Gary Vaynerchuk's Name Sucks

Gary Vee, as he is affectionately called, is gifted with many things including wit, charm, and charisma. His name on the other hand was definitely a hurdle for this loud and sometimes obnoxious (meant with love) social media champion.

He started his early online career with Wine Library, a brilliant and easy to remember name. When launching his first video blog Wine Library TV I’m sure he was faced with the retching decision on how to handle his own name. Most hoping to make a career on screen and being faced with a difficult name would opt for a much easier to remember screen name.

But not for Gary… this little fireball decided to tackle online media with sucky name in tow.

Turn liability into assets

His tenacity has turned the liability of his name into a household word… at least for us geeks and social media freaks. For those of us who follow his wisdom, we couldn’t imagine him with any other name. The name Gary Johnson just wouldn’t fit.

He built a brand on his name right down to GaryVaynerchuk.com. How can you have success on a domain that can’t be spelled correctly by 99% of the world?

Easy, Gary’s favorite word ‘hustle‘.

Doing the hustle

The first thing your eyes go to on his website is his name. His last name is broken down by syllables vay-ner-chuck. When he introduces himself on video he pronounces his last name Vay… ner… chuk drawing out and dropping dead air in between each syllable.

Not afraid to laugh at himself, Gary is constantly making fun of his own name. Making it possible for the rest of us to laugh with him.

Gary worked tirelessly to make his name as easy to understand as the message he was preaching. The end result of this is a near impossible name that we can remember. He has successfully turned his liability around.

What can we learn from this?

Gary’s success wasn’t overnight. Too often we want to go through the motions for a while and when success isn’t beating down our door we give up. Of course, we blame the failure on our liabilities.

Embrace your liabilities and turn them around so you too can also claim success. Quit hiding them under your bed hoping the world won’t notice. Trust me they will.

What makes you different is what sets you apart. Frankly, I’m tired of all the sameness out there. The web is becoming as boring as the traditional world. Everyone is more concerned with a formula for success rather than being yourself and doing what you love (wisdom stolen from Gary Vee).

Be unapologetic and be yourself… liabilities and all.

Getting the Most From Blog Commenting

Commenting on blogs is a great way to gain exposure for your site, but are you getting the most benefit from your time? A good comment is going to send traffic to your site while a bad comment will get deleted or ignored. Follow these tips and you’ll be commenting like a pro.

Be part of the community

Don’t be a drive by commenter. Find top blogs in your industry and subscribe to their RSS feed. Make yourself a usual. Think Cheers, the TV show from the 80’s. Every time Norm walked through the door he got a hearty shout from the rest of the bar. He was popular because of his regular engaging conversation. Do the same!

Get a Gravatar

I’m really bad with names, and so are most people. But, I’ll never forget a face. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Gravatars they are user images that are tied to an email address. When you leave a comment with the email it posts your pic.

Your gravatar should be friendly and welcoming. No pics of you with bed head, screaming, or holding you favorite beer. To brand yourself and your site you can also add the name of your site to the image.

Introduce yourself

No one like to ask for someone’s name. Let the world know who you are. Don’t use keywords for your name. This is tacky and will make your message look like spam. Besides who wants to have a conversation with someone named “fast dirt bikes”.

You can use your site name in addition to you real name with this format, Russ Adams @ WebDesign.fm. Most sites will allow this, but take a look around at the other posted comments to know for sure.

Don’t use a nickname

Unless you have the strong personality to pull off a nickname stick with your real name. It’s OK for your friends in the real world call you Stinky, but the rest of us would like to know who you are. There is a trend on the internet to step away from the supposed anonymity of aliases and just be yourself.

Engage, engage, engage

OK, so this was covered earlier, but it is the most important thing that you can do. Engage the blogger and other blog commenters. Ask questions, add to the conversation, and politely tell everyone if you disagree and why.

Some blogs will let you subscribe to the comments. Come back and add more to the conversation.

A few common sense items

1. Check your grammar and spelling.
2. Reread your comment before you post.
3. Be polite and friendly. Don’t forget what your mom taught you.
4. Reread again.

This isn’t an all encompassing list, but a good place to start. What else should someone do when commenting on a blog?