When I was in high school, I wanted to be the next Jimi Hendrix. I was in a band, I spent all my money on a really good guitar, and my big brother Greg was already on a record label. I had a unique name that would make for a good rock star image (so I thought). Then it happened. There was another Matthew Sweet out there and he had a big hit on the radio. I was annoyed. My name was now taken. I would have to go by another name if I were to become big....

Fast forward fifteen years to the web 2.0 world--- I'm not a big rock star (I still play guitar and sing, however) but I can have a big footprint on the web. And one of my specific goals recently was to be able to Google my name and have my website come up number one in the results. Well this week it happened! If you google "matt sweet" my website comes in at number one. I beat the other Matthew Sweet at the Google game (for today).

How did I do it?

Honestly, I don't know what is in Google's black box. But here's what I believe worked in my favor:

• I registered a domain name with my name in it - matthewdsweet.com. For this site I used a free tumblr page that I could hook up to my blogs and twitter.
• I put new content on the site regularly and when appropriate, I will put a link to it in my facebook status or twitter.
• I link to my matthewdsweet.com site via my retaggr card, which is all over the place.
• I put my site URL in every social media profile that it makes sense to put it in.
• I use my name in the web address for my profile on sites like issuu.com. http://issuu.com/mattsweet or Lunch.com http://www.lunch.com/mattsweet

Potential clients may Google your name. How will they find you?

Thanks to Brad Andersohn's "Google me" business card post for inspiring me to write this.

Matt Sweet
Ticor Title

p.s. My Grandma Sweet called me up one day when I was in high school and told me how proud she was of me. She had bought my album. It was the other Matthew Sweet... LOL