Set Your Mom Blog Apart with Blog Brand

By Wendy Piersall from Mom Blogging For Dummies

A blog brand is the combination of several factors such as the name, design, topics, and writing style of a blog, which all send signals about what readers can expect from reading a blog. Your blog’s brand is a specific business entity that may or may not always be a part of your career.

Your blog’s brand is as unique and personal as you are, and what works for one blogger may not work for another. Like your personal brand, your blog’s brand evolves as you become more sophisticated as a writer and experienced as an authority in your field.

So how do you develop a brand for your blog? It covers many aspects of your online presence:

Your blog’s name and domain name: You want the name and domain to be memorable and do one of two things: convey an immediately recognizable image (such as Redneck Mommy, Cool Mom Picks, and TipJunkie), or be so unique that you can associate your brand around your catchy name (such as Chookooloonks, Velveteen Mind, and Tatertots & Jello).
Your blog’s tag line: A tag line tells people what to expect from your blog in one short sentence. They are a great way to practice getting a big idea into as few words as possible. Plus they can be very helpful for search engine optimization if you use good keywords in them. Here are some great examples:
- Run Fat Girl: From thick to thin — one mile at a time
- Starting Fresh at Forty: The market collapsed and so did I
- BlondeMomBlog: Pontificating about poop and pinot noir since 2005
- SportsGirlsPlay: Raising happy, healthy athletes
- The Centsible Life: Live the life of your dreams on a budget
Your blog’s visual design: This is an extremely important element that will build trust and credibility with your readers and with potential advertisers. Your blog must look professional in order to be taken seriously by advertisers or clients.
The topics that you write about (and the topics you don’t write about): You want to choose a focused topic with a few related topics. How you inject your personality into your writing also builds your recognizable attributes as someone who is funny, entertaining, informative, or something else. What you don’t write about also sends brand signals.
How you interact with your readers and the other bloggers in your niche: This is certainly part of your personal brand as well, but your interactions help to define what your blog is known for. Are you helpful, encouraging, or good for a snarky laugh? These things tell people what to expect when they want to read more about you on your blog.
How consistent you are with your message: Consistency doesn’t mean never straying off topic, nor does it mean blogging every day. It means setting expectations with your readers and delivering on those expectations. Keeping your actions congruent with your words is also very important.
The quality of your content: Quality can be a subjective measure, but it also means writing words that people want to read. Not everyone will think you have a quality blog, but it’s important that your readers think so, and continue to think so.
The business goals of your blog: Everything you do on your blog should be supporting your chosen business model either directly or indirectly. You could minimize your credibility if the things you write about on your blog conflict with your business goals.

In an ideal world, you’ll know how you want to portray yourself and your blog for all of these criteria. In reality, you might only have 70–80 percent of these things defined. It’s important to not let perfectionism get in the way of action, but it’s important to work on developing your brand with all these things in mind as your blog grows.