Janet Johnson
That’s Not Me!
A year ago (or so), I read about Google Alerts on Elana Johnson’s blog.
They are pretty cool. You choose something you’d like to google, and once a week (or however often you want to receive them), Google sends you a list of the top-ranked pages for that search term. If you don’t know how, you should definitely google it . . .that is, as soon as you’re done commenting on my blog. 😉
As a writer and blogger, for example, you can set up an alert for your name just to get an idea of where and how frequently you are mentioned. Does your blog come up when someone searches for your name (ie agents and editors)? Are any other sites referencing you?
I decided to take a leap, and I loved the results. My blog came up consistently. And often, I’d find my name mentioned on other blogs (which was always a fun surprise!).
Anyway, fast-forward several months, and Google (the stinkers!) changed the way they do something, and suddenly, my blog is gone from the lists. Except occasionally. So instead of seeing my posts proudly displayed, I learn about other Janet Johnsons (because there are a lot of us).
Did you know that in July, a one Janet Johnson of Texas gave birth to a sixteen-pound baby! Wow.
And do you know how often I find links to my obituary? At least once a month.
Still, it is amusing, and it’s nice to know I do show up somewhere . . . even if it’s a few links down.
So do you do Google Alerts? How does your name fare?