Many people ask me why I use my middle name in my professional endeavors. It's simple: There are so many David Scotts out there! I felt it was important for search engine marketing purposes that I am unique on the Web so six years ago I started adding Meerman to my bio and by-line.
I run across other David Scotts often. Last season, the Boston Red Sox sent me tickets that I hadn't ordered -- they had been intended for another David Scott. Alas, I felt compelled to return them. When I was working in marketing for Knight-Ridder, there was a David Scott at Reuters, also in marketing.
Some of us are famous -- one David Scott walked on the moon as commander of Apollo 15, a David Scott is a six-time Iron Man Triathlon Champion and another David Scott is a US Congressman. Certainly good company, but for clarity and search engine optimization purposes, I chose to become unique among my fellow David Scotts.
The lesson here is that if you want to be found on the Web, you need a unique identity for you, or your product, or your company that makes you stand out from the crowd and rise to prominence on search engines.
If you’re interested, the first-born son in my family going back many generations has Meerman as a middle name. Part of my family came from Dordrecht in the Netherlands and, you guessed it, Meerman is a Dutch name. I was at a book signing in New Canaan, CT for my novel Eyeball Wars several years ago and a woman walked up to me and introduced herself as my distant cousin! She was a Meerman too.
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Not remotely relevant: I too, have a name in common with the other first-born males in my lineage. Only it's the first name: Patrick. Oddly, of the four generations of us, none have actually used Patrick as our first name. (except grampa 'paddy,' I suppose)
Luckily though, I dominate a google search for the moniker my momma chose:
-Jordan Behan
PS. Thanks for the ebook. It's now required reading for my interns.
Posted by: Jordan | February 14, 2006 at 07:25 PM
My business partner Jason Keller suffers from that...only his namesake is a famous NASCAR driver so he gets a lot of attention when he travels in the southeast.
Keep up the good work Meerman!
Posted by: Dee Rambeau | February 16, 2006 at 01:55 PM
I have seen this problem with many of my clients. Luckily, I don't have that problem ;-) However, it is a good tip.
Kami Watson Huyse
Posted by: Kami Huyse | February 28, 2006 at 11:42 AM