I sign up for every new service that comes along. Every single one. Most of them I never log into again, except to unsubscribe from their mailing lists. Every single new social network, professional network, graphics sharing site, instant messenger, free email provider, free home page display, free blogging app, book reading site, iPhone community app and all the hundreds I am missing, all have one thing in common. A hiltmon login. My hiltmon login.

My name is my brand. It’s my domain. It’s unique to me. And the only way I can reserve my name in all these new services, whether I use them or not, is to sign up as soon as I hear about the service. That way, all uses of hiltmon should be mine.

I never want to be hiltmon1 or worse hiltmon32874. And I don’t want anyone to see my name on a service and wonder if it is actually me. Most services do not allow login name changes, most do not even respond when you claim a name (I’m looking at you Twitter), they all go for first come first serve.

So I sign up. As soon as I can.