See and be Seen

Sometimes you just can’t find the people you are looking for. You have tried everything you can think of, but still no joy. You have spent money on searches, you have scoured the web for hours, but you are still not getting anywhere.

BUT, before you give up I suggest that you should be proactive and take steps to make it easier for the people you are looking for to find you.

Think about it, we all spend time putting our names into Google at http://google.co.uk/ or trying Pipl at http://pipl.com/ so wouldn’t it be good if when you put in your name, up popped links to the people who were looking for you?

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Yes, it would be brilliant! But how can it be achieved?

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The magic of Web 2.0:
The thing that makes it possible is a major change in the way the internet is working. The major change has been in the development of social sites like My Space at http://www.myspace.com/ and Face Book at http://www.facebook.com/ Here are a few more at Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites For a more complete list take a look at http://www.go2web20.net/

The big change is in the realms of reciprocity and interactivity. In the past someone would put up a website and others would use it or not. Now you can interact with much of the material online. You can add to it, criticise it, create your own projects, and share it with others. The media can be words, pictures, video, music, poetry or what have you.

Most of the services are part of the big Internet Service Providers and web search tools. It is mostly free to the user.

Most of the services allow you to post your pieces onto their servers and it will be stored there. Gone are the days when you had to store everything on your own computer. More and more can be accessed remotely.

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So, how can this help me?

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What I am suggesting is that you create a place of your own on the Internet. Maybe lots of places!
Places where you can tell your story … leave your details … post some photographs … even a family tree!

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The aim is to make yourself findable by the people you are looking for.

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How and where to do it?

Message Boards:
I would start by using all the free Message Boards you can find on the internet. Try the forum on my website at http://www.blood-ties.com/findforum/index.php or try Friends Reunited at http://www.friendsreunited.co.uk/ or Missing You at http://www.missing-you.net/index.php or Message Match at http://www.ukpeoplefinder.com/about_messagematch.asp and another good one is Look Up UK at http://www.lookupuk.com/

Social sites:
Be young and cool and sign up for a My Space page at http://www.myspace.com/ It won’t take long to make your first page, but remember to keep going back to update and add to it and to check who has been visiting.

In the same vein are ICQ at http://www.icq.com or Friendster at http://www.friendster.com/ or Facebook at http://www.facebook.com and loads of others

Genealogy sites:
Genealogy has become extremely popular and there are many sites to help you become more visible.

You could try Genes Reunited at http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/ which makes the whole process really easy. You start by creating your family tree with the information you already know, then you start to search for more family and finally you contact other genealogists who have other branches of your tree.

To find others who are studying a particular family you could take a look at http://www.genforum.genealogy.com/ and get connected. All you need to do is post looking for the person with a few details. You may find them, but just as importantly you have left a link that can be found by anyone following you who enters their name into Google.

Create a Blog:
You can create a blog for FREE at Blogger http://www.blogger.com or at Word Press at http://wordpress.com/

Search engines like blogs when they are regularly updated. So add one piece at a time and keep coming back with more information and photos etc.

Blog and Ping!
After you have posted to your blog you will need to let the search engines know that you have new material on there. You need to Ping them. Try Ping-O-Matic at http://pingomatic.com/ to make the job easier.

Write articles and post them on the web:
Any articles you write on your family and your searches can be posted on your blog. However, you can also post them on article sites like http://www.EzineArticles.com or http://www.ArticleCity.com or http://www.GoArticles.com this could mean your articles appearing all over the web and all linking back to your blog. Very powerful!

How to promote your page:
If you are interested in this mysterious art perhaps you should read the Authority Black Book, which you can download from http://www.authorityblackbook.com/ this book will open your eyes to how to make your mark on the web.

The Risks:
So what are the risks of creating a presence on the internet?
Identity theft? … False applicants? … Spam?

Well yes, you need to be careful that you are not giving away information that will make you or your family vulnerable to attack. However, you don’t need to give away all your personal information on your blog. You may well get more spam in your inbox. I get stacks! You may also be approached by some strange people …

But, you may also be contacted by members of your family and old friends. I know which I prefer … and I think it’s worth it!

Conclusion:
If you can’t find people through the skills and tools of the Private Investigator, you may think of making yourself easier for others to find.

As we have seen, it is not an enormous task to create your own presence on web. I hope that you will do it and be seen by those looking for you.

Good luck!