How to create a strong branding image for your blog

Module 7 -:  This is Part 7 of a series of articles I started a few days ago titled: ”  How to Blog for Free and Make Money.” 

With the growing awareness in Nigeria of the possibility of making money online, more and more Nigerians are joining the popular blog and other online business models.

Online businesses in Nigeria, especially blogging, are now becoming competitive. And if you really want to have a profitable blog, you have to develop proven ways to stand out in the Nigerian blogosphere. While this may sound like something that requires a lot of budget, it really isn’t.

Starting a profitable blog in Nigeria won’t necessarily cost you anything, but you will have to put in a lot of time and effort – that’s the price you pay for not wanting to spend a dime! Here are five cost reduction tips for building a successful and profitable blog without any cost or expense:

5 Ways To Cut The Costs Of Starting A Profitable Blog

1. Find out everything you need to know

Since you plan on not wasting money on your blog from the start, you should be prepared to do it yourself. There is no more room for excuses like  I don’t know how to use a blogger,  or questions like  How do I promote my new blog for free?

My friend, you have to learn how to manage everything from creating your blog to promoting it, from basic to technical. How  ? You can achieve this by taking the time to learn how to deal with these things on your own. The Internet is full of free resources to help you understand everything you need to know.

How much time you spend in the learning phase depends on how much you already know. If you are already familiar with some or most of the procedures you will be doing as a blogger, you will get a lot less reading than someone who is a complete beginner.

2.plan, plan and plan

One of the reasons most Nigerian blogs don’t go anywhere is lack of planning. Just like in business, building a profitable blog requires proper planning.

You need to understand what your blog will mean. You need to know who your readers are and what kind of information they want and highly value. You should create an editorial calendar detailing how you will plan your posts. And you need to plan how you’re going to promote your blog in order to get the word out.

Implementing what you’ve learned (  as recommended earlier  ) begins with the planning phase. You also need to take your time with this step because you can’t afford to go wrong.

3. Choose a niche with low competition

Although there are already thousands of Nigerian blogs in the blogosphere, they are all crammed into several niches, among which Entertainment and Celebrity Niche are known to be.

Building a blog that stands out and attracts attention in a niche with too much competition will take a lot of effort and money. And since you don’t plan to spend kobo, you need to enter a niche with low competition but huge demand. Examples include the travel niche (  how to get out of Nigeria  ), the weight loss niche, etc. You will only find a few blogs or even Nigerian blogs on these topics, but the demand for them in Nigeria is huge.

If you pick a highly competitive niche with zero budget, your blog will only “get  lost in the crowd  .” “No one will see it, and you will soon give it up, as many others have.

4. Start with a free platform

While your blog on a self-hosted platform is highly recommended for many reasons, it is not required. And if you plan to start blogging from zero Naira, you can stay put with a free blogging platform (  like Blogger, WordPress.com, or Typepad  ), as self-hosting requires the purchase of a hosting plan. …

Even if you’re blogging on a free platform, it’s highly recommended that you buy a domain name – it only costs $ 10 per year. But if you still can’t afford to pay a dime, you can use the default domain name  .blogspot.com  or  .wordpress.com  , which you get for free. the platform you are using.

5. Adopt free promotion strategies

Without a doubt, you need to promote your blog if you want others to know about it. If you think visitors will start visiting your blog using osmosis after posting, you may have to wait months, or even years, for this to happen.

So, to get attention to your blog, you need to promote it. It doesn’t have to cost money, as there are many strategies you can adopt for free. These include guest posting, forum marketing, and social media promotion.

How to build a strong online brand for yourself and your blog

Your brand online is what comes to mind first when people find your name or your name on their blog anywhere on the Internet. In other words, your brand is the impression people have of you and your blog.

With a good brand online, your blog visitors, social media followers, and potential buyers will have a lot of confidence in you. the products and services you sell online. Your brand also helps you stand out, even in a highly competitive environment.

The best part about a brand online is that you can communicate it on a wide variety of destinations. For example, if you’ve built a solid blog brand over the years, you’ll find it easier to get started and build another blog quickly because of the good impression you created with your first blog. So having a brand gives you that kind of recall value in the online marketplace and ensures that you never have to start over.

Enough about the importance of building a strong online brand for your blog and yourself. Now let’s see how to achieve this. If you want to create an impressive online personality, here are five tips:

a. Be unique

People are always on the lookout for new ideas. New ideas are what make the Internet interesting: new post ideas, new arguments, new questions, new opinions, new products, etc. For the same reason, even established brands are constantly introducing new ideas.

You will quickly realize your dream of building a strong brand for your blog and for yourself if you are known for something new and unique. Let your unique personality flow through your messages. And always think of new blog ideas that might be of interest to people.

Now you don’t have to constantly introduce new ideas. All you need to stay interesting to others is to always add a unique touch to what you do. Approach your blog topics from a unique perspective. Decorate your messages with unique and amazing images. Think of some unique ideas for your social media updates. And you will be unique in a way that you will love and admire.

b. Value proposition

What else could be more effective in building a brand than delivering value to people  ? If you post high quality, credible content that answers people’s pressing questions and concerns,  how can they forget your blog  ? If you publish articles that are both educational and entertaining,  how will you not make a lasting good impression in people’s minds  ?

Besides providing valuable content, always be ready to help people. Sometimes readers will ask questions in the comments section. Always answer these questions promptly. Additionally, there are times when your readers will send you emails with various requests. Always do your best to help you.

vs. Be transparent

People appreciate and trust people who are transparent in all of their affairs. What else do you want people to describe to you other than words like  transparent  and  trustworthy

  ?

You are sure you can’t be perfect and your readers already know that. Therefore, feel free to admit it and reveal your own shortcomings, especially if it benefits your readers. Contrary to popular belief, telling others about your mistakes so that they can learn from them is a smart way to build confidence.

If you try to present yourself as an infallible man who never makes mistakes, you will. I have to try to hide a lot of your weaknesses and mistakes, and sooner or later people will find out. You already know the end result.

re. Hit your pipe

Sometimes people are too impressed with you because they don’t know what to call you. They feel  overwhelmed  by many descriptions, like an  amazing blogger,  difference maker, subject matter  expert,  thought leader  , etc.

Since the brand is always consistent, you need to teach people exactly what you want them to think of you. Sure, you can be a lot to people, but your brand can only fit one or two of these descriptions. So you have to call yourself whatever you want people to call you.

e. Don’t forget the visuals

While your blog logo, theme, and tagline aren’t as important to building a strong online brand as most people think, you shouldn’t underestimate them. Have a professionally designed logo that truly reflects what you want people to remember about you. Pick a theme that is perfect for your brand. And think about the perfect slogan that speaks for itself.

Using a free domain name vs. a custom domain: which is better for branding?

If you are starting a blog with the goal of making money for a long time, you really need to take every aspect seriously from the start. The ultimate goal of most bloggers is to get five to six figures from their blogs each month, but many miss too many steps necessary to achieve that goal.

There is no doubt that you need a blogging platform to blog your blog on, and you can choose between free platforms (  such as Blogger, Typepad, and WordPress.com  ) and auto platforms. -hosted. (  eg WordPress.org  ).

While it is generally recommended to start on self-hosted platforms, it is not required. If you have no problem with the handicaps and crazy conditions that come with free platforms, you can use them and you should be fine.

But there is another very important aspect of blogging that a lot of people don’t like. take seriously: the domain name. Few, if any, of your readers or visitors would be interested in whether you’re blogging on a free or proprietary platform. But most will be interested in your domain name because they need to know it and remember it so that they can find your blog again another time. Basically,  your domain name is your blogger identity  .

As with your blogging platform, you have two options for choosing a domain name: you can use a free URL. offered by free blogging platforms or register your own custom domain name If you don’t know the difference between the two types of domain names, here’s an explanation:

A free domain name usually includes a blogging platform extension (  eg yourblog.wordpress.com, yourblog.blogspot.com, etc.  ); in contrast, a custom domain name does not contain such an extension (  for example, yourblog.com, yourblog.net, etc.  )

A free domain name, as the name suggests, is free; but registering a custom domain name costs around $ 10 per year, as charged by most domain name registrars.

Now the big question is, should you go for a free domain name if you are using a free blogging platform or accessing a custom domain? The following comparison of the two options will give you a good convincing answer to this question.

I. First, a custom domain name is much easier to remember than a free domain

  name because a custom domain name does not contain extensions. This way your readers and visitors will easily remember  yourblog.com  , but it will be more difficult for them to remember something like  yourblog.typepad.com
  or  yourblog.blogspot. com  .

Also, most people conclude that your domain name ends in .com. If you use a free domain name, some of your regular readers will miss your blog URL if they mistakenly miss the .blogspot or .wordpress extension. But you can simply avoid this by registering a personal domain.

II. Second, a custom domain makes you look serious and professional. 

 Many internet users have a biased view of free domain names, which is why blogs with such domains are taken less seriously. This bias is justified by the fact that most of the abandoned blogs that litter the blogosphere have free domain names (  most people use free domain blogs for testing  ).

Plus, when registering a custom domain name, your SEO efforts will be in your best interest in the long run. Even if you change blogging platforms, you can still export your content and keep the same link structure. In this case, you won’t have any problems with the search engines.

But if you’re using a custom domain, your SEO efforts are credited to the free platform you’re blogging on, not your blog. That way, even if you customize your domain later, you won’t be able to shift your SEO efforts from the free domain to your custom domain, and search engines will assume you’ve just started over.

In addition, using a free domain name closes you from many opportunities available online. Some affiliate programs do not allow members to promote their offers using blogs with free domain names. Some ad networks will not accept blogs without custom domain names. In short, you are missing out on a lot of opportunities if you use a free domain name.

Conclusion

Buying a custom domain is much better than sticking with a free domain for the reasons stated above, and given that custom domains only cost $ 10 a year, you really don’t have any. excuse to stick with a free domain name.

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