NetBusinessBlog

How to develop a brand identity for your blog ? part 9

Posted on 30. Sep, 2008 by Roy.

Let there be light… But Which Company?

If you missed my earlier posts of the series, here they are: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7 and Post 8. And here goes part 9:

In my last post I was discussing about Affiliate marketing and how you can use it for online branding. Today, I will continue on this topic.

In an affiliate marketing campaign, the advertiser (you) normally offers two solutions – image based ads and the text link based ads. A text link based advertisement normally acts just as another link or recommendation from the owner. Some people claim that, these link based advertisements (mainly from within the content) offer them better conversion rate than the image based affiliate advertisements.

But, if you want to take the most out of affiliate marketing program, you should go for image based advertising. One of the biggest advantages of for image based advertisement is that you get a site wide presence and that too in a prominent position (within the main template). And thus you get more exposure to the target market rather than what you would have got in a link based advertisement. I would always recommend you to go for image based advertisements.

At the same time text based links also have some advantages – you get a lot of surrounding content to support the link. However, in an image based advertisement program, you normally have 125 X 125 pixel or 468 X 60 pixel space. Whatever you want to do, you have to do that within that space unless you go for other formats like peel ads. You do not get the support from surrounding texts.

But still, if you want to work on branding, go for image based advertisement. Here are some tips to optimize on branding:

1. Do not forget to use your logo and website color scheme into that advertisement along with the message that you want to convey. Be very short and precise in your message.

2. Leave some breathing space – do not make it just a jungle of blinking gif image.

3. An affiliate ad is normally surrounded by other similar ads and thus your image must be very attractive to hook the reader faster.

4. If possible, create separate ads for each blog. Each blog is different in color scheme, structure and surrounding ads. Thus, for better results, you should ideally offer a customized solution. You do not need to make some major changes in the primary image. If you just change the background color and keep other things same, it should work. Trust me; it won’t take you huge time. And after some days, you will have enough patterns to select the best color scheme for any blog.

Did I miss something?

Continue Reading

How to develop a brand identity for your blog ? part 8

Posted on 29. Sep, 2008 by Roy.

Let there be light… But Which Company?

If you missed my earlier posts of the series, here they are: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 and Part 7. And here goes part 8:

Do you sell any product or services via your blog or website? Why don’t you try affiliate marketing?

Now, you may ask why I am talking about affiliate marketing in this series on online branding. Here are the reasons:

What happens in affiliate marketing?

As a publisher, you publish a link or affiliate advertisement (or logo) in your blog and when someone clicks on that link or signs up for that product or service, you get a commission. And what does the advertiser get? He earns money by selling the product or service and pays you a part of his or her profit.

But that is not all – you are also helping him or her to brand the product or the service in the online market.

How?

To put it simply, even though all of your visitors are not clicking on those affiliate links (this also means that you are not getting paid for each unique impression), the advertised product is getting exposure in the target market.

One of the big reasons why people spend millions of dollars in advertising is to stay alive in target market’s psyche. They spend lots of money for each impression. And also pays a lot of money for every unwanted impression. A lot of money spent in direct outdoor and newspaper or TV advertising, is nothing but wastage if you think in terms of impressions left on target market.

You do not have such a problem in affiliate marketing. In each web space (the publishers) you are constantly in touch of your target market or in touch of people interested in related products. To add to this, as an advertiser you do not need to pay the publisher unless there is a conversion. This actually opens up hundreds of outlets to sell your product that would have been otherwise tough to achieve.

And you also get thousands of impressions in the target audience to celebrate as an incentive. If someone finds that your company is everywhere, just imagine the influence it is going to have on your brand.

So, why spend hours in search of advertisers? Become an advertiser and sell your own product or idea.

Tips? Wait for the next post:

Continue Reading

How to develop a brand identity for your blog ? part 7

Posted on 28. Sep, 2008 by Roy.

Let there be light… But Which Company?If you missed my earlier posts of the series, here they are: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 and Part 6. And here goes part 7:

Do you use Social Median? Ok, what happens when you click on a link like “My Newsmakers” or “My Networks” or “Me”?

Jason pops up with the message

“Hi there. I’m Jason, one of the founders of socialmedian.”…. “We’d love to have you join in. To get started, please create an account.”

Did you ever see such a stunt in any website or social network where the owner is introducing you to the service? And what could be a better place to put the company face forward but such a network?

I don’t know if SM would be successful or not in future, but they have taken a different strategy to brand themselves. To add to this, I also liked Jason’s informal profile picture in that message. He did not put an extra large serious lawyer like image out there.

And I think this sets the basic character of the website – unofficial and “you” powered.

Once upon a time, websites were only used as sources of information. But today the information providers are also very important. As general people are getting more familiar with internet and web publications, they also want to know about the people who are running those information hubs. Especially if you are running a blog and that too on news or important information, your readers may want to know more about you to authenticate the information.

Did you read the post from Boston Globe titled “Study: Most Americans want to see companies on social sites” and published on September 25, 2008? The study was conducted by Cone that says, “93 percent of Americans believe a company should have a presence in social media, while an overwhelming 85 percent believe a company should not only be present but also interact with its consumers via social media”.

You may doubt the figures (I doubt the questions they framed) but you can not deny the trend.

Continue Reading

How to develop a brand identity for your blog ? part 6

Posted on 27. Sep, 2008 by Roy.

Let there be light… But Which Company?

If you missed my earlier posts of the series, here they are: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5. And here goes part 6:

What is a brand after all? A brand is actually an image that is constructed in the target audience’s mind. But what is an image?

In some cases, if the company has different physical outlets (where people actually buy your products or services), the brand image may get directly associated with the common look of the shops – color scheme, logo or even people.

Now, what happens with a blog or a website?

You get unique designs, logo, color scheme etc. so that people can easily remember you or associate you with something (do not forget that we think in terms of associations). For example, you will find that almost all the blogs and websites on finance have green as their base color (color of $$$ is green) and image based blogs are black in color (to focus on different shades of an image).

Do you need to follow such norms?

Some of you must be thinking that if you follow these norms, how would you develop your unique identity? You might be thinking that you have also become a part of the regular bloggers by following these common norms.

You are wrong. A seasoned brand strategist actually uses these common associations and crosses the first line of image development. The first line is actually the most crucial line as far as communication is concerned. If you cannot make the visitor understand who you are in the very first opportunity, you got troubles.

However, color scheme is only a part of the image development – you have so many other elements like logo or content to differentiate your brand from others in the same niche.

Another important point:

Do you know how people think? We think in terms of images. When I say cat, you start thinking about a cat (not a dog) but your cat and my cat is never the same. My cat may be black in color with short hair and yours may be white with long hair. But there is a common association (a cat) that carries our conversation further.

So what do you think? Do you need to follow some common norms?

Continue Reading

How to develop a brand identity for your blog ? part 5

Posted on 26. Sep, 2008 by Roy.

Let there be light… But Which Company?If you missed my earlier posts of the series, here they are: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4. And here goes part 5:

The most important part of brand development is being present in every possible channel to communicate with your target visitors. You must identify the spots where you can easily access your target audience and be with them. The continuous hammering and brand pitching would actually create and sustain your brand identity in you target audience’s psyche.

As I wrote earlier, in this situation, you must understand one important thing. Say for example you have a, b, c and d as your target audience. You worked hard to find out the places where they usually come in like the pub, book store etc. Now, would you go ahead with your SEO brand in all those places? Will it serve your purpose?

I don’t think so. People visit different places for different purposes. Do they really want to listen to SEO when they are visiting a pub or a book store? Will that give you enough return on investment?

The same thing happens online – people use different social networks for different purposes. You must identify some specific networks where your target audience is looking for a brand like yours. And when you have identified such a place, go ahead and work hard to develop a brand.

As CoolProducts mentioned in a comment in my last post, they are “creating social communities on their sites”. This can be a good solution for a lot of websites. A lot of webmasters are also waiting for Google’s Friend Connect for a complete social networking solution on their own site.

I am yet to use that solution but I am sure that it would help a lot in branding. The new visitors would get more people looking for similar solutions. And more importantly, it would not require the visitors to leave your site.

Continue Reading

How to develop a brand identity for your blog – part 4

Posted on 25. Sep, 2008 by Roy.

Let there be light… But Which Company?

If you missed my earlier posts of the series, here they are: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. And here goes part 4:

Are you a “me too” poster at different social networks and blogs?

In almost every crowded place, you would always find some “me too” posters – those who do not have any substantial point to mention but they would inevitably write a comment like “good post” or “good collection, it helped me a lot”.

If you have a genuine presence in that blog or forum (like, if you really contributed to the discussion earlier), it is a different issue. Otherwise, you will soon be marked as a “me too” poster. You will get some links to your blog via those comments or forum signatures but it will not help your brand at all. And if you think that people will not be able to establish a relationship between you and your blog, you are mistaking. Do not be a “me too” poster.

Getting people from nowhere:

I lot of renowned bloggers suggest that as a new blogger, you should get your friends and relatives involved with your blog. This technique is fine for a startup blogger. But if you are planning to develop a brand, I suppose that you have already gathered some experience in blogging and a lot of information and expertise on the subject. In that case, there is no point in asking your non-blogger friends or relatives, those who are not at all interested in the subject, to write a comment or to promote your blog in other networks. The energy you would need to get them involved in the process may not worth it.

This does not mean that I am saying you to say no to involve people from your friends’ network. On the contrary I would say that this is very important to develop a brand value for your blog. However, I would ask you to involve people from that specific field – get other experts on that topic, those who would actually be able to add some value to your blog. Though internet is much advanced today, as far as social networking is concerned, real life networking is still the best.

Continue Reading

How to develop a brand identity for your blog – part 3

Posted on 24. Sep, 2008 by Roy.

If you missed the earlier posts, here they are:How to develop a brand identity for your blog – part 1

How to develop a brand identity for your blog – part 2

A side note: If you start getting visitors from search engines, identify the landing pages and try to navigate the visitors to other pages.

And here is part 3: Using Social Media:

As far as using social media is concerned, you would need to be very selective about where you participate and where you keep silent. This is very important – what you say, where you react, how you deal with others, how you manage certain situations – everything counts.

For example, what would a corporate organization do when there is a dispute?

They won’t just say anything – they would take their time for a corporate meeting (and would declare that in public that they are having a meeting on the issue). You will not get some immediate reaction unless the situation is very demanding. Why don’t you apply the same method?

Another important note is that, they normally do not directly participate in the social media using their brand name. On the contrary, they use their people to talk about their company. I would recommend you to do the same – use your name rather than your brand name (e.g. NBB) to communicate in social networks. And try to develop a friend following (not fan following) around your brand. I am recommending you to carry your brand rather than the brand carrying you in different social networks.

Don’t just talk about your brand in the social networks. Communicate like an individual and help other members in the social networks. Try to develop your own brand rather than working to develop your blog’s brand – go for indirect promotion. Trust me; it would help you a lot to brand your blog. Don’t be the only one to talk about your blog – take more people into your confidence and let them talk about you.

AND, do not try any visibly cheap way to promote your blog (think about some cheap forum signature links). Even if you need to do something like this at some point of time, do not leave any footprint. People are too smart to understand your intention.

Continue Reading

How to develop a brand identity for your blog – part 2

Posted on 23. Sep, 2008 by Roy.

Did you read the first post of the series? If you missed it, please scan through it – “How to develop a brand identity for your blog – part 1“And here goes the part 2 of the series:

And which companies in any category attracts you?

This is perhaps one of the big reasons why companies spend millions of dollars – to be in your mind – always (or at least when you need that product most). This is what they call overall brand presence. You will find them everywhere – newspaper ads, TV commercials, billboards, posters, cutouts, POPs etc. – they would explore every possible opportunity to be in and around you. However, that does not mean that the companies are mindlessly following you and spending so much of money to hook you. They pay people to strategically put the company or the product in front, whenever you need them and that too in the most cost effective way.

However, what about the online market? The rules are not same for online market.

The first and foremost thing is to reach your target audience at their doorstep. In online industry things are a bit easier as more than 90% people use Google or other search engines to reach the related shops or websites. So, go ahead and try all legitimate seo tactics to be on the top for all related keywords in major search engines.

If you ask my opinion, getting high ranking on the SERPs helps not just in getting targeted visitors – it also helps a lot in branding. General people take you as a recommendation from Google or Yahoo. What happens when the shop owner says that a certain product is the best and it is selling like hot cake! Doesn’t that product get a trust vote and enjoy more chances to be bought by you? I believe that the same thing happens when you top the SERPs. This is undoubtedly the cheapest way to brand your website and get targeted visitors.

However, I would recommend you to put the company name at the first place in the title of the page rather than stuffing it with keywords. This helps in branding.

What else?

Wait for the next post.

Continue Reading

How to develop a brand identity for your blog ? part 1

Posted on 22. Sep, 2008 by Roy.

Let there be light… But which company?

Jokes apart; but can you really think of any product without a name?

Similarly, the branding process starts from naming the product or the organization manufacturing that product. (A blog itself is a product or a company that is producing information based product.) So, as a web based company, your naming should start when you are selecting a domain name.

At this point, I must say that a lot of people use different words in domain name and blog title. For example, what if the domain name for “Net Business Blog” had been www.mydomain1452xyz.com!

What is wrong with this? The owner of the blog is actually asking the visitor to remember two different names – the blog name and the domain name. To add to this, in such a situation, it is tough to concentrate on a single name. I would always recommend using same blog name and domain name for effective branding.

Another important part of blog name and domain name is to make it catchy. The word Google may not have any meaning and some people may not find it interesting too – but they have already developed a brand name – perhaps the biggest and most popular online business name. (Time is a big factor here – we would come to this point later on.)

So, start thinking about the domain name as soon as you have identified the blog model (BTW, do you have a clear idea about your blog’s topic!) – let it reflect the character that you want to portray in your blog. Otherwise, select a name like Google and start developing a character for that name.

As, web is somewhat different from offline industry, it is better to get a primary keyword into the domain name. It would not only help you in on-page SEO but also a lot of natural links would be having keyword rich anchor text (your blog name). And it would also help the visitors to understand what the blog is all about.

And, keep it simple, short and se*y.

Continue Reading

Develop a Brand

Posted on 21. Sep, 2008 by Roy.

Think about your favorite actor. How many roles did he or she play in different films? How he or she managed to carry an identity throughout the film?

This can be one way of developing a brand. You start from a scratch like an artist and then continuously develop on it. Carefully put more scratches to develop a complete image ? that?s how you build a brand.

And now, think about that actor in different films. All the character that he or she played in different films together develops his or her own identity ? a brand. Sometimes his personal life also gets involved in the brand development?lol? but that?s part of the business.

Think about the director of the film. What does he do? He develops the character (protagonist) in reference to other characters and incidents to reach the culmination. He makes the characters believable in terms of the plot ? tells a comprehensive story.

The same thing happens with a brand. Sometimes, as a blogger you bring in your actual identity and sometimes you just play with a pseudo name and an avatar to represent you in the virtual world. You take part in different communities, blogs etc. And all these presence develop your identity ? your brand around that name.

Sometimes, you are conscious about what you are doing in different spaces and sometimes you just unconsciously doing whatever you want.

To get the maximum value from whatever you are doing online, you need to play the role of the director of a film. You must pre-plan some guidelines for you, scratch a character that you would like to play and then try to develop yourself around that.
It is just a habit that you need to develop. Put some conscious efforts in every channel you are using to communicate with the target audience – a consistent character that people can easily remember – a game where people can easily relate your actions.
Do these sound critical? In my next post I will highlight some simple steps to start working.

BTW, you must find your own way to become a brand. I will just show you some ways to develop that.

Continue Reading