Create a Niche by Branding Yourself

Branding yourself is a term used to describe a process. It is the process of uncovering your unique and valuable strengths as an individual. We all have strengths, never sell yourself short. Everyone is an expert in something. To brand yourself, you then use your unique strengths to establish yourself as a well-known expert in those areas. By identifying yourself as an expert, you create a niche, or single area of focus. The purpose of finding your niche and branding yourself is to develop a following of people interested in your specific area of expertise. You want to present yourself as a reliable source of expert information in your brand.

What are You Good At Doing?

The first step to branding yourself is of course to discover what you are good at doing. If your strengths are not obvious to you immediately, ask some of your friends and family what they think you do well. They will likely have several answers. Consider which of these strengths you want to pursuit as your brand. Once you have discovered your brand, you should develop a branding statement. A branding statement for an individual is like a corporate mission statement. It is a clear, concise and well thought out statement of exactly what you plan to accomplish with your brand. The purpose of a branding statement is to allow you to see in black and white your goals and purpose. Consult your branding statement regularly to keep from losing track of your purpose as you develop your brand.

So How Do I Brand Myself Online?

Now that you have developed your branding statement, it is time to establish yourself as an expert. The best way to do this is online. The internet allows global users to see your work, your talents, and discover you as an expert 24 hours a day. There are several ways to be seen online including creating a website, or blog, writing articles, and commenting in other blogs, or forums. As you do this, remain focused on your niche. You do not want to include things in your writing, blog, or comments that are not within your area of expertise.

The Good and the Bad

Realize that branding yourself online takes time. The most common mistake is to rush. If you rush to publish articles, make blog posts or leave comments, you will likely make mistakes that lead to poor quality. If you want people to see you as an expert, you must continually make quality posts, quality comments, and quality writing. Take the time to develop well thought out work. Do not leave vague comments solely for the purpose of posting a link. This will discredit you online.

Using Social Media to Promote Your Brand

Social Media is a great way to help get the word out about your website, blog, and articles. There are numerous social networks you can use to promote yourself and establish your personal brand. Linked In, Facebook, Twitter, Digg and Myspace are just a few social networking sites where you can link and promote to your work.

When you use social media, it is best to begin with the accounts you are already using. If you have a network of Twitter followers already established go ahead and promote your online content there. You will want to clean your online profiles of any information that isn’t specifically related to your brand. But, using already established social media accounts will help you kick-start online promotion of your brand.

It is important to participate in these social networks rather than simply using them solely as a method of promotion. You can also answer questions on answer websites such as Yahoo answers or Answers.com to establish yourself as an expert and refer readers to your online content.

How To Make a Website That Makes Money

Just my opinion here folks.

People ask me all this the time. How do I make a website that earns money? How do I make a websites so I can leave my crappy 9-5?

Typically I would use this opportunity to tell about my web design services and offer to help them create a website. But after I tell them how much I charge they almost always change their mind. Why? Because most people are cheap and lazy. Most web newbies tend to think if you create a website, then people will magically show up to buy their goods.

I wish! It’s true that tons of people have been able to make a comfortable living online after creating a website, but it takes hours and hours of work, research and dedication to achieve this.

So lesson 1 of How to Make a Website is, have REAL expectations. Don’t think that you can just sign up for hosting, pick a cool sounding domain name, install WordPress and create some content and the people will come. Your blog or website will be one of a billion online, so how will people find you? You want to make your own website, but what is it going to be about? What’s your topic?

Start by reading posts located on the right. Start with Getting Started Online and don’t stop reading until you reach the last line of When To Call A Professional.

What? You don’t like reading? How to do you expect to make your own website without first figuring out if you even need one?

Lesson 2 is read more. lol. Easy right? The easiest way to create a website is just read! There are tons of details tutorials, tips and tricks all over the web that will show you how to do this, including this site. Just stop by the tutorials sections and look for wordpress help.

Lesson 3, the final lesson, is the hardest – start working today! You never be a success in life if you are scared of failing. You want to know how to make a website but are too scared to try anything new. What if I create a website, then break it!

No problem. Build another one. Believe me, it goes a lot faster the second time around. I can’t you how many times I have created a website and done something completely stupid to mess it up. One minute it’s working fine, the next minute my site is gone! Frustrating yes! Helped in the learned process? Most definitely!

I know this post isn’t probably not what you thought it was going to be. It’s really just a rant hoping to inspire a generation of slackers and pessimists to get off the couch and do something.

Tis’ All!

Get a Free Premium Twitter Background

Since entering Keller’s blog design contest at Fresh eVenture, I have been preoccupied with adding content and tutorials to my site. Everyday I sit down to write compelling content about getting started online. I haven’t written this much since college, but I am loving every minute of it!

In between researching content for articles, I still find time to freelance web design and browse my favorite blogs via Google Reader.

Yesterday while visiting one of my favorite icon sites 365 Icon, which has AWESOMELY FREE graphics and icons, I noticed an ad for TwitterBug.

TwitterBug advertised free, high quality Twitter backgrounds, so I was curious to see what exactly “high quality” meant and was pleasantly surprised! They have some of the BEST FREE Twitter backgrounds around. They also offer customization for just $4.99! What a steal! Read more