I think I knew very early on in life that one of the most critical and fundamental factors in any business, whether online or not, was branding. As I entered the online world for my photography business, I realized that online personal branding was key to generate a distinctive internet personality/presence, and that's how I snagged The Travel Photographer label...for my blog, a backup blog, website(s), social media such as Twitter, Facebook and everything in between including an email address, business cards, and even items of my own clothing.
If I had a penny for each time I hear other travel photographers how clever I was in snagging The Travel Photographer label/brand before they did, it'd pay for a new Canon 5D Mark II...I exaggerate of course, but I heard that said a lot.
I also knew that my name was not the easiest to pronounce (at least for Americans...it's no problem with other nationalities), so an alias was the smart thing to do. It always gives me a kick when I'm in a photography function and I'm introduced as "Tewfic...y'know, The Travel Photographer".
All right, I rambled enough about personal branding. Through one of my Twitter followers, I learned of About.me which is a free website (technically still in beta) that allows anyone to build a an attractive personal profile that points users to one's content from around the web.
Naturally, I snagged The Travel Photographer and now have my very own personal profile. Will it be useful? I don't know yet but at the very least I appropriated and protected my brand by doing so.
If you have a personal brand, you may want to do the same.