- Obtain a url that is just for you. You can park it if you do not want to use it immediately.
- Set up a website using your url. This might just be a one pager to let people know this is your web site. Setting up a web site might seem daunting, but in fact it is fairly straightforward and you can get help from a web design company. A web site and url are two of the fundamental building blocks of the web; by setting this up you will be located in a location that you have control over.
- When finding a internet service provider (ISP) to host your web site I suggest using a provider that you pay for the service. There are free providers, but they do not always last.
- Keep a back up of your web material.
- Work out a model of being able to pay your ISP and maintain this as if it is an insurance policy. Plan for the continuation of the website when you are no longer able to manage this
- Set up a unique personal identifier. What ever this is is up to you, but it needs to relate to who you are and not exist as a "symbol set" anywhere else on the web. Note (Setting up an infrastructure to build your digital presence)
- Set up a couple of blog sites for yourself; not quite as robust as a web site but will provide an option for posting material in the future. Again, you do not have to use this immediately.
- Set up and use social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
- Set up a location at several photo/ video storage, sharing sites.
- Sites will change over time so registering with several sites is always sensible.
- Register with a specialised site such 1000memories. Again you do not have to use it immediately.
- Document all sites you have registered on with user name and passwords.
- Have a management strategy for this documented material. There are some web services that can help here.
Once you have set yourself up over this range of locations you can begin to use them.
- For some sites, such as social networking applications, you will probably be using them day to day anyway. It may be useful to have periods of adding other information to these sites, from time to time, that you think may be useful for others to see; such as old family photos etc.
- Periodically do a stock take of your photo sharing/ storage sites and update as you think is necessary.
- Begin to develop a plan of where you want material to be and draft a web site model that either you (or a web design company) could build.
- Begin to tell your stories and store them in blogs or specialised sites (eg., 1000memories).
Other activities to increase your presence on the web
- blog
- comment on other peoples blogs.
- when posting blogs, photos, videos etc., ensure they are in the public domain
- Ensure material can be accessed and managed by others should anything unexpected happen to you - resulting in your not being able to manage the material any more.
- keep a good eye on websites such as the digital beyond to ensure you are up to date with your activities and/ or to get new ideas.
- Periodically search for your name: over time you should get more hits from a range of search engines indicating that your presence is becoming more pervasive.
- Generally, do a little often; it is not something that can be left to the "last minute".