Big deal, right? How hard can it be to rank #1 for your own name? Well, I’m not the only Lisa Dozois  (oddly enough), and the “other one” used to rank higher than me until I started working on that problem. At least I’m glad she’s not a porn star. Unfortunately, someone who uses the same screen name I use on a lot of forums is That’s one of the reasons I started the Lisa Dozois brand building campaign.

Anyway, Google is starting to treat me well. In fact, my current Google search results look like this:

1. Lisa Dozois – LinkedIn
2. LisaDozois.com
3. Lisa Dozois – EzineArticles.com Expert Author Bio
4. Lisa Dozois (lisadozois) on Twitter

Proof that Google loves social networking and you should be using it if you want to build out your brand.

No time for Social Marketing? I can help. Get in touch.

The problem is, the web site he’s promoting has a different definition of free, as do most of the other web sites that come up when you run a search for Free Credit Report.

If your definition of free is: “without cost or obligation,” this article is for you.

Best Place to Get Your Free Credit Report

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which is the USA’s top consumer protection agency, requires the nation’s three major credit bureaus to provide an up-to-date copy of every consumer’s credit report once per year.

Those three agencies, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, provide access to this required service at AnnualCreditReport.com. Don’t confuse this site with FreeCreditReport.com unless you want to meet the friends of that singing pirate. When you get your free credit reports from AnnualCreditReport.com, their definition of free will match yours.

Now the law does not require these credit bureaus to give you your credit score for free, so each one will pitch you to buy access to it for a few dollars. Don’t do it. I’ll show you where to get your free credit score in just a moment.

Free Credit Report Strategy

Since you get access to your free credit report from three credit bureaus, and you can bet that all three are going to be essentially duplicates of each other, don’t get them all at once.

Instead, get one now, another in 3-4 months, and the final one few months after that. This way you can see if your credit has changed over those periods rather than getting them all at once and having to wait a another year to check them again.

Another Free Credit Report Strategy

In addition to spreading your free credit reports out over twelve months, it’s nice to have the option to get yet another one so you can spot-check your credit before you make a major purchase like buying a home or a new car. Here’s how you do that.

Quizzle.com offers a free credit report every six months that also matches your definition of free. You do have to join the site, but that’s as simple as filling out the form and providing your information. No credit card is required because Quizzle isn’t trying to sell you anything.

Once you log in, you have access to a wealth of credit management tools, a credit management blog, articles, tips and tricks, and more.

And the best part is, you have access to your free credit report straight from Experian. Don’t worry about SPAM. Quizzle never mails you anything you don’t give them permission to mail, and you can withdraw that permission with a click of your mouse.

Here’s Your Free Credit Score

You remember that credit score Experian wanted to sell you when you accessed them through AnnualCreditReport.com? Well, you get that very same credit score inside of your Quizzle control panel for free.

Not All Credit Scores Are Alike

Your Experian score is very likely going to be different than your FICO score because Experian uses something called the CE score. The two other credit bureaus use the FICO score.

There are many lenders that use the FICO score when making credit-granting decisions, but there are a growing number who are switching to the CE score.

Knowing that, you might as well grab a free copy of your FICO score as well. TransUnion wanted to charge you for that when you reached them through AnnualCreditReport.com, but the company is just as happy to give it to you for free, if you reach them through CreditKarma.com.

CreditKarma is owned by TransUnion. They don’t offer a free credit report, but they do provide your free FICO score. And you can get an updated look at the score every day of the year if you want to. Just click the ‘Update My Score’ button inside the control panel. Your FICO score changes as your credit balances change, so it’s worth checking from time to time.

CreditKarma monetizes the site by showing you credit-based offers when you log in. These offers are easy to ignore and there is no obligation to click on any. If you do find an offer that interests you, just click and read. Nothing happens automatically, and there is no obligation to accept the offer once you read it. Don’t worry; CreditKarma never mails you anything unless you ask for it.

There’s No Hit To Your Credit Score

Having excessive inquiries on your credit report can impact your CE and FICO score, but that isn’t a concern if you use AnnualCreditReport.com, Quizzle.com, or CreditKarma.com.

Inquires made through these resources are not seen by anyone but you, and they have no impact on your credit score.

So the next time some pirate tries to get you to buy your free credit report, just change the channel.

Anticipating a problem before it exists is an excellent way to avoid unnecessary expense and business interruption. Truly, “a stitch in time saves nine,” but you need balance.

There is an undeniable advantage to being first to market, and that advantage can be lost if you are buried in ‘analysis paralysis’.

“If you see ten troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you.” Calvin Coolidge.

Larry the Cable Guy understands business: “Get ‘er done.”

If you have the core parts ready to launch a business initiative, go ahead and launch it. The feedback you receive from early adopters will be enlightening. In addition, you’ll earn revenue faster, and build more support for the initiative within your organization as a result.

Also, you might learn that features or functionality you thought were needed, actually aren’t. That will save money and result in providing something that delivers what your customers actually want instead of what you thought they wanted.

“Don’t overbuild”

If you think of the marketplace as a battlefield, you send the Marines in first to seize control. They sleep on the ground and eat out of cans.

Support staff like engineers, architects, cooks and accountants all show up later to build the buildings and create the permanent infrastructure once the immediate objectives have been reached.

Both types of staff are equally important. Do you have them both in your organization?

If the answer is “No”, you may be missing opportunities to beat your competition to market and lose out on the benefits of being first to market.

Got a money-making idea? Get ‘er done!

______________________________

I originally posted this article in my EzineArticles account. If you’d like to raise your visibility and establish yourself as a subject matter expert,  I’d love to write articles for you and put them into your EzineArticles account. Contact me for details.

The problem is, it’s difficult to jolt people out of their complacency and encourage them to post a comment. Once you get a few comments, the list of people responding will almost grow by itself. I was struggling with exactly how to get the blog comment fire burning brightly on my site, so I started looking for a solution.

I found this. You’ll find that I don’t very often promote other people’s products to this list, but if you’re like me, and you’re trying to build more traffic to your blog, this looks like the answer. Check it out.

You may have noticed (or not) that I ditched the original theme. I’m happy with the one I have now, so I’m moving on.

Blog’s Secure Sir!

I added several security features to lock WordPress down. I’m not going to say what they are though.  After all, you don’t want your enemy to know the strength of your defense forces and what weapons they have.

But I will tell you this. WP is not secure “out of the box”,  so Google WordPress security tools, do some reading, and pick the solutions that make the most sense to you.

Now that I have the basic setup out of the way, I’m going to start selecting and adding SEO tools and get my brand-building blog fired up.

I’ll be back!

- Lisa

One of the things I’ve learned over the course of writing thousands of articles, blog posts, tweets, Facebook and LinkedIn profiles, building backlinks and creating link wheels for my clients is that social marketing works. So yesterday I focused on adding some basic WordPress social marketing plugins:

• FD Feedburner for integrating my RSS feed with Google’s Feedburner.
• AddToAny creates the RSS subscribe widget at the top of the page.
• WPFollowMe is used to create that great floating Twitter badge on the right side of the page.
• TweetThis is for automatically Tweeting my posts and empowering readers to do the same.
• Wickett Twitter Widget for displaying my most current Tweets on the sidebar.

I also installed Akismet to manage the comment and trackback SPAM that’s sure to come from black hat jerks peddling their Viagra^® and porn sites. And finally I added CFORMS, which is hands-down the best and most versatile WP form creator there is. I’m using it for my contact form right now. As the site develops, I’ll use it for order entry and other tasks.

Next Task

Tighten up security a bit. I know I should have done that first, but it’s not as glamorous a task as social marketing is, and I needed a sugar boost yesterday. So I went for the glamor.

I have several projects on my plate from clients, so I won’t be getting back to LisaDozois.com until after I should be asleep. I’ll update you all then.

- Lisa

Despite my success there, I’ve set a goal to make 2010 the year that I expand my business outside of the relative comfort and security of RentACoder and take my company into the open marketplace. And I’m going to share how I do that with you.

My first step is to build this LisaDozois.com into a showcase for my products and services. I’m going to add e-commerce and order processing features as well as project management. This site is officially 2 hours old.

Follow along as I define the site’s requirements and pick the plugins and widgets I need to get the job done. I envision some custom programming and database design as well. I’ll share all the gory details, successes and failures as I make my way through the process.

Check this post daily to see what I’ve accomplished. And start thinking about how you can use what you learn here to build or strengthen your own brand.

After the site is built, I’m going to kick off my SEO and social marketing strategy. That should be informative, so don’t miss it.

It’s 3:10 AM. I’m going to bed. Hope to see you tomorrow at LisaDozois.com.  I’ve got a lot of work to do.

- Lisa