Branding yourself? Zzzzzzzz

I think your face is your logo, and your name is your brand. This is how I operate. I receive traffic from people Googling my name. Branding is an opportunity to create your own low competition keywords.

It is hard to brand terms that include "marketing", as you have suggested.

I paid $10 for the caricature you see as my avatar here. I use it everywhere.

I cannot find anything wrong with branding oneself if he or she does not have any problem. And besides all of these branding ownself is course good in the era of internet marketing. So, I am not sure why are you thinking like so.

Have you managed to register yourname.com or varient?

Invest money in thesis or genesis to give yourself a very personal blog, the reason so many blogs look the same is tightness to invest money so the same cookie cutter theme is used.

Don't be afraid to come out and give your opinion on things, eg. if you hate the advice given here that solo adverts are the best way to build a list then be sure to let your readers know why you think this.

Just be yourself, and build your brand, and promote products from like minded people rather than those which are fashionable / profitable.

It really depends what you are ultimately doing and what your ultimate goal is. If you plan on being a "product guy" than branding yourself probably IS the way to go. Branding is probably the most important asset that people DON'T think about when growing their business and it's something I am super passionate about because it's more important than most people know.

At the end of the day, it's always okay to be different but just remember that the big guys are doing what they are doing ...because it's working!

Rock on!

I know in the beginning I was always attracted to words like: Classroom, training, mini courses, online course, ....at your own pace, info..., maybe research the kw tool for educational phrases for business, step by step in..... etc. so it sounds like your blog is a great resourse.
I know I loved Affilorama's website cuz they had links in the footer to categories of free training. I was so thankful for the style of Mark Ling the creator of Affiloblueprint because he is so non hypey and he always had videos of free training sent through email with him at the white board teaching one minor thing, I have stuck with him for years because he is such a good teacher and comes across as a teacher not a marketer.
yeah look at the name of his site "Affilorama" so maybe you could blend a few words together for originality like he did.

I would advise against using your own name as your brand name.

Why?

Because it makes it difficult to sell out later if you choose to. Especially if you've built a huge site and invested years into it.

Its less likely for anyone to want to buy your site if its called christianalexander.com - I mean, why would they?

Dont get stuck in the whole "marketing must be in the domain name" hype.

I run an online business/internet marketing site and registered "bringthedonuts.com" and I love it. So do my visitors

Here a few tips for you based on 4 years of running my own IM blog and going from having zero traffic and building it up to almost 100 posts and now average 50 - 100 visitors per day and and sometimes way more. I get hardly no traffic from google either (the way i like it, sod google) all traffic is type in, referring blogs, social media and from my list.

1. Having your name in your domain name really helps for branding because every time someone comes to your site or enters your domain name in they type your name. (this is as long as you want to brand you within your industry and not looking to sell the site further down the road)

2. Reply to every comment personally as soon as you can because this means you actually care about your readers and by doing so people will come back more to comment to interact. The more you reply personally and interact the more comments you will get and the more comments you get the more traffic you will attract and the more traffic you build the bigger you can build your list.

3. Use your blog as a content platform for your subscribers. I have been doing this for over 18 months and it's very powerful for creating very responsive lists. This works well because you build a much more solid relationship with your subscribers. You simply add lots of great content to your blog over a period of time.

3. Have a good about me page. This is very important. I see so many people that are trying to brand themselves having a 50 word about me page. This business is all about relationships, trust and credibility so don't be shy about who you are and where you have come from.

4. Don't just follow all the bad blogging advice where they tell you you must be blogging 3 - 4 times a week etc. If you try to always post that much the quality of your posts will generally slip big time. All I do is post when ever I have something very good, useful, interesting to say or give my readers and subscribers. People would rather read 1 awesome post which really helps them every 3 weeks than 3 per week which are thin and low quality.

5. Forget 400 word articles. If you truly want to build a good following and get a reputation for providing value then 1000+ as a bare minimum is where it's at. Many of my posts are 2000, 3000, 4000 and one is even 7000 words lol

If you go the extra mile you will be rewarded that I can promise you :-)

6. And lastly and this one really frustrates me as to why people always do this. Don't have lots of banners in your sidebar or all over the place promoting affiliate products or tools and software. This will kill your blog. And especially don't do hardly any of those product reviews where you promote some new launch. Again..this will kill your blog.

Perhaps when you have built up a lot of traffic and trust within your niche/industry that is different but I would not even think about it initially. I see many people do this days or weeks after starting a blog. This is a big mistake and will really cost you.

These are just a start but I hope you can take some things away it Christian

Paul

Hey John

The only reason why i started my blog was to have somewhere to send my subscribers so they can learn more. Everything else which i have got from the blog is a bonus. I have shared what has worked for me and the things which i have learned.

It may not be thousands of people per day but a highly targeted 50 - 100 people per day works very well for me and things are increasing all the time :-) and especially since hardly none of it comes from google.

I hear what you say John that's your opinion and that's cool :-)

Paul

Think about it not in terms of what your service is, but more in terms of what the value and benefits are for your clients man.

For example: a person selling jackets and pants, is NOT selling clothes. He is selling comfort and a fashion sense that will sky rocket his client's social status and help him meet more ladies/close more business deals

See the difference?

The Internet of today makes branding oneself easy, in fact I find it easier to create a personal brand than a company brand. Everything traces back to an individual. You can't have a company Facebook or Google+ page without creating a personal account. With all the content there is author attribution (especially with Google+), it is harder to tie content to a product or company brand.