Just How Important Is Brand to the Personal Blogger

While I may not be selling products or services (we’re excluding my little forays into creating graphics for EntreCard credits as that is never going to generate enough real cash to count as more than pin money), I am trying to sell myself to my readers, so branding is every bit as important to me as it is to Shoemoney or John Chow.

Having a recognizable brand is as much a support to the personal blogger as an LCD mount is to a Plasma television and comes with as many methods. It often begins with a domain name and then extends to graphics, web site titles and keywords used throughout your posts.

I want my blog read by many different people across the internet and the most tried and true way to achieve that is to make my name a “household” word. Let’s look at just how I’m achieving that.

Domain Names

So, let’s start with that domain name.

How you choose your domain name should be more than an accident of fate. You can find potential domain names by using Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool. You’ll see a range of alternative keywords and they’ll be accompanied by search volumes for those terms. By using that list, you should be able to find a domain name that will actually MEAN something to someone (unlike mine). In truth, nearly 14% of all domain names are chosen just like that – they are a keyword. It’s simple and effective, so why not use something that works?

I have eyespi20.com registered to me, but have not registered the .net, .us, or .info (just to name a few of the dot extensions I that might make sense for me to register). Is it really worthwhile for me to register those? Well, maybe some of them. Then again, I’m not selling anything but myself, so it depends…..on how much my budget can stand, and on whether I think my “competitor” might buy one and use it to steal traffic from me. While you may roll your eyes at that last, it happens and when it does, can be potentially devastating!

Since I didn’t employ any such tool as a keyword to choose my domain name, I’m having to work harder at creating and populating my brand across the internet. So, how am I making that non-keyword become my brand?

Graphics

Creating graphics that exemplify your brand is a powerful way of getting it into the minds of your target audience. Visuals are often easier to remember than written words. After all, pictures transcend language. While my website name may be ojo espia, ????? ??????, or ???, the picture is all it takes to translate that into any language.

They should be relatively simple and be something that will be the pictorial representation of your brand wording. It doesn’t have to BE a picture of your word – I mean, just what would the picture of a GOOGLE look like?

Choosing a single eye over a pair of eyes was pivotal for my brand as it’s just unexpected enough to jolt the viewer without totally grossing them out. I’ve switched graphics out a couple of times, moving from the original eye with the hand coming out of it (which was kind of creepy for some) to the “mystical” eye to this one which seems to me to be expressive, feminine and assertive and which sets the tone for my blog.

In truth, there have been many iterations of the eye that never made it to the web and there may be many more before there is no more Eyespi20.com!

If you don’t know how to create a graphic, finding someone who can might just be the golden key to the gates of heaven for your brand. After domain name and hosting, graphics would be my most recommended item to spend your cash on.

Search Engine Optimization

Ahhhhhh you KNEW I would get around to SEO sooner or later, now didn’t you?

Search engine optimization or SEO is the method by which you get this brand that you’ve worked so diligently on in front of your customers. There are many, MANY articles on the web about the best way to achieve SEO, but it boils down to hard work.

Joining social networks and PARTICIPATING in them is one excellent way, getting picked up by a news service is another.

Less likely for the personal blogger is purchasing a list of email addresses from one of the many services that abound across the net and sending out newsletters or news releases to those targetted names. This would be more likely to work if you were blogging about a specific subject; it’s not the best method for someone like me who blogs about whatever crosses my mind on a given day

Did you choose your brand carefully or like I did – haphazardly? How are you promoting it? What items do you consider essential to the concept of branding?