Tips To Branding Your Blog →
If you have a blog, how do you brand it? What is branding your blog?
If you brand your blog, you will, promote the name of your blog, its look, and feel throughout the Internet. You will attempt to provide a unique experience for those who read your blog. McDonald’s, Nike and Capitol One brand their products. Shouldn’t you?
Here are some useful tips to help you brand your blog.
- Pick a name for your blog that will be easy to remember and spell, short, and fit the topic of your blog. The name should also be original. If it is available, it would be best to register your blog with a .com extension. If not, .net, or .org will do. Remember, there are 70 million blogs out there, and you want to set yours apart.
- Define the purpose of your blog. If you have a clear purpose, it will make your blog focused, will narrow the keywords you will use so your blog can be found in a search engine, will provide subjects you can post about, and just might even set you apart from other similar blogs about the same or similar topics. Even if you have an About page that will refer to the purpose of your blog, you might still choose to refer to that purpose regularly as you blog. Visitors will remember you better if you do.
- Have an attractive design for your blog. That will help your visitors remember your blog more easily. Are there 3,000 blogs similar to yours? You want people to remember yours? Your design should be distinguished, possibly with custom colors, new fonts, and a customized blog header. How can you stand out from the other 2,999 blogs similar to yours?
- Your blog should be consistent. It should have the same feel and look throughout. You might want to use the same colors and fonts throughout the blog, even if they are not a part of the rest of the website.
- Get free publicity for your blog. You could e-mail people about your site (as long as the e-mails are not spam). Use websites such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, or StumbleUpon to promote your blog. Post guest blogs on other blogs to promote yours.
- Be consistent with the writing style throughout your blog. This is most important for blogs with more than one author. If you are the only author, that might not matter.
- Stick with the same tag line. People will remember it and your blog. Frequently changing your tag line will just dilute your blogs brand. Choose the most appropriate tag line and stick to it.
- Have a good logo for your blog, even if it costs money. What do you think of when you think of the Golden Arches? Wouldn’t you like people to remember your blog? Websites are remembered by their logos. A good one can cost as little as $100 and can be worth the investment. If people use one of your articles, they will probably use the logo, promoting your blog even more.
- Be consistent with any colors you use on your blog throughout the whole blog. People remember colors and moods, and this can help brand your blog. Even if the colors are ever changed, they should be consistent.
- Despite everything else you do to promote your blog, don’t be afraid to spend money to advertise it. If advertising is not useful, why do so many other blogs use it? Companies throughout the world spend billions on advertising annually. While you may brand your blog without advertising, it is much easier if you do. If your budget is small, consider only advertising when you launch and when your website is brand new, for a few months. You can promote your blog to a specific audience with advertising.
- Use your blog name and blog logo in as many different places as possible. Use a link on your e-mails. Write guest articles for other blogs and put your website name, with a link, with the byline. Promote your blog on forums. You could even put your logo on t-shirts
