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How to Brand Your Blog – A Complete Guide

by Tamal Anwar on Thursday, August 25, 2011

Blogging is not about setting up a blog, write some articles, promote and make some money, its all about the brand and the main profit will come in the long run.

Before you read more from this article, please answer this question:
Do you just want to check out blogging and want to do it as a hobby? or
Do you want to make a profitable business for the long run?
If you choose the second option, that means you want to build a better blog and to have benefits for the long run, this article is for you. One of the strong things about any industry is the brand. You can make a great and better blog just by branding it.

Branding a blog is the thing that makes people never forget about it. People will always come to read more from it and they link out and write about it. Read this guide on how you can brand your blog,

What is a blog brand?

Brand is not a logo, not a title, not a domain or not a design. Its a strategy. It’s a way, a style, a culture. Actually brands create trust and makes people remember them. Take a look at this video,
Video: What is branding
Some popular blog brands are ProBlogger, CopyBlogger, JohnChow, DoshDosh. These bloggers have succeeded to make a brand and people are motivated with the brands.

Why branding your blog?

Simply look around at the offline industry. Do you want to buy from ‘A soft drink company’ or from, ‘CocaCola?’ Do you trust ‘Good shoes for you’ or ‘Nike?’ Do you search with ‘Search.com’ or with ‘Google?’ The answer is simple, brand is an asset of your business and it also applies on your blog. Branding your blog can take your blog to a higher level.

Brands are catchy

What is more memorable? ‘BlogKori‘ or ‘A blog about blogging?’ Most of the people will remember your blog because of the brand. To make something memorable, you have to catch your reader’s attention. Your brand could be the thing which took the attention and which will make them come back again and again.
Here are some steps you can take to brand your blog easily,

Choose a catchy name

Chose a name for your blog, a word or a set of words like, ‘Wall Street Journal.’ Make your brand unique and that means about the domain too. Keep the domain and the blog name same. Like BlogKori, blogkori.com. Set a name which is easy to remember and easy to spell. Make it as short as you can.

Choose the design and logo

Set a good blog design and create a matching logo of your blog. You can create your own logo with an image editor or you can also hire a designer. If you are using a free blog template, customize it with your personal touch.

Create a niche for your blog

Set a theme of your blog and write on the main topic of your blog. Write on the basic theme/ topic of your blog and don’t try to put everything on it. Writing on one topic makes a blog, a niche and will help you to brand your blog easily.

Socialize your blog

If you use some social websites like twitter, facebook, myspace, you can create your blog’s page/ group on those sites. Facebook allows you to create a page (get 1000 likes) and a group about anything, twitter helps you to create a micro blog (Get 1000 followers). Link to your blog from the social pages and it will help you to brand your blog.

Make your blog unique

There may be thousands of blogs on the same topic you write and may be lots of brands, so what makes you unique? Give a reason to your readers to stay on your blog. Provide lots of cool and informative articles to read. Create a series of articles about your topic and give lots of surprises.

Viral promotion

There are lots of things could be given away for free insted of nice articles. People likes free stuff. Create a nice podcast on a topic or create a great video stream and post it on YouTube. Create software and give it away for free. You can also create great quality ebooks and give away to your readers. Make sure you put your blog’s name on those things and see how the promotion goes viral. I have created ebooks from my blog posts and given away for free.

Be personal and share your goals

One thing can boost your brand and that is your personality. Make your own ‘About’ page and describe about the person behind this blog. Who you are, where you from and what is the blog about? Why this blog belongs and what your readers will find reading this blog? Give your readers a way to connect with you like a contact form or an email address and reveal yourself. When I started I branded myself as the brand apart from BlogKori. Now my name “Tamal Anwar” and my blog are equally popular on the internet.

Stay active on what you do

Be active with recent things going on the internet and world. I’m not telling you to blog about everything you heard. Just keep your knowledge on recent happenings; communicate and discuss with people on social Media. Update your blog regularly(at least 2 times a week) and your interested readers will come back again.

Network and spread your content

Connect and communicate with your readers ask for their help to promote your site. If they have blog in the same topic you blog, be a guest writer and write some articles for that blog. This is a great way to spread your content. You can also ask your friends to link your site and could also ask them to blog about your latest article.

Be patient, it takes time

Brand means authority and it takes time to build a brand. It takes time to build up a blog brand and everyday you have to put little pieces together to make it better. Don’t take my suggestion as the fast forward way to the success and have your patience. Build your blog with lots of great articles, readers, followers and you can make a living with a blog.

How are you branding your blog?

I want to learn more about branding and the ways to make a blog more informative. Please leave your informative suggestions about branding as a comment on this post. Please tell me about your blog and how you are branding it?