Branding your Blog – tips and tricks
// October 27th, 2008 // 6 Comments » // Blogging, Design, Domain Names, Featured, For Geeks, Geeks, SEO, Social Network, Tutorial, Twitter, Useful, Wordpress, web tools, webmaster
What makes a reader want to subscribe to a blog? Simply put, they understand what your blog is about, your brand, and they are attracted to it. If a reader doesn’t understand what you are serving at your blog, then they won’t know if they will like your future content.
Branding your blog will make clear to your readers what your blog is about. You want them to be able to put into words what your blog is all about. Otherwise how could they ever want to share your site with others or subscribe if they can’t describe what your blog is about.
Watch and Learn
Your “Brand Name” Tips
Make your brand name unique, short, easy to say, easy to spell and catchy. Also avoid words with hyphens in them. Some might suggest that you should use keywords in your domain name that relate to your topic but this is not always necessary. What’s most important is that the domain name is BRAND-ABLE and memorable. Take web giant “Google.com” as an example, that said using keywords in your domain name can help with search engine optimization but in the end you want to be able to trademark your brand name and if your domain name and website name is “wordpressthemes.com” well, good luck with that one.
Your domain name and the name of your blog should always be one in the same. It only makes sense to people and people like things to make sense. People tend to try .com unless told otherwise, so registering a .com domain name is always the best way to go.
If you don’t find a niche market for the product or service you offer, you will most probably fail. Find your market niche and then make it clear to your visitors what your about, otherwise your visitors will be trying to figure it out for themselves. Take a look at your site from a visitors stand point.
At first glance, is it clear what the website is about?
Realize many others may be competing to sell the same product. Focus on something unique you may have to offer, that stands out from your competitors.
Is your niche something you have a passion for? If you don’t have a passion for what your writing about then it makes it difficult to keep your visitors interested. If your not really interested yourself how do you expect other people to be?
Having a clearly-defined purpose accomplishes several branding goals: it gives your site a focused topic, narrows what keywords you should target for SEO purposes, provides you with things to post about and (hopefully) sets you apart from other blogs in your genre. You can address your blog’s purpose directly on your About page, but don’t forget to refer to it regularly as you post. See also ProBlogger’s post about creating a blog mission statement.
Watch the presentation below for some great tips and guidelines on how to create your brand..
Unique Design
Needless to say, a unique design works wonders in creating a brand. If you are proficient in programming, dedicate your time in preparing a custom theme for your blog. If you do not have the necessary skills, do not hesitate to get your work done by a professional, an original design can do wonders for your branding. Are 5000 other blogs running on the same default theme as yours? Do something to distinguish yourself—customize your colors, pick new fonts, add a custom blog header. You do want your blog to stand out from the crowd.
You can find some really beautiful and unique themes for wordpress by professional designers.
I personally recommend the following Premium Wordpress themes designers:
ThemeForest – Beautiful designs at the right price.
Revolution – Probably the most famous Wordpress theme set
PremiumThemes – High Quality WordPress Themes at Affordable Price
Omni Themes – Themes come in several colors, magazine styled home page and social networking section.
The Keyword is..Consistency!
Google is a perfect example of how to use consistancy. When you think of Google what comes to mind? Yep, their colorful Google logo. They’ve successfully used their brand across all the different tools and sites that they represent.
Try to use the same look and feel throughout your blog. Wherever possible, use the same colors and graphics— you can even add your own logo to your feedburner feed. Read Master Your Feed: Feedburner Tips and Tricks for instructions on how to do that.
Using Twitter to spread the word..you have arrived!
Twitter has the power to build your brand and make you an authority in your niche. Start with redirecting your feed to twitter with the help of TwitterFeed. It will automatically tweet your posts giving exposure to your blog. Make strong network with fellow bloggers, and encourage constructive discussions with them. Do not forget to provide useful links and resources to your followers via regular tweets. It keep them looking for your tweets for new relevant information.
Quarkbase – Check how your site is doing online and across the social network..
Quarkbase is a free tool to find complete information about a website. It looks like most web traffic tracking sites, but includes results from technorati, twitter, del.icio.us, digg and others. A most useful site…
Don’t forget give a little comment love..
