Tag Archives: tips & tricks

Clean Up Your Old Web Presence

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While Googling recently to find performance samples for a gig application I came across something unexpected: a hit for the Sonicbids.com profile page of a former band. This surprised me because when I left the band I had turned over all of its digital assets (domain name, website, Sonicbids account, MySpace, Facebook, CD Baby, etc) to the band leader after removing my payment information from any which charged fees – and as far as I knew that person had not renewed any service that was not free.

Given that this transition had occurred a couple of years ago, I was concerned that perhaps I had not successfully removed my payment information from that Sonicbids account – I could see that it had not been updated since my last visit so I knew that the band was not currently using it. Searching my email archive I came up with the old user name and password, and logged in.

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Rehearse Your Planned Event Elements

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Recently I attended a food-tasting event. In addition to sampling a variety of entries of the type being highlighted, the paying attendees were handed a paper ballot and instructed to vote for their favorite food sample. The organizers assigned each presenter a number so all we had to do was write the number on the ballot. As the first wave of tasters passed through the hall an announcer reminded us to vote, and also to write our name on the back of the ballot to enter for door prizes.

There was one major problem (as well as a couple minor ones) with this scenario:

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Creating Easy Secure Unique Passwords

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Recent incidents of hackers stealing millions of password files from sites like Linkedin are a reminder to choose both secure AND unique passwords for every site you visit – because even a secure password is no good if one site’s security is lax and it’s the same password you use for EVERY site.

I know – even an average user has a dozen or more web accounts requiring passwords (email, Facebook, Amazon, Google, a blog, bank and credit card sites, etc), so the thought of having to remember a different password for each one is daunting! But a simple memory+pattern trick makes it easy: Continue reading →

Prepare Yourself for Web Notoriety

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You may or may not have taken to heart the many articles about checking your privacy settings on Facebook and presuming that anything you post on the Web may be seen by anyone. Unless you are being stalked by an ex-lover or rabid fan you may have assumed “This doesn’t effect me, because why would a stranger care about my Facebook page?”

What many people don’t realize is: when you do something that makes people more interested in you, and specifically if you are soliciting money from them, the smart potential donors/customers are going to Google you to research whether you are legitimate. Do you know what they will find?

As I’ve mentioned, I back a lot of Kickstarter projects (over 50 so far). While some of those are presented by people I already know and trust, many more are presented by strangers to me personally, and frequently not even known to a more general audience (i.e., not performers/businesses known in some other location).

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