This is a guest post by one of our regular contributors Ryan Biddulph. He is a published author and blogger. In this post-Ryan shares helpful tips on how we can build our brand and go pro as bloggers.
Why do you need to build a brand for your blog? Isn’t branding important for only billion dollar companies? Nope.
Whether you are aware of it or not, every blog needs branding because your brand helps you to stand out in your niche. If you do not build a professional blogging brand you won’t be memorable in the minds of your readers.
Creating a pro blogging brand helps you to make an impact in your niche. Readers will remember you, share your content, buy your products and hire you if you stand out in their minds.
Follow these tips to build a pro blogging brand.
1: Pay Attention to Top Pros
Pro bloggers know how to build professional, world-renowned, eye-popping blogging brands.
Pay attention to top pros if you want to know how to build a pro blogging brand too.
The best bloggers in your niche teach you how to build a respected brand through their blog posts, videos, and podcasts. But successful bloggers also give you clues through their actual blog design.
Carefully review top blogs. What do you see? Gain inspiration from observing top bloggers in action.
Pros often spend months or years getting clear on their blogging brand. Avoid blog branding struggles. Follow the leaders to build a pro blogging brand the right way.
Pat Flynn provides you with a fabulous example of a world class blogging brand at:
2: Buy Your Domain and Hosting
Build a respected blogging brand.
Buy your domain and hosting through a reputable company.
Pro bloggers never use free blogging platforms because going the free route sends off an “amateur hour” type message that turns off readers and successful bloggers.
Invest money in a domain name. Purchase your web hosting.
Owning your domain and hosting influences readers to trust you. Seeing a branded, purchased domain name instantly adds credibility to your blogging brand.
Running a self-hosted, WordPress.org blog gives you a wide range of premium themes to choose from. Or if you want to take your blog branding into overdrive simply hire a web developer to design a custom blog theme for you to really stand out from the crowd.
If you are a bit confused about where to start as far as hosting companies read this helpful SiteGround review from WHSR:
3: Align Your Blog Top Down
Speak one blogging brand message.
Align your blog top down to ensure all elements on your blog convey a singular brand message.
Spending a clear, relevant blogging message adds potency to your brand. Readers know exactly how you can help them so they can spread the word for you if you don’t deviate from your brand message.
Observe your domain name. Slowly work your way down to your blog name, blog tagline and review every element on your blog from posts, to pages, to sidebar elements, all the way through the footer.
Aligning your blog is a smart step to add momentum to your blogging brand. Readers can easily share your blog posts if you align every element on your blog, expanding your presence quickly.
4: Remember Why
Remember why you need to establish a pro blogging brand.
Follow the prior 3 tips diligently by focusing on the importance of branding with your blog. Clear blogging brands stand out from the crowd of bloggers in your niche. Even if you create sizzling content and build meaningful connections it’s tough to reach the next level until you build a professional-looking blogging brand.
I didn’t appear on world-famous sites like Virgin, Forbes, Fox News and Entrepreneur until I focused on building a brand. Top media outlet contributors and respected bloggers have thousands of sites to sift through when looking for the next up and coming blogger. Make your blog stand out by building a professional, eye-catching brand.
Your Turn
Have you paid attention to your blogging brand?
How are you building a professional blogging brand?
What tips can you add to this list?
About the Author
Ryan Biddulph is a blogger, author and world traveler who’s been featured on Richard Branson’s Virgin Blog, Forbes, Fox News, Entrepreneur, Positively Positive, LifeHack, John Chow Dot Com and Neil Patel Dot Com. He has written and self-published 126 bite-sized eBooks on Amazon. Ryan can help you build a successful blog at Blogging From Paradise.
I can say that I’m a blogger since 2014, but even if O have about four blogs today, I never realized how to turn them into an blogging brand.
Hey Ryan,
Awesome post as always! Thanks, man. 🙂
-Ravijit Chavda
This is a great little post with some valuable tips.
great articel very helpful thanks
Interesting read and appreciate the info (as I always do from content creators that put themselves out there) but for sure get the feeling that the younger generations (30’s and below) and anyone who is an ‘internet native’ knows about how to present themselves online nowadays as ‘brands’ and such is so embedded in today’s culture.
Very good advice for anyone who hasn’t spent their lives on the internet like me!
I dunno don’t over estimate us old folks 🙂
Elaborate on branding in a guest feature Eriol?
Hey Ryan and Greg,
Thanks for the article. I think point #3 about aligning your blog is really important. I see a lot of blogs that are kind of all over the place and I think it’s hard to succeed with that approach. Your suggestion is great.
Without paid hosting and custom domain it’s hard to build a great blog, right?
Very hard. Much easier with those two things.
great articel very helpful thanks Greg Narayan
Awesome post Ryan. It really is about readers remembering you. It can be the images you use or just the way you start a post. People remember the littlest things. I think social media as a whole is a major example of how people return for the silliest little features they crave on certain channels. Thanks for adding another totally unique topic! Cheers, Greg