Question On Personal Branding

[Stketcher]

There are many "Online Celebrities" out there many of them whom just made one successful move and been living of that since, that alone speaks about what "Personal Branding" can do for any of us.

Getting to that position is hard and I'm just beginning to wrap my head around the whole concept right now, been reading a lot of articles,blogs etc... on how to brand yourself.

I think the next step for me is going to be opening a blog, so my question is, would you read a blog that does not have a specific niche? If one week I talk about my business plans then next week I write about how much I like the Ipad, will you still become a regular reader? Or do you prefer a more niche based blog?



P.S The blog domain name would be my name... part of the whole branding thing

[chanson]

Well.. try looking at it form a different angle. Maybe that IS your niche?? people who are interested in reading about a person of similar interests. this could be tougher to target an audience but blogs are an interesting gimmick. They say succesful blogs actually have interesting content. SO if you are posting what you are thinking, feeling, doing, etc and people find it interesting they will continue to read. It may be slower to build your blogs rep if it is not targeted to say.. mmorpg gaming news or new movies in theatres or google activity... you get the idea.

Whats the goal exactly? WHY do you want to brand yourself? WHO do you want to brand yourself to? Its just like a product.. my company does in-depth marketing strategies for companies products and/or services try to build a marketing strategy where YOU are the product(or service?!).

[mtnjkwe]

Would you read my blog if I did the same?
Are you sure?

[Stketcher]

I've been thinking about it and it guess it all comes to what you write on your "About Me"(your story/description) page. I mean, if you describe yourself has a entrepreneur that loves to swim ,travel and buy the latest in technology then it wont come has a surprise if one week you write about Apple Inc and the next week you share your top 10 tips on how to swim faster, what do you guys think?

My ultimate goal is to create an online presence, to brand myself, so when I launch a product/service in the future it'll get attention from day one.

[CindySchulson]

You raise a great point. Its all about branding you, and building a list of people who get to know you, trust you and respect you. Then when you are ready to promote a product or service, you will already have built that relationship of trust.

That being said, you don't have to have a product/service to start branding yourself. But you do want to get in touch with what you represent.

Your niche is really all about what passions, skills and expertise you have, combined with who can most benefit from what you have to offer.

Helping solo entrepreneurs find and attract their niche is actually my niche, and I wrote a free report that will help you go through the steps.

I hope that helps!
best wishes,
Cindy

[Allurre]

1. Figure out your niche and HOW you still DISTINGUISH and DOMINATE there.

Come up with more than 10 fruitful ideas. Then take it from there before you think about BRANDING.

[expertmarketing]

I tried doing Personal Branding before and until now. I think it is a good strategy of marketing your website.

[arbsn]

I carefully disagree with the above.

A blog shouldn't be the sole way you brand yourself. From what I gather, you should use your blog as a place to rant. Promote yourself through social networking (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin..ETC). If you have an active enough presence, you will stand out. Feed your blog through your networking channels to build readership.

Build a social presence through online communities such as this, and real communities that you are a part of.

Don't waste your time with "PERSONAL BRANDING" websites.

Create enthusiasm, have energy, be yourself.

[Amanda_1987]

I agree with arbsn. Branding yourself is much more than a blog, you need to create a presence online to make the public more aware of you. Blogging can be a part of that, but shouldn't be the only part.

[PhillM]

I think it's more about branding your personality and opinion. If someone who enjoyed hiking as I do wouldn't be all that interesting if all the wrote about was hiking. Instead if they showed an opinion and a bit of personality of world issues or something within a niche it would be more interesting. People would want to know what YOU thought about a certain bit of news and would return to your blog for this reason.

[coolguygraphics]

I read a great book recently on online marketing/promoting/branding and one thing they pointed out was that nobody wants to hear about your crappy service or business. They don't want to hear about you or your life either. All they want is you to help them.

Basically provide people with great information, help people and they'll come back for more help. That's the key to success online if you want to be famous online.

[TelecommutingMom]

You have to have something interesting to say or something to say that people will be interested in. People should feel like they are either learning from you or share some kind of connection with you I think.

[StaffordMarketing]

You guys know who Don Cherry is? Those of you in Canada do for sure...

How about Howard Stern? Or Glenn Beck, or Rush Limbaugh?

They all have on thing in common: They are POLARIZING.

People either love or hate them. There isn't much in-between.

That's the key in my mind: Finding a sweet spot that makes you instantly knowable, likable (or despicable!) and MEMORABLE to your audience.

Once you find that sweet-spot, THEN worry about blogs, YouTube accounts, social media.

Erik

[Mike Hay]

It would seem though, that yes, that person is now a brand in himself, yet not without touching something that is altogether bigger then oneself first. Now, you can put don cherry beside a sandwich and he has the power to influence, but not before being hockeys biggest mouth for years. The world seen him in a weird suit being all noisy for years. Its not to say it takes years, but there needs to be a catalyst to make people curious or no one will care. Vince did shamwow, now he can capitalize on this....like slap chop lol. You have to be the self proclaimed king of something presently vauge, and then build on it. Mother teresa is the king of nuns, Michael jackson is the king of pop and ozzy ossbourne is the prince of darkness. Ultimately, the unifying link here is that these people all DID something special, not just proclaim that they are special. There are 7 billion people on this planet that feel special, yet so few that do something special. What I am saying is stand for something, and then dominate something. Be the spokesperson and be as loud as hell. Tony hawk, skateboards. Al gore, global warming. Sam Walton, low prices. colonel Sanders, a bucket of chicken. Before you try to tell the world who you are and hope they care, you need to ask yourself who you are. What fires your guns, what do you stand for, what good are you doing this world every day that you wake up and steal a breath of its air. Now do something about it. Save a turtles beach habitat, whatever. Its once you have figured this out, that like minded people will come to you for more. Now you can be a brand. Now you have earned your brand.

[experimentjon]

I feel like blogs are not as important nowadays for personal branding. You are more likely to get people to read your "tweets" on Twitter and build a network and have open streams of communication with people via Twitter. The benefit there is also that you do not need to stick to one topic and can branch out to different topics whenever you feel like it.

But if you do want to start a blog, I'd try to make sure it has a unifying theme of some sort--even if that theme is just being you.