Online identity

With all of the choices to "claim your name online", I'm having a little bit of an identity crisis, not to mention finding my self short of free time. It all started when I joined claimid. Okay, so far so good. Then I received a Linkedin invitation from my friend Toby, in Washington. So of course I joined up there under Las Vegas. There I found a few of my friends I lost track of, so I added them plus some of my family had profiles too.

Then I found another site, namyz so I added my profile under Charles Richey. I ended up with most of the same people in my network that I had on my other sites. Recently I started branching out and meeting other people. Lastly, I joined Ziki. For some reason, it draws a lot of french speakers. So much in fact they changed the urls to reflect the native language of the listing (so much for the links I had going to the old url). Most of the visitors I get now to that profile are from France. At least it interesting.

I've come to the decision to pull back on adding anything more to these profiles, because of the time involved.

Ogog with blogs

It seems that blogs are here to stay. Now it seems that EVERYONE has a blog. You turn on the television, watching a show. At the end, odds are you'll here: check out our BLOG at blah/blah.com/blogblah! So its not a surprise that there are also a lot of sites that have sprung up to list blogs, social network for bloggers, help bloggers make money, take the money of bloggers, etc.

I came across one that I hadn't heard of before, ogog.org. Its run by a non-profit organization, which in itself makes it unique. So, of course, I signed up! Check my OgOg profile. I'm still playing around with the site, but so far, I like what I see.

Where are you at?

As social networks gain in popularity, I'm finding myself spread a little thin. It probably all started off with my Digg profile, Jade456. Then I jumped on Del.ici.ous with the same user name, Jade456. I started submitting some of my posts here and gained a few readers. I found mybloglog, and put up a profile there under Jade456 as well. Around the same time, I started playing with Squidoo and went a little nuts. I put up a "lens" on Las Vegas Real Estate, Henderson real estate, Las Vegas lofts, Las Vegas high rise condos, Boulder City real estate and Summerlin real estate. Jacqui and I are pretty active in the Las Vegas animal rescue scene and I try to contribute in everyway I can. I found a site called upcoming.org, which lets you post events in your area that are put out in an rss feed. Very handy for people to subscribe to, plus other users may find your event and attend. I put up a profile under Las Vegas Real Estate and just added my first event, a jewelry luncheon that benefits my favorite animal charity, Heaven Can Wait Sanctuary. Through a Squidoo lens I found a link to claimid.com. Basically it allows you to "claim" your name on the internet, help boost your site as a result to a query of your name. I put up a profile under lasvegasrealestate and started listing all of my various websites and profiles. The list is longer than I thought it would be! The other big social networking site I'm pretty active on is Activerain. Its fairly new, targeted towards realtors and related industries. Since its inception last year, it already has over 10,000 members and really isn't slowing down all that much. Jacqulyn has a profile under Las Vegas Real Estate and is currently ranked #1 for Nevada and Las Vegas. As a result, she also have a profile under Las Vegas real estate on their new sister site, localism.com.

Social networking is here to stay. In fact, it is an integral part of "web 2.0" and will be an important part of online marketing in the years to come. Advertisers are already taking notice and have begun to court these huge authority sites for advertising opportunities. How long will it last? Its hard to judge. As for participation and promotion of these networks, there are arguements for both sides.

On the one side, putting content and promoting your profile on a social network does have its drawbacks. Foremost, you don't control or own the site. The rules of use could change at any moment and then your just stuck. The agenda of the site itself could change or it could be sold to another company with its own rules and ideas. All of the arguements against are in the same vein. And they do have merit. Its absolutely correct.

However, on the other side can you afford not to participate? These sites are huge and rapidly becoming an authority in the eyes of the big three search engines. A high profile page on these sites can become a valuable backlink and even show up in the results for your keyword phrase. More and more consumers are active in these sites and a high profile page can give you excellent qualified traffic.

Whether or not its right for you is going to be your choice. If your current marketing plan is working for you, then don't fix what isn't broken. As for what is the right thing to do, we'll all just have to wait and see.

Digg it!

My Blog Log

Mybloglog is a great place to gain blog readers and network. You can track your readers, page views and offsite clicks, plus there are some cool blog widgets available, all for free. The site is a little like myspace, because you can add others as part of a network, specifying them as "friends", "family" or that you are just simply a fan of theirs. The available widgets are a nice touch and the tracking is pretty good, especially for gratus. The site is growing quickly and I can foresee if becoming an authority is the near future. My profile is listed under Jade456.

read more digg story

A Social Networking site with a twist

Social networking sites are all the rage today. Most are just clones of myspace. I found one with an interesting twist---sharing revenue. Your profile or "lens" as it called, can generate you cash that can be donated to a charity or you can be greedy and have them show you the money. Monetized options include google ads, amazon, netflicks and more

Check it out: read more digg story

Active Rain

A new real estate directory is taking the internet by storm. Active Rain is offering not only real estate professionals a free listing and blog, but related industry professionals may also join. At the time of this writing, the directory has 1877 listings. Some of the agents profiled are having their profiles show up in search engine rankings for their marketplace.

The directory has experienced some growing pains already, but the staff has consitently been updating the site. Last week, the directory added a forum to help agents spread ideas, find link partners and exchange information. Currently, the directory is free to join. If you are looking for a way to increase traffic to your website, then check out Active Rain.