How To Own Your Name Before Someone Else Does

This was a post i recently put on my blog. It's explains why you need to dominate your name if you are in network marketing.

You can read it here or just read it on my blog (link in sig)

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Did you know that in the internet marketing world your name and subsequently your brand is what makes you who you are. Not only that but, it is the only thing that distinguishes you from every other internet marketer out there.

And guess what, you don't even own it!

I know, Your probably thinking "what does he mean, of course i own my name" but the sick reality is that you don't and at any time someone else could steal it. Unless you learn how to own it and protect it.

Here is what i mean by this.... I hope by now you understand the concept that people join people not opportunities. So when a prospect is thinking about joining a company under you, 9 times out of 10 they will run a background check. In this day and age with all these online scammers who wouldn't. Usually what a potential sign up will do is go on google and search for your name. If they find lots of positive things about you and see that you truly are who you say you are then the sale is a breeze.
However....

If they find many negative things about you and bad reviews than you can kiss that sale goodbye. It's never coming back.

But why would i have a bad review under my name? I'm the only person who writes in my blog and obviously i'm not bad mouthing myself.

What many people do to take control of their market is take other marketers names and write bad reviews about them. It's extremely dirty and if what the person is writing isn't true than its morally wrong.

Sometimes it's not even done is a dirty fashion. Someone will write a review about you being completely honest, but then at the bottom tell the reader why he/she (the person writing it) is better. In fact this is a common technique taught to many beginning marketers to get some quick traffic.

Google's algorithm just displays the most relevant thing. If they implement proper SEO (search engine optimization) that is better than your optimization than they will rank higher and your reputation will be shot. Which means you do not own your name!

Here's some good or bad news (depending on the way you take it). 90% of traffic on a google page goes to the top 3 organic search results. As long as you can control these 3 spots (as a start) you should be good to go. But more importantly you have to keep others out of these three spots.

So this is how you do it...

First off i'm going to throw some basic SEO at you. To get anything ranked in google you need 2 things. On page and off page SEO.

Lets Start With Some On Page Seo

If you have a blog , you can do certain things to it to make it more appealing to google. The first one being, the site's domain name. ex: MattAdamo.Net. There is no better way to show relevance than having the keyword in the domain name.

Second is having an about page. What's on your about page really isn't that important as long as you have your name and some things about you. However what's more important is that every time you write ANYTHING online with your name, you MUST link it to your about page. For example --> Matt Adamo. If you click that it will bring you to my about page. What this does is it creates an extremely relevant back link. The best way to think of a back link is a vote. Now i have one vote for the term "Matt Adamo" and it's pointing to a page i own. Which in turn will help me dominate my name on google.

This also has a secondary bonus. If you really start to get lots of back links to your blog under your name. You will be able to control the top 2 spots in google instead of just the top spot. Cool right!

And Now For Some Off Page

With the emergence of social media, off page SEO for your name has never been easier and luckily if done right, will give you a significant advantage over other people trying to rank for your name.

The first thing you want to do in ALL of your social media accounts is make your username your exact name. (If you make your username mlmmasterman4632 no one will take you seriously) Plus this will create more relevant back links. For example my twitter username is MattAdamo. My squidoo username is MattAdamo. If you cant get your exact name make it a variation of it with your name still in it. For example my facebook username is MattAdamoMarketing. My betternetworker is also MattAdamoMarketing.

Secondly, in all of these profile set up's it will ask you to give your main website. This is where you put your "central hub" or your blog. It's important to always send people to your blog because it is the best way to form a relationship. Not only that but if you have 30 social media profiles than you will get 30 (or more) extremely targeted backlinks. Which should be more than enough to control your name (unless your name is bill gates, in that case i'm really sorry! haha).

You also want to link some of these profiles together. An example of that would be linking your squidoo to your facebook and myspace, and your google profile to your twitter and digg.

This is called creating your social media web. Look at the picture below for an example of what a good social media web would look like. (the arrows represent backlinks)

What i really want you to focus on is how your blog is in the middle. That is key because your blog is where you capture your leads and its where you create relationships. However these are just some examples. There are hundreds of social media websites out there. From bookmarking sites, to networking sites to microblogging sites. I don't advise using all of them because that would be too time consuming. However definitely at least set up a profile and get the link juice moving.

Its is crucial to own your own name in this internet marketing world. Your name should be yours, lets keep it that way.
Always -Matt Adamo