How To Trash Your Blog’s Brand In 5 Easy Steps
December 12th, 2007 by Court
Photography by lynxman
These concepts are Business 101, and I think basic instincts cover this material for most people. What blows my mind is how people think that these principles don’t apply to online businesses.
Whether you like it or not, your blog is a business and a brand. From the first time a person lands on one of your posts or pages, they will start to make assumptions about your site, and also about you as a person (or group). Blogging purists will tell you that blogging is about freedom of expression. It’s your site, right? You can write anything and do anything, right? Unfortunately for many bloggers, freedom of speech should be called freedom of self-destruction.
The Cold, Hard Truth
Photography by Fuzzy Gerdes
The honest truth is that you can do anything you want on your blog, and long as you’re willing to accept the consequences. For many, this may include the cultivation of a trashed brand that no one respects. Good job, you created a place to speak your mind. Have fun talking to yourself.
Here are the hard facts. If you are trying to make money with a personal blog, you’re wasting your time. If you’re trying to make money with a hybrid personal/business blog, you’re wasting your time. The sooner you drop the personal, the sooner you can get to business and it’s the business that’s going to make you the money.
There’s nothing wrong with a personal blog. I like personal blogs and actually read a few. Show me one that makes big money and I’ll show you a thousand business blogs that make more. If you just like blogging and want to have a personal blog, I’m fine with that. You still actually have a brand to manage if you want to grow your audience.
How To Trash Your Blog’s Brand In 5 Easy Steps
- Stray off topic. This is a hard one for most people to stomach because they want to say what they want to say. If I want to learn how to cook from a blog, I want a hard-core cooking blog that knows what they’re doing. I don’t want a blog that talks about cooking 50% of the time and talks about miscellaneous stuff the rest of the time. If you want people to take you seriously, you don’t have any choice - you have to stay on topic. Would you sell fruit loops in a video game store?
- Let everyone know that you don’t have much experience. Does anyone know of even one person that made it to the elite level of their industry that didn’t believe in his/herself as an expert? Confessing that you don’t know anything about your topic will turn off almost all casual internet users.
- Report meager stats and earnings. Vic created a great post about this on BloggerUnleashed - I would read it: Stop Publishing Your Stats. The only niche I would even consider publishing stats in is the ‘make money online - internet marketing‘ niche. Unless you are seriously producing amazing numbers in that niche I would keep your stats to yourself. If you have a site in any other industry, don’t publish your stats - it just makes you look unprofessional.
- Forget about spelling and grammar. People are pretty forgiving when your mistakes are occasional. If spelling mistakes are common on your site, you’re definitely leaking brand power. People know that if you’re legit, you will write with proper grammar and spelling. If this isn’t your strong point, work on it and consider hiring an editor.
- Post erratically. I’m not saying that you have to post every single day, in fact I only post about 4 times per week. If you let a few weeks go by without a post… people are going to start wondering what the heck is going on with you. Your blog will lose some of its professional feel. You will probably come back and apologize, making a bunch of excuses - this makes you look even more unprofessional. It also makes you look unsuccessful.
Take a look at how professional your blog is. Do you treat your prospects the same way you would if you were seeing them face-to-face? If you’re not, it’s time to rethink your business.
Save to del.icio.us
Digg This!
Post to Facebook
StumbleItRelated Posts:
11 Unescapable Steps To WordPress Synergy
There's no longer a need to argue the benefits of using WordPress as your blogging platform. If you'...
CashQuests Sold For $15,000!
The news of the day is that CashQuests.com is for sale was sold for $15,000. I wanted to officially ...
Starting A Flagship Blog Series
There are literally hundreds of ways that individuals can make money through internet marketing. It ...
Starting A 25 Site Media Company For $10 Per Month
To me, internet marketing is about leverage. In order to make money online, you have to make the bes...
Traffic - SEO vs. John Chow
If there's one thing every blogger and webmaster needs, it's traffic. We want tons of it. It doesn't...
10 Things Everyone Ought To Know About Blogging
It isn't easy - on the contrary it's quite difficult.
You have to be pretty smart to be good ...
December 12th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
Amen. Wow awesome post Court. I will be giving a seminar to 3rd year Business students this coming Friday morning, normally I do not talk about online business when I am a guest speaker but as the keynote speaker I have decided to make mention of the things I see bloggers do. The sad part is it will be part of my comedic relief segments inside my agenda.
December 12th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
For some reason there’s a separation in people’s minds between off-line and online business.
For the most part, business is business and off-line business and marketing concepts are the same as online.
You understand this very well and that was one of the main reasons I wanted to work with you on BZ and other projects.
December 13th, 2007 at 4:05 am
You are absolutely right. There is no difference whatsoever in the principles. The five don’ts just have to paraphrased.
December 12th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
Guilty, but reforming.
I used to post ‘mile stone’ stats to share with my readers, but stopped that some time ago…
I’ve taken months off without posting, and kick myself everyday for it. I’d be triple the size I am now had I stuck with it the first time.
Personal stuff I’ve tried to keep to a minimum, usually to let my readers know why there’d be days without posts.
Grammar? I think I do okay. I triple check, and try to have one of my pickier friends edit when they’re available.
My hope is I’m building a brand that will continue to grow slowly, but steadily. Instant success comes with instant responsibility, so I’m not in a huge hurry to be a blogging giant. I just like to see progress, and know I’m offering something that helps people.
December 12th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
I think everyone (including myself) has been guilty of this at one point or another. It takes a lot of discipline to stick to the business 100% of the time. Let me rephrase - it takes a lot of discipline to be successful.
December 13th, 2007 at 4:10 am
Unless the objective is to be a successful hippy, we simply have to be disciplined in everything. Luckily, now a days, this is more or less being forced on us as we have to live by the clock and the 0715 metro.
In the blogging business however, we are supposedly our own bosses with unlimited time at our disposal and that is where the problem lies. That shift in perception of the sanctity of the business has to come first. The dos and the don’ts can follow.
December 12th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
I think that personal content can work as part of the overall theme of a blog if it’s done right. However, it is quite difficult to establish yourself as a unique brand. Vic’s favorite blogger, John Chow, is an example of this. But, his legions of look-alikes using Misty Look theme with a sports car header graphic, doing monthly earning reports and ‘fine dining’ posts are an example of why what he does only works for him.
December 12th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
Frank right on the money. He made it with his own thing. I despise the guy for suckering all his readers but then I guess in order for a person to be come a sucker he has to put himself in that place. But at the end of the day he is extremely good ad what he does. Same thing with John Cow just because he made it with his new thing does not make it so now for every clone blogger. People need to learn to stand on there own instead of trying to stand on someones shadow.
December 12th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
Yeah well John Chow is a ‘make money onliner’ and you’re right, what works for him won’t work for most people.
Vic always uses the example of a blog about ants. If people want to learn about ants, why do they care how many people are hitting your site from Google every month or where you had dinner yesterday.
It sounds like you have a good understanding of the principle Frank.
December 12th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
Thanks.
December 12th, 2007 at 10:02 pm
[…] post is tied not only to my post on Stop Publishing Your Stats but it also tied to Court’s How To Trash Your Blog’s Brand In 5 Easy Steps […]
December 13th, 2007 at 12:13 am
It’s better to be a first rate version of yourself,
than a second rate version of someone else…Judy Garland,
I just like the quote I’m not really that old,
December 13th, 2007 at 9:23 am
I just loved that quote I had never heard it bough my lord it is so so true.
December 13th, 2007 at 11:10 am
I agree, that quote is awesome. I wish I would have used it in the post! (of course I had never heard it before)
December 13th, 2007 at 9:51 pm
Lol Ive come close to using myself several times, maybe I should hurry?
December 13th, 2007 at 3:41 am
I guess bloggers walk a fine line between doing the right thing and not. It is so easy to piss people off these days anyway and we just have to live with the consequences.
I’m not sure whether I should be called guilty for posting my monthly stats. You will be the judge it seems but my readers seem to enjoy and thrive on them so why stop.
I do agree however that if they were measly I probably wouldn’t bother for fear of looking like a looser.
December 13th, 2007 at 11:15 am
Monika your stats are pretty solid so I would say that you have to make a judgment call.
I would say that since your site teaches about blogging and your stats are higher than most, you’re ok.
There may be people that get a boat load of traffic that won’t be impressed, so there is that drawback. These are going to be few and far between because most bloggers haven’t reached your level yet.
December 13th, 2007 at 4:01 am
[…] of Courtney Tuttle tells us How to Trash Your Blog’s Brand in 5 Easy Steps.Court article touches on some important factors when it comes to […]
December 13th, 2007 at 7:18 am
#2, #2, #2.
I could not agree more. On my first couple of blogs, the about page usually read, “come with me on my journey as I go from Novice to Expert”. And I wondered why I had so little readers.
No one wants advice from people who don’t know what they are talking about!
December 13th, 2007 at 8:04 am
I guess there could be a reality show type entertainment factor to someone going from novice to expert. But then you have to consider that many people watch American Idol just for the train wreck auditions or Survivor to see them eat leeches.
December 13th, 2007 at 11:19 am
Lol Frank I actually have a short-list of train-wrecked ‘make money online’ blogs that I visit for entertainment.
I’ve found most of them because the train wrecks seems to be Court haters and are constantly criticizing lol. I have to admit that they only get my visits because I like to see the destruction.
Of course, I would never buy an affiliate product they recommend and I don’t take anything they say seriously.
December 13th, 2007 at 11:25 am
That is why I always read the About page, and see how long they have been around before I do anything they suggest. Most of the blog/bloggers just want to make money with 0 experience doing it. That is why I have such a hard time finding good quality blogs/sites to visit every day.
I really love the bloggers that have been blogging for less than a month, but they write a post like “Blogging is like … “.
December 13th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
Freebies I love when the same blogger also writes How to get 10k hits in a day but yet you look at his blog and in 5 seconds you know this guys has no traffic what so ever. LMAO
December 13th, 2007 at 7:49 am
Right on the money. i guess blogger just don’t feel that they are doing some kind of biz. well who is. most of us even me are not having any biz background so never felt blogging has to be treated as one. but if something is related to money then biz matters have got to associate with it.
December 13th, 2007 at 8:52 am
[…] Courtney Tuttle should be required reading for anyone who is serious about their online business: How To Trash Your Blog’s Brand in 5 Easy Steps. If you liked this article: Subscribe by RSS Subscribe by email […]
December 13th, 2007 at 10:42 am
Hi Court,
This is a good post. I’ve been blogging for a while now. I think you have some good advice about sticking with “business” as opposed to personal in your blog.
Later on down the road once your blogs have some success, then you can make a hybrid, like you seem to be able to do with this blog.
Very helpful.
December 13th, 2007 at 11:22 am
Hey Chris!
I think you’re right, to a certain degree the personal stuff works - after a bloggers is already established. Once people respect a blogger to a certain degree, they start to wonder who he/she is. I don’t think my blog is even close to that level yet, so I don’t include much of my personal life.
Even though I used my own name for my brand, I try to stick to the business as much as I can.
December 13th, 2007 at 11:07 am
Great article. The grammar and spelling issue is one that I see a lot. It seems like bloggers forget that blogging is writing. You may know a lot about a subject but if you can’t say it right, you’ll drive readers away.
December 13th, 2007 at 11:24 am
I have to admit that sometimes I don’t go over my articles well enough before I hit the publish button.
I have started writing my posts in two phases, one to create and one to edit. It really helps a lot because you can use a different persona/mentality to edit.
December 13th, 2007 at 11:35 am
Great list there. Should be named 5 ways to Improve your blog brand =).
December 13th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
While I agree with some of the points, I’d say that erratic posting might just decrease traffic somewhat. I don’t think it would hurt your brand. I haven’t posted on one of my blogs in a bit yet ask people who know me what they think about me/my content quality and they’ll tell you it’s a top level read. I haven’t hurt my branding (only perhaps indirectly regarding mindshare, but that’s a negligible impact as I’m less known, generally), only traffic. And my readers don’t quite pay the bills, so no biggie, in that niche.
BTW, Court, I linked to you from the post above on the Supplemental Index. And no, it’s not the blog I was discussing above that’s been somewhat neglected.
Cheers
Gab
December 13th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
Gab It is unfair to say what you say and then say that the blog you are using on your post is not. And I will explain why.
Example number one you linked to a dead page, mmm what does that say about you and your work? Number 2 you linked a SEO services site with a PR3 yet the domain had 17 months mmmm not very good at what you do huh? You have that same site hosted at a $5.95 shared host mmm again not much traffic huh?
On your website you have as a case study hotel-montreal dot com which wanted to rank higher on the keyword search string “Hotel Montreal” they are ranked 6th on page one but under three that do not have in there domain the keywords “Hotel Montreal” to make things worst the site ranks PR3 and the top position ranks PR5, mmmm again you are not very good at what you do uh?
Gab my point is not to bash you even though it is what I just did. But to stress the point that to a person who is clueless a blog not updated my not hurt there brand but to a potential client who is not clueless it would kill you. Imagine all I found out from your own website in less than 5 minutes to sum up your work just like you said.
My second point. When you challenge the point of view of a blogger you kind of need to make sure your underwear is not showing.
December 13th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
My blog isn’t really business orientated - one of the reasons I started doing an earnings report was because I got tired of the b..sh..t figures given my marketers to con people into buying their $49.95 guide to riches ebook! (That’s not directed at you BTW!) I think its useful for people to see what the reality is for most people - in some ways
December 13th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
[…] Courtney Tuttle brings the heat like a baller in his article, How to Trash Your Blog’s Brand in 5 Easy Steps. […]
December 13th, 2007 at 6:30 pm
Thanks Court,
It’s good to get an alternative view from somebody I respect as well.
I was planning to keep posting my stats until I reach my initial goal income and then leave it.
December 13th, 2007 at 7:27 pm
Excellent post Courtney.
You set a great example for the rest of us ‘wannabe’s’ - nice job!
December 13th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
Those are fantastic points. It’s funny to read the 5 steps to “trash your blog” and then realize that it’s exactly what 90% of all Internet marketing blogs are doing. I’m glad I discovered yours.
December 13th, 2007 at 11:22 pm
This is a very well compiled list of not-to-dos. It is insightful and brings to the table the hindsight of your experience. Thanks for sharing
December 14th, 2007 at 2:30 am
[…] How To Trash Your Blog’s Brand In 5 Easy Steps by Courtney Tuttle. […]
December 14th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
[…] How to Trash Your Blog’s Brand in 5 Easy Steps from Courtney Tuttle. […]
December 14th, 2007 at 5:52 pm
Yes, I agree that freedom speech of can be self destruction for us. Too many mistake that we don’t even recognize
December 15th, 2007 at 6:31 am
Mea culpa on every point. Thanks foor the insight.
I have a personal blog for off topic messing around and a business blog for business - kind of like having a personal and a business checking account. That may be a help to those who can’t keep on topic - put it in the other blog.
December 15th, 2007 at 11:22 am
[…] they are thinks these rules do not apply to them this is more than explained on Court’s post How To Trash Your Blog’s Brand In 5 Easy Steps . Please name me a business model where you can start with an investment of $20.00 or less […]
December 15th, 2007 at 7:45 pm
Definitely great tips for everyone to keep in mind.
December 16th, 2007 at 4:10 am
Dear Courtney,
I’m here through Vandelay website design.
I read your entry thinking, “Check, check, check…” Really valid points. I have done a couple of milestone posts if I get picked up by someone major (i.e. the Wall Street Journal, and the like), but unless you are making megabucks or have off the chart subscriber numbers and want to use it as a tutorial that goes viral, posting subscriber numbers can be just as embarrassing as showing your underwear to the public.
As a business and a brand, it’s nobody’s business but your own. I don’t think we should be talking about our numbers publicly, it’s unprofessional and yes, damaging to your image.
Recently I saw a problogger boasting about numbers that I thought were much higher and thought, “He should have kept that to himself.” His value and numbers weren’t yet aligned.
Thanks for a great post. I’ll be back.
Maya Norton
The New Jew: Blogging Jewish Philanthropy
December 24th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
[…] How To Trash Your Blog?s Brand In 5 Easy Steps | Internet Marketing | Strategy & Services - […]
December 24th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
[…] How To Trash Your Blog?s Brand In 5 Easy Steps | Internet Marketing | Strategy & Services - […]
December 26th, 2007 at 11:06 am
[…] message will only appear once. Thanks for visiting! The other day, Courtney Tuttle wrote about How to Trash Your Blog’s Brand in 5 Easy Steps, which struck a chord with me. Not for what was in the list of steps, but what came before […]
December 26th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
Great post! I’m guilty of breaking rules #1 and #5, although I’ve been aware of it and trying to correct the situation.
Eye’d liik two recommended FiyerFox fer #4. It dun do da gammer cheque, but it doo a guud speel cheque. Sew u dond luk liyk an idyot.
December 26th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
It’s not often I disagree with you Court but recent experiences on my own blog have been the exact opposite. At the beginning of November I posted my stats report for october which included reporting earning that I had earned nothing at all and that post gained a ton of traffic and links and brought me many new subscribers.
Recently I went hugely off-topic on my blog and put in a load of highly personal posts. I thought it would hurt my numbers but it hasn’t at all. People are telling me that the honestly has just made them like my blog more. I’m sure I’ve lost a few but I think I’ve gained some too.
February 17th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Straying off topic seems to be the easiest thing to do as most bloggers lose focus. Any any industry, if you are 100% focused on the vertical you are writing about, I feel you will be the most successful.
April 15th, 2008 at 12:26 am
[…] How to trash your blogs brands in 5 easy steps ? publié sur courtneytuttle.com […]