I was very excited to hear about the forthcoming @Twestival, taking place across the world and bringing together users of the Twitter microblogging service to raise money for charity:water on February 12th 2009. A great idea, a great cause, and no doubt some great social events where people will get to meet new friends…

There’s a @twestival event being organised in my local city of Edinburgh, but I may not be able to attend that (even though it’s my birthday!), so I wanted to help them raise money, irrespective of my geography, by offering something.

I’ve been creating twitter backgrounds and enhancing online profiles for my customers for some time as The Digital Biographer, and I normally charge a minimum of $120 for a Twitter Profile Makeover, with a custom background and avatar. I’ve decided to offer this service at half price - just $60, and I will donate half of that - $30 - to charity: water for each Twitter background I create.

So if you want a custom Twitter Background Profile Makeover then just make payment using PayPal, and I’ll contact you to discuss what you want.

See recent examples of Twitter Profile Makeovers for @sherylbreuker, @kencamp and @clarocada. (Will open in new browser windows)

Here’s How it Works…

1. You click and pay securely via PayPal (no need for a PayPal account - any debit/credit card is fine)

2. I contact you and we have a chat via Skype, or Gtalk, or old fashioned Telephone
   
3. You send me any images you wish to use

4. I then create your new background image and Twitter Avatar (photo)
5. I send you the graphic to upload to Twitter, give you hex color codes to amend your twitter colo(u)rs to suit, along with a new avatar image
6. If necessary, I will ‘walk you through‘ uploading to your twitter profile
7. I complete the whole process within 24 hours
8. If you wish, I will announce your new image and support for @twestival in a tweet

YES DAVID! Please create a Twitter Custom Profile Background, Color Scheme and Custom Avatar for me for just $120 $60! I am happy to support charity: water with 50% of your fee being donated to them.

“David really knew how to listen without jumping to conclusions. He then deconstructed the business and came up with great ideas on how to better communicate what we do. He was of great help. - Dragos Ilinca, Marketing Executive, uberVU

“If you want to make a digital footprint leveraging your presence, you may would consider using David’s services. I am. Besides being a creative writer, David has a background that make it possible for him to understand his client (whether the client is an actual person or a corporation) as well as using his empathy to pin-point what you actually want to say and helps you say it.” - Erich Nielsen, President, nielsenandcompany.com ltd

IMPORTANT: I am limiting this offer to just four people a day, until Thursday, 12th February, as I have a number of other commitments. So get your money down, help provide safe drinking water for those who might otherwise die without it, and feel good about making yourself look better too!

It’s official - well, it is if you rate the Wall Street Journal’s front page as authoritative - if your name doesn’t Google well, you can have problems with your credibility - and not just with prospective employers.

You’re a Nobody Unless your Name Googles Well published on the 8th of May 2007, cites the example of  Abigail Garvey, who, when she adopted the married name of Wilson, began to be questioned on publications she listed on her CV (résumé) because they weren’t finding the publications in online searches.

In the age of Google, being special increasingly requires standing out from the crowd online. Many people aspire for themselves — or their offspring — to command prominent placement in the top few links on search engines or social networking sites’ member lookup functions. But, as more people flood the Web, that’s becoming an especially tall order for those with common names. Type “John Smith” into Google’s search engine and it estimates it has 158 million results. (See search results.)

Ask.com estimates about 7% of all searches are for a person’s name, and more than 80% of executive recruiters said they routinely use search engines to learn more about candidates, according to a recent survey by ExecuNet.  ExecuNet published “Growing Number Of Job Searches Disrupted By Digital Dirt” in June of 2006,  which  found that “35% (of executive recruiters) have eliminated a candidate from consideration based on the information uncovered online - up significantly from 26% just one year ago.

So, aside from naming your children carefully after a Google search, and including your full name in all online postings, how can you reach the top of Google?

The answer is actually very simple: Join Ecademy: - Just create an online profile at Ecademy, and within as short a timescale as a few weeks, by following simple techniques to add structured information to your profile, and adding blogs and marketplace content relevant to your expertise within Ecademy, Google will rank your name, link to your web content and web sites. The cost is minimal - £10 ($20) a month lets you raise your visibility, as well as become part of a strong business network that’s been growing quietly and organically since 1998, when social media really was not on anyone’s radar.