I'm a huge believer in getting your name out on the Web: in building your online presence. If you're a writer, or you want to be, anonymity is not good. Whether you're selling your expertise on Subject X, or your writing skills in general, people do Google searches on your name, and they expect to see you there. Make sure that they can find you.
Web Worker Daily has an excellent article "Why You May Need an Online Persona", that you should take to heart, even if you're not writing for the Web.
When I talk about writing and blogging with writers, I emphasize that the first step you need to take is to buy your own domain name - that's YOUR NAME, as a domain - a Web address. For me, it's my angelabooth.com domain. You can buy your domain name at Namecheap.
There are many ways you can develop your online presence - setting up sites and blogs, writing articles for other sites, and so on. This helps you at whatever level you write, whether as a beginning writer, or an established writer.
I wrote about resume blogs - "Blogging For Writers: Three Blogging Tips To Boost Your Writing Career" - but you should look on all the online writing you do as a part of your resume. If you're writing books, you're building a "platform" - this is, people who know and like your work, and will buy your books, your fans, so to speak.
It also helps you when you're job hunting, because you'll get job offers from people who see your name online, and want to hire you.
If you haven't devoted time to thinking about how total strangers across the globe get information about you, do so. The Web truly is a web of information. Anonymity is not helpful to a writer - the more people who know your name, the more your writing is worth.
Do occasional "ego" searches - Google your name, and see what the results are. You may be surprised, or even shocked. Ego surfing isn't just an ego thing. When you're a writer, it's managing your brand.
Read my Fab Web Writer and Blogging For Dollars blogs to discover more about how to build your online presence, and making the Web work for you.
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