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3 Quick Tips for Online Damage Control

Our last article showed you how to keep track of your online brand with popular tools, such as the Google search engine. Well, let's say that you are using one of the tips from that article and come across something silly you did years ago. It is not aligned with the brand image you want to portray today, and it would be slightly embarrassing (okay, maybe really embarrassing) if a potential client saw it. What can you do? Here are three things you can do to manage how your negative information shows up on the Internet:

Ignore it. This solution is only wise if you have a common name and there is no information on the page that can readily associate the negative content with you. Ignoring it will not work if there is a photo attached to the link or if you have a very uncommon name. This solution may work great for a Mary Smith...not so much for a Dequiana Brooks.
Contact the site to see if the information can be removed. If this negative content has been posted online by someone else, then send a friendly email asking for its removal. The site owner may surprise you and take it down. On social networking sites you have the option to flag content as inappropriate. Then, it could be automatically deleted, or the author will be forced to take it down. Unfortunately, this may not work with sites pulling information from public records, such as newspaper articles or court cases, but it is always worth a try. Remember, this is your online brand.
Post content about yourself online. If the information cannot be ignored or removed, then give the search engines better, positive information to post about you. Here are a couple things you can do to create content:

Open accounts on some of the popular social networking sites. Search engines routinely crawl places like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, so their profile pages typically come up first when someone searches for your name. This will push the negative information further down on the search page and hopefully past page one or two.
Post articles to EzineArticles, Helium or other writing sites. Signing up to these article writing sites gets you an author profile page. Just like the social networking sites, your profile here will typically show up on the first page of the search engines. These sites take articles on almost any topic, and you are likely an expert on something.

If you have employed these tips, and someone still finds that negative piece of content about you online, then be prepared to respond honestly. Say something like, "I was at a different place in my life then. Let me tell you about what I'm doing now." This gives you a chance to redirect the conversation to something positive. Those are the three quick tips for online damage control. Do you have others? Share them in the comments section below.

Dequiana Brooks has been an entrepreneur for as long as she can remember. She now focuses her energy on helping other businesses succeed through her marketing strategy & design company, Inspired Graphics Media. Let her take your business goals from inspiration to action by visiting http://www.inspiredmedia.net and scheduling your free consultation today!

(c) Copyright - Dequiana Brooks. All Rights Reserved.

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?3-Quick-Tips-for-Online-Damage-Control&id=4924963] 3 Quick Tips for Online Damage Control

Online Entertainment - The Great Escape Or Your Worst Nightmare

The internet is people's escape. They deal with traffic on the highway, they work all day (which they may completely resent), fight through even worse traffic on the way home, always have household chores to deal with, bills to worry about and are constantly looking for a distraction. Enter the world of entertainment.

Let's consider entertainment on the internet for a moment as there is an abundance of it and absolutely dwarfs anything that major television networks can possibly produce. Unfortunately, a vast majority of internet entertainment is rather mindless and does not contribute significant VALUE to people's lives.

For example, most people would be horrified to view some of the most subscribed channels on YouTube. The number one channel of all time is a young kid that just happened to be talking about passing gas as of March 14, 2010. From there, it just continues to get worse. The second most subscribed channel of all time is a pre-teen who cranks up the speed of his speech to emulate a slightly more annoying Alvin and the Chipmunks. Feel free to view the videos if you dare.

...This is what people are entertained by now?

Consider this: AC Nielson Company, a global market research center, reported that Americans in particular watch approximately 250 billion hours of television a year. Scary, huh? Now think about if people actually put a fraction of that time to use. If television were obsolete and people worked part-time instead for $5.00 an hour (which is essentially half of minimum wage), $1.25 trillion would be generated per year.

We all need entertainment but how is watching television or viewing the "entertainment" which is so prevalent online helping you and your family get ahead? Pretty simple: it's not. We all have passions in life and have significant value that we can provide others if we just take the time to discover what it is that we have to offer and put in the hard work and energy to make it manifest.

The bottom line being that the time that you create to escape from your daily responsibilities is best spent on activities that will help you improve as a person and contribute more effectively for your family. If you want to start monetizing your passions; consider blogging. You'll be glad that you did.

I take pride in writing all of my articles without any automation or outsourcing. It would be an honor if you would contribute your feedback and comments.

Brooks Brizendine invites you to learn how to identify your passions in life and how to create a profitable blog based on what excites you at [http://www.brooksbrizendine.com]http://www.brooksbrizendine.com. You will also learn how to utilize social bookmarking, social media and social networking to drive substantial traffic to your newly created blog! If you are serious about expanding your skills set and improving your life, enroll in the free blogging e-course today at [http://www.brooksbrizendine.com]http://www.brooksbrizendine.com.

(c) Copyright - Brooks Brizendine. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Online-Entertainment---The-Great-Escape-Or-Your-Wor...] Online Entertainment - The Great Escape Or Your Worst Nightmare