5 types of personal branding websites for web presence

What happens when someone does a web search on your name? Are you telling your own story or is someone else? Don’t let others hijack your name as a top result on search engines and taint your reputation by presenting you in a less than flattering light.

You have to have a web presence. Tell your own story. Having a personal website (or blog) is being called personal branding. There are books and many articles written about why it’s important. Finding examples is sorta scattered all over the web. Here’s 5 basic types of personal websites to help visualize what your web presence could look like:

1. single web page – A basic web presence; a landing page; a digital business card:

• http://kennyjahng.com
• http://paulfwalsh.com
• http://about.me/djchuang or
• for a quick start, read my blog post How to get your online presence aka personal web page and launch a personal web page in minutes

2. website + blog combo – the home page has a plethora of features along with most recent blog entries:

• http://www.debbieweil.com
• http://www.problogger.net
• http://garyvaynerchuk.com

3. personal blog – blog-centric, the most recent blog entry is prominently displayed, maybe with extra pages to describe services and/or podcasts and/or whatever:

• http://artiedavis.com
• http://www.chrisbrogan.com
• http://annejacksonwrites.com
• http://www.williamarruda.com
• http://www.bethkanter.org
• http://charlestlee.com
• http://djchuang.com (of course)

4. brochure with a blog – a splash/landing page with basic info and a blog (some updated more often than others); the blog is on separate web page(s) than the home page:

• http://www.guykawasaki.com/
• http://sethgodin.com/
• http://www.wrightcreativity.com/
• http://lebronjames.com/
• http://leoville.com/

5. business web site – website uses a company name rather than a personal name; typical of a freelancer with (usually) single person or a few people:

• http://eventcaptureonline.com/
• http://outspokenmedia.com/
• http://socialmouths.com/
• http://milkengine.com/
• http://bedeviant.com/
• http://kirlincoaching.com/

Since the home page of (practically) any website gets the most web traffic, so you’d want to emphasize what you think is most important to your website visitors. Any other comments you’d add?

Quick start tip: have something! If Google doesn’t see you, do you exist? If you’re able to keep a blog updated at least once a week, put that more prominently (#2 or #3); if you’d prefer to feature your services and updates are infrequent, #4 or #5 would fit you better.

Contact me for personal coaching about establishing your personal web presence, personal branding, and strategies for extending your online engagement.