Do you Google people and then mention it?

Do you Google people and then discuss the results with them?

My friend Jim tells me all the women he dates ALWAY Google him, and use what they find online as a basis for conversation. Now Jim is a high tech executive, so there is quite a bit online about him, including his blog, so there is always a lot to talk about.

Interestingly he's googled all the women he's dated recently and usually finds little or nothing about them online. Jim IS ahead of the curve, as you all are just because you're reading this if nothing else!

I've recently had two of my son Jamie's friend's parents tell me they've googled me, and comment and what they found. Then again my email signature says "Google me" and allows people to google me with a mouse click.

When you are meeting with someone you don't know well it's common to google them beforehand. Are you comfortable mentioning that you googled them, and comfortable if they mention they googled you?

Do you feel differently if it's in a professional or personal setting?

That's an open question, and a pretty interesting one.

If I get enough feedback I may summarize the results.

Online Reputation Management: How to Bury Digital Dirt

People are always looking you up online whether it’s before they meet with you, offer you a job, or even date you, so what do you do if some “bad stuff” or at least undesirable or inaccurate things about you appear high in search results? Your online reputation is important, so how can you handle this so-called “digital dirt”?

Here are three techniques that can help get rid of digital dirt.

Click here to Continue Reading

Online Reputation Management: Calling In Pros to Refine Your Google Image

How do you bury digital dirt, bad stuff about you online, when there is sooo much of it?

Perhaps you are under online attack by a political foe, a business competitor, some Web 2.0 nutcase that has decided you are evil, or maybe your Web savvy ex-husband?

The techniques mentioned in my free ebook Effective Internet Presence are a great place to start.

Essentially you want to create lots of positive online entries about your self and drive the negative information way down in the search engine pages.

You may want to hire a pro to help -- I've helped people with this problem before.

The Washington Post has a great article on this topic, Calling In Pros to Refine Your Google Image.

I particularly like the notion (when your online reputation is under extreme attack) of creating lots of Web sites that include your name as part of the URL -- this works very well. For example, if your name is Gregory Peccary, you might get and use the URLs:
GregoryPeccary.com,  GregoryPeccary.net,  Gregory-Peccary.com,  MrGregoryPeccary.com,  GregoryPeccary.name, GregPeccary.com and then creating a (short unique) Website for each URL.

There are also simpler and cheap/free techniques that work wonders for most people mentioned in my ebook  Effective Internet Presence, like signing up for LinkedIn and creating a profile and reviewing books on Amazon.

Getting Search Engine Traffic to a New Website -- a case study

So, how long does it take to get search engine traffic to a brand new Web site or blog, especially with a brand new domain?

An often asked question, with an answer of "it depends," but here is a short case study where it took about 48 hours!

I started a new Web site called Fly Rod Striped Bass at http://flyrodstripedbass.com, a Domain I recently purchased. I'm now, within 48 hours, the #10 hit (that means first page results) on Yahoo and have already gotten search engine visitors for the term "flyfishing for striped bass".

This is important because search engines drive most of the traffic on the Internet.

The Web site has one page so far and is very very beta, including buttons that don't work, misspellings, etc.

So, what did I do to start the search engine traffic?

1) The main and only page has good keyword density. In other words, I mention Striped Bass and flyfishing a lot (although in a very natural way, it doesn't seem stilted or unnatural). I also use the same keywords in the two pictures "alt image" text.

2) The title tag -- what shows up in the upper left hand corner of the browser window, is critical in EVERY blog and Website. Here it says "Striped Bass Flyfishing" -- note the use of keywords.

Almost every Web designer on the planet gets the title tags 100% wrong -- which is why most Web designers drive rusted out purple Gremlins instead of Ferraris!

1) and 2) are "on site" or  "on page" optimization. I also did some offpage optimization, #3 below.

3) I created links from two of my blogs to the Website with link text of "Striped Bass Fly Fishing" -- note the keywords in the link text.

I also bookmarked it using a few social sites, maybe 3 or 4 max, such as Mister Wong and spurl, which created additional links. Links matter a lot to search engines.

So that's all I did, and the search engines (at least Yahoo! so far) are already sending me search engine traffic.

Long term plans for the site? Well, I'm passionate about Striped Bass fishing, so I'll be (very slowly) producing a lot of content, and hopefully running some advertisements and affiliate programs and making a few bucks. It's really all an experiment!

Update: After 3 days, it's started getting Google traffic too. Not a lot, but it's trickling in.

Maybe this site will never be in The Google Sandbox?

3 reasons you need www.yourname.com now

Why would you want to own www.yourname.com ?
For some people it's pretty obvious, for others less so or not at all.

Here are 3 reasons why, most of which will apply to everyone.

1) People google you (yes you) online. Having your 'name URL' makes you much more easily findable because Google and the other search engines pay a lot of attention to the text in URLs.

"Why would anyone Google me?" you say.
Some quick reasons

• You're in some kind of business -- people will Google you before contacting/meeting you.
• You're single and dating or trying to. Oh yes, and google potential dates too!
• You are looking for a job or maybe will some day (most people will).
• You are a school teacher. Yes, parents (and principals) will google you.
• You have any public presence whatsoever. Maybe a member of a some board, officer of a club, or just a plain old vocal person.
• You're self employed -- consultant, speaker, coach, etc. Plan on it!

And I could list a few dozen more too -- basically, people WILL google you.

Alfred Thompson wonders why more business people and teachers  aren't googleable, and I agree they should be.

2) You can probably get yourname.com or a similar variant today, but who knows if you can tomorrow?

Domain names like teddemopoulos.com (I've got it but am not using it yet) are cheap and easy to acquire.
I recommend and use Dotster.com -- less than $15 bucks.

3) If you don't, someone else may and something "inappropriate" may show up under www.yourname.com.

Sound farfetched? A friend with a less than common name had www.hisname.com become a hardcore gay pornographic site, and yes, occasionally clients would accidentally type in hisname.com instead of his business name by mistake.

Nothing against hardcore gay pornographic sites necessarily, but I certainly do NOT want them associated with my name! How about you?

Interested in more info like this? Download my free ebook Effective Internet Presence.

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