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Home » The Famous Blog » Why it pays to be a “Famous” blogger

Why it pays to be a “Famous” blogger

June 23, 2011 - Last Modified: March 28, 2013 by David Leonhardt

Famous Blogger

I reported on my own case study over a month ago on my own blog (Fame Trumps SEO in the Battle of the David Leonhardt Rankings)…but this is something that concerns bloggers more than general webmasters, so I thought it needs to be shared here on Famous Bloggers in a bit more detail.

This is about my personal brand, and by extension your personal brand, too. We all check Google every now and then to see what it has to say about our name. It’s natural human vanity. But it’s more than just vanity for most bloggers; a blogger’s name is his brand, even when the blog carries its own brand. Nobody cares who is behind an ecommerce store; but the blogger is the blog.

I don’t share a common name with anyone truly famous; I am not a Brad Pitt or a Leslie Neilson, and you can probably tell by my photo that I am not Jennifer Lopez. But I do share a name with a well-known jazz band: the David Leonhardt Jazz Group. And I also share a name in common with one of the top American journalists of the past decade.

What they don’t have is SEO. What they don’t have is living on the Internet. What they don’t have is being constantly active in social media. I have all those things. But is that enough for me to rank well for my own name?

Well, let’s first take a look back in time. The first time I did that vanity search, much of Google’s top 10 results for “David Leonhardt” belonged to my Jazz-playing namesake. He was also lucky enough to own DavidLeonhardt.com, and that surely helped. I don’t recall the exact breakdown, only that Jazz trumped journalism and SEO (There really wasn’t anything called “social media” at the time).

Fast-forward to today. Jazz keeps playing, but not much else has changed for the band. But a lot has changed for my other namesake and I. David Leonhardt of the New York Times has been all over print media…and by extension, all over the Internet. He’s been syndicated all over, and at least once fooled even my brother: “Nice article I saw of yours in The Globe and Mail.” Oh, and let’s not forget the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for commentary. ” That’s not the real David Leonhardt. That was an imposter posing as me,” I had to explain to a confused prospective writing client.

famous bloggger

Meanwhile, I’ve been all over social media, living on the web, commenting on blogs, tweeting and retweeting, putting my SEO skills to use and networking online. You’ve seen me before on Famous Bloggers and on all the social bookmarking websites. I’ve been guest blogging and commenting on blogs and forums. My name is in the title of my blog. I have several websites. Yeah, I’m Mister All-Over-The-Internet.

So what are the results of all this at Google? Here is what I reported just over a month ago on my own blog…

1. New York Times writer
2. New York Times writer
3. New York Times writer
4. New York Times writer
5. New York Times writer
6. Me
7. Me
8. Jazz Group
9. Me
10. New York Times writer

And as I write this…

1. New York Times writer
2. New York Times writer
3. New York Times writer
4. New York Times writer
5. New York Times writer
6. Jazz Group
7. Me
8. Me
9. Me
10. New York Times writer

Not much has changed…except that my post on fame trumping SEO (re-published on WebProNews) ranks #9 for my name

Just for fun, let’s see if Bing like SEO any better than Google.

1. New York Times writer
2. New York Times writer
3. Jazz Group
4. Me
5. New York Times writer
6. New York Times writer
7. Me
8. Me
9. Somebody else???
10. Jazz Group

Fame obviously beats out playing music while sitting on the perfect domain name, and clearly it also beats out SEO and social media activity. But at least Bing has a bit of an ear for music.

In fairness, it should be stated that Google’s four top rankings for “David Leonhardt” are all on the New York Times domain/subdomains, and that probably also helps their rankings.

Now, I know this is not in my own best interests to give you this advice, but I will tell you anyway. If you have to choose between hiring an SEO specialist like me or becoming famous, pick fame. You will get so much more traffic and make so much more money. And even if you don’t get to look like Jennifer Lopez, you might get to meet her.

Of course, if you can’t get famous, SEO is still a pretty good second choice.

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Filed Under: Blogging, SEO

About David Leonhardt

Follow @amabaie

David Leonhardt is an Ottawa based SEO consultant. When not guest blogging he occasionally finds the time to update his own SEO marketing blog. Or you can follow him (Amabaie) on Twitter and most social bookmarking websites.

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{ 12 Responses }

  1. Samantha says:
    i agree with everything. also giving real content people are interested in will also increase your chances for more traffic to your website or blog. thanks
  2. Mark says:
    Any time I Google my own name, I get some dirt track racer in the North East. Of course, I don't SEO for my own name, just my domain name being that I am trying to brand it. Famous names bring with them links and Twitter followers. For something fun to do, look up some famous names on Twitter and see how many follower they have. Some of them are surprising. Mark
  3. Kimi says:
    Hi David, I had 0 experience before I started my blog, and then I noticed choosing a short domain name which people can remember easily is also benefit. I noticed some people search for "Kimi web6" in Google, and they will find my blog lol.. I have never thought that the "web6" will be "my brand" a bit.
  4. amabaie says:
    @Justin You can try hiding on other people's blogs, but Google will find you! lol
  5. Justin Germino says:
    My name is fairly unique, searching "Justin Germino" on Google yields over 80k results and I am everything at least the first 2 pages. You won't find anything but me if you search for my name on Google but I have various blogs and interviews on other blogs that take the top slots.
  6. Bjorn Johansen says:
    I did a search on google and my website turned up as #5. after wikipedia, linkedin and facbook profiles of others with the same name as me. I have one of the most common names in Norway, and I can not even find my profile if a search for facebook+my name:) I have a lot of links with my name in the anchor text, and the #5 placement shows how much juce a big domain like wikipedia, linkedin and facbook carries..
  7. amabaie says:
    @Ileane I would have thought my own name was unique - growing up in Montreal there were only two Leonhardts in the phone book. But I guess there are a lot of people out there and plenty of people with enough measure of "fame" to create confusion. I wonder if many people get passed over for jobs because of what a namesake has been doing online.
  8. Ileane says:
    Hi David, I've done a vanity search in the past but I haven't thought to do one since I get Google Alerts (enhanced with YoLink) for my name. Even with the unusual spelling I find there are a few other Ileanes out there and one of them is a pretty famous TV critic. Most of the other alerts pop up when someone dies :( But the vanity search yields mostly me and reviews of my blog (thanks to Brian's Blog Engage contest and sponsor reviews) but there is one result that I'm surprised appears on Page One. That's my Quora profile, which I pay little attention to and I haven't posted a question or an answer in weeks. Oh well, I'm off to see what Bing has to say about me :) Thanks David!
  9. Kate says:
    Great stuff Dave. Thanks for sharing with us Thumbs up for you :)
  10. Jane says:
    Well said Dave. It is really not a good feeling to see someone else stealing your brand just because they share their name with you and just because they are famous at something else; while you are equally famous in your business. SEO surely does help in this matter to tag you at the right place with right keywords.
  11. Rosh says:
    Real big time fame may be nice, but micro internet niche fame can certainly bring opportunities. Book deals, speaking engagements and paying clients. It all depends on how good of a business person you are. Just like SEO. You can attract them, but if the website doesn't hold up - opportunity lost. Rosh

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