Getting yourself known in your niche is incredibly important if you want to earn a living online. What that means in reality can be quite different from what people think it means.

For a start, note how I didn’t say “getting your name known”. It has to go deeper than that. What do I mean, and how can I be so sure?

Well, you probably don’t know, but there are two Chris Garrett’s in blogging …

Obviously I believe I am the Chris Garrett, and the other one, well he is just the other one, heh.

The difficult thing is we both live in the UK, are both associated with blogging and new media, and actually have contacts in common. Crazy! What makes it even more difficult is the “other” Chris Garrett is a nice guy so I can’t bring myself to hate him for it.

While there are the occasional cases of mistaken identity I don’t believe either of us have been harmed by the duplication of names. Yes, some people don’t get it even when it is explained slowly and using small words, but in all other cases it doesn’t seem as much of a problem as you would think. You see, the younger and better looking Chris Garrett is a talented designer who blogs which is a helpfully different skill set to my technology, marketing, new media geek persona.

Actually, thinking about it, we should combine forces, our skills are quite complimentary!

So while we share a name, our brands, and therefore what we are known for, are quite different which allows us to coexist without attempting to nuke each other.

When you are looking to get yourself known and grow your brand, do not overlook what I believe is the most critical element; what do you want to be known for?