Woo...woo...woo...woo (to the tune of the Twilight Zone).

You are OUT THERE... more than you think!!!!!

by Stephanie Abney

As writers, we frequently talk about the need to create an "online presence." I'm guessing you are already present… more than you know.

Have you ever “Googled” your own name? You should. You might be surprised. You are "out there" more than you realize. Perhaps, even, more than you want to be. I have a charming friend, Mary, who is fond of posting photos online… so when I googled my name and THEN CLICKED ON "IMAGES" rather than just search, you can imagine I wasn’t overly thrilled to find a picture of myself at a recent baby shower we attended (in fact it was for one of our ANWA sisters, Deirdra Coppel) "sniffing" poopy baby diapers ~ it wasn’t real poop, of course; just blended chocolate in a baby diaper and we were supposed to identify which candy bar it came from.



I found myself listed in lots of places, even my own blog, and also blogs I have commented on. I also tried "Googling" Marsha Ward, Kerry Blair and Janette Rallison, among others, using the "IMAGES" button each time. It’s pretty fun. You have to wade through people who are not even closely related as well. But you are in there… I mean, OUT there. You should try it. Be sure to try clicking on IMAGES as well as just doing a search. You can also try putting in the names of your ancestors and clicking in IMAGES ~ you might link up to something useful.

Now, if you happen to share a famous name, like our dear Cindy Williams, you can pretty much guess that every image will be of Cindy Williams, the TV star. So, I added Arizona to the end of Cindy’s name and that’s when I got a picture of her. However, Cindy, I was wondering when it was that you were into body building? You should SEE the body builder who shares your name!!! YIKES!!

I put in my kids’ names, etc. and lots of images came up, especially with all the blogging everyone does these days. So, it’s great to be visible, but it bears a warning of some caution. Be careful what (and who) you post about and how many personal details you include; because once you hit the SEND button… it’s pretty much a done deal. And well… cyberspace has no secrets.