web internet marketing

ThreatMetrix, the provider of fraud prevention solutions that do not require personally identifiable information (PII), today announced that is has secured $12.1 million in financing in a Series C round led by Tenaya Capital.

This brings the total amount raised by the company to over $24Million with the current round to  be used for general operating capital, expansion of our product offering, and sales and marketing.

ThreatMetrix has strong Australian links. Its CTO and co-founder, David Jones, is Australian and investors CM Capital and TVP are both Australian venture capital firms that are represented on the ThreatMetrix board. In addition, all of the company’s non-US operations are run out of Sydney.

Over the course of the last 18 months the company has  brought on board over 250 customers who are using ThreatMetrix’s Fraud Network to stop online fraud,  to verify new accounts, authorize card-not-present payments and authenticate user logins for everyone from online retailers, to online dating site operators to online game providers.

ThreatMetrix does this by looking at identifying information about a user’s computer and network, rather than user themself, to identify whether or not the system trying to perform a certain task ought to be trusted or not.

The scale of Internet fraud is sizeable and growing by every measure. According to CyberSource’s 11th Annual Fraud Report, Internet retailers lost more than $3.3 billion to fraud last year and Javelin Strategy & Research 2009 Identity Fraud Survey Report stated that more than $48 billion was lost as a result of identity fraud.

It’s a massive problem and one that ThreatMetrix is approaching in a completely different way to many other competitors.

Ten years ago, we identified ourselves online with handles, and anonymity ruled the web. It was not unusual to correspond with “Jetsfan77″ or “HikingGirl_06.” The idea of having all your information attached to your name — your real name — seemed crazy. As we’ve moved away from handles, using our legal monikers has ushered in an era of more authenticity and accountability on the web.

And as distinguishing your identity across the web becomes increasingly important, it has also become increasingly difficult. With almost 30% of the world’s 6.7 billion person population using the class='blippr-nobr'>Internetclass="blippr-nobr">Internet today, there are bound to be many of them who share the same name.

There are 149 other “Sarah Kesslers” on Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook. Twenty-six of us have Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter accounts, 93 of us use MySpaceclass="blippr-nobr">MySpace, and 78 of us are Linkedinclass="blippr-nobr">LinkedIn. Staking out digital territory across the web, needless to say, has been difficult. And my name isn’t even among the most common.

In a world where almost 80% of hiring managers Googleclass="blippr-nobr">Google job candidates, it’s important to make sure that the people looking you up find you and not someone else with your namesake.

This importance became clear to Pete Kistler when he figured out that he was being turned down for jobs because he shared a name and age bracket with an ex-convict. To help others like him, he started Brand-Yourself, a personal online reputation management service. We caught up with the site’s Chief Marketing Officer Patrick Ambron for his advice on staking out an online identity when there’s competition for your name.

1. Register Available Domain Names

Domain names are important. So important, in fact, that a largely abandoned WordPressclass="blippr-nobr">WordPress blog that uses my name in the title is currently the first search result for my name.

Ambron says that claiming your domain name is the first and most important thing that you can do to make yourself more visible in a Google search. Claim your name on whatever domains are available. Even if you don’t plan to use yourname.co, .info, .net or .mobi, you’ll be preventing other people who share your name from using those domains to compete with you for search result status.

“Google loves the domain name,” Ambron says. “It’s a powerful indication that site is going to be about you.”

2. Mention Yourself on Your Website

It might feel weird to talk about yourself in the third person, but labeling your website’s tabs with your name can give you an advantage in search results.

“This is called keyword density,” Ambron says. “When Google spiders index a site, they look to see how often certain words are used to determine what the site should rank. If your content never mentions your name, how will spiders know it’s about you?”

Even though you might be thinking, “of course it’s [your name]’s bio. Who else’s bio would be on my site?” it’s important to use your full name so that search engines recognize that the site is about you when someone searches for your name.

3. Link to All of Your Content

“ considers each link to your site a vote for the site,” Ambron says. “Google has gotten pretty smart, so where those links come from is very important. The more reputable links are better votes. A vote from CNN is better than some site you made that you just linked to yourself.”

Fortunately, as an individual, there are an abundance of opportunities for you to create links to your site from reputable sources in the form of profiles. A vote from your friend’s website might not count for a lot, but a vote from Facebook will be counted as much more reputable.

Sign up for as many directories and social sites as possible, and make sure to link them all together. One tip that Brand-Yourself advocates is to locate profiles where your name is still available. You can also locate and reserve your name across the web using one of these websites.

“Even if you don’t plan on using all those social sites, and there are plenty of them, it’s good to grab them up,” Ambron says. “It’s good that you’re keeping someone else from using them with your name and contributing to their results.”

4. Create Content and Get Social

“Google loves updated content,” Ambron says. “And the fastest way for an individual to have updated content is to have a social profile that they use.”

One easy way to make sure your blog is always updated, for instance, is to integrate your Twitter account’s RSS feed. Every time you tweet, you’ll update your blog and improve its prominence in search results.

“If you have a blog post that you put on your site, Facebook and Twitter, and five people Like it and share it,” Ambron says, “that’s five credible links from Facebook and from Twitter to your site.“

Do you have a digital doppelganger who has caused confusion in your life? Tell us about it in the comments below.

More Personal Branding Resources from Mashable:

- 7 Services to Find and Reserve Your Name Across the Web/> - 5 Ways to Avoid Sabotaging Your Personal Brand Online/> - 5 Ways to Clean Up Your Social Media Identity/> - HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on YouTube/> - HOW TO: Use Social Media to Connect with Other Entrepreneurs

Image courtesy of iStockphotoclass="blippr-nobr">iStockphoto, carrollphoto, fitzer

For more Social Media coverage:

class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Social Mediaclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Social Media channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

robert shumake

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Raikkonen rules out Renault F1 seat

Kimi Raikkonen has ruled out making a return to Formula 1 with Renault next year, despite being linked with the team for several weeks.

ABC <b>News</b> and Facebook team up for election coverage - Lost Remote

ABC News is also partnering with Yahoo! News to do election polling, with results posted on both sites. In addition, the network will be doing daily 15-minute webcasts beginning October 25th at 6:45 am, the idea being that the webcast ...

Target doing poor job of selling the iPad? | iLounge <b>News</b>

iLounge news discussing the Target doing poor job of selling the iPad?. Find more iPad news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.

robert shumake

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Raikkonen rules out Renault F1 seat

Kimi Raikkonen has ruled out making a return to Formula 1 with Renault next year, despite being linked with the team for several weeks.

ABC <b>News</b> and Facebook team up for election coverage - Lost Remote

ABC News is also partnering with Yahoo! News to do election polling, with results posted on both sites. In addition, the network will be doing daily 15-minute webcasts beginning October 25th at 6:45 am, the idea being that the webcast ...

Target doing poor job of selling the iPad? | iLounge <b>News</b>

iLounge news discussing the Target doing poor job of selling the iPad?. Find more iPad news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.

robert shumake

ThreatMetrix, the provider of fraud prevention solutions that do not require personally identifiable information (PII), today announced that is has secured $12.1 million in financing in a Series C round led by Tenaya Capital.

This brings the total amount raised by the company to over $24Million with the current round to  be used for general operating capital, expansion of our product offering, and sales and marketing.

ThreatMetrix has strong Australian links. Its CTO and co-founder, David Jones, is Australian and investors CM Capital and TVP are both Australian venture capital firms that are represented on the ThreatMetrix board. In addition, all of the company’s non-US operations are run out of Sydney.

Over the course of the last 18 months the company has  brought on board over 250 customers who are using ThreatMetrix’s Fraud Network to stop online fraud,  to verify new accounts, authorize card-not-present payments and authenticate user logins for everyone from online retailers, to online dating site operators to online game providers.

ThreatMetrix does this by looking at identifying information about a user’s computer and network, rather than user themself, to identify whether or not the system trying to perform a certain task ought to be trusted or not.

The scale of Internet fraud is sizeable and growing by every measure. According to CyberSource’s 11th Annual Fraud Report, Internet retailers lost more than $3.3 billion to fraud last year and Javelin Strategy & Research 2009 Identity Fraud Survey Report stated that more than $48 billion was lost as a result of identity fraud.

It’s a massive problem and one that ThreatMetrix is approaching in a completely different way to many other competitors.

Ten years ago, we identified ourselves online with handles, and anonymity ruled the web. It was not unusual to correspond with “Jetsfan77″ or “HikingGirl_06.” The idea of having all your information attached to your name — your real name — seemed crazy. As we’ve moved away from handles, using our legal monikers has ushered in an era of more authenticity and accountability on the web.

And as distinguishing your identity across the web becomes increasingly important, it has also become increasingly difficult. With almost 30% of the world’s 6.7 billion person population using the class='blippr-nobr'>Internetclass="blippr-nobr">Internet today, there are bound to be many of them who share the same name.

There are 149 other “Sarah Kesslers” on Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook. Twenty-six of us have Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter accounts, 93 of us use MySpaceclass="blippr-nobr">MySpace, and 78 of us are Linkedinclass="blippr-nobr">LinkedIn. Staking out digital territory across the web, needless to say, has been difficult. And my name isn’t even among the most common.

In a world where almost 80% of hiring managers Googleclass="blippr-nobr">Google job candidates, it’s important to make sure that the people looking you up find you and not someone else with your namesake.

This importance became clear to Pete Kistler when he figured out that he was being turned down for jobs because he shared a name and age bracket with an ex-convict. To help others like him, he started Brand-Yourself, a personal online reputation management service. We caught up with the site’s Chief Marketing Officer Patrick Ambron for his advice on staking out an online identity when there’s competition for your name.

1. Register Available Domain Names

Domain names are important. So important, in fact, that a largely abandoned WordPressclass="blippr-nobr">WordPress blog that uses my name in the title is currently the first search result for my name.

Ambron says that claiming your domain name is the first and most important thing that you can do to make yourself more visible in a Google search. Claim your name on whatever domains are available. Even if you don’t plan to use yourname.co, .info, .net or .mobi, you’ll be preventing other people who share your name from using those domains to compete with you for search result status.

“Google loves the domain name,” Ambron says. “It’s a powerful indication that site is going to be about you.”

2. Mention Yourself on Your Website

It might feel weird to talk about yourself in the third person, but labeling your website’s tabs with your name can give you an advantage in search results.

“This is called keyword density,” Ambron says. “When Google spiders index a site, they look to see how often certain words are used to determine what the site should rank. If your content never mentions your name, how will spiders know it’s about you?”

Even though you might be thinking, “of course it’s [your name]’s bio. Who else’s bio would be on my site?” it’s important to use your full name so that search engines recognize that the site is about you when someone searches for your name.

3. Link to All of Your Content

“ considers each link to your site a vote for the site,” Ambron says. “Google has gotten pretty smart, so where those links come from is very important. The more reputable links are better votes. A vote from CNN is better than some site you made that you just linked to yourself.”

Fortunately, as an individual, there are an abundance of opportunities for you to create links to your site from reputable sources in the form of profiles. A vote from your friend’s website might not count for a lot, but a vote from Facebook will be counted as much more reputable.

Sign up for as many directories and social sites as possible, and make sure to link them all together. One tip that Brand-Yourself advocates is to locate profiles where your name is still available. You can also locate and reserve your name across the web using one of these websites.

“Even if you don’t plan on using all those social sites, and there are plenty of them, it’s good to grab them up,” Ambron says. “It’s good that you’re keeping someone else from using them with your name and contributing to their results.”

4. Create Content and Get Social

“Google loves updated content,” Ambron says. “And the fastest way for an individual to have updated content is to have a social profile that they use.”

One easy way to make sure your blog is always updated, for instance, is to integrate your Twitter account’s RSS feed. Every time you tweet, you’ll update your blog and improve its prominence in search results.

“If you have a blog post that you put on your site, Facebook and Twitter, and five people Like it and share it,” Ambron says, “that’s five credible links from Facebook and from Twitter to your site.“

Do you have a digital doppelganger who has caused confusion in your life? Tell us about it in the comments below.

More Personal Branding Resources from Mashable:

- 7 Services to Find and Reserve Your Name Across the Web/> - 5 Ways to Avoid Sabotaging Your Personal Brand Online/> - 5 Ways to Clean Up Your Social Media Identity/> - HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on YouTube/> - HOW TO: Use Social Media to Connect with Other Entrepreneurs

Image courtesy of iStockphotoclass="blippr-nobr">iStockphoto, carrollphoto, fitzer

For more Social Media coverage:

class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Social Mediaclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Social Media channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

robert shumake

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Raikkonen rules out Renault F1 seat

Kimi Raikkonen has ruled out making a return to Formula 1 with Renault next year, despite being linked with the team for several weeks.

ABC <b>News</b> and Facebook team up for election coverage - Lost Remote

ABC News is also partnering with Yahoo! News to do election polling, with results posted on both sites. In addition, the network will be doing daily 15-minute webcasts beginning October 25th at 6:45 am, the idea being that the webcast ...

Target doing poor job of selling the iPad? | iLounge <b>News</b>

iLounge news discussing the Target doing poor job of selling the iPad?. Find more iPad news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.