CharlieWebster.ME: A Lesson in Personal Branding on the World Wide Web

Charlie Webster is a famous English TV presenter, columnist, and a sportswoman. The .ME extension is the most personal domain name in the world. When you combine the two, you get CharlieWebster.ME – a cozy online home where this amazing athlete and reporter shares her stories and achievements with fans across the globe. But what you should also get from CharlieWebster.ME is an inspiration to create an online presence that is as exciting, unique, and inspiring as your offline life. Want more details? Read on:

About Charlie Webster

Charlie is an experienced TV presenter who has worked for Real Madrid TV in Spain, ESPN in Asia, where she presented Premier League football live, and SkySports News, where she covered news broadcasting for the 2012 summer Olympics in London. However, less is known on what an avid sports fan and human rights activist she is. This is why she decided to share a more personal side of her life, as the very domain name of the website suggests, at CharlieWebster.ME.

Born in Sheffield, UK and brought up a Sheffield United fan, sports has always played a vital role in Charlie’s life. She started building up coaching qualifications at the age of sixteen, eventually becoming a qualified personal trainer and coach in both running and football. And she did most of this whilst studying at the University of Newcastle! Not to mention that she ran 5 marathons and took up amateur boxing classes. She even teamed up with other boxers to produce a boxing fitness app for women.

Last but not the least, to raise funds and awareness for the domestic violence charity Women’s Aid, she completed Charlie’s Big Challenge, which included visiting 40 football clubs between London and Liverpool using VERY unconventional means of traveling for such great distances.

We get that you might not be willing to move to a foreign country or to another continent in pursuit of you career goals – or to push your body to physical and mental limits just to raise awareness about a higher cause. But you also do not want to miss an opportunity to be offered a dream job, get admitted to best schools or simply connect with people who share same interests, right? If this is the case, then the first thing to do is to start building your personal brand online.

Personal Branding Online

Analyzing Charlie’s online presence, it is not difficult to conclude that nothing says ‘professional’ and ‘confident’ like a personal domain name. When picking the extension, be aware of the fact that .COM is the undisputed king of the Internet, but also keep in mind that it tends to be associated with companies rather than individuals and that what you are looking for might have been already taken. Therefore, do not shy away from registering your name at the other extension that is as SEO friendly and appealing as a .COM (see what Charlie did).

Although it requires a basic knowledge of some technical skills, your personal website provides plenty of advantages:

• You (not a third-party) control all the content. Therefore, you can present your qualifications or showcase the portfolio in a way you believe is the most presentable

• Your email address will be @FirstNameLastName.com/net/me etc. It does not get more personal (or professional) than this.

• Whenever prospective employers or decision makers google/bing your name, your personal website will pop up among the top results.

• Instead of being scattered across different platforms, your blog, projects (see Charlie’s), resume and bio will be at one place.

• Proud of your Tweets, Facebook posts or LinkedIn network? Well, you can bring the feeds or links to the front of your website to complement the personal touch a domain name provides.

• Finally, you can track the traffic to your website via analytics tools and adapt content and layout to the visitor’s needs.

Do not let anything stand in the way of showing who you really are, both online and offline! Instead, leverage the digital and social to your advantage to showcase what you are capable of. As Charlie would say “Be Confident. Be strong. Be You.“