Why, hello there internet friends. How’s life treating you today?
If you’re a follower of my blog, chances are that you yourself are also a blogger. Unless you just really like my writing; in which case, go back to school. Kidding. (Although I’m actually kind of not because even I can spot all my grammatical errors a mile off. We’re playing it off as “creativity”, cool?)
While we can all agree that the tail-end of my collab month fell off a little bit what with broken laptops and holidays to Italy, this collab with the wonderful Style Of Laura Jane was too good an idea to not see through. So today we’re going to be sharing the Dos and Don’ts Of Good Blog Branding. Head over to Laura’s blog to see what the 5 do’s are . . . and stay here for all the shit that you should avoid.
Well, we all know that I am well acquainted with the worst practices of basically everything. I was the natural choice.
Anyways, real quick . . .
What is blog branding?
Blog branding is essentially all the steps you take to make sure your blog is perceived in a certain way. To make sure that your audience can immediately “get” you; your way to display the “vibe” of your blog. What makes you different, what your blog is good what, what people can expect from you.
Here are some things that count as blog branding:
- Your website design
- Your logo
- Images you use
- Your social media accounts
- The tone of your writing
So without further ado – let’s talk about shit branding. God, I’m so excited.
The Dont’s Of Blog Branding
1. Don’t think it doesn’t matter. It does. Massively.
Let me confess to one of my blogging sins right here, right now:
Whenever I land on a new blog, I look at the design before I decide whether I want to even give the content a chance.
Your blog homepage usually tells me pretty much all I need to know – or my brain perceives it as telling me it all. In reality, I’d have to read your content to decide, but how are you convincing me to click? If your website is ugly, I’m thinking “unprofessional” or “probably doesn’t care about their site; why would I care?”. Is it right? Nope, but that’s the way of the world.
Nobody is investing time in your blog if it isn’t appealing to them. Be honest here, which of the next two blogs would you rather read?
But not just that – sure, you need to make sure your blog is presentable so people don’t immediately click straight off . . . but you also want to make sure you’re attracting the right audience. You want your branding to have a lil bit of personality in it so that when the right people come along, they know they’re in the right place. Take a look at these logos:
These are all super cute – but they convey slightly different messages. Take the fonts for example; the cursive one is kind of whimsical, very feminine. The hand-written style font in the first logos is cute, but in a more relaxed way. More sketchy and informal. It’s a small change, sure, but the point is that it does change how you perceive the message.
Not to mention the imagery; if you were running a food blog, you might want to go for the logo with the peach.
2. Don’t copy other people
Not even from a moral standpoint; that shit’s just boring. The point of branding your blog is to make it stand out – not to make it the same as someone elses.
3. Don’t think your branding is just your images
This is a biggie. While your blog’s design may be one of the first thing to capture your reader’s eye, it’s not going to be what keeps them. Your branding is your writing style, your personality, your photography, the way you interact with people. Making your site pretty and leaving it at that . . . isn’t enough.
4. Don’t be constrained to what’s “popular”. If you want unique, go unique.
Have I ever shared my old blog with you? Well, for those of you who haven’t ever seen it, my old blog looks like this:
It’s definitely not keeping in line with the whole minimal trend blogging seems to be taking, but my old site’s design was unique. I drew all the header and sidebar widgets, so they all featured things that were relevant to my content . . . plus, my writing is a lil bit out there, so my design was a great way to reflect that.
Sometimes thinking out of the box can pay off – if you have some unique branding ideas for your site, go for it. After all, the whole point of branding is to distinguish your product. (In this case, your product being your blog.)
5. Don’t make your branding wildly unrelated to your site. I’d rather not take particular notice of your branding than feel misled.
Last but not least, make sure your branding is relevant. If your blog’s homepage is all fashion geared and I’m all excited about discovering my new style crush, but all your posts are about food, I’m going to be disappointed.
Okay, my beautiful people . . . those are my 5 blog branding don’ts! Speaking of don’ts, don’t forget to take a read of Laura’s 5 blog branding dos.
Also, while we’re on the topic of branding – previously, my posts about blogging all had tea photos because I was “spilling the tea about blogging”. Moving forwards, I’m thinking the tea photos will be for like opiniony-blog-related posts like “My Blogging Insecurities” and “Why Blogging Is A Real Job”. For the more factual tips and tricks format, the more clean, professional looking format. Sound good? Great.
Do you guys think blog branding is important? Do you have any pet hates? Which of these tips did you find helpful? (If any, LOL. Dear God, I just typed “LOL” in a sentence. My English certificates have officially burnt themselves.) Let me know your thoughts down below!
Peace,
Instagram // Twitter // Bloglovin’ // Youtube // Pinterest
Love how you put this together! What a gorgeous photo of you in Italy! These don’ts are all true! I really admire bloggers who are unique or people who are not following the crowd. You have your blog branding all figured – it was great collaborating with you!! xx
Thank you so much lovely! I’m so glad you liked my tips; I really enjoyed yours too 🙂 xx
Google my mate Amber Renae. She does programs on all such things. A fantastic human being too.
She sounds awesome, I will give her a google!
She’s a good soul. Got away from fashion mainstream a while ago.
My point being that you most likely have plenty in common. My cat has no online businesses so difficult to promote her. Also no internet banking system for snacks.
Your old blog design is so cool! I love how you combined your different creative talents in one blog! Again an awesome blogpost, which I loved reading!
Thank you so much 🙂 I really enjoyed making it, it was very me at the time! I’m glad you enjoyed this 🙂 xx
not copying other people!!!!!!! that one is so important & so many ppl just think you can copy someone else & have the same results, ugh. love this, really great tips!
YES YES YES! I hate when people are clearly just copying it’s so unoriginal and rude. Thanks for reading girly!
These are so awesome and true! very helpful for all the people learning more about their branding.
Aw thank you!
Obviously this is awesome and spot on. As a reader, I appreciate consistency and good branding! *scadaddles to Laura’s blog*
Dom | http://www.DivaNamedDom
Thank you girly! x
Your art is so cool! I’m definitely trying to find a niche but I’m not sure if I have one thing I’m super good at yet. Maybe I’ll find one soon…
Thanks for the tips!
Thank you! Personally, I’ve never been able to stick to one niche (there’s SO MUCH TO WRITE ABOUT, why stick to one thing?) so no pressure to choose!x
This is all so useful! It’s the kind of things that make a huge difference but you don’t really think of it until you’ve read about it like here. So thank you! x
Aww thank you so much lovely! I’m so glad this could be helpful x
What a great post! I’ve just read Laura Jane’s and it’s just as great. You know sooo much about this subject, and it’s really helpful <33 A blogger pet peeve of mine is when people only use Pinterest or google pictures, like come on that’s not interesting when God, your neighbor and their cat can access the same pictures. I absolutely adore your blog, your writing and just in general you. I so wish I was a ‘Londoner’ like you, I would love to hang out with you. Have a great weekend, because you know Friday is just around the corner xxx Karen
Thank you girly, you’re too sweet! And oh my god I actually get that sometimes too… i totally get making unique images all the time can be difficult or time consuming, but otherwise it just feels like regurgitated content. And thank you so much – if you’re ever in London, shoot me an email and we can hang!xxx
I’ll be sure to do so! xxx
Great tips, Mia. Blog branding is all having your own identity. It is the thing to remember when one wants to bum things off others’ blogs. To me that is snore inducing. 🙂 xx
Thank you lovely! You summed it up perfectly; you have to have YOUR OWN identity, not try to nick someone elses xx
This is where I always get stuck. Branding. Gone are the days when blogging was just for the sake of writing your thoughts. The game has leveled up and I hate to admit that it is important to have an image, to look like a brand, to have a beautiful design. I hate it, but I have to live with it because I love blogging my thoughts away. 😁
Ahhh I can definitely relate – I HATE social media with a passion, but it’s unfortunately part of the gig now 🙁 Good luck lovely!
Great tips, Mia! Thanks for sharing!
Could you write a post on how to get accepted for AdSense (if you use it; you can also share your experience with it!)? I’ve been trying to link my blog to it and have been denied multiple times, haha, so some advice would be great!
I’m so glad you enjoyed them! I’m really sorry, but I actually haven’t ever used Adsense (I’ve been rejected by them before, but I think it’s because my domain was registered with WordPress); have you tried WordAds (wordpress’s version of adsense) xx
Ooh, okay! That’s alright! I haven’t used WordAds, but I might give it a go. I didn’t know it worked with self-hosted websites. 🙂
I’m not entirely sure (I’m not self-hosted), but I think it should if you’re still using WordPress 🙂
It works! I’ve just applied, haha. I just need to reach the minimum traffic requirements and I’m good to go. 😀 Thank you for mentioning it – I totally forgot about it.
Honestly, these are some of the best tips I’ve seen! I love how you put don’t copy other people and saying that is does matter.
Thank you girly! x
Such a good post Mia! I loved this – I also LOVED your drawings from your old blog my dude, they’re so good!! I definitely took branding a bit more seriously this time round with my blog, thankfully my old blogs are buried and gone because all of them were absolute shambles with no cohesiveness whatsoever! xx
Thank you so much my lovely Priya! And I kind of want a tattoo of a surfing skeleton because it was old logo and I loved that shit, but . . . i suppose that will be less cool when im 40 ;-; I really like your current branding girly xx
Omg no I 100% support that tat! And thanks girly xx
Great tips!!
Why thank you lovely!x
This is great, thanks!😁
Thank you girly 🙂
I loved reading this post!! It was so helpful and made me realise I need to invest some more time in the design of my home page and setting up some more social media accounts!! Thanks for sharing 😘 xx
These are really great tips! ❤ The design is really important. Thank you so much for sharing.
This was super helpful! Thanks for offering such nice tips!
xx, Shreya
alltheplacesshegoes.com
I loved reading this post! It’s so helpful and interesting
This is such an interesting read. I keep meaning to make a logo for my blog but I have no graphic design skills so it’s going to be a lot of self-taught practice and hoping for the best! xx
I love how you put your personality in your writtinf so much!! Love this xoxox
Really helpful as I am in the midst of creating my website. Thanks Doll. xx
Great read!
Love it! Very fun to read & super easy to follow. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Thanks for the tips! I’m having some trouble on making my brand more visible.
Great points to consider.