The Art of Blog Branding

You might hate the idea of “branding” yourself or your blog. It feels cold, inhuman, scammy, like you have nothing more to offer the world than manipulation and a sales pitch.

I felt that way for the longest time until I realized that the popular view of branding is very different from what branding actually is. You don’t have to be a mindless product sitting on the shelf, shouting gimmicky words and sporting a colorful exterior just to persuade people to buy yet another thing they don’t need. That’s not what branding is. In fact, I’d say that’s the very definition of bad branding.

So when I say you need to brand your blog, don’t imagine that you need to get a shiny corporate logo and lie through your teeth. All branding does is let your target audience know who you are, what you’re about and what you offer. And guess what? You’re already doing that, whether you want to or not, so you might as well put some strategy behind it, right?

Be 578% More Successful As A Blogger Just By Knowing Yourself

No joke. The most successful people aren’t inauthentic scam artists who pitch a false image of themselves to unsuspecting marks. The most successful people are completely in tune with and honest about who they are, who they want to work with and how they can help people.

You need to know the same to be a successful blogger. If you don’t have a solid grasp on who you are, you can’t communicate that to your audience. You’ll seem unsure and unreliable. This is why a lot of bloggers don’t see major success until they’ve started their second or third blog. It takes time and a few false starts to figure out exactly where you want to go with it.

Ask yourself these questions:

• What do I hope to accomplish with my blog?
• How will my readers benefit from having visited my blog?
• Who am I targeting exactly? What do they look like? What words do they use to describe their needs?
• How can I meet those needs?
• What do I have in common with my target audience?

In a lot of cases, you will be your target audience. For example, with Blog Design Guy I’m writing to teach you things that I have done and want to do, things that I know and still want to know. Since that is the case, you can see why knowing myself is important. If I know who I am, I know enough about you to write content that reaches, teaches and speaks to all the right people!

Slay Your Audience With An Irresistible Why

More important than who you are is why you are. Why are you doing what you’re doing? Why are you blogging? Why do you write what you write? What is that passion that drives you, that makes you head to the keyboard every morning?

Your “why” is so important because people aren’t looking for features. They don’t want to know that you want to write how-to posts or social commentaries. They couldn’t care less if you can send them daily tips on a particular topic. They especially don’t care if you want to sell them an ebook or some other product or service.

Your readers aren’t looking for the features of your blog, they are looking for something to believe in, something to fight for, some underlying movement that makes the world a better place for them and for everyone else.

As Hugh Macleod says: the market for something to believe in is infinite.

So what does an Irresistible Why look like? Let’s use Blog Design Guy as an example.

The uninteresting business-as-usual truth:

I write posts about how to design and enhance blogs. I offer blog design services to people who need them.

Well, that was boring as all hell. Now let’s try Blog Design Guy’s Irresistible Why:

Blog Design Guy is a full-on operation to eradicate eye-raping ugliness from the blogosphere while teaching bloggers how to leverage their blog design to reach their target audience, improve conversion rates and provide a better experience for their readers. I want to see more people earn a living and gain the freedom that only an online business can offer.

Ah, music to my ears! I get excited just reading that. It cuts to the heart of it, which is this:

• I want the blogosphere to be more beautiful and easier to use for readers.
• I want bloggers to reach more people, make more money and gain more freedom by making their blogs beautiful and easy to use.

As a blog reader yourself, I’m sure you’d appreciate thoughtful and beautiful designs. As a blogger or an aspiring blogger, I’m sure you want to reach more people, make more money and gain more freedom, right? This is my Irresistible Why. These are the reasons I do what I do.

To find your own Irresistible Why, ask yourself these questions:

• What gets you excited?
• Who are the people you get the most satisfaction from helping?
• What change would you like to inspire in your particular niche or in the world at large?

Attract 1000 Fans By Communicating Your Essence

It’s only after you know who you are and why you are that you can begin to think about your design. If you want to reach your target audience, your blog design is inextricably tied to your who and why. Apart from the who and why, your design is just a random collection of shapes and colors. That’s why all the most popular blogs aren’t on WordPress.com or Blogger sporting some generic template.

It’s only by having a custom blog design that you can attract a large number of ideal readers. You need a design that communicates your essence.

Well, what does that mean? Communicating your essence is how I describe the necessary balance between self-expression and professionalism. You need to be you, your blog has to make you feel fully self-expressed, you need to feel that your voice is important and that you aren’t laboring away soullessly.

At the same time, you have goals. You want more readers, you want more clients, you want more Twitter followers or Facebook fans. Having these goals means your design needs to be reader-focused. Your design needs to be for their benefit, too.

Your blog isn’t a personal diary, but it’s not a faceless corporation either. You have to find that balance for yourself. It might be a little difficult at first, but here are two questions to ask to see if you’re out of balance:

• Did your blog stop being fun? If so, you’re lacking self-expression.
• Is your blog stagnant? If so, you’re lacking professionalism.

I believe with all my heart that you will never get to your first 1000 fans without this balance. Your readers want you to be you because you are the most trustworthy and the most fun when you’re being true to yourself. However, your readers are only at your site because they need something. Make sure your design facilitates both your need for self-expression as well as your readers needs.

When looking at your blog design, ask yourself questions from both perspectives:

• How do I feel about _____ as myself? Is this me?
• How do I feel about _____ as a reader? Does it evoke the appropriate emotions? Is it useful?

Keep in mind as you build your brand and your blog design that you will never get it absolutely perfectly right for very long. The decisions that make sense today won’t necessarily make sense tomorrow because people and technology constantly change. Your blog design and your brand should be constantly evolving with both your need for self-expression and your target audience’s needs.

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