Marketing (yourself) on the Internet

I don't know about all of you, but it seems like online job posting and professional networking sites have been quite busy these days with this terrible economy.  Earlier this week, I had breakfast with one of the angel investors for ZepInvest, an online property that aggregates premium financial research from a host of sites for a one-stop subscription fee.  At the end of the breakfast, he earnestly asked me "Have you been intentional about how you brand yourself online?"  He urged me to whittle down my facebook friends, cutting the wheat from the chaff, and really concentrate on reforming my LinkedIn and Doostang online profiles.  On Wednesday, the Media Management Club hosted Mark Cenedella, founder and CEO of TheLadders.com, a job search site available at a subscription fee that only promotes $100K+ positions.  His business is booming.   He spoke of the de-stigmatization of online headhunters and job posting sites for executive positions, and how that has positively effected his business. Then yesterday, I saw this headline on  AdAge.com - - "Laid-off Copywriter Turning Blog into Job Site" (http://adage.com/talentworks/article?article_id=134693).  This blog, called "Please Feed the Animals," is a little more of a niche site.  It seeks to connect advertisers with talent specifically looking to get into advertising. And, not so surprisingly, the site is run entirely on advertising revenue.  Depending on how successful it is, ignoring the subscription fee side of the business could be a major missed opportunity, given the psychological effects of advertisers hesitating to post higher level positions online in such a mass way.  My guess is that the stigma for HR headhunting for talent online is not altogether gone.