Zeros 2 Heroes - The People's Publisher

Before I started my personal site, I did give it a lot of thought. I found I was actually a little embarrassed about having to think about it. Do I really need a 'brand'? Who the hell do I think I am, anyway?

But more and more, I discovered that people were Googling me to find out more about me. (Not 'fans'; either because I was up for a gig on something, or people who heard or met me at poetry readings; stuff like that.) And I realized that either I could let Google decide what foot of mine was being put forward, or I could take it into my own hands. I'm very glad I did. I think we simply live in a world where people are going to look you up online...

I used my name as my domain name because for my purposes, they needed to match. I wanted my site to come up when someone searched for my full name.

When I was working with the designer of my website (my dude's brother, who is an artist & web designer) I wasn't thinking 'let's brand me' so much as 'I want something PRETTY!' But as it turned out, I liked the design so much I extended it to my blog, and have had the design adapted into postcards I can use in real life.

My general feeling is that this is my creative self online. Neither my site, nor my blog, are particularly personal. I haven't quite ventured there yet, but have been thinking about it... I love when other people are transparent... maybe I will get brave too.

I think this is a really great topic, Maria. I still feel a bit of embarrassment in thinking about self-marketing or self-branding, but this is a great place to really have this conversation! I'd love to hear other people's perspectives.

Great topic. Currently, my 'fans' have nowhere to go. I've been talking about doing a website for years. One of the biggest issues, of course, is my various pen names and the specific genre audiences that go with them. Do I manage separate websites for each of my pseudonyms, or do I just have one main site with 'pages' for each genre?

All of my names use my real name ('Nick') in some form or other, so I really wanted to use www.Nick.com...but Nickelodean snagged that domain name a long time ago. I think www.nick.net might be available, but when people skip Google and go straight to typing in domain names, they automatically think to try .com first.

And, yeah, should I try to 'brand' myself somehow?

Good questions raised by MTD, but I have no answers!

Actually, I will give the opinion that I believe more and more fans are expecting to get a feel for the writer's (artist's, musician's) true personality and lifestyle through their blogs, etc. Whether that's something we should be comfortable with sharing is a tough question.

I think it's best to use one's name for a web address. Maybe not the name exclusively, i.e. www.alexrossart.com, but at least the name.

There a re some who don't do that, or post under a collective name. I don't know how appropriate that is for a writer, though.

As for brand names, I'd say only do that if you can produce merchandising or something along those lines, and maybe stick it on a different site.

And finally, blogging... One thing I tell everyone I know is that the moment it's on the Internet, it's there for life. Doesn't matter if you delete it, doesn't matter if you privatize it. It has been, at the very least, cached somewhere and can be accessed somehow. So, my recommendation is always to be at the very least honest in your online communications. A white lie is one thing, but a lie that is logged and refered to in the future always comes back to haunt you. Case in point: Pat Lee and Chuck Austen.
Plus, being irrational loses you everything, no matter how right you are. Case in point: John Byrne.

I have had a blog for a long time now and I've privatized a lot of my older entries, due to drama and other shits I don't care to ventilate anymore. All I can say is, always think of what you will be doing in the future when showing something on the Internet, and never about the present.
It helped me revamp my personal image... somewhat :)

GW: I tend to agree -- we live in a world in which we expect to be able to get a glimpse at the 'person behind the art' online. MySpace and Facebook have only exacerbated that... I am "friends" with people on Facebook who could one day hire me for my dream job. We can see into each other's lives... which is both great, and, as Fett says, problematic (yes, I put the word "problematic" into Fett's mouth -- what's he gonna do, he's 3 time zones away!). I'm conscious of what pictures, notes, etc. are on Facebook that could, you know... ruin my career. :)

On the other hand, are we more desensitized to seeing the personal stuff? Is it no longer very weird to see pictures of, say, a co-worker's stagette party?

Fett, re: branding, I think we're talking overall image branding here, not necessarily t-shirts and bumper stickers... in the same way a small design company might have a website, or a logo and a business card... many artists/writers have something akin to that. Some public face. I think it's a question of how far we really want to take it. Does it really help? Could it make you, as an artist, seem more corporate somehow? I really don't know!

Agree on 'what you put out there stays out there' lessons. In the early days of the internet, I wrote something on a Sailor Moon fan site (I was young, and there were classes to be skipped and TV to watch), not really thinking the internet was all THAT important. For several years, that posting was there for all to see -- pretty much the only thing my name was attached to online. Guh.

Also, there's currently a video of me out there that used to be *everywhere* -- where I look hideous. Like I just escaped from Bountiful or something. Folks, never sign a waiver saying someone can put video of you online unless you're sure you're okay with it being bloody everywhere, throughout the universe and in perpetuity.

Yeah... an ex-girlfriend of mine experienced something similar before meeting me. It warranted a thorough and considerate warning on her part before we started dating. I'll stop reminiscing right now.

Regarding branding. I say: oh LULZ now I get it :D
Yeah, logos are cool. I endorse logos, no matter who you are or what you do.

So I don't have a website or anything, guess I should catch up, eh? But reading your conversation here I became curious if anything would show up if I googled me.
Interesting fact--I am a project manager at Data System Designs, who knew?
According to my blog, I and my wife(damn forgot the name I will have to look it up) just went on a cruise--I must have been hammered the whole time because I really don't remember that.
and the fourth hit was something about Zeros2Heroes and Mekikas' blog--oh wait that one is true.

My point is, how does anyone know what they are looking up on the internet is A)true and B) pertains to the individual in question.
You can't believe everything you read especially on the internet so it is kind of iritating that potential employers would make that a make it or break it kind of thing.

True story, or so I read, a family was disturbed by the police one evening because of a spike in their utilities bill(a key sign of a grow op) and when the homeowner was questioned/surveyed about the spike his answer was because they had just installed a heated pool, but when the police google earthed him there was no pool so they raided his home based on facts accumulated on the internet...nice that peolple stopped thinking for themselves and decided to let the world wide web do it for them(comment on the employers not those who are forced to represent themselves to those employers "truthfully" on the net--that one could come back to bite me on the ass, maybe I should back out and enter this comment as a guest--)
Kind of a sidebar there to Carmen's question, should have maybe put it in my own blog(after the entry about the cruise) sorry.

PS-there was actually a pool in the above example

See what happens when you read something on the internet?

It was on old Google Earth image the cops looked at, allegedly.

Fett, Yen, GW, Mek - did you guys say that what we blog about stays around, like, FOREVER??? So you mean that stupid little song I started won't go away? Even if I delete it?

. . . . .



NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Maria, I guess I should answer your questions too. No, I don't have a website. But maybe now I should. I would likely go with my own name somehow, but I would always be careful about revealing too much personal information online. I have no problem blogging about my opinions on subjects, since there is not much controversial I could or would say. I'm kind of one of those, "if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all" people. And I truly believe in most instances you can find the good in people if you look hard enough. Most instances.

I never set out to fracture my identity as part of some 'sales strategy'. It just sort of evolved that way. My 'Rootwood' site is aimed at a broad audience - I direct people there who want graphic design or illustration, or writing or any other general purpose to do with me.

Some time ago, I decided that any 'company' or 'studio' I ran would be called 'Rootwood' - so I guess that's my personal brand. When I am doing work that is my own, I use that name - I sort of have a personal philosophy behind the 'Rootwood' idea - a vision statement and a manifesto and that sort of junk. That's my main website, where I have my portfolio and resume and stuff like that.

I have another website for 50/50 Comics, which is my main independent comics effort. My buddy Atomic Skull and I came up with this comic story we wanted to do together; it was a collaboration, composed of ideas from the two of us, so we wanted to name our 'indy comics production entity' something that represented our vibe. 50/50 fit the bill. I sort of try and direct my comics-related activity in that direction.

And then 'Crackwalker' is a name I've used enough that some people recognize me from some website or forum or contest I was involved in. It's become my online persona.

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So I think there's no way to avoid branding. People want to label you, because it makes things easy. If you label yourself, at least you have some measure of control over your image.

Corporate branding is one of the things I push my clients to focus on. I specialize in mobile advertising, which, with a good logo, is excellent for hammering the IDEA of your business in people's heads locally. The web provides the same effect internationally - but that requires ads scattered everywhere.

If you can get a nice website together, or even a myspace or facebook page, you can get loads of popularity by updating it with some new art or a blog once a week. It gets people coming back to the page to see what's new. Then, they might tell a friend and your fan base will grow that way.

Pareidolia leads people to see patterns where none implicitly exist so if you don't consciously brand yourself, they will do it for you. Why not take charge of that public perception.

I don't have a web site, but it's something I should do and the longer I let it go, the more I regret it. It would have been nice, for example, to have somewhere to point the judges and voters for the playWRITE competition, somewhere that's clearly and quintessentially mine. My excuse has been financial, but it's probably truer to admit that I've procrastinated on that. Administration is a weakness of mine.