It's no wonder that one commonly misspelled words is "misspelled." :) Another word that always gets me is "occasionally." My mom used to call me her walking dictionary because I was pretty good at spelling, but there are just certain words that trip me up every time.
One word that always trips other people up is my last name. Brueseke. You should see some of the mail we get at our house and you should hear some of the telemarketing calls we get! We're talking misspellings and mispronunciations galore. (You can listen to any of our podcasts to hear the actual pronunciation).
My call to the Kim Komando show yesterday had to do with the misspelling of my name. I use Google Analytics for both my website and my blog, and I love it! It gives you all kinds of stats about the usage of your website. One thing it does, is it tells you the various search terms, or keywords, that people are using that land them on your site.
For example, some of the top keywords that have led people to this blog include "grace," "movement of grace tv," "identity in christ," "exchanged life," etc. For the purpose of this post, I won't get into all the helpful ways that this information can be used, but along with all the other Google Analytics info and stats, I'll just say that it's very useful.
Well, one particular search term that has led people to both my blog and my website is my name, "Joel Brueseke." But with all the ways that my name gets misspelled, I began to think about the possibility that some people may be unsuccessful (ooh, another word that's easy to misspell!) at finding me due to misspelling my name. So... I emailed Kim Komando, asking her what I could do to help others find my sites without actually placing all the misspellings of my name right on the home page, and of course I ended asking this question on the air. Believe me, this isn't an ego thing. I just want to be able to be found by those who are trying to find me.
I've figured out a lot of things on my own in regards to blogs and websites, but one thing I've never messed with is meta tags, so I'll be taking Kim's advice and putting some keywords, including misspellings of my name, in the meta tags on my website. I'm also going to try a few things on this blog.
And here is one of those things. I actually came up with this idea on my own this morning, just as kind of a silly way that might actually partially help solve my problem! Right here, out in the open on this blog post, I'm putting a bunch of misspellings of my name! Who knows, maybe someone will accidentally misspell my name and come across this very post. It's worth a try, isn't it?!
I'll start off with nicknames. During my school years I was known as both Breeze and Brewski. The latter wasn't just because that's how my name appears. ;) My license plate said JBreez. (JBreeze was already taken). During my time on the radio, I was nicknamed The Breezeman. Oh yeah, and my actual radio name was Joel Sommers, which itself was often misspelled Somers, Summers or Sumers! (I think now I'll have to explain why I was able to be on the radio for 11 years, but yet I have a hard time actually calling into a radio show! My reasons aren't as ridiculous as you might think).
Let's see, what else. Oh, a couple of weeks ago I ordered a glass pane to replace a broken window. The invoice said Joel Bresky. One very common misspelling is Brueske. (The "e" is missing between the s and k). I tried this search the other day, and there is actually a Joel Brueske out there! So in a big sense, it's not really a misspelling, just an alternate spelling. The German way of spelling the name is Brüske, and of course here in the States the umlaut (the two dots above the u) is removed, making it simply Bruske. I'm going to have to research all the ways the name has been Americanized! A distant relative organized a huge family reunion earlier this year and also published a family history book that should give me all that info.
Maybe someone has heard my name but has never seen the spelling. How would they spell it?
Breezuhkee, Breezakee, Breezuhkey, Breezakey, Breezekee, Breezekey, Breesakee, Breesakey, Breesuhkee, Breesuhkey.
It is u before e or e before u? Breuseke, Breuske, Breuskey, Breuskee, Breuzakee, Breuzuhkee, Breuzakey, Breuzakey, Breusakey, Breusuhkee, Breusuhkey.
How about these. Brezinsky, Breezicky, Brewseke, Brewske, Bruiseekee, Bruisuhkey, Bruisahkey, Bruisakee, Bruisuhkee.
I'm getting worn out with this! And I'd guess I'm not even a quarter of the way there. But I mostly did this for the sake of silliness and it's been fun! I'll have to check with my relatives and find out the fun they've had with the name. I'll probably keep adding misspellings for a long time to come! By the way, the name means "Windy Corner."
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