How can you be found on the web?

The web is a necessity as we have mentioned before. It has become one of the things that you will be asked about in almost every meeting you have with clients. You may also be asked at any of the networking groups you attend. Why do people ask? It is simply to verify what you are saying. The web has a tendency to substantiate all of the elevator pitches and spiels that you give when first meeting with people. When I first started out reinventing myself and wishing to go back to my consulting background, I called on someone that I had worked with on some interesting projects. I told her what I was planning on doing since the project we were working on was cancelled. I forwarded my contact information outside of the project and the first thing she did was to look at the website I had at that time (www.BizMechanix.com). Although this site is not my main one, it did give her enough information about my expertise. I did not have to mail out brochures, send my resume or spend time explaining my background. All of it was available on the web and was downloadable as a PDF file. As a note: Do not put anything on your website you do not want the public to see.

One of the things that we did was to make sure that we had keywords and a descriptor on the site. This enabled us to register with search engines (the places that have information about your website when people search for you, so your page will come up in the search results). Search engines also found the site when my name was entered. I was actually quite surprised at all the pages my name was on. Try and type your name into a search engine such as Google and see what you get. If you do not appear, take some time to figure out why and do something about it. The easier you make it for clients and potential clients, the greater the opportunity is for you.

A website is like an electronic brochure; it describes your business and also describes all of the things that you can do to solve problems. A website is an important tool and you should learn how to use it.

Bette Daoust, Ph.D. has been networking with others since leaving high school years ago. Realizing that no one really cared about what she did in life unless she had someone to tell and excite. She decided to find the best ways to get people's attention, be creative in how she presented herself and products, getting people to know who she was, and being visible all the time. Her friends and colleagues have often dubbed her the "Networking Queen". Blueprint for Networking Success: 150 ways to promote yourself is the first in this series. Blueprint for Branding Yourself: Another 150 ways to promote yourself is planned for release in 2005. For more information visit http://www.BlueprintBooks.com