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Clearing Up the Confusion E-Zine Vol 01 Issue 16
------- Clearing Up the Confusion E-Zine -------
Vol 1, Issue 16
I did a quick search for myself on Google today and I'm beginning
to slip from the front page. That tells me three things. First,
if I want to be on the front page of search results, I have to
update my web presence continually. Second, I need to consider
using additional venues to spread my name. Finally, this whole
process just takes time. This issue we'll conclude the multi-
part series on tips to increase your web presence. If you've
already started using some of these methods, I'd like to hear how
it's going and what you think of them. Drop me a line at:
gpeters@cyberdatasolns.com
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In This Issue...
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1. Article: Web Presence Techniques, Pros and Cons, Part 3
2. Blog Posts
3. Shameless Self-Promotion
4. The Fine Print
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1. Article: Web Presence Techniques, Pros and Cons, Part 3
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In the last issue we covered the pros and cons of writing
articles for EzineArticles.com and Helium.com, and taking the
time to comment on other people's blogs. We've got a few more to
cover today, but, please, remember one thing as you start your
own efforts toward dominating the first page of your name's
search results: This whole thing takes time. It will not happen
overnight. Heck, it's unlikely to happen overweek. It also
happens remarkably unevenly when you happen to share your name
with, say, just for example, the CEO of a company, a well known
comic artist, and a brand of men's slacks.
Yeah, hypothetically if that were the case, you'd have to be
very, very patient.
Anyway, before I start sounding bitter, let's get on with the
list.
7. Set up a LinkedIn Public Profile. LinkedIn (linkedin.com) is
one of the plethora of social networking sites out there.
It's pretty bare bones as far as flashy bells and whistles go,
but it does well what it purports to do, which is connect
business people to each other.
Pros: You can put up a fairly comprehensive description of
yourself and your experiences and make the whole thing public
(remember the idea here is for other people to be *able* to
find us). This profile can include links to your personal and
company website and another site which is associated with you
(your blog?). If you do use this site to maintain your list
of contacts, it's got a cool little feature which shows the
number of connections you have with your immediate group, then
the number of their connections (think in the hundred or
thousands) and then one set of connections beyond that (think
tens or hundreds of thousands). It's a pretty strong lesson
in the combinatorics of networking.
Cons: It's highly unlikely that anyone will create a link to
your profile, so the best use of this might be in concert with
with commenting on someone else's blog or when submitting a
post to an online forum. Both of these will often let you
include a personal URL as a part of the submission.
8. Create Profiles on Other Social Networking Sites. There are
numerous social networking sites out there. Some are better
than others for the purposes of spreading your web presence.
Pros: Many of these sites have a lot of fun tools and widgets
which help you maintain contacts with your friends and
associates who are also on the same service.
Cons: Be careful to select sites which can support you in the
style you wish to project. Some of them can be a bit wild and
woolly. Also be careful that you don't post things that you'd
mind seeing for the next forty years. On the Internet, that
picture of you doing that thing at that party with that guy
will hang around forever. One other thing to be aware of:
Your profile on many of these sites is only visible to other
members of the club. This doesn't do much for you if you are
just trying to increase your name recognition.
9. Participate in Online Discussion Boards. Name any subject and
there is probably at least one online discussion area which
focuses on it. Contributing to such online discussions can
give you a reputation as an expert in that area.
Pros: Given that the discussion boards are usually arranged by
topic, you can focus your efforts on the specific area in
which you want to be perceived as the expert. You can spend
as much or little time in the area as you want. Those forums
which are open to the public are indexed by the search
engines. This means if you write a particularly good "How To"
post, it's very likely to end up at the top of the results for
years to come.
Cons: Just as with any real-world organization, in order to
become a recognized member of the community, you will have to
devote some time and effort to the group. Creating valuable
posts takes brain cycles and until you've posted a significant
number of times, you will have no reputation with the
community. For an idea on how many you might have to post,
check out the community "levels" that they might have and how
many posts it takes to get to each level. For example, on the
Howard Forums (http://www.howardforums.com/), a discussion
area focusing on the cell phones, you start out at "Where's
the power button?" if you have zero or one posts all the way
up to "Post Machine" for people who've posted over 10,000
times!
That should give you a good start on techniques to improve your
web visibility. I wouldn't recommend going out and trying to do
all of these at once. Start slow. Get that website working.
Start your blog. Add them slowly to your daily responsibilities
and before you know it, you'll be ranked above those losers who
happen to sell a brand of pants which just happens to have the
same name as you.
I'm just saying.
Copyright 2007, Greg Peters
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2. Blog Posts
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Links to posts on the "Clearing Up the Confusion" Blog from the
last year:
Tuesday, September 18, 2007 -- The Chains of Networking
http://clearing-confusion.blogspot.com/2007/09/chains-of-networking.html
Sunday, September 16, 2007 -- Karate Video: Bo Form
http://clearing-confusion.blogspot.com/2007/09/karate-video-bo-form.html
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3. Shameless Self-Promotion
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The "Clearing Up the Confusion" E-Zine is a production of Greg Peters,
owner, chief cook, and bottlewasher of Cyber Data Solutions. CDS has
been helping website designers develop better web presence for their
clients for more than a decade. Visit us on the Web at
www.cyberdatasolns.com to see how we can help your webmaster.
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4. The Fine Print
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