Archive for January, 2009

So before I start talking about this topic, let me tell you that this post was supposed to have a picture but since I dont have the processing power to use Photoshop, I’ll have to refrain from adding the picture since I havent been able to create it. Either way, please bear with me as I try to explain what I’m talking about.

So, as many as of you know, branding is an important part of blogging. You brand your blog to help it do the following things:
1) Makes your blog easier to recognize and set apart from the rest
2) Help your readers connect to not only you but also your blog
3) Helps you get noticed better with current readers and new readers

So now that you know what branding does, you should know that if you ever write an eBook or post comments on other blogs, you can always use your branded image as part of the eBook cover or as your MyAvatar or Gravatar so readers will instantly know who is commenting or who has written the eBook. Its really helpful so here today I want to talk about if its a good idea to use yourself as your brand. Yes, using your own face as a brand is a good idea and here are a few reasons why I think so:

1) Unique - The one thing most people consider when creating a brand for not only their blog but for anything that needs to be marketed, is that their brand is unique. Now, think about it, how unique is your face? Everyone looks different (unless you have an identical twin or you look slightly similar to a celebrity). Aside from those similarities, you are a unique individual and so if you use yourself as a brand, then it will automatically be unique.

2) Easy To Recognize – When you use yourself as a brand, because of the fact that its unique, it helps you accomplish the idea of setting your blog apart from the rest of the blogs. It makes you easier to recognize because when people see you, they instantly associate it to your blog. Thats called good branding. Consider this, you see the golden arches and you instantly think McDonalds. You see a Red circle with white writing and you think Coca Cola. Its all about being easy to recognize and using yourself as a brand helps you accomplish that very easily if its done right.

3) Everyone Else Is Doing It – So, I think Ive always used my face as a brand since I started the blog but consider the other people that you can instantly associate to their blogs. Balkhis, The Net Fool, Im With Joe (like seriously, its hard to not know who he is), John Chow, Tyler Cruz, ShoeMoney and ProBlogger. All these bloggers and many others are very easy to recognize and thats because they’ve branded their blog really well by using themselves as a brand.

The idea is that if you see some of the bloggers I’ve mentioned, walking around somewhere, you’ll instantly be able to recognize them and that’s when you know that they’ve branded themselves really well. The concept is that using yourself as a brand can be very good if you do it right. I might have to provide some tips later on how you should use yourself as a brand but I hope you understand why branding yourself is not only a good idea but can be really beneficial if its done right. I keep saying if its done right because that also makes a difference but that will be discussed in a separate post. So, I hope you guys liked this post and I’ll catch you tomorrow with the results from my contest. Have a great rest of the weekend!