Blog Branding: How to waste a perfectly good marketing opportunity...

File this post under "Pet Peeves: Stupid mistakes otherwise smart bloggers make." It frustrates my marketing bones to find a good blog with great content, only to have to hunt and search for the author's name.

Furthermore, if you don't have your name up in the title of your blog, you are missing a great marketing opportunity for getting your name and your brand out there.

Let me explain why this important. If you use an email subscription service to deliver your blog feeds, such as with Feedblitz, your blog post/feed gets delivered into subscribers' email inboxes with the title of your blog in it. If you're like me, and many others I'm sure, you may forget who writes which blog. But I never forget an author's name. If I subscribe to their blog it's because I like what they have to say. But I can easily forget the title of the blog. Plus, many blog authors change their blog title as it evolves.

So I can't decide to open a feed based on the blog name alone. I need to know who the author is. That will compel me to open up the feed and read it more so than the blog title alone.

For example, both Denise and I have changed blog titles on these blogs: Next Level Biz Tips is now BizTipsBlog. Notice the banner says Biz Tips Blog by Denise Wakeman. My blog formerly known as CoachEzines, became Writing Great Ezines and Blogs and is now called Writing on the Web. And, I actually have "Writing on the Web by Patsi Krakoff, co-founder of The Blog Squad" in the title. That way when an email subscriber gets the feed, they know who is writing this blog.

The other day I got a Google Alert that a blog had posted excerpts from one of my posts. It was a great blog, but without any blog author identified. If blogs are supposed to be conversations, don't you think your readers would want to know who's talking to them?

End of rant: please put your name on your blog, either in one of all of these places:

1. Your blog banner and title
2. Your tag line
3. Somewhere at the top of your home page
4. On your "About" page or page for your bio
5. In the footer of the blog posts

Comments

[Daniel Mcgonagle]

Thanks for the heads up! Really great post. That's a must-read I must
say. :)

[Rosalind Joffe]

Thanks. This if good stuff. I never thought ofhow important that is. Rosalind

[Andrea J. Stenberg]

Patsi,

When you're focused on getting the big things right, it's easy to forget the little details. Thanks for the reminder to "dot the i's and cross the t's".

Andrea

[Laz Charlton]

I just read a similar blog by James Brausch that confirms some of your points. Branding is so important to your business! Thanks for sharing!
-Laz

[Nick]

Well ... since I'm a newbie this is first of all very welcome info since I don't have to go through the trouble to learn about this on my own; and secondly it's nice to have the options for placement layed out so plainly.

Thanks.

[Jeanne May]

Hi...

I couldn't agree more! So often I have gone to a blog and read the post... but there is no name anywhere... not even on the about page. It makes me wonder who on earth would write something, expecting a reader to take it seriously when they don't own it.
I thought it was just something that annoyed me... So thank you!

Jeanne

[Sheryl Loch]

I have yet to figure out why people take the time to write or post anything if they are not going to claim it.
I also think it does give you credibility if you are willing to put your name on it.
I have found that even signing something small will help get your name known.
Great info again,
Sheryl Loch ~ allmylovecrafts

[BlogAngelTeam (Joanna)]

Slightly off tack with this question, sorry, but I was just wondering what the advantages are of using Feedblitz to deliver posts by e-mail, rather than the Feedburner option?

Do readers ever get confused by the different options on offer, or is the assumption that different readers will have their own preferences & you want to be able to deliver on what they're looking for?

Thanks

Joanna

[Pratik (Top Blogs)]

It is certainly true that you are not able to brand or market your name if you donot use your name in your posts but I believe some bloggers do that intentionally. They want to brand the whole site rather than just a name. For example, most people recognise Darren Rowse(although he uses his name) as ProBlogger than by his real name.

[Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad]

My point is, even so, they are not doing a good job of branding the whole site either. By remaining anonymous, they aren't remembered. If you meet someone at a networking event, do you remember their company name or their first name? If blogs are a place where conversations can take place, readers want to know who they're talking with. A person's name will be remembered more quickly and easily than a blog name. Darren Rowse is a celebrity in his niche; regardless, I would never call him Problogger, but Darren Rowse of Problogger. And, my point is not just to put the blog author's name 'in the post' or in the footer of the post - although that would be helpful. I'm saying blog authors should put their name in their banners or tag lines of the blog banner. Make it obvious and make it good branding, so people will remember your name.