I’ve always been wary of blogging about blogging because most of my blog audience isn’t interested in the topic. But personally I love reading and talking about blogging, so I’ve decided to start a blog series that I’ll be keeping separate from my regular content.
You won’t see these posts featured on my home page or shared on my blog’s Facebook page, but instead you can find them under “Blogging” in my navigation menu, on Bloglovin’, or you can subscribe to my separate blogging newsletter for updates.
So after my post about how I make money travel blogging, a lot of people asked how I grew my blog traffic to where it is today. Now, I definitely don’t have all the answers (I’m getting around 150k page views/month now, so my blog is still fairly small) but I do have one answer: branding.
Branding is not something I thought much about when I started blogging. In fact for a lot of the time I’ve been blogging I’m not sure I even really understood what people meant when they talked about branding. Like, something to do with candy wrappers? And what does that have to do with a travel blog?
Uh, a whole lot.
I’m writing this post for everyone who asks me about starting a blog, how to grow an audience, how to start making money from blogging, and how to score like, big sponsorships.
See what I did there? I told you exactly whom this blog post is for, so if it’s not aimed at you you won’t need to read it – but if it is aimed at you you’ll want to stick around to read the whole thing! That’s basically what your blog branding should do.
Ideally, you want people to be able to see pretty much straight away what your blog is all about and who it is you’re writing for. This can be done with your header and tagline, but also with details like your blog’s theme and color scheme, your photos and the way you edit them, the stuff you put in your sidebar, the way you write your blog posts, social media updates, and even emails, and then of course the topics and content of your blog posts.
As a travel blogger, branding even includes the places you visit, how you travel, and if you’re going to be in a lot of your photos, the clothes you wear.
You want all of this to be consistent with the brand you’ve created. A good place to start is by thinking about your niche – the particular topic you specialize in, you’re target audience – who it is you’re writing for, and what it is your blog is trying to achieve. You want the look of your blog, your writing style, and everything you publish to appeal to your target reader.
Branding + Blog Design
Now, my website definitely does not look fancy and could probably do with a sprucing up (I did all the design work myself because I’m that much of a control freak), but in an ideal blogging world it would look super me, super appealing to my target audience, and super unique. You definitely don’t want your blog looking like every other blog out there.
If you’re not ready to drop a few thousand on a custom design, I highly recommend checking out Blog Beautiful, where Marianne literally walks you through the steps of branding your blog, including things like choosing a color palette and fonts, and even gives you tutorials for how to achieve the look and design that you want.
While I loved this ebook for its in depth look at the elements of a well-branded blog design, it also offers a helpful system to get you to define your niche, target audience, and blog purpose – all key to establishing your brand.
Branding + Blog Content
Most people aren’t going to see your home page first, instead they’ll stumble on a blog post and then decide if they want to head to your homepage or about page. You want everything you write to be “on brand” so that if someone wants to read one of your posts, they’re probably going to want to read all of your posts.
I’m a big believer in the power of a strong blogging voice. If someone reads some of your posts because they’re interested in a particular topic, and you’ve written those posts in a way that makes them feel like they’ve gotten to know you, then they’re more likely to read other posts outside of that topic they were first interested in, just because you’ve written them. And then maybe you’ll inspire them to visit Tajikistan!
In all my blog posts I also try to casually link to other related posts in the hopes that people will read one, and then another, and then five more, and then why yes, they would love to subscribe to my newsletter and read everything I ever write!
And yes, I realize that this post isn’t very on brand because my blog doesn’t focus on the business of blogging – which is a reason I’m not featuring any of my blogging content on my home page or linking to it from my travel posts.
But I have written enough posts on blogging that I can be like, oh hey, if you want a run through of everything you should know when starting a travel blog check out this post, you can click here to read about how I make money blogging, and if you’re feeling overwhelmed by it all maybe read this.
And guys, if you have a post that encompasses everything your blog is about, promote the eff out of it (no, I’m not one of those cool bloggers who can swear online… or in real life). Probably a third of my Facebook page likes came from my post about How Travel Killed My Ambition – a post that I think pretty accurately sums up what it is I blog about.
On the flip side, getting tons of traffic and followers from a post that doesn’t really have anything to do with the rest of the things you blog about isn’t going to be much help at all to your long term blog growth.
Branding + Blog Traffic
Basically what I’ve been saying is that solid branding is key to growing a loyal audience.
Good branding won’t automatically bring you loads of readers, as you’re also going to need to promote everything like crazy, but I will say that a lack of good branding will mean that even with that promotion it’s going to be a lot harder to grow your blog.
I think branding is oftentimes something bloggers don’t think much about when they first start out (I certainly didn’t), but also something most bloggers probably wish they had figured out way earlier. Because like I said, if you start off with solid branding then you’re going to be able to grow your blog traffic way more quickly.
Branding + Sponsorships
What I hadn’t realized until I started working with brands, is that having a very clear brand of your own is also key to getting blog sponsorships.
I used to worry that my design was too girly and that I was probably putting off potential male readers with all the glitter, but now I almost wish that the male readers I do have would go away (mostly kidding, I love you guys!), because most of the brands I work with target a female audience.
If you have really strong branding it will be much easier for a brand you want to work with to take a quick look at your site and see that yes, you are a perfect fit for them.
Okay, that was a lot about branding! This post actually started off as an email response to someone but then I figured I might as well make it into a blog post. Glad I did, because that would have been a crazy long email to send someone!
As always, if you have anything to add please do share in the comments – I’m definitely not an expert on any of this!
Rosie says
Great post, I really enjoyed this. I worked in marketing for 3 and a half years, and my job was to work with brands to build their online brand; can you believe that I barely even thought about it for my own blog until recently? I guess people don’t consider it at all when they first start out because they’re just blogging for the love of it, and probably don’t think about branding until brands start getting in touch with them.
I think another important thing is to try and take a step back and look at your blog as a stranger. A better idea is probably to get a friend / family member who hasn’t seen your blog look at it and ask them what they think about it? Is it confusing? Is there any kind of clear message or branding? Are there things they don’t get? Is there something that doesn’t work on your website, or something they think users need to be able to get at quickly.
Silvia says
Oooh very good point – and that reminds me to add in a bit about Peek User Testing! Have you used it? It’s kind of cool watching a stranger evaluate your site (and also kind of scary, haha). Thanks!
Diana Maria says
Thank you for this! I need all the tips I can get as I only just started to take blogging seriously and I feel as though there is so much to learn! This was such a helpful read thanks so much for all of the links and advice love!
http://mylovelierdays.com
Silvia says
Aah so happy you found it helpful! I was really bad at seeking advice from other bloggers when I started out, so now I’m trying to be as open as possible with what I do know about it now.
Van says
Ahhh Silvia, don’t say that you’re a small blogger with those numbers – makes me feel so demotivated about mine 😀 Jokes aside, I love that you’re willing to share your tips with us. I have two quick questions that you might want to answer in future posts? One: Define “promoting the eff out of your posts”. Aside from Pinterest, is that FB ads? Interaction in FB groups? I’ve had a look at some of these but for once, I don’t get how people have the time to promote a zillion of other people’s posts and then also, my blog covers a relatively small niche – if I now start to share other people’s posts from topics I don’t cover at all on my blog, that surely affects my branding negatively, right? And secondly, how do you manage to upkeep your Insta theme? I’m using Planoly but I still find it so hard as all my Arctic pictures are either snow-white or Northern Lights-green and it just all doesn’t go together at all 😀 Any advice would be highly appreciated!!
Silvia says
Haha I just meant like, people who blog about blogging seem to always have crazy page views and earn like $50,000 a month. And thanks for the questions too – I do weirdly enjoy writing about blogging so it’s nice to have an excuse to write more posts.
For now I will say that I don’t see much value in those interaction Facebook groups. I mean, it might work for some people, but personally I don’t use them because that’s not where my target audience is hanging out. Plus like you said, it’s not really helpful to share stuff far outside my niche, and I don’t have time for all that! I think there are more effective ways to promote your blog (some of which I actually covered in my Pinterest course!). The ebook I recommended does cover promotion really well, I think.
I also JUST started using planoly, before I was totally winging it on Instagram, haha. @dreamingandwandering does a gorgeous job of mixing snow white photos with northern lights photos, so maybe check out her feed? I think a lot comes down to how you edit the photos 🙂 Oooh maybe I should do a post on that too! lol
Van says
Thanks for the tip! I hadn’t heard of her account before but you’re right, her feed is gorgeous! Yeah I guess I should just be consistent and edit every picture in Lightroom (and use the same preset I guess) instead of switching back and forth with Picmonkey 😀
Gonna have another go at that ebook too. I know I bought it a while ago when the whole bundle was on offer but never really took the time to actually work with it… Thanks for the reminder!
Silvia says
Yeah, I have a couple of presets for different scenes and try to sort of stick with them to keep things consistent. And I hadn’t bothered to look at the ebook for ages but when I did I was really surprised at how much she talked about! I really wish I had read it earlier in my blogging career, as that stuff took me aaages to learn on my own.
Kelsey says
Thank you soooooo much for all the blogging posts! I know you keep saying that your blog isn’t geared towards that but I really appreciate it and I’m sure lots of others do, too. And for writing posts that would typically be semi-boring (let’s face it, learning how to grow your blog is not nearly as exciting as traveling and what not) but for doing it in a very entertaining way. Love reading your blog, it’s one of my favorites! And yes, I’m pretty sure I found you with that “How Travel Killed My Ambition” post, haha!
Silvia says
Haha it’s crazy how that post is stiiill getting shared on Facebook! And yay, really happy to hear it was helpful – as I was writing this part of me was wondering if anyone would actually read it.
Sonja says
I’ve been blogging for just over a year and been struggling with this as I move from being more of a traveller to settling down somewhere. But this has really helped me think about my branding and how I should do it! Thanks!
Silvia says
That’s awesome, I’m so glad it helped!
Jessica C says
I love reading what you write and one of those reasons is because of your branding and tone of voice. It’s super important and is something I’ve been thinking a lot about recently. I mean, we all follow our favorite bloggers because we feel like we kind of know them, right? It’s such a cool thought. And I’m sharing this with a new blogger who wants to grow as well, so I know she’ll find it help too!
Silvia says
It’s so true – I’ve followed some bloggers from their start as lifestyle bloggers to their current mommy blogs, even though I’m not sure I’ll ever want to have kids! All because I feel like I know them.
Ellis Veen says
Very useful post as I am still in the start up phase of my blog. Great advice. Thanks.
Silvia says
Good luck!
sabrina barbante says
Just like you wrote, branding is the last thing you think about and the first you wish you had 🙂
I’m no exception! Great post, as usual
Silvia says
haha yup!
Dóra says
This was a great read, thank you! I think we usually don’t think about branding at all, but it’s also important in our everyday life. How do we brand ourselves just determines our job, our friendships, etc. Even our coffee choice is a part of a self branding. The same with our blogs. Thank you for reminding me about this! Great thoughts! I will check out every source you linked 🙂 And, I just have to tell you, I love these winter outfits and pics! You just made me miss snow sooo much 😀
Silvia says
That’s so true!
Ashlyn | From Heart And Seoul says
These are such great tips Silvia! I’m currently working on trying to really narrow and specify my niche, and focus on targeting ONLY those people that I’m aiming my writing at.
You should be so proud of 150k page views! That’s impressive 🙂
Silvia says
Yeah, it’s definitely a chore narrowing down, but worth it!
Krisa says
Thank you for the advice! As a travel blogger just starting out its so great to hear from other people who have built their passions and blogs into something amazing! 🙂 The link are really useful too. It is also great to have this community of female travel bloggers so we can learn and help each other out! can’t wait to read more from you
Silvia says
I do love the community so much!
Freya says
Oh this is such a great post! As a newbie blogger I seem to be hearing a lot about branding, branding, branding this week and it’s so helpful to have a little more advice than just ‘pick a niche’. It’s so true that your blog voice is super important too. Come to think of it many of the bloggers I follow consistently is because of their voice – I’m often not even thinking of going where they’re writing about haha, but I like how they write. Thanks for all the helpful tips. That Peek tool sounds very interesting, though a little scary too 🙂
Silvia says
Yeah I think voice is especially important for travel bloggers because it’s so true – a lot of our readers might not be interested in everywhere we travel to, so we have to make them interested! haha
Scuba Girl says
Great post Silvia! I really enjoyed reading it. Keep up the great work 🙂
Babs Sofia says
I happened to be one of your blog viewers that stumbled across it… but I’m in love! These particular posts about blogging have been great, most honest and helpful one I’ve read yet (and trust me I’ve been reading a lot of them!) I look forward to reading your actual travel posts now, your writing style has gotten me hooked!
Silvia says
Ah I’m so glad you found them helpful. The whole blogging biz felt so mysterious to me for years, so I’ve been trying to share the stuff I wish I had known earlier.
Lindsay Dollinger says
Thanks for sharing about it being ok to niche in a more feminine way. I love being girly but didn’t want to turn male readers off my blog. Great read! <3
singapore business branding consultancy says
Fantastic! One of the most comprehensive articles on branding that I have read. Thank you for this one.
Louis says
Hey, I just want to say what an amazing and inspiring post. There is 1000s of posts where the blogger says I will tell you the secrets and then just tries to sell you anything. You have give awesome insights into blogging.
Thank you.
Adventuress_Ali says
Stumbled across your blog researching tips on ‘how to’ (not starve) in Norway. :p Absolutely loving the way you write and super glad I stumbled across this whole other super helpful area of your writing. Thank you!!
Hoping to continue wandering Norway, and I suppose write about traveling while lame. Literally. Cant walk, in the hiking wonderland. Hahaha. Grrrrrr sigh pout mope…. And really maybe even finally after 20 yrs actually create a website/blog. Thank you for the tips and links to more tips. Great reading for a rainy day.
Sarah says
I just started making my blog completely about travel. I’ve had to delete some blog posts that were not on travel. It’s a work in progress but I work on it day by day.