In my mastermind group last week, we talked quite a bit about branding. It is an extremely important concept that every serious blogger needs to pay attention to. Unfortunately, many bloggers don’t and are therefore wasting SO much opportunity. Are you one of them?

First off, what do I mean by branding?

When somebody thinks of you, do people immediately know what it is you represent? How are you positioning yourself? Your brand is that concept that people think of when they think of you. If somebody doesn’t already know who you are, then that brand should be immediately obvious when one comes to your blog.

A Look At Blog Design

When you come to this site, the very top of the site has my name and “Confessions of a Six Figure Blogger”. There are images of myself that rotate directly beneath that. And to the right is a short, pithy description of who I am. Now, even if you read this post 2 years from now and the site looks different, I would still have a very obvious BRAND sitting right at the top of the site. When a person comes here, they immediately know what I do.

You may also notice the title bar of this blog’s homepage has more than just my name in it. It also contains descriptive words of what this site is about. If anybody ever searches for my name in Google, they’re going to find me with those words right next to my name. Immediate branding.

On the flip side of the equation, and ONLY in the spirit of trying to help, I had the blogger from Funky Space Monkey email me with a question. When I went to the site, I had no idea at all what the site was about. Only when I scan his latest posts (lots of scrolling needed) did I conclude that it is about the Iphone. But, I don’t really know if that is correct. So, this blog has the potential to be a cool brand (it certainly is memorable), but it isn’t positioned with anything. The brand doesn’t represent anything (even now) in my mind.

Importance of Consistency

Immediate recognition of your brand is important when setting up your blog. After you’ve done that, you need to remain consistent in stay true to the brand you’ve created.

This is THE reason why personal blogs don’t make any money (most of the time). Personal blogs are usually all over the place (topic-wise) because it reads more like an online journal. While it may be fun, it isn’t a business. If I decided to start blogging on David Risley dot com about taking my dog to the vet, or why I like sushi, I’d be getting so off message that it would dilute the brand.

It is VITALLY important, in my opinion, that if you have any ambitions to make money (directly or indirectly) with your blog, you need to stay on topic. If you do go off topic, then the subject matter should in some way back up your brand.

For example, a while ago I posted a video of my mastermind meeting. Obviously, we were doing a lot of fooling around in that particular video and it may have been fun (for some) to watch. However, it still backed up the brand. I was at a mastermind meeting – something I always recommend that others do.

Are You Screwing It Up?

When somebody thinks of your internet activities or visits your blog, can they immediately tell what you’re all about? Or if you’ve had a blog for some time, does your name position itself with any particular concept?

If not, you might want to pay a little more attention to your brand.

Branding isn’t only important for big corporations. The most successful bloggers out there have an unmistakable brand. When you think of them, you know what they stand for.

David’s Action Points

I wanted to give you a few pointers for moving forward. Little pieces of advice I’ve learned:

1. If your name is available as a dot-com, grab it RIGHT NOW. If not, perhaps explore other domain extensions, but dot-com is obviously preferable.
2. Evaluate your blog theme and title. Does it immediately define you? If not, change it.
3. Evaluate your blog content. Is it consistent? If not, you need to decide whether you want to continue to write about whatever you want for the fun of it or whether you want to persue anything in business. The simple, hard truth is that personal blogs don’t make money UNLESS they are branded to something marketable.