Tag Archives: blog design

Blogging

You Look Pretty

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You Look Pretty

You Look Pretty

Today’s FortunateBluFrog fortune is all about how things look. I remember Sunstreaker as the most vain of the autobots so I popped him into the photo. Just like yesterday I used Mirage. I didn’t explain that Mirage was the one who could disappear and thus be more careful and reserved. Nope, today is about being pretty.

What Does This Mean for Bloggers?

Our blog is a reflection of who we are. So, is your blog accurately reflecting you. Is it put together and looking nice? Or, is it a disaster and a mess. Are there flashing lights and garish buttons all over the place. Are you still using the free standard templates from blogger? Take a moment to spruce up the place.

But it is Not All About Looks

You could have the most amazing looking blog on the planet but if every piece of information you write is an ad then who is going to read it? You know what I do 1st with every magazine I get, I shake out all those inserts and recycle them. I have no use for things getting in my way of flipping through magazines and reading the content. I even rip out those heavy stock ads for book clubs and other junk.

But My Ads Help Generate My Income

I know they do and ads on my blog help me earn a little money as well. But do your ads get int he way of your content. Are they ads for things that you’d never buy? Are you selling people on the idea of something that you don’t beleive in? I have nothing against ads they just need to be part of the site rather than an afterthought. Notice that I didn’t say that I ripped out ads that were on the regular pages of a magazine, it is just those afterthoughts that make me crazy. Don’t let your content be lost because of an afterthought.

Conferences, Photo-A-Day

Brand, Brand, Brand!

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Brand, Brand, Brand!
Photo-A-Day #1419

I’m going brand crazy lately because I am so excited about my upcoming new Blog design. Yes, my blog is being redesigned by someone really cool. I don’t have the design to share with you, yet. But, I do have the new logo. I’ve been reading about branding and getting your brand out in front of everyone. So I stopped calling this blog The BenSpark and shortened it to BenSpark.com.

People seem to know me as Ben. When I go to conventions people call me Ben. So I am known as Ben Spark. That works for me, it works for this blog. For the past 5 years I have commented on blogs all over the place under the name BenSpark. So my brand is out there. But I’m still not making it personal enough. I started the branding overhaul by personalizing my Twitter Account. If you are on twitter it is crucial that you create your own background and you brand it. Make it personal and let people know who you are.

I began to think about blog conferences and blogger events. Bloggers like Shoemoney and John Chow have T-shirts that they give away. Other bloggers have their brands out and about as well. So I decided to step it up and put my brand out there too. I already have my “I’m Not A Famous Blogger” T-Shirt and I also decided to buy some baseball hats and have the new logo embroidered onto the hats. I haven’t done that step yet but hopefully they will look as sweet as the mockup I created from these photos that I took with my Xshot today.

I have some other branding related ideas for swag and as they happen I’ll talk about them but I don’t like revealing much about this until I actually have items in hand. But if you are heading to IZEAFest or Affiliate Summit East you may get a chance to pick up some BenSpark.com swag. I’m going to have some good stuff too!

Okay, so what do you think of the hats? I personally like the flames but Allison says they are a bit redneck. However, I don’t care, I like flames, I love em on motorcycles, my Harley shirts and even on Optimus Prime (I’m sure my Transformers lifelong fan status might be revoked just for thinking that). But I’d like to hear that you folks have to say. Let me know what you think of the logo, the hats the colors. Which color is your favorite?