Blogging becomes very famous and popular on the web, number of blog used to be increased everyday and there is thousands or million blogs on the blogopshere. If you have a blog and how can you stand out from the crowd? The answer is blog branding. In simple word, build a brand for your blog and stand out from the blogs which have similar niche.
Building a brand for your blog is not easy, it’s not a day, a week or even a month task, it could take you even a year to build your brand, to let people know your existence. I’ve been blogging for 2 years and I figure out that that there are actually some ways that we can build our brand, as how I brand my blog.
We know that producing quality content is one of the ways to build your brand, but do you know how many people out there does produce unique and quality content as what you do? The competition is extremely high, so you need to do something special and make your blog outstanding and stand out from the crowd.
5 Ways To Build Your Brand Effectively
1) Logo
Logo plays an important role in building your blog brand. You will need a logo that is unique and only used on your blog. Well known blogger like Problogger.net, Shoemoney.com, DailyBlogTips.com, and the like, when you see their logos and you’ll know who are them.
Also, when someone is writing about your blog and they like to include an image of your site, most probably they will use your logo, so your logo represents your blog. If you’re not good in designing your own logo, you can outsource it. Nowadays the price for logo design is cheap, you can get one at the range from $20 to $100 or even higher, of course the higher you spend the higher the quality you would get.
2) Theme
Blog theme is also very important for blog branding. Blog theme is the structure of a blog, when your visitors land your blog, first they will see your blog theme and roughly they can know what blog they’re reading.
You’ll always want your blog to have a relevant theme with your niche, if you’re writing about “make money online”, it looks weird if you use pasta on the background, it doesn’t make sense at all, right?
You may want to play around with the design as well, you have to know who is your audience and take this under your consideration. If you’re writing about daily news, make money online, business, banking and the like, try to design a blog theme which is more professional; if you’re writing about food, travel, toy, games and the like, then you may want to design a colourful blog theme.
3) Comment
Leaving comment can be affecting your brand as well, it can be improving killing your brand, it depends on how you manage it. If you’re the blog owner, you like to see your readers leave a comment and say “Great article and nice tips, thanks for writing it!”, or you like to see they give their own opinions and point of views? I’m sure you appreciate commentators who leave valuable comments on your blog.
Leaving spammy comment can kill your blog, so you might want to learn something blog commenting techniques, I’ve written about “10 Tips To Leave Comment and Drive Traffic” earlier, you can apply some of the tips to leave comment and build your brand too.
4) Avatar
Avatar is a small square image within the comment you left on others’ blog, most of the wordpress blogs have this feature. Avatar is an important item which people used to recognize who is the commentator. So you need to create your own avatar and get it displayed on every comment you left, 1st is to let people know that who are you, 2nd is to show people that you’re not spammer because most of the spammers don’t use avatar.
You’ll need an unique and outstanding avatar for your own use, you can either create an image that represent your blog (says blog name etc.) or use your photo (preferrable). It’s easy to create your avatar, head over to Gravatar.com, register by using the email that you leave comment and upload an image to Gravatar. Whenever you leave a comment by using the email that you registered with Gravatar, then your avatar will be displayed.
5) Content
Branding with content is that when you leave comment and the owner visits your blog in return, then they will read on your content, theme, logo and everything else. Grammatical error free is the basic requirement. Branding with content is not easy, you need to have good writing skill and technique to grab readers’ attentions.
You need to be knowledgeably in your niche so that you can handle readers’ comments. Show confident to your readers. Also, update your blog consistently with relevant content.
Conclusion
That’s not only the 5 ways above that help to build your brand, there are actually many ways that you can build your brand, these ways are what I’m doing to build my brand and find it really useful. You have to repeat them non-stop for few months or years to build your brand because people won’t be able to recognize you in short period, you have to show up in their blogs more often and let them know that you’re exist.
Besides of these ways, what method that you used to build your brand?
Terrence
mk akan
Tom@Free Squeeze Pages
Mathew Day
Kok Siong @ Cancer Research
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Agree all the 5 ways you mentioned in this post. I think it’s essential. Maybe we can’t complete all what it needs to brand our blog in one day..
However, we need to, at least.. continuously improve in the branding process.
Siau Hen´s last blog ..What Does Ooi Zhao Qian Teaches Me?
@Siau Hen,
Absolutely! We have to keep improving ourselves to make our brand better and well known one day, once you stop it and you’ll be kicked out of the blogopshere.
For me, branding is all about letting customers know who you are, what you do and how you do it…immediately they load your site. Your header, your logo, your picture, your words…all the things you say, Lee.
Andrew
Andrew @ blogging guide´s last blog ..Free Premium Theme
@Andrew,
Well said Andrew, that’s the purpose of branding, we want to let everyone knows about us. The more people knows about you, the more business you will get, that’s the principle. I can see that you’re doing these very well, keep on going.
Yeap, brand our blog that mean’s brand yourself too in this niche market as a professional and gurus. so you can get more chance and business market.
Kevin Chong´s last blog ..Blog Writing
Agree with you that’s why i create my simple logo. Yeah — my lack before is that i do not have any logo for my blog, and now. At least, i can focus to improve the content now.
Dana @ LetUpdate´s last blog ..Having Killer Content for Blog Easily
@Dana,
Honestly, your logo is really simple but better than nothing. Between, you can outsource it and get a nice looking logo with a cost as low as $50. That’s one of the most important elements that build your brand too. But of course, content takes the bigger portion.
I do see some spammers use Avatar.
Jayce´s last blog ..How to hack Facebook account profile
@Jayce,
Spammer who uses Avatar is clever, but usually they don’t leave genuine comment, they will be known as spam as well.
Besides of the above mention, I think still left one is niche topic for reader and visitor who are interested in this topic. Another one is the RSS are very important to a blog.
Kevin Chong´s last blog ..Web Development Company
When it comes to niche, I fail in this are because until now my blog is a mixed bag of random post that don’t circulate around a central topic. Meaning, I still don’t have a niche. I guess, it’s a purely personal blog that is niche-less.
I think I have essentially met the above 5 requirements although I’m not very sure I met 100% the 5th point about the content being grammatical error free.
James M.´s last blog ..AmplusnetPrivacyTools.exe Eating Up CPU Resources
Oh I see. Now you can definitive a few small niche topic to write to drive more targeted traffic to your blog who are interested what you are write and suggestion. Lee mention the 5 requirement things we must follow, it is effective to brand your blog.
Kevin Chong´s last blog ..Blog Writing
Well I need that logo, I know it for quite some time, but somehow I can’t make myself deal with it.
I’ve just recently set things up with gravatar, I hope it will help people get to know me, because one day they will see my picture and say: “hey that is that guy from Croatia with that dumb Blogspot blog about ebooks, remember?”
Davor Gasparevic @ Internet marketing ebooks´s last blog ..Major redesign!
@Davor,
Haha, your gravatar saves your comment because your comment is in my spam folder for no reason. Normally I checked comments in spam box, first I’ll look at the gravatar then comment, if I didn’t see gravatar and I’ll just roughly scroll through and assume all were spam comment. lol! So you see gravatar helps a lot no matter in branding building or commenting.
Agree with everything in the post. I also might combine commenting into a category of networking, which would include commenting on other blogs, replying to comments on your own blog, linking to other bloggers, and off-blog contact with readers, bloggers, etc.
Will@laser hair removal´s last blog ..6 Laser Hair Removal Myths Busted
@Will,
You’re right. I find interacting with blogger is the best way to build brand, in my point of view, health relationship plays the game. When you build the community, that would really help in your online business.
I am thinking of getting a logo for my blog. Not yet decided if I want to pay for it or do it myself.
I do the rest of the things mentioned in the list (though my theme is not unique).
Lee, in BTW, what happened to you logo deigning, if I remember you were going to have a new logo. When is it coming? Do you need help with it, I can help. May be even design one for you (may be free too). I can do simple Logo Designs.
Agent Deepak´s last blog ..Blog with a Sex Appeal
@Agent Deepak,
If you can design your own logo, that would be good; if not, just outsource it. With the cost of $50-$100, you can get a good looking logo.
I’ve requested the site to ask another designer to design my logo, the previous designer revised the logo for up to 5 times and no one satisfied me. So I’m waiting for the new revision, should be this 2 days. Regarding the free logo design for my blog, perhaps in future when I need a new logo?
Building a brand is very tedious work indeed, just remember everything you put out there is there for everyone to see!
Keith@Business3.0´s last blog ..Blogger Interview – Todd Fratzel
Why wouldn’t pasta work with making money online? What if the blog is about the Italian restaurant industry?
Great tips.
Ari Herzog@Online Media Strategies´s last blog ..Why Do You Subscribe to Blog Comments?
@Ari Herzog,
lol! Between, blog about food can be making money online too, many food bloggers in my country earn quite well with a single blog because they have huge traffic on their blogs. Of course, food blog need to be updated regularly to drive more traffic.
i designed my blog’s logo myself, and maybe its about time to get someone to do it for me. btw, when is your new logo comes out?
gagaukon@ BlogNewbie´s last blog ..Floating Nuffnang Skyscrapper Ads Unit
@gagaukon,
Yea if you want a better logo, outsource it and you may satisfy the outcome. I’ve requested for new revision for my logo and a little changes need to be done on that, so I expect the logo will be done within this 2 days, hope nothing need to be changed on the next revision.
Besides the above points, I think that building network between bloggers is important also. Thanks for sharing great ideas.
My blog is my life and soul and I love it. Although I use Thesis theme and many others do, I try to be unique in my own way. My logo could be a bit different, but that is on the cards for me this year, I need to step it up a gear and make a difference to many more bloggers/users out there.
George Serradinho´s last blog ..Simplified Post Interlinking using Insights WordPress Plugin
@Serradinho,
You’re good in Thesis customization, definitely you can design your unique theme and stand out from the crowd. For the logo part, perhaps you need to design one for your blog too? I believe that helps a lot in branding, also it’s easier people to use your logo when they want to link to you and show an image.
Yeah.. I agree with the points mentioned above. Logo, theme and other significant elements are the things that you should keep in mind in order to expose your blog/site to the world. I practice this and somehow it works =)
BloggerDaily´s last blog ..Becoming A Subscriber: 3 Things That You Have to Keep in Mind
I thought I have it all completed, but then reading this blog I have totally missed to have my own logo. I need to make one very quick.
@Walter,
Yea, logo represents your blog, so definitely you need one for you blog.
Comments are only based on the article. If the article is interesting then the commentator would give oua valuable comment. If your content is just full of crap then how could you expect soem valubale comments.
Paul@Diabetis´s last blog ..Return of Stem Cell Regeneration gives hope to Diabetics
From those 5 things, I rate Content as a most important thing on which you should work on as it’s the main key element which will differ you from others. Then comes the theme, then comment, then logo, and at last avatar.
Typhoon´s last blog ..Make Money Online By Building and Flipping Mini Niche Sites
@Typhoon,
You’re right, content plays an important role too, it will differ from others because everyone has different writing style, some people might like your content while some of them don’t, it depends.
I agree with your that the blog theme and the content do help in creating a good image of your brand in the minds of people but I think you missed a small point here.
The FAVICON of the website. Most beginner bloggers have the default Blank favicon which creates a bad impression.
Rohit Sane@SEO Tips´s last blog ..My 3 Biggest SEO mistakes of 2009
@Rohit Sane,
It doesn’t really give a big impact but it’s a plus if you have the favicon. Most of the beginner bloggers don’t know how to add favicon for their blogs, I didn’t know about that when I first started blogging too.
They were illustrated in such a way that I Have to accept with the 5 points.. One can also brand while commenting like using the person’s name @ the blog’s name (e.g. Rajesh Kanuri) IMO this helps in branding for the new born up and upcoming sites. . what do u say..??
Rajesh Kanuri @ TechCats´s last blog ..Best Search Engine Optimized Free Thesis Alternative Themes
@Rajesh Kanuri,
Leaving comment with the name@blog’s name is dedicated for blog that installs keywordluv. For me, I’ll only leave my name instead of the keywordluv commenting style. I may want people to see my name and they already know my blog name without seeing it (Example name@blog’s name). If you can achieve that level, you build your brand successfully. Don’t worry for new born blog, when you leave valuable comment, people would be interested to click on the link to see who’s the commentator.
Pretty slick tips. And another to add is make sure all those things don’t backfire. Like if you leave bad comments that could lead to readers hating your blog forever. Or if its a bad content, it could be easily bring bad reps to you and your blog.
AffiliateHat´s last blog ..Incentivizing In Affiliate Marketing
@AffiliateHat,
Commenting plays an important role as what I mentioned in this post, leaving valuable comment does really help but leaving bad comment could ruin your reputation.
Another branding strategy by writing linkbaiting article, it can also building lots of natural link to our blog. SEOmoz, searchenginewatch are some sites which are brand due to their very informative article.
chandan@work at home´s last blog .."PHP Dir Submit" Directory submission service
@chandan,
That sounds great! But how can we build brand if we build natural link to our blog? I think it’s more to search engine instead of brand building?
Anyway, SEOmoz is very well known blog which managed by many SEO expert, they have a big company as well, this is why they have a big brand.
Great looking list. Building a brand identity is pretty important, especially when we’re trying to stand out from the other hundreds of millions of blogs out there.
Since I redesigned my site several weeks back, I know I need a new logo. I had a designer work on it but the creatives were so bad! I can’t wait until I have that settled.
@Gabe,
Yea, competition is increasing day by day in the blogosphere, so we need to do something to stand out from the crowd.
Too bad to hear about your logo, so will the designer gives you another revision? I have my designer to work on the logo as well, still waiting for the last revision, I hope it would look great!
Excellent job covering the basics. There’s nothing wrong with simplicity as long as it’s memorable.
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..7 DAYS ONLY – ProBloggers-31 Days To Build A Better Blog- + 3 Awesome Bonuses!
@Dennis,
Absolutely! Some people doesn’t even know the basic, so I think this post might help some of them out there.
Don’t forget about guest posting
Tony´s last blog ..How to Track the Number of Clicks on Your Bit.ly Links on Twitter
Yeap, guest posting are become important to me now to brand my website and brand effective through blog and forum. it is the one more blogger are negotiable.
Kevin Chong´s last blog ..Blog Writing
@Tony,
Yea, I missed out this point. Guest posting can really help in building brand if you do it the right way, it has the same concept as blog commenting.
I think the style of the blogger response to the readers’ comment is important in building the blog brand too. I totally agree with you that these 5 ways are essential for us. Thanks for sharing Lee!
Kok Siong Chen´s last blog ..Prader-Willi Syndrome – Genetic Disorder That Cause Obesity
@Kok Siong,
Yea, just try not to be arrogant while replying readers’ comment, I believe this would help too. Thanks for the point Kok Siong.
Thanks for your info, I will do that in my blog.
My niche it about affiliate but in Indonesian languages.
Rgrds
Chokey
Interesting view on the comment to build brand.
JP´s last blog ..10 Ways to Instantly Speed Up Your Website
Four of them are implemented except the first thing, logo. I am bad at design then I will try to learn PS very soon. Thanks
All Tips for Bloggers´s last blog ..All Tips for Bloggers Finally Gets 7 Google Sitelinks
@All Tips for Bloggers,
You have good looking theme, you just need a good logo to make your blog perfect. If you’re not good in design, outsource your logo, it costs you about $20-$100 for a professional logo, just as what I did.
Thanks for the useful information! I mostly follow the things you have mentioned in this post but will implement the rest for sure in my blog!
Getting a unique logo is something I hope to tackle someday when the real dollars start flowing in
. Right now I am not so keen on spending money on that thus I just created a simple one myself using Macromedia Fireworks.
if you’re writing about “make money online”, it looks weird if you use pasta on the background ROFLMAO. I’ve seen a few blogs like that and I’ve made that same mistake too. Right now I know I’ve found a permanent theme for my blog and I don’t plan on changing it ever again unless …….
.
One thing I’ve learned is that regular visitors don’t take kindly to changes and changing the organization of stuff on your blog frequently can throw them off and send them away for good
.
Less I forget without the Avatar thing, I guess most folks would think I’m a spammer as I can leave up to 5 comments on a blog in 3 minutes or less. LMAO.
It so happens that I read blog posts offline in my rss reader, then I construct my comments on Notepad so that when next I go online, I simply copy and paste my comments and in no time, I’m done commenting. Saves me loads of bandwidth
Another way of branding is to let your true personality shine through from time to time. As human beings we’ve all got our flaws and those who truly know us, love and appreciate us despite those flaws. I’m not to keen on bloggers that come off as being “TOO SWEET”.
They could be deadly when least expected to. lol