In 2007 there are over 1 billion people surfing the web, +140 million of them have MySpace pages and more than 70 millions are blogging. That’s a lot of web pages. A lot. Which leads one to ask “how do I make myself notable? different?”.
The answer is simple: brand yourself.
There have been numerous articles on the importance of self branding, and a quick Google search would bring you some 1.5M results to browse through.
I read the recent State of the Live Web report (April 2007) and started thinking how can I make myself notable? What makes my blog different from the other 45 millions out there (deducted the spam bloggers..)? I guess not much, and that’s fine by me. I know my place in the blogosphere, and quite pleased with it.
But still, how do you know what others think of you? Google yourself of course, that’s how people find you.. So I did just that, and I’m quite pleased with my results. 8 out of 10 results in the first (and most important) page are about me, leading to this blog, to comments I made in other blog and to reviews I gave in forums. I even appear on the 3rd and 4th results pages.. nice.
I’m not a lists kind of guy, but here are some tips, from one ordinary person to another:
- Create a blog. If you use your name in the url – even better. URLing your name can pretty much nail you that coveted 1st place in the results page. And the posts will most likely also appear on the first page.
- Comment using your name. If blogging isn’t for you, but you like reading other people posts and commenting, use your name. As a blogger, I like to know who’s commenting my post, other than John Doe…
- Everything is public. Be careful what you say on the web. Everything can find its way to the internet, and if there’s something you don’t want people to read/know, keep it offline.
- Freedom of speech. The internet allows people to say pretty much everything they want, but there are still laws to uphold. If you feel a certain post is misleading, or a pure lie, don’t sit quietly. Demand the owner to remove it. Not everything is bound by the freedom of speech.
