Your presence on the internet either falls into one of two categories: Known or Not Known. You’re most likely in the “Not Known” category.
The advantages to being known gives you social perks. And if making money on the internet sounds good to you, your presence can equal cash later on.
In this article we’ll talk about how to brand yourself on the internet.
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What does it exactly mean to “brand yourself”?
Here’s a small example:
If you Google my name (Rich Menga), I am the first search result (for most people that perform that search) and it points directly to my personal blog.
If you Google David Risley, he is also the first search result and it points to his personal blog.
Why bother branding yourself in the first place?
The answer is simple: To be found. One of largest challenges of “getting yourself out there” so to speak is getting people to know you exist. Once people know you exist you can capitalize on this in whatever way you like (be it personal, for money or both).
It all starts with a name
This answer is also simple: Go public with a name.
You can either choose your personal name, business name or screen name.
The easiest of the three is your personal name due to the fact the internet (particularly on the business side) is getting increasingly social. A business or screen name doesn’t sound personal, but your personal name (as in your real name) obviously does.
If you’re the type that would rather not have your real name blasted out all over the internet, you can choose a pen name like book authors do. (Example: Samuel Clemens chose the name Mark Twain as his pen name.)
For whatever name you choose, you must stick to it. Once the brand starts to take hold, if you change it you will have to start the process all over again.
Branding is simple!
To start off your brand, all you need to do is use things on the internet using that name, and in a few short months (possibly sooner), your name will get higher and higher in search results (with the ultimate goal being #1 in Google for the name you chose).
Branding on a blog
The name you chose must be present IN TEXT in a prominent position on your blog.
On www.davidrisley.com, Dave’s name is in the TITLE AREA – in text.
On www.menga.net, my name is directly under my logo – in text.
You do not have to have www.your-name.com to make this work. Other blog platforms (WordPress, TypePad, etc.) are just fine. What matters is that your chosen name must appear in the header, title bar or some other prominent position IN TEXT.
Why text? Because search engines index it faster than anything else.
Branding on social networks
On social network/media pages, the name is what counts more than anything else since you have limited ability for custom design. Whenever filling out your profile information, the name must be present.
“Spidering” the brand
The way in which I spider my brand is by using Krunchd. My Krunchd page is http://krunchd.com/menga. Once again, the name is present and all my social network stuff is there. Since its creation it was indexed by Google quickly and spiders to all of the rest of the stuff I use. You will notice my name is in the title bar, in the body of the page and in the tags. This was all done on purpose.
What can you do once you’re branded?
Social connections
I can easily say “just Google Rich Menga and you’ll find me”. People remember this so much easier than saying “go to W W W dot menga dot net”. (Sad, but true.)
Establishing your niche
Got something to sell? Once your brand has taken hold you’ll have an advantage when trying to sell stuff, be it books you’ve written, products, services and so on.
How long does all this take?
Setting up the profiles (and/or blog) is easy enough, but as far as how long it takes before all your information gets indexed, it usually doesn’t take that long. It can be as quick as a week or as long as three months.
To note: Unique names do usually get indexed faster. “John Doe” for example wouldn’t stand too much of a chance of being #1, but “John Z. Doe” would.
It’s easy and takes just a few minutes
Remember that this branding stuff is stupidly easy to do and takes almost no time to do it. When you fabricate your brand and mold your internet presence to your liking, it’s all good.
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