Branding, Sudo names and Alias.

Now I'm increasing my exposure digitally through the projects ran by Jonathan Worth and my own attempts to get noticed I find myself looking to build my own identity. It's an important issue to be tackled rapidly as the time for launching my website is fast approaching. I already own my domain name (pauljhogan.co.uk) and have started to assemble a basic style and frame work of how the website will look really to pass of to someone with design ability and less hatred for flash and dreamweaver, but i still question my choice of name...

My major problem is what to call myself. Domain names are inexpensive and whilst I now own one it does not yet bare any weight tot he decision I'm struggling to make. My birth name whilst not as common as John Smith, is shared my with a quite famous Australian actor.

From a very young age I became an expert in crocodile jokes and knife identification and whilst I don't mind my namesake's crocodile wrestling ability I am starting to find his domination of search engines a major hindrance. But am I making an Air's rock out of a Rugby brick? One of my tutors names is Paul Smith and I can tell you immediately he's not very good at designing coats and the thought of him on a Vespa scooter tickles me inside.

Building the Paul Hogan brand, or whatever name I go under is a very important issue. It will define me as a photographer and be a reflection of the trust and confidence I build up with potential and repeat clients. My business background understands what it means for a company to have a bad reputation and how quickly bad spreads compared to good. So media interfaces such as this blog and my website should be created to accurately reflect me and my work. Does this mean the end of 4am drunk Facebook updates? well... no. But it does mean I will be very careful on who can see my Facebook as that media outlet will stay personal, whilst twitter, the bloggersphere and whatever 'My-face' networking site becomes popular next will bare the brunt of my professional image.

Whatever decision I make in regards to my public name, I need to make it soon. My Flickr account has received a nice 3,277 views in the last 3 months. The sooner i can stick to one name, the sooner I can build a brand and monetise it. Student loans don't last forever.