Author Tim Ferriss, who penned a book we love, The 4-Hour Work Week, weighs in on personal branding via his blog and mentions Reputation.com:

“Get Google insurance:

Register the URLs for your name and variants, and consider creating a blog. The objective here is to own the first 1-5 results that appear on search engines if someone searches your name. I don’t think most people should be bloggers, but having a Google-friendly and SEO-rich blog platform like WordPress or TypePad that is updated even twice per month as an online journal is worth the investment for having first say in your image. This recommendation comes from Mike Fertik, CEO of the much-buzzed Reputation.com.”

Indeed, personal publishing platforms like these can used as a simple means to gain larger ownership of one’s online identity, provided the domain ties itself closely to one’s proper name. As an added benefit, many individuals find that once they begin personal publishing or blogging, they tend to enjoy themselves and find it self-fulfilling.

Ferriss has more stellar personal branding tips elsewhere on his blog. Check out the rest of the entry; it’s well worth your time.

J. Walter Thompson, the largest advertising agency brand in the United States and one of the best globally, charted “sturking” as one of its “Eighty Things to Watch in 2008.” Sturking, as defined by JWT, is a combination of “stalking” and “lurking” and is enabled by social networks. Yesterday, JWT and Reputation.com appeared on the same Fox Business segment, when Fox Business turned to Reputation.com and its Founder and CEO Michael Fertik for advice on how businesses and individuals can gain protection from sturking. For the purposes of this segment, JWT and Fox Business ranked sturking #1 in their Power Rankings. Check out the video below.

JWT has commented on Reputation.com in the past, like in this article, which appeared in AdWeek in late 2007.

We’re big fans of marketing guru Seth Godin. The first thing you should do in 2008, according to Godin, is Google yourself:

If you’re a salesperson, your prospects already do.
If you’re looking for a job, your prospective employers already do.
If you’ve got a job, your co-workers already do.