How To Build Your Personal Brand Online Through Blogs
Monday, September 13, 2010 at 9:53AM Thu has to be one of the most amazing people I've come in contact with in my journey to a successful blog. She has been an invaluable shoulder to lean on and ear to complain to. I hope you enjoy her and go check out her stuff like I do - on a daily basis :)
Before I begin this post, I'm going to apologize to Nunzio for taking my sweet time with writing it. He has patiently awaited for my arrival and I hope I've contributed something worthy today as readers of Financially Digital get a glimpse into how the blogging business online works. In particular, we'll touch upon the art of building your personal brand in relations to the blogosphere.
This can be seen in real life when connections and relationships are build as well. That's because as we reach out everyday to shake hands and chat about simple matters to get to know one another, little do we know that we're also building our business. Thus, the follow-up here is very important as that is our personal branding efforts. So let's see how that pertains to the online environment and how it affects you as a brand when you blog. We'll cover the basics of blogging and then dive right into the concepts you need to know to effectively blog for a successful online presence.
What is a Blog?
Blog is the modern term for websites running on a content management system (CMS). This basically means what you post is chronologically stored, dated and displayed with the recent entry being first. While this is a major improvement to websites that once were considered static and boring, blogs instill an active lifestyle online.
This is seen through several ways:
● on-site conversations that are building links with you
● search engines picking you up in relations to the keywords you're writing about
● relevant content which showcases your consistent efforts
Moreover, the platforms which many use comes from Blogger, Wordpress, Typepad, Squarespace or other sites which offer self-hosted packages or free services. The difference here is when you have a website of your own, you own the content. You won't have to be afraid of breaking the terms. However, when you're blogging on a free site that looks like:
● name.blogspot.com
● name.wordpress.com
● name.typepad.com
you don't own the content. This should be of concern for you if you plan to monetize later down the line. In another sense, it doesn't look professional to build your brand with another business along side it. Thus, it is suggested to purchase your own domain name, a web host and get a nice looking theme to start.
Consider reading '5 Things You Need to Consider Before You Start A Website' which explains more on what you need to know about blogs.
Responding To Your Comments
Conversations are the goldmine to your blog besides the content. Sure, your content will be necessary but without feedback and suggestions on what you need to do to get readers to come back, you'll find that you'll be missing out on a lot of potential prospects. Besides, when there are comments, it shows that you have social proof and you're connecting with them through following up with their thoughts. Using Gravatar, your picture can then be seen as you comment.
So you want to hit the spot with readers when you do write your content by giving them reasons to comment. Ask for it! This is the absolute reason why search engines love blogs and they will love you too when new thoughts are channeled your way. Thus, you want to give readers an incentive through providing them link juice through making your comments dofollow. They'll be glad to leave something valuable. Especially when they have a blog of their own. A plugin which does this well is ComLuv and KeywordLuv combined.
Being Easy To Reach
The thing about blogs is they make it easy for visitors to reach out to you so you should give them reasons to. In the blogging environment, this is defined as a call to action. So are you easy to reach to connect with through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.? When you can provide your visitors with clear buttons which they can see, they'll be glad to follow through.
This is the same with updates for your blog through RSS (really simple syndication), e-mail subscriptions or newsletters. Using Feedburner, you can set up and track how much readers to your blog there are. Down the line, this is a great ticker to showcase how popular you are as it is another way to show that you have social proof in numbers. Thus, your personal brand here is enhanced as a result of the numbers of readers you have.
Providing Value Through Incentives
One of the biggest mistakes many bloggers make online is they advertise too much of something that there isn't any value. Instead they end up sounding like a salesman. There's nothing to receive and in turn, the reader may feel like they've been cheated into buying something they don't want. When that happens, you'll find the reader won't return again. They have no reason to.
The best way to cure this problem is to provide incentives in your post. Give away something free. Whether it's on the sidebar as an ebook, report, link to another post somewhere else, when you constantly give and give, someone is going to give back in the form of a tweet, like, sharing on another social network, etc.
This can become viral and within one day, you may jump from being zero to hero. That's one of the advantages of blogging online. You just don't know when traffic like that takes off. When it does, it's really uplifting to know that you're providing value. Furthermore, you can be sure that your presence is now out there more than it was before. Thus, your branding is only just beginning. Think of it long-term and the compound effect will be tremendous. Your trust agents are only beginning to come together.
Keeping Topics Consistent and Relevant
The most important part of your personal branding efforts online is the consistency in the topic you will be blogging about. When you show that you're persistent in finding solutions about the problems that plagues you or your readers, you're showing commitment to providing answers. This is considered valuable and readers who follow you to see the development of this process will be curious to how you will progress.
Through showing your knowledge and research through many angles, you're helping your readers as well. They will see you in the diverse forms you provide but but also as a knowledgeable expert in your field. Therefore, it is the constant progression through which you put out through the form of relevant content that time and time again, your readers will become hungry for more. This is something you want and this is what many bloggers online crave.
Final Thoughts
While these concepts are very simple in nature, following through and giving visitors who will become regular readers of your blog what they want, your brand is being promoted daily. In turn, you are creating a professional presence through which you will become the expert without much but writing consistently, responding to feedback, being available to those who want to connect with you and giving your readers incentives. Overall, the blog is the future of business online.
Surprisingly, it combines the personal and professional together to leverage the best of both worlds to build a personal brand through which any one can achieve with a network online. Furthermore, for anyone interested in building a presence on the internet, it is the single most effective form of marketing online today. With a blog, your personal branding efforts can go as far as you want it to starting with the first comment.
Thu Nguyen is the founder of Blogging For dot INFO where she blogs about marketing, branding, self-development and performance online. She often finds herself involved in the analytical process of content just so she can unravel it’s mysteries into digestible bytes. Feel free to follow her on Twitter or like her on Facebook.
Blogging, Entrepeneur, small business in Guest 
Reader Comments (7)
Thu has an amazing understanding of creating and establishing your presence online. I am constantly running back to her website to see what kind or tips or tricks I might be able to implement to make my site a little better :) - Key words there are "trying"
Thu does a wonderful example of work through her blog and has been a pleasure to work with on various projects over the last few months - definitely keep your eye out for her :)
One thing we should all take into account is simply this post and the impact it creates. Not only does Thu thoroughly create compelling content but the networking aspect of reaching out to other blogs such as here is a perfect display of building relationships.
Take that as your incentive to finally contact that other blogger you've been following - make something amazing together!
Thu, Great work on the basics of blogging being consistent, providing great content, engaging your readers with good comments sections and using social networking to your advantage are all absolutely wonderful ways to improve the image and the reach of your blog
Hi Thu, that's a great tip about getting your own domain. They generally cost less than $10 a year, and it's a serious problem if you upset WordPress or other hosts. I was recently asked to do a guest post for a fairly popular blog. However, before he could publish my article, the website was suspended and it's still in limbo today. You don't want this to happen to you!
Branding by posting, finding ways of getting people to you, give, give, give, as the main goal instead of sell, sell, sell
Eileen
This is the one on your own domain name to the great tip. They generally cost less than $ 10 a year, this is a serious problem, if you are not happy WordPress or other hosts. I was recently asked to do a very popular guest blog post. However, before he could publish my articles, the website suspended, are still in limbo. You do not want this to happen to you!
Excellent post. Very informative and useful. Thanks for sharing :)