Branding Your Blog

You’ve probably seen people talk about branding your blog before – it sounds like such a huge thing to do, but you probably have already have a basic branding style, especially if you filled in our free downloadable style guide!

Branding your blog means that things become more recognisable as being from your blog, and it makes it easier for future blog posts – you don’t have to think so hard about how to style your sign off, for example, or how to create your images for people to pin. It gives your blog a certain identity and even a personality.

Filling in the style guide is a good start at figuring out the branding for your blog, but here are a few more things to consider…

Images

A logo or header image is probably the biggest way to affect the branding of your blog, because you’ll use that image for things like your social media header images, blog business cards. If you’re pretty handy with a pencil or Photoshop, then you could make it yourself, but if not, you can find illustrators and graphic designers on Etsy.

The other type of image on your blog that you’ll need to consider is the post image – for example, the photo above of the keyboard. We usually put the title on a ribbon image or a circle shape (in Picmonkey) that’s slightly transparent.

Colours

Your colour scheme should be developed along with your main image – the colours should fit with it well. Choosing a specific colour palette to use on not just your blog, but your social networks as well means that they’ll all tie in together really well. The meanings behind colours is a really interesting thing to look into – the idea that certain colours can cause people feel in a certain way.

Fonts

The font of the body text (i.e. the text you are reading right now) is important to get right because it needs to be readable. Using CSS to set your font over the whole site means when it’s time to change the layout, you won’t need to redo everything. You can use a few different fonts in your overall layout, but try to avoid using maybe more than 3 – you’ll want one of the body text, then a more decorative font (or two!) for the header images and for titles on the posts.

Usernames

Keeping your username the same over all networks means that you’re easy to find and others will know that’s definitely your account! When you decide on a blog name, use a site like Namechk to see whether your chosen username is available on various networks – if you can find the same name on the main sites that you’re going to use, then register them quick!

Avatars

Another way to tie all your networks together is to use the same avatar on all of them. An avatar is your profile picture, and for most sites, you’ll need to change it on each one separately. For blog comments, it will either be your Google+ image, your Gravatar or your Disqus image. It’s up to you whether you choose your favourite photo, blog logo or something else to represent you. This is probably going to depend on your blog – a fashion blogger is more likely to choose a fuller length image over a super close up, a blog with multiple authors will go for a group photo or the logo.

What other things would you include to brand your blog?