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[hypnotoad]

I went to a conference a few weeks back and presented a paper.  Most of the presenters used power point to show images as they read their papers - so I did the same.  At the end of my series of slides, I included a slide with my name, the title of my paper, and the following, "for more about my work, please visit my web page at . . ."

My web pages has my CV, links to many of my small publications (at this point all I have is a handful of small publications), a statement on my research, a small bio, batting statistics from when I played t-ball, and a page about an ongoing teaching project.  I've tried to make it look professional.

I expected throngs of my new fans to flock to my web page.  Throngs.  Alas, I've had only a couple of hits since that time, and I think that one of them was from my mother, Mrs. Hypnotoad. 

My life is not one big sad, sob story, however.  I get a handful of hits each month when people Google my name or specific research interests.  Ex-girlfriends?  Perhaps.  Famous scholars admiring my work?  Perhapslier?

My question is this - do you promote your academic web page in any form?  Do you include it on your web address on your e-mail subject line?  How about on your business cards?  Do you mention it to people when you meet them at conferences?  Am I shameless? 

I'm really interested in hearing from young scholars and graduate students. 

[iomhaigh]

I put things there for my students, and I sometimes refer people to it for other reasons, but I don't really publicize it beyond that.  It's on the school server, so it shows up on my bio page. 

I did just get a freelance job offer from some random Googler.  That was cool. 

[sciencephd]

I went to a conference a few weeks back and presented a paper.  Most of the presenters used power point to show images as they read their papers - so I did the same.  At the end of my series of slides, I included a slide with my name, the title of my paper, and the following, "for more about my work, please visit my web page at . . ."

My web pages has my CV, links to many of my small publications (at this point all I have is a handful of small publications), a statement on my research, a small bio, batting statistics from when I played t-ball, and a page about an ongoing teaching project.  I've tried to make it look professional.

I expected throngs of my new fans to flock to my web page.  Throngs.  Alas, I've had only a couple of hits since that time, and I think that one of them was from my mother, Mrs. Hypnotoad. 

My life is not one big sad, sob story, however.  I get a handful of hits each month when people Google my name or specific research interests.  Ex-girlfriends?  Perhaps.  Famous scholars admiring my work?  Perhapslier?

My question is this - do you promote your academic web page in any form?  Do you include it on your web address on your e-mail subject line?  How about on your business cards?  Do you mention it to people when you meet them at conferences?  Am I shameless? 

I'm really interested in hearing from young scholars and graduate students. 

Personally, I think it is useful to have a web page for this purpose, particularly when looking for jobs.  However, getting alot of hits is not really going to do much for your academic profile.

If you are really interested in promoting yourself on the web in a quasi-academic way and get "page views", it seems that the way to do this is with a blog. 

[larryc]

I installed a stat counter on my professional web page a few months ago and so far I have received--let me check--zero hits. Of course I do nothing whatsoever to promote it, and really it is just a static page with my hyperlinked vita.

I do promote my blog just a bit by including the address in my email signature line. I get 50-100 hits a day, have put together two conference panels with people I met via the blog, and am currently fact checking a children's book for an editor who found me through the blog.

[locutus]

I just put my webpage in my email signature. Mostly because I'm on the job market right now. I don't anyone really gets throngs so don't feel bad about it.

Am I shameless?

Yes. But that's ok.

[stanwyck]

and so far I have received--let me check--zero hits. Of course I do

Are you sure your counter is working?  Because I know I went to your professional website a couple of weeks ago in search of the link to your blog (which I have bookmarked, but I wasn't on my own computer).

[dr_dre]

Are you sure your counter is working?  Because I know I went to your professional website a couple of weeks ago in search of the link to your blog (which I have bookmarked, but I wasn't on my own computer).

And I'm sure throngs of CHE lurkers seek out your site because they sweat you. Just sayin'.

[donstefano]

I bought a very fancy domainname (short, basically my name - donstefano.org-type), and it now included in my emailsignature, and on my papers. About 2-3 visitors/day. Not much, but I don't want to reach crowds - just those people that are looking for specific information (e.g. downloading my papers)

[dr_prephd]

I went to a conference a few weeks back and presented a paper.  Most of the presenters used power point to show images as they read their papers - so I did the same.  At the end of my series of slides, I included a slide with my name, the title of my paper, and the following, "for more about my work, please visit my web page at . . ."

My question is this - do you promote your academic web page in any form?  Do you include it on your web address on your e-mail subject line?  How about on your business cards?  Do you mention it to people when you meet them at conferences?  Am I shameless? 

I'm really interested in hearing from young scholars and graduate students. 

It's likely that by the time you got to the last slide, people were packing up and did not write the info. down.

I presented at a conference last week, and included my e-mail address in the information that I distributed. I have yet to receive any e-mails, but there's always a chance. So, you're not alone.

I also have a professional webpage, but there's a very famous entertainer with my same name, so when you google me, you get her--for pages and pages and pages. Someone who was looking for me would give up somewhere around the fifth page, I'd guess. Or earlier. It wasn't until I'd already been published numerous times that I realized I was "competing" with her (in a way, though our fields are entirely different). Once I realized that, I started to add my middle initial to my professional work, and now if you put my name (including middle initial, the whole thing enclosed in quotation marks), then you get hits for me, only me, all me! (*maniacal laugh*)

But I can't seem to pull up my professional webpage through any combination of search terms on google. If anyone has any advice on how to get more hits, I'd be appreciative.

To answer the OP, I don't advertise my webpage, as it's essentially just my cv. If I was applying to jobs, I'd probably put the link in more places; then again, maybe not. Who knows?

[larryc]

and so far I have received--let me check--zero hits. Of course I do

Are you sure your counter is working?  Because I know I went to your professional website a couple of weeks ago in search of the link to your blog (which I have bookmarked, but I wasn't on my own computer).

Ah wait--I went back and I see that I was looking at the results for last week. Over the last two months, a whopping nine people have visited the site! From small beginnings...

[hypnotoad]

So what I'm hearing is that yes it is appropriate to have a professional web page as a graduate student.  You can mention it at appropriate times to people who might be interested (e.g. at conferences) and have it as your e-mail sig line when you are on the job market.  You should not spiral into a deep depression if nobody visits your page.

A couple of things impact Google searches.  Make sure to tell Google to crawl your page.  You can do this from Google's webmaster tools page.  Google also places a premium on pages that link to your page.  For example, if I Google "Politics Blog" one of the top hits is Daily Kos - one of the most read and linked to political blogs on the web.  Make sense?

[secretweapon]

I installed a stat counter on my professional web page a few months ago and so far I have received--let me check--zero hits. Of course I do nothing whatsoever to promote it, and really it is just a static page with my hyperlinked vita.

I do promote my blog just a bit by including the address in my email signature line. I get 50-100 hits a day, have put together two conference panels with people I met via the blog, and am currently fact checking a children's book for an editor who found me through the blog.

I visited you once!  (regarding AHA meetup - I am not a weirdo).

How do I check the visits to my page on my departmental site?  I get lots of weird emails about my research from people I don't know.

[larryc]

Install a statcounter--I use this one: http://my.statcounter.com/

[secretweapon]

Thanks Larryc!

[dundee]

I also use statcounter.com and have my web page address in email my subject line. Thanks to statcounter, I know that some SC members visited my website - some via google, some via my emails.