Uncover your online reputation

Google.com/alerts

This is one of the easiest ways to secure a general idea about what's being said about you on the Web. This search engine scans all major online communities, mailing lists, and blogs for your assigned keywords and delivers updates directly to your email address.

Twitter.com

This micro-blogging service allows you to search in realtime, pulling up the most recent posts. Tip: Sign up for an account under your name to prevent someone else from masquerading as you.

Technorati.com

This free blogwatch service does a great job of monitoring what's being said and keeping track of newly created blogs. BlogPulse.com is another notable blogwatch service.

Boardtracker.com

This search engine monitors online forums and boards for you. You can receive the general buzz from all message boards or tailor your results to your own keywords.

Keotag.com

This search engine tracks keywords, including names, that are being used as tags on the Web. For the tech-savvy: The site even lets you generate your own tags.

Other tools

Other free reputation management tools to check out include SeekingAlpha.com, which tracks the postings of conference call transcripts on websites; Google.com/trends, which tracks the most popular keyword searches; and SearchAnalytics.Compete.com, which tracks the top website referrals for any keyword search.

Joe Dysart is an Internet speaker and business consultant based in Manhattan, N.Y. To comment on this article, visit dvm360.com/comment.