Branding Your Name or Blog
When someone says your name, do you turn and look?
Chances are, you just said yes. And so did I when I read Daniel’s post on Daily Blog Tips about names. It sparked a thought in me that I’ve had a few times and am now sharing with you.
Previously I’ve mentioned personal branding and talked about how you would want someone to see you through your avatar or online branding.
A lot of people don’t consider branding when they’re blogging “for fun.” Yet they still go about their branding and networking never once taking into consideration how others see them online.
For me, branding has always been something that I have thought about. Something about having the business Dad that I do has pushed me into believing that branding is important.
When it comes to blogging, there are many different ways you can brand yourself to the public. The ones that I consider to be the biggest is what I will touch on with this post.
Site Registration
How many times have you been asked to define a user name at a website? Nearly too many times, right?
When I started blogging, I’m Blogging That was my only blog. I never hesitated to enter my user name as “ImBloggingThat.” When the second blog came along I realized that I was starting to brand myself as one blog when I’d be promoting multiple blogs. Something I should have thought about ahead of time and didn’t.
Currently and finally, my user name on all the new sites I’ve registered at is KatyInLasVegas. If you’re searching for me on a site one of these two names will get me if I’m there. Of course KatyInLasVegas is now my preference as it’s me without necessarily being specific to the blog that it’s tied to.
Obscure, obscene and strange names with networking sites don’t work well. Know that I will be turned off by your user name alone if it sounds like anything inappropriate.
And what if I’m looking for you online and cannot find you because your user name isn’t something that’s obvious?
Enabling your friends or fans to find you by specific names will keep you reachable and personable.
Domain Name
This may not be right for everyone but it very much applies to me.
I have more Google searches to my blog for the spelling “Katie” than I care to count. And if case you don’t know my Katy is spelt with a ‘y’. Blame it on my parents for my unique spelling of Kathryn.
Several months ago when I purchased KatyInLasVegas.com I had the foresight to know that it’s very possible a lot of people will not remember that my name has a y. For that reason, I also own KatieInLasVegas.com which redirects to the other domain. This way, it doesn’t matter how you spell it, you still reach me.
EMail Address
You know my name and you know my URL, chances are with a lot of people this is going to get you to my email address. It wouldn’t be hard to presume that I have an email address at I’m Blogging That and even less harder to presume that I’d use my name as my email address.
Attempts to send me mail without my contact form will be received. The only reason I try to keep my email address out of public view is simply so that I am not spammed. I have enough of that already.
Keep it simple so that you’re reachable. While I love my friend Manda like crazy, I can no longer tell you her email address. I’ve lost count at how many times she’s changed it. So, when you must change your email address… forward the old address to the new one. You won’t miss any emails and you’ll still be reachable.
Commenting
So I’m a do follow blogger, that doesn’t mean that it’s OK with me for you to use keywords as your name when you’re commenting. In fact this drives me absolutely insane and every time it happens, I hesitate to actually allow your comment, to not modify your name or remove your URL.
It’s not personable, it’s not branding, it’s keyword spamming my blog and frankly I find it rude. So maybe a lot of people are going to disagree with this point, I’m OK with that.
There are 3 exceptions I tend to make with this:
- You’ve left a hearty well thought out comment that tells me a lot more than “nice post.”
- Once you’ve left your hearty comment, you’ve signed your comment with your real name.
- Instead of your real name, you put your blog’s name and yet still signed your real name at the end of your comment.
Commenting should be personable, don’t make it a keyword farm. This is even more true when you run into a blogger, like me, that responds to every single comment. Do you really believe that I want to address or network with a keyword?
RSS
Chances are you haven’t thought about RSS with your branding, but this is usually my first thought when it comes to branding. I read a ton of feeds with Bloglines. I enjoy my feed reader but am often turned off by feeds that don’t include the author’s name with the post.
When I haven’t spent a lot of time with a blog, I need to be reminded of the author’s name, even when it’s not a mult-author blog. With more than 100 blogs I read via feed, you cannot possibly believe that I would remember the first name of every single blogger I read. I can’t.
With WordPress, ensuring that your name is attached to your feed is as simple as defining an “admin” name other than admin. Allow me to start to remember your name by having your name actually set in your post. When it comes time that I will converse with you, send you an email, or comment on your blog… allow me to address you personally as you would me if you were responding to my comments.
Avatars
Be consistent is usually the key here. I say, make them appropriate. No one wants to look at something that is just plain rude or obscene. And you may think it doesn’t happen often but it does. A lot of us are sitting here networking with children, make it appropriate.
A lot of people will suggest that you find a picture of yourself and use it everywhere for ultimate branding. That’s probably true. However, I’m addicted to good pictures of me and Zadey together and will often be found changing my avatar to the newest photo of her and I.
Don’t believe me? Keep an eye on my about page. That image changes more often than I care to admit.
The thing is, the images I choose to use are still me, they’re appropriate and non-offense. Most of all, their kid-safe. Make sure yours are too.
Conclusion
How do your brand yourself? It’s typically one of the least thought of aspects but I bet maybe you realize now that you’re already doing it. Are you branding your name in a way that will turn out to be affective for you?
Sarah Says:
For names, I usually use TM2TS or sarahsmf (from sarahsmidnightfantasy). I honestly prefer using my own name, XD, but it’s usually taken in a lot of cases :)
I also hate the keyword names. They drive me insane, and make me want to scream. I’ve actually ranted to Josh about it a few times, which just left him going o.O at times.
On pictures: I change mine a lot, as well. I don’t have any recent decent ones, or the current on I have would change. Lately, I’ve been using the design that you created for me for most things, since it catches your eye pretty easily.
Posted on April 2nd, 2008
Caren Says:
I usually just use Caren as my name when I comment. Even though it’s a fairly common name, I don’t see that many people using it when commenting so I figured “sure”.
However on blogger blogs that have blogger-only, I use WhiteCloud1989…..But that’s not my choice.
As far as keyword-spammed names or comments go I will most likely delete them. If it’s 1 or 2 keywords I might let it slide. 3-5, I’ll delete the keywords, keep the comment. Any more keywords and I don’t care if you’ve left the best comment ever, the lack of respect means it’s getting deleted.
As far as my avatar goes, I like to keep the same one everyone. Just a black-and-white picture of my face while I was dressing up to be secksie (I was trying to look like Elphaba, I even have a green-tainted version of the pic).
Posted on April 2nd, 2008
Alan from Zero and Up Says:
I try to leave my comments as “Alan from Zero and Up” most of the time, although it depends on the blog. That way, I get both my name and my blog name in there :)
If I can get into the habit, I may start leaving comments as “Zero and Up” and then placing -Alan at the end, but that might take me a while :)
As for when I sign up at forums or groups, I usually sign up as quadium32 - it’s an old username that’s stuck with me.
Posted on April 2nd, 2008
Nadeesha Cabral Says:
I am basically picky on the avatar thing you said. I tend to use the same image of me in social media, just to keep my brand of blog going and my face familiar. I think it’s really important in a way, since when people see it over and over again, it goes in their books. Then again, that’s how branding works.
And I also believe keeping the e-mail address off the spam bots’ reach is important. But however, I feel some people are not willing to contact the authors of blogs through contact pages. For that purpose, I believe an image of your e-mail address, in text, of course would do the trick..
All in all, great post! Enjoyed it.
Cheers!
Posted on April 2nd, 2008
Jason Says:
I used to use my blog name (The University Kid) when I commented but eventually realised that it wasn’t useful - I didn’t need inbound links with that anchor text and it removed the personal touch from comments, so I’ve started using my first name to comment.
Funnily enough, this has actually helped me move up the SERPs for my full name, something I’ve been wanting to do for a while now :p
Posted on April 3rd, 2008
Michelle Says:
Most of my spam comes through my contact page - I don’t get too many comment spammers. And, I usually comment as Michelle, but my bloglog name is Shelley (my nickname) so I guess that is confusing to some :)
All of your points are relevant and important if you want your site and persona to stick.
Posted on April 3rd, 2008
becky Says:
I always try to make the comment not just direct, but interesting as well. I hate when spammers use short one word sentences not even mentioning what was written in the blog.
Also, I always use my first name, becky. Simple, and to the point!
Posted on April 3rd, 2008
Katy Says:
Nice to know too that I’m not alone with the keyword names. I’ve thought about putting a comment policy in place but haven’t done it. The majority of people done it have come since I installed the top commentator plug-in.
I’m with you on the pictures. :D
Caren » I wouldn’t say that the spelling of your name is that common, not sure I’ve ever seen it really. With Blogger I can see the downfall although I rarely comment on a Blogger blog, it will display my name as Katy.
Alan » I think your comment name is perfect. Gets you some action for your blog name and your own name yet still allows bloggers to address you by your first name. :o)
Nadeesha » You have a good point with the avatar. One day perhaps I’ll have that restraint to keep using the same image. Or maybe it’s just that I haven’t found a picture I want to stick with yet?
I hadn’t ever thought about people not willing to use the contact form. Maybe something for me to consider at some point that I should add my actual email address to the contact form page.
Jason » I have the same thought when I comment as “Katy Castro” instead of I’m Blogging That. It’s just not useful to get links with my blog anchor text. LOL Great deal on moving up in the SERPs with your name. I have some stiff competition to do that with Katy as I’m competing with Katy, Texas. Great! :\
Michelle » Have you checked out the Akismet portion of your moderated comments for spam? Your blog is also new to your domain so they have had enough time to find you. LOL
With your MyBlogLog name, yep, that confused me. You may remember that I asked you if you knew who that girl was! ROFL!!
Becky » Agreed! There are few times when I comment without adding much to the conversation. Usually it’s just to compliment the blogger because I feel compelled to do it but it’s much more fun to add to the conversation.
Posted on April 3rd, 2008
valmg Says:
Great article Katy, with some good suggestions.
Posted on April 4th, 2008
Paul Baranda Says:
Katy really great post on personal branding. I use to use Paulesport as my username so if you do a search on that…there are endless results on Google! The reason I haven’t used my name in the past were :
1) Didn’t think about personal branding at all
2) Using your real name is scary depending on where and who you work for. Many companies these days, especially when looking to hire you… do a search or Google your name. What your name is linked to can easily sway their decisions. (By the way I recently heard of several people being fired for having a blog! Crazy!)
3)Used to think using your real name could present security issues (credit cards, personal info, etc).
I now use my name because my employer doesn’t care, and I’d rather represent my real name.
I too need to get into the avatar thing soon!
Posted on April 4th, 2008
Katy Says:
Paul » Thank you.
Good points as to why not to use your name. It hasn’t been uncommon for many companies to fire employees for keeping a blog. This is the story for a popular Mommy blogger, Dooce. It happens. Not that I agree with it…
For me, using your name is more about being personable than branding. However, for online freelancers, I think it’s essential for branding. I’d much rather have someone announce my name than a keyword when referring to me.
Posted on April 7th, 2008
Paul Baranda Says:
Using your name certainly is more personable. I believe your readers can feel more comfortable hearing reviews and advice from a person with a name than from a keyword. I’ve also started to use my photo alot more now too~!
Posted on April 7th, 2008
Jon Marks Says:
It’s interesting how just a couple years ago most people would have said to never use your person name online. Due tot he (perceived) danger of someone mining for your personal information and trying to steal your identity.
Personally I’ve never worried about that. Most ID theft occurs from someone your personally know (boy/girlfriend, ex-husband/wife/girlfriend/boyfriend, etc..) and statistically your are very safe online - just watch out for phishing scams.
As Paul has, I started trying to build my “personal brand” a month or so ago. Very important in a professional service business like mine.
Just my two cents!
Jon
Posted on April 7th, 2008
Katy Says:
Jon » Years ago I remember giving advice that you should protect your name online. I did that so well for so long that I even upgraded my PayPal account to a Business Account so that people wouldn’t know what my real name was (Business Accounts allow you to change the name the is displayed). Now, I have no worries of people knowing my name.
And I agree with your statement of it being important for you to build your personal brand. Attorneys are known for their brand and reputation… building your personal brand should be top on the list of your priorities for personal growth.
Posted on April 7th, 2008
unique stuff Says:
I read your article from top to bottom, but I am still hoping you will make an exception. I am just starting out with my blog and having trouble becoming live (never mind trying to get traffic). I noticed you mentioned using an avatar. I am still not clear on how to get one, or if using (unique stuff) is an avatar! My intent is to build 2 other websites, one dedicated to women and the other to men. The one I am currently working on is dedicated to young children and teens. Both will also be looking for unique content. How do you get branded?
Daisey Posegate
Posted on April 27th, 2008
Katy Says:
With regards to an avatar, they’re nothing more than the image you use to identify yourself at different social networking sites. The image that you would use is presumably your own.
After looking at your site, my biggest suggestion is to hire a web designer so that you can have unique branding across all three of your websites. I noticed that you’re using a free theme right now which doesn’t play at all into branding your site. You need a logo and strong web presence that you use at every site you go to.
Posted on April 28th, 2008
unique stuff Says:
Thanks for the input Katy, I do intend to hire a professional web designer, later this year. I really appreciate the fact that you took the time to view my site, and to help clarify some things I was not sure of.
I will be following your advice at a later date.
Once again thank you!
Daisey
Posted on April 28th, 2008
jamie Says:
I’ve actually never thought of branding my actual name. Being a small business owner, I think about branding my business, but even that seems nearly impossible to do without millions and millions of dollars for advertising. But, clearly people can do it. I guess if your name is unique enough, it’s not too difficult. KatyInLasVegas is actually pretty easy to remember and I actually find it easier to remember because Katy is spelled in a non-traditional way. Not having a “personal” blog, my advice (which should be taken with a grain of salt) is to tie something else to the name. I don’t think your screen name can just be your first and last name plus an arbitrary number (who is going to remember JamieSexton1432?) For instance, “JamieTheProgrammer” or “JamieTheTyrant” or “JamieTheCrazy” is probably easier to remember. Just a thought.
Posted on June 4th, 2008
Katy Says:
Branding for your name though should be just as important as anything else. And you’ve given the point as to why. You may be remember my name because of its unique spelling (which is why a lot of people don’t remember it), others may do the same for you.
When you meet someone and talk about your business there’s also a good chance that they’ll remember your name before they remember your business name. Because of that, you need to ensure that when they go to hunt down your business they land at the right spot after searching for your name.
Posted on June 5th, 2008