My first name – Karlyn – is uncommon, so I get away with adding it as an alert, and I am not bombarded with too many alerts sent to my inbox. However, the number of alerts has increased in the last year, for sure. I’m seeing more people with the name Karlyn pop up all over the Wide World Web, and a couple of businesses named Karlyn also. I received an alert just this morning that Karlyn has joined LinkedIn. I removed my own my LinkedIn account a couple of years ago because I never used it, so I knew this alert was not about me. Therefore, I checked out the link and was brought to a page of ALL the Karlyns on LinkedIn (http://us.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Karlyn/+). It is always a little surreal to see so many people with “my” Karlyn name. On this particular list, they are all females with careers mostly in design, marketing, law and public relations. Interesting…

You have probably searched for your own name on Google.com by now. I do this every so often, to see where my name lands in the rankings of other Karlyns. Because of the uniqueness of my first name, and the fact that I have two domains that use my first name (fromkarlyn.com and karlyns.com), my name domains pop up in the top ten listing of Google’s first page. This is very good in terms of rankings and exposure. It looks like (as of today), a company named Karlyn Ind. beat me out of the #1 and #2 spots. I hold the #2 with my FromKarlyn.com and the #5 position with my Karlyns.com. A different Karlyn co. holds the #4 spot. Also in this top 10 listing on Google is a Karlyn-related comment I made on a baby names site about the name Karlyn, and around the #8 spot is a link to my twitter page, where my user-name is – you guessed it – Karlyn.

Another way I search for Karlyn sometimes – and you may want to try this occasionally too – is by using Google’s Realtime search tool (http://www.google.com/realtime/). Realtime Search lets you see up-to-the-second social updates, news articles, and blog posts about your search word. When I add the keyword Karlyn to this search tool, the first thing I see if the Foursquare and Twitter update I posted just a moment ago. Yes, this search tool is that fast! I also see, on this one-page list of results, some other social updates, and comments from people either named Karlyn or just used the word in their response. This Realtime search will bring up all mentions of the term and I simply need to refresh the page to see the latest. Sixty seconds later, I refresh this page and my Twitter update has dropped a few spots down the list as two more Karlyn updates (from others) have taken its place. This Realtime search page also displays a handy little time-line visual on the ride sidebar that shows high volume uses of your term. You can click on the time-line to go directly to that time and day and see the specific results. Pretty cool!

I am using my name as an example here, but these searching tools are useful for any term or keyword that interests you, from a name to a hot news topic… Try it out.

MomsRewards.com – Quality Freebies, Rewards and Resources for Mom.. including WAH-Opportunities, Homemade product and services promotion, Articles for Mom, and more. This site became a dot-com in the year 2000.

Wahmiam.com – Working At Home And Loving Every Day.. Wahmiam.com celebrates the work-at-home-mom.. through educating, promoting, servicing, supporting, sharing tools, and tips. This site became live in the year 2002.

YeahMom.com – Yeah Mom! Mom’s site for tips, reports, reviews and recipes and went live in April, 2004. This site has seen so many design changes through the years, but we like the pink. The pink stays! :)

FromKarlyn.com – FromKarlyn.com – Yay, that’s where you are right now! A website of entertaining information about what I do and what I like, including a fun page of many other Karlyns I’ve met since opening year – 2004. I like to keep it light and casual here and hopefully this sites reflects my unique, eclectic style, hehe.. This site became live on May 22nd, 2004.

WahmBuds.com – WahmBuds.com – Work at home moms supporting each other, networking, sharing, friendship and fun. Social networking is what it’s all about at wahmbuds. This site became live on February 10th, 2005.

Karlyns.com – Web, Graphic Design and Marketing. This is my design site where my online design portfolio resides and it became live in March, 2005.

LivePeaceandPassion.com – Everyday news and interests from people who live peaceful, yet passionate lives. We’re attempting to promote peace, passion and awareness. This site welcomes thoughts and articles from others as well. This site became live in November 2007.

Irene-Lentz.com – A tribute to my great-aunt, Irene Lentz Gibbons, the Hollywood fashion designer. This site became live in 2008.

AnotherBabyBoomer.com – [Not just] another baby boomer – News for the over 40 crowd. This site became live in February 2010.

WiseNaturally.com – Wise Naturally – Sharing wise choices that promote natural wellness and happiness. This site became live in November 2011.