What Can a Google Alert Do For You?
by John Occhi, Hemet Realtor®
Mission Grove Realty

I want to assume that everyone knows what a "Google Alert" is, but in my heart of hearts I know I would be wrong.

Ok, for the sake of assumption, I KNOW everyone who is reading this, knows what "Google" is - the largest and most influential search engine on the internet today.

So, before I get into my story, let me give those who need it, a real quick primer on Google - because the internet giant is so much more than a search engine.  I'm not going to spend this space talking about Google email - Gmail or their online photo storage - Picasa or any of their doze s of other really great tools that we should all be using to advance our online business model.

If you open up Google, you will see above the area for you to type a search phrase, there are several options, including the word "more".  Click on this and then a small pop-up window opens with a few choices and the term, "even more" - click on this.  Now you are on a page full of "Google Options"

The very first icon is for Google Alerts - open this...

This is where you can start of by entering your own name in the search field.  Make sure you ad the quote makes at each end, to join all of the words between the quotes and have them treated as a single exact phrase.  For example, my search looks like this:  "John Occhi".  Then there are a couple of other options that you can play with and next thing you know you have emails coming at you on a regular basis anytime your name appears anywhere in the world wide web.

This is great to keep track of your own information - to see where it ends up on the web - you can't hide from Google.  It is also a great way to rack your keywords, for your website.  Keep an eye on the competition, so to speak.

Alright, I thought it was important to share a quick primer on Google Alerts - a very valuable and FREE tool.

So now on to the purpose of this post.  I found out about this, through my Google Alert, because one  of my Active Rain blog posts got picked up and published on the Localism page on Squidoo - that's kind of exciting, I think.  Do you guys know who Squidoo is?  Well, let's just say they are a popular Blog community that caters to everyone.  They refer to their blogs as a ‘lens'.

Well, they have devoted an entire page to Activism.

I would suggest you check them out, if you haven't already.  I know I have a lens there -it has been neglected, it does have links pointing where I want them.

They have some sort of referral point program there too - not sure exactly how it works, but use my link and I'll get a brownie point or something.

So go ahead and have a Blessed Day,

John Occhi, Hemet Realtor®
Mission Grove Realty
Real Estate Sales | Hemet CA