1. So you may have a beebo or myspace or profile page; you may have a livejournal or diaryland or xanga or other type of blog; you definitely have your Gaia account; some of you have a deviantart or flickr or fanfiction or garageband page even.

Point is: you have all these sites that represent different aspects of you, and lead people to the good side of your personality, sometimes even your best work --

-- oh wait, what was that? You said you'd be dead if some friends found your LJ? Or that your teacher would roll over laughing if he saw you trolling on Gaia? Or that your boyfriend might kill himself if you put more glitter graphics on your Myspace?

Remember: nearly everything you do online is public, and there are consequences. Recently, the trend among companies who give out profile pages or blogs is to give you privacy options so you can avoid those consequences.

2. But for those of you who are older (I'm thinking 17 +): I think that's wussing out. I think it's possible for you to be yourself but be your best, and help others look professional and be better too. Your generation isn't merely used to the Internet - your daily lives revolve around it in key ways, and having a good public persona is crucial later when when you want to get employed and people run your name through google.

And believe me, they're going to run your name through google. It's already happening now in background checks for jobs.

3. Getting Started

A. When Should You Get Started On Creating a Proper Image Online?

I think sometime around 17-18. I mean, it's whenever building a myspace or a facebook comes naturally to you, since you want to keep up with a larger circle of friends, some of whom are moving away for college. Also, you have something more to write than "OMGLOL jonny in math class WAS SO FUNNY razz " in a journal entry.

That having been said - there are things you can be watching out for if you're younger. Just think about how you want to be treated online, and treat people nicely. Giving compliments with your Gaia avatar is a lot nicer than trolling. Showing kindness and not talking about yourself when someone is almost crying online about their latest loss is also a good idea. Not telling people what they shouldn't be doing is also a good idea - there may be times people say things or want to do things you disapprove of: be really careful when you comment, you don't know when you'll alienate someone for no good reason. Sometimes, of course, you must comment, but keep in mind that if I'm not an authority nearing 30 and practically being a professor, being half my age probably isn't going to cut it.

If you can learn to make real friends and show genuine respect for others online, you probably won't need to worry about whether your myspace has too much glitter or your blog isn't appropriate reading for your employer later.

B. I Have a Myspace and LJ and All That. How Do I Take Stock?

Visit ClaimID and just list all the sites and profile pages you wish.

Also, as much as possible - use your profile page to introduce people to the work you do. Try to arrange your profile page so that it is like a business card of sorts: that's kinda what I've done with my myspace, and what a lot of people do with facebook. If you're an artist, there's no reason why your myspace shouldn't contain a link to your DA as well as an artist's statement of sorts. Your Gaia page can be configured to do this, and I recommend introducing yourself fully to other Gaians instead of playing games with your identity.

Do note: if you are younger than 18 and do not want creepy stalkers - and you shouldn't want creepy stalkers - you should hide how much you are online, and any compromising information.

4. Blogging

I'll just tell my story.

I've gotten a cult following through substantial - people will randomly message me still and say "Why don't you post anymore? I grew up reading you."

It's funny this has happened because the blog there was completely anonymous except to a select few whom I only met through the blog. But in retrospect, I see exactly how this has happened.

I'd write about my crappy love life and friendships gone stale and try to capture the feeling. Then I would take the feeling and only let the most powerful sentiments stay, cutting away unnecessary words. I would try to get the audience - anyone reading - to take in the entries slowly. I was working to be quotable as well as descriptive of what they probably had gone through.

In other words: the "I" almost doesn't exist in those diaryland entries. It's there, but has no personality. The whole blog was an exercise in engaging an audience. It occurred through being sensitive to emotion alone, and trying to understand it.

I could only blog like this once a month, and I had to stop once I realized that 12 year olds - I'm not kidding you - were imitating my style and keeping anonymous. When I would talk to them, thinking they were older, hahahahahahaha boy did I learn fast that words can sometimes just be words.

I think a more mature blog has to have a sensitivity to audience, but has to be forthcoming about yourself. You've gotta state who you are and what you're going to do for the reader, even if you're going to do some abstract artsy thing...

...or in my case, bring back reading old books. The latest blog definitely is more upfront about who I am. I don't have as cultish an audience as the diaryland one, but I have a larger audience, and one just as devoted.

Why am I telling you all this? I think it is really important you journal and express your thoughts and review them. And I don't think that has to happen privately always: if you can learn how to express yourself for an audience - be who you are and be bold but also give them something they can use and be better from - you might find people coming to you to hire you. At the very least, you might be writing reviews. If you have another skill and can give tutorials on how to do things, there's no reason why you can't be the rarest of experts: those that can teach.

5. Sites devoted to your skills (flickr, DA, garageband...)

You've seen DA's that are worse looking than others. You've seen flickr accounts with awful photos.

If you have a site and it is dedicated to what you like to do, there's no reason why you can't spring-clean once in a while. Nothing has to get deleted: you can relocate files onto your hard drive or onto other sites.

Make the best impression possible, and don't be scared to link your favorite photos into blog entries you write or your profile page. I know this is obvious sounding advice, but think about how many people don't do this and waste your time.

You have the opportunity to look and be your best online. The best compliment I ever got from someone I got through IM, out of all things. She read my stuff, and told me I was unafraid to learn and seemed genuinely happy to explore and discover and try new things, and it just amazed her. I'm still trying to date that girl whom I met through my writings just because she said that, 4 years ago now.