How To Brand Your Blog – Blog Branding 101

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A brand is a very complex notion and, nowadays, it has become a used word, both in the online and offline world. To clearly delimitate the meanings of the word “brand”, a lot of good specialists have written a multitude of thick books while others have dedicated entire blogs to the subject so it’s somehow unappreciative to write only a few phrases about it.

A brand, for the common use, is an entity that, built along time, has become the symbol of something which is regarded by the public as a provider of quality, trust or efficiency.

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More pragmatically, the brand is the one that makes a buyer choose a product made by the company even if it is expensive (and sometimes more expensive than a similar one).

The Internet has benefitted from a tremendous evolution and it was only normal for the idea of the brand to be presented here; the idea of developing a brand for a blog is almost a novelty, however, could it be a worthy idea?

As a personal opinion, I am sure that it was implemented, as there are some blogs which are treated as being real authorities and these posts are enjoyed by a huge number of readers.

An elitist blog is a good source of uncountable days of no break for the admin, but it could be regarded as a financial opportunity. So, how to make a brand for a blog?

First of all, we should assume that this is a never ending process so patience is the main fuel in this perpetual trying, but there are more to add to the perfect recipe:

10 Tips to Make your Blog “A Brand”

1. Use a Unique Design throughout the blog

The next step to building a strong brand image for your blog is to use a unique design throughout the blog. Though I am not a web design expert, I can tell from experience that websites with multiple designs are quite confusing.  Your design should be simple & elegant enough to make users click on your desired location.

The essence of using a unique blog design throughout the blog is to enable your visitors to have a seeming experience while on your blog. Visitors should know when they are still on your blog and when they have left your blog. You can always use premium themes, but nothing beats a custom designed Website.

If you are using WordPress, you can grab the Astra theme. They have many professional templates.

If you want to take it to the next level, you should have a mood board and design guide for your blog brand. For this, you can use 99designs. This is one-time cost and in the longer run, it pays well.

2. Use a Unique logo

Just as I stated above with respect to unique design, your blog should also have a unique logo. I don’t know how to emphasize the importance of a logo in building a strong brand image but I think you should take a cue from Adidas, Nike and McDonald’s and you will understand better the need for a logo.

Your logo should be a true representation of your blog values because it is going to be your blog’s symbol of authority and respect in the blogosphere.

3. Write a strong About Us Page

When I started out as a blogger, I never knew that my visitors will take their time to visit my “About us” page but thank God I didn’t take it for granted. Now I know better that visitors are interested in knowing who’s behind a website or blog.

Therefore, About page on your blog is very important in the process of building a strong brand image for your blog. Using my entrepreneurial experience, I wrote a very strong about us page for my blog. Now what are the components of a strong about us page?

I can’t provide a definite answer to this question but if you take your blog as serious business, then your about us page should include your blog’s mission statement, vision statement, and its objectives. You can take a look at the about us page of ShoutMeLoud to get a better understanding of how yours should look like.

Read: Importance of about me page for any blog.

4. Find and Stick to Your Own Writing Style

When it comes to blog branding, your writing style plays a significant role because your content is the voice of your blog; the utmost reason why visitors spend their time on your blog. To build a strongly branded blog, you have to find your own writing style.

  • Are you going to write long posts or short posts?
  • Are you going to write controversial contents or stick with the norm?
  • Are your contents going to be brash, brunt and straight to the bone?

Answering these questions above will help you find your writing style. Remember, your aim here is to reflect your principles and ideas creativity in written form.

Read: 6 Brilliant Tips To Make You Blog like a Pro-Blogger

5. Choose a Suitable Posting Style and Stick to it

After finding and choosing your writing style, the next thing to look at is your posting style.

  • How often are you going to post?
  • Are you going to post daily, bi-weekly or weekly?

You must figure this out and stick to it. It’s worthwhile you note that sticking to a posting style is where the challenging comes. Your readers should know when to expect your next post. After all; Branding is all about consistency and predictability.

To be a real authority, a blog should establish a clear field and a patent of posting; a mixture of subjects and forms of posting isn’t a sign of professionalism so it’s hard to become a brand in such a context.

On the other hand, don’t go to the opposite extremity, it’s normal to ensure a good variety of subjects, but it’s better to have small connections, for example, a blog about web design could contain posts about development, freelancing or even blogging, but it’s unjustified to write about math or physics.

The schedule of posting has a pretty important influence on the overall construction of a brand; it is a must, for the progress of a blog, to have regular readers who know the frequency of the posts. I know this is hard but most of the well known bloggers consider that daily posting is the best ratio, not too much to annoy the readers, not too little to make the audience forget about the respective blog.

  • When and how often a Blogger should update their Blog?

6. The posts should be of high quality and interesting

At the first point, I emphasized that the readers should be kept up-to-date with your frequency of posting so as to be back on the blog and enjoy the latest articles, but they should have a reason to do that. Definitely, the main ingredient of this coming back is the quality of the posts; we are all lacking the time, so why would someone want to waste his time for postings of inferior quality?

A good solution to attract more and more readers is to have impressive giveaways and very interesting subjects; in this way, an undecided surfer could land on your page only to compete for a gadget or a book, but he can notice that the blog is very good and from now on, he may come back regularly to check the latest articles.

7. Become an authority in your Niche

Speaking at InOrbit 2019 in Slovenia.
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Speaking at InOrbit 2019 in Slovenia.

I hope that it was obvious, from the start of this list, that all my tips are only the chapters from a coherent policy of self-promoting and the final result is gaining the respect as a brand so everything is interconnected. Probably, the middle way between an ignorable blog and a brand, is the status of authority. The majority of the specialists consider that an authority is recognized and respected only by the people who activate in the domain while a brand is universally recognized. The natural way to grow and develop is to firstly turn into an authority; all the people in the respective niche should see you as a dominant opinion.

8. Communicate with people

A good communication with the readers is the perfect method to maintain a well known blog. I know that we are living in the world of speed, social media, but still the world of mouth has its influence so don’t ignore it. We never should ignore that the common people are the ones who truly built a brand; if the people aren’t sure that you are the best solution, then there is still much to work out.

9. Be distinctive and original

Distinguish and Unique Brand
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A branded blog needs to be distinctive – it is much more than a simple requirement, it is an imperative of survival. Think of this: we can find tons of T-shirts at the mall and many of them look pretty similar, but there is almost no buyer who doesn’t recognize the swoosh of Nike and buys such T-shirts. A lot of people prefer buying high quality products and the little logo of Nike is the guarantee of it; in this case the swoosh makes the big difference and the huge company is truly a brand.

In our example Nike was original and distinctive due to the logo – people noticed that they make good clothes and recognized them with the help of logo. The same process should be done with the blog; people should be aware that when they see your logo or hear your address, it should be something interesting, deserving a click.

Along with this, try to get a custom theme or design for your blog, because that will give your blog a unique identity.

10. (Optional) Hire a specialist/ team of specialists in branding

It really depends on the budget and the personal aspirations; a blog which is respectable has huge numbers of readers and many posts which are difficult to be handled by a single person. When we are in this situation, the best solution is to hire someone who really knows how to promote the blog, usually, a single major error is enough to have a drop down in traffic and surely it is a step back in the course of becoming a brand.

In a nutshell, to make a brand of your blog isn’t an easy task; you should be patient, hardworking and optimistic. Don’t forget, be positive!

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Authored By
A Blogger, Author and a speaker! Harsh Agrawal is recognized as a leader in digital marketing and FinTech space. Fountainhead of ShoutMeLoud, and a Speaker at ASW, Hero Mindmine, Inorbit, IBM, India blockchain summit. Also, an award-winning blogger.

8 thoughts on “How To Brand Your Blog – Blog Branding 101”

  1. Nihar

    Great post. Thanks for the points that you have shared which help building a brand for the blog.

  2. mihai

    a very interesting point of view and I totally agree with what you wrote here. being original is recommended but as you said, it is a difficult job and require time…and time is money!

  3. khalid

    Good Post, noted couple of point here. Content is king, everybody have to agree with this. Building a Brand is not so difficult, you just have to clear vision and consistency.

  4. Tinh

    Nice post man and we all want a brand for our blog too. My ideas is very simple as brand can not be easily be obtained and we need to build it up from zero 🙂

  5. Wasim Ismail

    Best way of building your brand is by offering good quality articles, articles that your readers want to read, if you keep putting out quality pillar articles, readers will come to your site, and you will start to build your brand.
    Thanks for the post.

  6. tushar

    i have seen that being original, even if it is different from others gets you recognized…so i will advice everybody to write what they think

  7. brb

    making a brand is definitely a very difficult task and many times the failure is near you. These tips are the basis, but surely there are other tips very important. Anyway, amazing reading and well done.Thx Daniel

  8. Devesh @ Technshare

    Great Post. You’ve made some awesome points.

    Providing high quality content is best way to build brand for a blog. One of the great example of this is Glen Allsop of ViperChill.

    Anyways, Thanks for sharing this great Post Daniel.

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