I will suppose you know at lest the full name of the person you’re trying to find more information about. Seriously, this is a MUST if you ever expect to have some results in locating someone by their name. A first or last name only can give you some leads, but often times that is not enough. Anyway, let’s start.
1. Use various people search engines
You have various types of people search sites. Some of them are free and can give you basic information (current address/phone) while the more advanced ones are not free, but cheap and provide more advanced information (history of addresses, relatives and so on.)
I highly recommend you use every type of people search engine available. That way you increase the chances you can find additional information from someone’s name only.
2. Before searching, familiarize yourself of what you can use
I’ve shared with you some people search engines above. The thing is, these can not only search by name, but by various other criteria. For example, you can search:
- by address
- by phone number
- by email address
Why would you want to know this if the only information you currently have is the person’s name?
First, are you sure? Can you eventually find more about someone than just his or her name? You can consult with people you assume should know more information about the person and ask them whether they know something more than the person’s name only.
Second, while you search, you can find even more ‘leads’ or additional information about that person like his old address or telephone number. This is where the real magic comes into place. This is where you can use the features I’ve outlined above so you can run a reverse address or reverse number check and can eventually find even more data!
So the more information you have, the bigger the chances are you can find even more information on someone!
3. Help boards
You have a tremendous number of boards where you can request help. Tell as much information as possible for the person you’re looking for.
This isn’t why I recommend posting on many boards, though. You will have some people trying to help you out and that’s totally fine. The real reason why posting on boards is great is because, that way, you increase the chances of the person contacting YOU instead.
How so? Well, let me ask you something. What was the last time you typed your name into a search engine like Google? Yes, we people perform so-called “ego searches” where we often search for our own name or nickname.
Now, get this: the person you’re trying to search for will probably do this type of search someday. When you post on a message board (open a new thread or post a new post, I recommend opening a new thread) the text you post is usually indexed into Google. So when that person types his or her name into Google, your result will appear! That way he can register on that board too and contact you (this happened many times for many people, believe me.)
If you post on multiple boards, you have better chances of your text appearing somewhere in the results when a person searches for himself. When you write, though, remember to vary the text. Do not copy/paste the same message in multiple boards. That is considered duplicate content and is not going to get you indexed multiple times by Google or other search engine. Vary the text (your “I need help” type of message) but leave the important details same (name, email, etc.)
4. Spell check
This is a short but very useful tip. Most sites do not provide spell checkers for names. So make sure you check whether the full name is correctly spelled (especially if it is a complex name.) One letter wrong and you can come up with 0 results, compared to 17, for example, if you get the full name right.
