Own your web presence

“The internet is a series of tubes.”

– George Bush

As the online world grows, people need to be mindful of what can be found about them on the internet. Personal information is becoming less and less personal these days and that picture from that party last week might not be the kind of thing you want floating around the internets.

Investing in your online real estate is a great long term strategy, and it’s cheap! Here’s how I went about it.

Step One: Get to Register.com and buy the domain name of your choice, probably your name (ex. angusgastle.com), but do not order web hosting from them. I recommend this not because I don’t like their services (in fact their services are among the best). I say this because if you have your domain name and your site hosted with the same company, they can make it really expense and a huge pain in the ass for you to change hosting companies down the road. If you keep your account separated, you drive the bus and can make those decisions easily.

Step Two: Find a web hosting company. I recommend BranZone.com. Why? They are cheap and they have a great customer service department. Plus, they offer every service you could possibly need (mySQL, Blog Support, Email, Lots of bandwidth) as opposed to other companies that charge big bucks for all that extra jazz. If that wasn’t enough, they have a great application called cpanel that gives you complete control over your website, a must have in my opinion.

Step Three: Check out 101 Tips to Improve your Web Presence. If you want to know how to get your website on google or where to submit your blog to, it’s all in there.

That’s it. It cost me around $100 and I am happy to report that I have control over what comes up under my name on google and yahoo. It definitely gives me peace of mind for when I have to go on the job search and potential employers are googling me.

Happy Blogging.