What To Do To Protect Your Online Reputation

When managing your online reputation, you might wonder what to do if you search Google for your name or company and find that a negative item appears about you on page one.Can you have such things removed?

You can't make a negative Google result vanish, but you can help push it farther down the rankings by sending out a steady stream of new content that shows you or your company in a positive light.Here are ten things you can do to quickly get quality content out there:

1.

Create a website.That might seem obvious, but many people don't have their own domain name and website.You can nab the top spot in the search engines for your name or company name just by having a website.

2.Create a blog.The search engines love blogs because they are updated frequently.Even if you leave the blog untended for a while it will still tend to rank well.Target certain names or phrases in your blog titles and the first sentence of the posts.You'll be on page one of Google before you know it.

3.Create pages and sub domains.The search engines view these as separate from your main site, so it's a way to brand yourself more and send out yet more content on the search engines.An example of a subdomain would be "products.yourdomain." Having lots of pages and subdomains out there helps crowd out any negative information that might be on the Internet about your company.This way you remain in charge of the conversations and your reputation.

4.Use Social Media.Use your business or personal name and create profiles in the social media (MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc.).Even if you don't want to use these tools, it is wise to at least reserve your name so that others don't create profiles using your identity, potentially damaging your online reputation.

5.Create a social network of your own.Ning is an excellent free social networking software that you can use for your own community (the free version comes with ads).Or you can pay $5/month and host it on your own domain.

6.Create a LinkedIn profile.This is especially important if you are a professional and are looking for employment.It's also a way for colleagues to find your contact info and a way to meet new clients.

7.Use Flickr.Flickr is a photo sharing site which you might not think of in connection with reputation management, but if you upload photos with your name or company name, they will rank well in the search engines.Include comments on the photos too.Be strategic when choosing your Flickr ID name, because that shows up well in searches.

8.Create a Naymz profile.You can link to all your other profiles from this one site and is a one-stop site for your brand.

9.Create your own Wiki.Rather than create a page for you or your company on Wikipedia (where you don't have total control), create your own wiki instead and build a profile there.Make one for your name or company name.You control who contributes to it.

10.Use Google Pages.Google loves these pages, of course.It's yet another place for you to post content that will rank well, and using these Google Pages is especially important if there is negative content about you on page one that you want to push out.

About the Author

Search engine marketing is the most powerful way to drive traffic on the web.

With Content Syndication you can control your internet brand.For more info on reputation management go to www.directhorizon.com

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5 Ways Article Marketing Grows Your Business

One of the greatest things that the Internet offers us as professionals is free advertising and marketing methods.Of these, surely one of the greatest is the use of articles.Using articles to advance and grow your business is highly effective (and it can be a lot of fun).What's more, it's free; or it can be.It's definitely low-cost compared to other marketing methods.

If you write the articles yourself, it's free and costs you nothing but time.If you feel you aren't a good writer or don't have time enough to write all you want to, you can hire ghostwriters to write for you.These professional writers can do an excellent job and make you look very good for a relatively low cost.You pay them a fee to write articles that you then put your own name on and have all of the publishing rights to.

If you're sold on the use of article marketing, but wonder how exactly it can grow your business, you're in luck.Here are five of the many ways that marketing your writing with articles can promote your business.

1) Establishing you as an authority in your business niche.When you offer your expertise through writing others will come to believe that you are a great source for the products or services within your business niche.

People can read your incredible wisdom for free because you so fluidly express and share your knowledge.If potential customers need the types of products or services you offer and you've positioned yourself as the one to go to, they will think of you right away.

2) Getting you noticed.You might offer the best of the best of something, but if nobody knows you exist or can't find you, you may as well not offer it at all.By writing articles and getting your name, profile, business, and knowledge out there on the Internet, you make it possible for people to find you.

People like finding you in this way.They don't feel they are being sold to, inundated with advertising, or disrupted.If you give them well written, informative and helpful articles, they'll even feel smarter and entertained when they read them.This will make them remember you.

3) Ranking higher in the search engines.These days if you aren't strong on the web you are really getting your pants whipped off you by your competitors.You need to show up on the first page or two of the results of a keyword search by potential customers on the Internet.Google, WhoNu?, Webcrawler, Yahoo, and everyone else has got to be able to find you to get the exposure you need.With your articles this becomes more likely to happen.

4) Getting you targeted traffic.You don't need or even desire lots of people coming to your website who really aren't interested in your offerings.You want qualified prospects and targeted traffic.These are people who already have some kind of interest in your offerings.It might be urgent, it might be pondering, it might be curiosity--but it's there.

Now, your articles either inspire them to become interested, or they touch that interest that was already there and fire it up.If they just aren't one of your prospects, they will not read your articles very much.That's ok.These type of people are not who you want to attract.You want someone who is truly in need of what you have to offer.

5) Getting the word out.Articles are an incredible source of referrals.They get people talking about you to each other, sending your links to one another, placing them at their own websites and even socially book marking your words.Word of mouth marketing at it's best.

Article marketing is a great way to grow your online business.No matter what you are selling or promoting, let your expertise show with quality information that will bring your readers, and potential customers, right to you time after time.

About the Author

Chris Simpson is dedicated to helping people find honest and legitimate work from home opportunities and home based business ideas.

Find legitimate work from home jobs and other great opportunities to earn money online today at: www.HomeNetPro.com

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Are Paid Surveys A Legitimate Way To Make Money?

Many people wonder if paid online surveys are really legitimate ways of making money from home.Yes, they are, but you have to know what you are doing and have realistic expectations.

One of the reasons those who are looking for a source of income online find paid surveys suspicious is because they wonder why companies or marketing researchers would need their opinion and why they would be willing to pay for it.Can it be real?Yes, it's real.These marketing research companies just can't find enough people to survey about their product, which might be a test-market product.So they turn to consumers.

They are willing to pay you for your answers because:

1.

What they save in telephone and direct mail costs by comparison is a small fortune.
2.If they can accurately assess their product, the amount of profit they can earn is very great and quite easily covers the expense of paying all those who participate.
3.Since they want accurate answers, they know they need to give a good incentive so you'll take your time and be honest.

If these companies are real and willing to pay for your opinion, is it possible to turn survey taking into a huge home business?This is where you have to be realistic.Yes, you can make a nice home based income from paid surveys.

If you are single and have no children, it's possible, depending on your other circumstances, that you can take paid surveys full time and not need a j-o-b.If you're married and have kids, you can use this business as a very nice supplemental income, and if your spouse is the major bread-winner you could do the survey business full-time while still having a completely flexible schedule.

Let's be honest here; you are not going to get rich from paid surveys.How much you can earn depends on a few factors.

You first need to know what you're doing.For one thing, this means finding the legitimate, quality online survey sites out there.

Next, you need to understand that you won't fit the demographics looked for by these marketing researchers for all of the surveys out there.You might not fit for a lot of them.This means you will need to sign up with a large number of companies.That can be a lot of work on its own.Just a tip: middle-class mothers are the most-preferred demographic.

Still, you can expect to make over $1,000 a month if you take paid surveys consistently, which, again depends on your demographic profile.Few surveys pay more than $10 and the vast majority pay less than that; but if you can find just a few of those to do every day you could potentially hit the $1,000 a month mark.If you did a few more, even of the ones that pay just a few bucks, you might even reach $1,500 a month.

To really maximize your income potential from surveys, also sign up for focus groups.These pay more money than surveys.An average for a focus group is $100.They can take as little as an hour of your time or up to a few days or weeks.You can also find telephone surveys that would pay you for similar amounts of time.

If you can find at least $30 worth of surveys a day plus three focus groups/telephone surveys per week, you can easily bring in even higher amounts.

So, yes there are legitimate online paid surveys out there.Are they always easy to find?No.Is it possible to make a nice living from them?Maybe, depending on how often you fit the profile companies are looking for.If you sign up to a lot of companies and sign up for more as time goes on, you should do just fine.

About the Author

Chris Simpson is dedicated to helping people earn money online by helping them find legitimate work at home opportunities and home based business ideas.

Find legitimate online paid surveys and many other work at home jobs today at: www.HomeNetPro.com

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