Branding Your Blog to the Big Time

--Frank Moraes

If you have a blog, you most likely want to reach as wide an audience as you can. But as much as people may say that content is king, there is a lot more to growing an audience than creating great content. One critical element is branding.

To a lot of people, branding is kind of mysterious — something to do with marketing — maybe even something vaguely disreputable. But at its core, branding is simple and, far from disreputable, essential. It’s what everyone does all the time: presenting a consistent image of themselves to others. And that’s what you want to do for your blog.

Chances are, you’re already engaged in some branding. Just the choice of your domain name is part of branding. Picking ScienceOfLemurs.com provides potential visitors with a very different idea of your blog than picking AdorableLemurs.com.

But just because branding is a simple idea doesn’t mean it is easy to brand your blog. It requires looking at your blog in an objective way.

If you write about a serious subject like access to clean drinking water in the developing world, you’re almost certainly going to want your blog to reflect that in all its aspects. You wouldn’t fill your pages with silly images or write in a cavalier style.

Of course, there is much more to branding your website than that. The hardest part is figuring out what your brand will be. Knowing that your blog is serious or whimsical is a start. But if you are going to succeed, you need to get more specific about exactly what image you want to present to the world.

Luckily, the following infographic takes you through the process of defining your brand and then implementing it. With a little time and effort, you really can brand your blog to the big time.

Branding Your Blog to the Big Time - Via Who Is Hosting This: The Blog

TRANSCRIPT:

Branding Your Blog to the Big Time

The goal of most bloggers is to reach a wide audience — and even make money from it. So, how do the successful bloggers do it? What is it that they do that allows them to have a popular and vibrant blog? One of the biggest things that successful bloggers do is create a strong brand. And branding is something any blogger can learn how to do. Follow along to learn how.

What is a Brand?

The key to branding a blog is to understand what branding is
Your blog’s brand, includes, but is not limited to:
- The site’s name and tagline
- Design, including the color scheme and logo
- The site’s personality
- How you represent yourself on your blog and across social media accounts
- What you promise your readers will get out of visiting your site
- What makes you stand out from other blogs
- Consistency of all the above aspects across the blog and social media

How to Figure Out Your Brand

Here are some questions to help you figure out what your brand should be:
- Who is your blog for?
  - Even when you have decided what you want to bring to your audience, you still need to figure out who that audience is
  - Are they suburban moms, rural teenagers, or anyone who loves old monster movies?
    - With a firm picture of your audience in mind, you will find it easier to post content that their audience is looking for
- What makes your blog stand out?
  - Unless your blog is the only blog in the world on a certain topic (which is unlikely), you’ll need a way to stand out
  - Your personality and style can do a lot to help with this
    - Imagine two marketing blogs:
      - One blogger is professional and focused
      - The other is quirky and often goes on tangents
    - Even though these blogs are on the same topic (marketing), they will have different brands and appeal to different audiences
- How does your blog function?
  - How often you’ll publish
  - What sort of things you’ll publish
    - Infographics
    - Articles
    - Curated content
      - And so on
  - Where you will publish (other than their blog)
    - Instagram
    - Snapchat
    - Pinterest
    - Facebook
      - And so on
  - Offer special features
    - Live blogging
      - Post commentary about an event while it takes place
        
        Sporting events
        
        Political debates
        
        Awards ceremonies
    - Regular features
      - Nightly music
      - Weekly Netflix selections
      - “This day in history”

Branding and Appearance

Before reading anything on your blog, readers will judge it based on how it looks
- Take advantage of this by ensuring that your brand shines through your blog’s style
Colors
- Keeping in mind what you want your blog to be about, pick colors that fit your brand’s personality
  - A motorcycle club’s blog should probably avoid glittery pastels and little hearts
    - Unless it is a My Little Pony motorcycle club
  - A fashion blog should not be all black without color and photos
    - Unless it is a goth fashion blog
- Remember that what colors “mean” is largely dependent on the individual’s beliefs about a color and their culture
  - A black cat is bad luck in some countries, for example, but good luck in others
  - Blue is often associated with boys and pink with girls, but it was the other way around a century ago
- Choosing a color scheme that’s different from other similar blogs will help your blog stand out
Design
- Your blog’s design should be consistent with your brand
  - A blog about how to make friends, for example, shouldn’t seem harsh or uninviting
  - A blog that covers sophisticated fashion shows should probably look sophisticated
- WordPress themes make this even easier
  - Themes consist of stylistic packages that bloggers can choose from
  - Be sure to pick a theme that also offers customizability and ease of use
    - A blog that looks nice but is frustrating to use won’t be very beneficial to your blogging
- Consider a logo
  - A custom logo will help distinguish a blog and make it more recognizable
  - Artistic bloggers can create their own with image editing software like Photoshop or Pixlr
  - Bloggers that are better with words than images can:
    - Find a style of font and color that they like and create a simple text logo
    - Hire someone to create a logo for them
      - It is often cheaper than you would think:
        
        Fiverr
        
        LogoBee
        
        LogoNerds

Branding and Tone of Voice

In addition to how you want your blog to look, you need to consider how it sounds
- The main part of your blog, after all, consists of what you have to say
Be consistent:
- Whatever your brand is will affect:
  - What content you create on your blog
  - How you present that content
- It’s important to be consistent in what you write about, or you might confuse your audience
  - An audience develops a relationship with a blog based on that blog’s brand
- Consistency is key not only in blog content, but in everything else as well, including:
  - Blog name
  - Domain name
  - Tagline
    - Your blog’s name, domain name, and tagline should be in keeping with your blog’s:
      - Subject matter
      - Target audience

Successful Blogger Brands

Examples of blogs with strong brands include:
- AshleyBrookeDesigns.com
  - Behind the blog: Ashley Brooke Chambers
  - Niche: Lifestyle blog and creative studio
  - What makes her brand strong:
    - Simple and bright color scheme and logo
    - Consistent publishing on blog and across social media sites
    - Giveaways offered during each season
- iTechCode.com
  - Behind the blog: Amit Shaw
  - Niche: Everything tech
  - What makes his brand strong:
    - Memorable name and logo
    - Consistent and engaging layout
    - Well designed categories
    - Author pictures and bios
- WaitButWhy.com
  - Blogger behind the blog: Tim Urban and Andrew Finn
  - Niche: Content website
  - What makes their brand strong:
    - Memorable logo
    - In-depth articles instead of the usual short blog posts
    - Use of stick figures and illustrations in articles
While these blogs focus on different topics, they all clearly tell their audiences:
- What their blogs are about
- Who is responsible for the blog’s content
- What the blog is supposed to do for the audience

Empower Your Brand

Once you have implemented your brand, there are a few ways to empower it and make it stronger, including:
- Reaching out to other bloggers
  - Bloggers are part of a community, and by forging connections with fellow bloggers, you will be able to strengthen the position of your own blog
  - Find out who writes about similar things and then:
    - Reach out to them directly
    - Interact with their community on their blog and in social media
- Make it as easy as possible to connect with your blog
  - Make sure your blog has social media sharing buttons
  - Create an email list
- Boost your visibility on social media by asking questions of:
  - Your readers
  - Other bloggers
  - Public figures
    - Asking questions will encourage people to respond to you
- Interact with your blog commenters
  - Remember that they are providing your blog with free content

Once you understand the power of branding and what it can do for you, you’ll see how important it is. To get started, you should ask yourself: “What is my blog about?” and “What will my readers get out of this blog?” Once you answer those questions, you will be on your way to successful blogging.

Sources: lifehack.org, problogger.net, rachelheldevans.com, washingtonpost.com, makealivingwriting.com, thepioneerwoman.com, witetodone.com, heidicohen.com, helpscout.net, csicop.org, smithsonianmag.com, howtomakemyblog.com, makewebworld.com, logobee.com, moz.com, jeffbullas.com, dailypost.wordpress.com, ashleybrookedesigns.com/blog, bloggingwizzard.com