A lot of people ask me what the heck is the deal with Phil801? First of all, it is my first name combined with my telephone area code (801). It originated from signing in to bulletin boards etc where many iterations of “Phil” were already taken. I found that by using Phil801 I was always able to register. Thus, I became Phil801.
Then, I decided that I would be Phil801 everywhere I could for constistency, so I signed on to new forums and such as Phil801.
My full name is Phil Burns – there are a lot of us. philburns.com is taken by a guy that has hundeds of links to it. When you google Phil Burns, you get hundreds of results. I come in about page 5 or so. No one could ever find me on the web by looking up Phil Burns. It was hopeless to establish a definitive search result based on my full name.
So I decided to become Phil801 on the internet. To completely adopt an alias that no one else was using, yet was very much related to my actual name. I got the url phil801.com, registered gmail, skype, hotmail, everything I could as phil801. Originally, I had a lot of competition on Google from Philosophy 801 in colleges. I was coming in towards the bottom of the first page, which was better than using my real name.
Now I AM Phil801. Try it, Google Phil801. My old nemesis Philosophy 801 is now towards the bottom of the page and the only link on the page that is not me. I now introduce myself as Phil801. People don’t need to memorize my email, they just have to Google Phil801. In fact, I often introduce myself in real life as phil801 (to web geeks at least)
So, is this little experiment worth it? Does it provide some value? Did it do what I wanted? Yes to all!
I am now simply Phil801.
Can people find you with your name? Do you have a google presence? Would it be worth it to you if you did?
