Blog branding

Pick your blog’s name with care. Is your blog’s name related to your firm or product brand? Will you use your personal name? Will you include search-friendly terms in the name?

Choose a memorable address. While options such as WordPress.com and Blogger are freely available,

it’s highly recommended to start using your own URL. Therefore in addition to selecting a name, it’s critical to get the URL for it.

Give your blog a tagline. A tagline adds insight into your blog’s personality and content that is integral to your brand. Consider your blog’s focus and keywords. Select your blog’s theme. The blog theme provides the basic structure for your blog’s presentation. One of the major options a blog theme sets is the use and location of columns. The theme provides parameters within which you build your blog and related brand. Determine your blog’s color palette. Color is an important element of branding. Don’t just skip this point because you’re not the graphic artist. Think about the statement you want to make about your blog. Limit your palette to two or three colors. You don’t want potential readers to skip onto the next piece of content because your color choice has scared them away.

Create a set of graphics and visual cues. If your blog is part of your business, it’s a good idea to extend your business branding to your blog. If you’re starting your blog from scratch, think about how you want to graphically represent your blog in terms of icons, backgrounds and elements.

Determine the typeface. The actual font and size say a lot about your brand. It’s important to minimize the number of typefaces you use as well as the variations. Also and more important make sure it’s readable for your target audience.

Decide on photograph presentation. Start with the use of color versus back and white photographs. Will you focus on specific subjects? Do you plan to include captions with each image? These type of choices help build your blog’s brand.

Set guidelines for other media format use. Will you incorporate video, audio and/or presentations? Where do they appear in a blog post and how will you reference them?

Choose your bloggers. Who will write your blog posts? Will you be the sole author? If it’s company or group blog, who will write and how often?  Will there be a set of guidelines to ensure that the content is consistent?

Create your blog’s personality. Often this is associated with the main blogger. Think about how you want your blog to engage and be perceived.

Determine the topics your blog will cover. When in doubt, make your subject narrower in focus since you want to be able to dominate a niche. This choice influences your blog’s brand in terms of what it covers and how it approaches its subjects.

Chose how you’ll present content. To certain extent this relates to your target audience and your blog personality. Is there a specific angle you always show or a specific way you want to present your information. Create a voice for your blog. Think in terms of how the posts will be written and how they will sound to the reader. Remember they must sound like a human being is writing them.

Determine the language used. This means will the writing convey the local way of talking, as well as whether slang will be accepted. Regardless, it’s important to use good grammar and correct spelling.

Select the blog’s main keywords. Keywords influence your post subjects and titles as well as your categories. As a result, they’re important to your blog.

Decide how blog posts and static pages will be formatted. Think in terms of making your content easy-to-consume. Short paragraphs or bullet points are usually good.

Consider post length. As an expert on a topic, you may opt for longer posts while high profile celebrities may just share a few sound bites.

Set a publishing schedule. While many bloggers just write when the spirit moves them, from a branding perspective you want to be consistent. Determine the days and frequency.