommend you make it easy on them.

Let’s say there were lots people named “Ted Demopoulos” out there, instead of just a very, very few. Well, I could legitimately use any of the following variants of my name everywhere it appears online, as well as offline: on my business cards, my resume, voice mail, in the phone directory, etc.

Ted J Demopoulos, Theo Demopoulos, Theodore Demopoulos
Theodoros Demopoulos (the traditional Greek spelling), Theodore James Demopoulos

Hmmm, there doesn’t seem to be a single reference to “Theodoros Demopoulos” on the Internet, but in my case “Ted Demopoulos” is unique enough.

Here is a concrete example. “David Scott” is a pretty bad name.  Google “David Scott,” and you’ll find the astronaut that walked on the moon, the six-time Ironman world champion, the congressman, two college professors, and two authors – and that’s only on the first page of Google results!

What’s a “David Scott” to do? Well, my friend David Scott decided to use his middle name and became “David Meerman Scott.” He is the only “David Meerman Scott” around, and he uses this full name online and professionally.

More examples:

·    George Bush, the US president guy, had a problem. There was a previous president with the same name, probably his uncle or cousin or some other relative. Suddenly, “George Bush” became “George W. Bush,” differentiating himself from all the other George Bushes who were president.

·    You also may have heard of the famous actor “Michael Fox.” He goes by “Michael J Fox.” Seems there is another actor, one no one has ever heard of, named “Michael Fox.”

You could even make up a middle name and just use it if you want to. This is perfectly legal in many countries, although I’m not a lawyer and you may want to check with one. Do you think comedian “Andrew Dice Clay” really was named “Dice” by his parents? I doubt it – google him if you really care.

You could even change your entire name! Although that’s somewhat extreme, many people do it. Actors in particular seem to although they often change from great names to generic common names, such as Muzyad Yakhoob who changed his name to the far more common Danny Thomas. Well, Muzyad made that change pre-Internet.

So if you’re Jim Smith, David Scott, or Bill Bailey or Sue Jones, whattayado?

·    Well, Jim Smith changed his name to “LL Cool J.”
·    David Scott became  “David Meerman Scott.”
·    Bill Bailey became “Axl Rose.”
·    Sue Jones? Well she did nothing, which is why you don’t know her, but rumors are she is about to marry Zaphod Beeblebrox and take his last name.

Comments and Feedback solicited!

Licensed under the Create Commons License,
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/

No commercial use or changes allowed.

Now Available, the whole ebook!:
Effective Internet Presence, Now required for success in business and life