One of the most difficult things about creating passive income is the amount of time you must invest up front when creating a new stream. Don’t get me wrong – the time and hard work invested is all worth it. But as most passive income earners will tell you – you have to put the time in upfront (a lot of it) in order to see the rewards in the future. While PFI is still in it’s infancy stages (9+ months), I often like to look back and think about the things that I spent a lot of time on when I first started out. While I have an IT background, I really didn’t know much about blogs and the power of what they could do. I spent many hours researching all sorts of topics and ideas about how to start a blog. All of that time spent was well worth it – but what if someone would have provided me with all the details upfront?
I would like to share some of the things I have learned along the way for any newbies out there looking to get started – or for any established bloggers who may have missed something along the way (I know I have missed a lot in my short time as a blogger). Why not make it easier for fellow bloggers starting out to save some time by sharing some of my research?
Today I am going to set aside the personal finance post and discuss a topic that I think is FUN. That topic is identifying a brand (or identity) for your blog or website. I can’t tell you the amount of time I spent researching what a Gravatar and Favicon were and why would you even care if you had one. If there was a site (I am sure there was) where I could have found all of this information up front – I could have saved a lot of time and focused on something else. I believe in the power of a picture or image to get the point across. That is why I have created a brand or image for my readers to identify my site with. I am slowly working to brand my identity for PFI using the various methods below.
Before we start, I wanted to point out where all of these logo’s and images were designed. Logos for Websites is an incredible resource for anyone looking for a logo, Twitter background, blog header, etc. The price is reasonable and the work is very professional. If you are looking to establish your online brand, consider checking out Logos for Websites. Use any of the links provided here and receive a 5% discount off the original price!
Blog Header
The PFI Blog Header is probably the first thing that catches a readers eye when they visit my site. Therefore, I want that image to stand out and keep the readers attention as soon as they come to my site. Many bloggers will tell you that the most important thing for your site is to have good content – I completely agree. But if you ignore the aesthetics of your site, people will not stay long. If I come to another blog for the first time and see an unorganized site that is not aesthetically pleasing, I leave in less than 10 seconds – no matter how great the content.
Blog headers will vary depending on your theme or available space on your page. The PFI Blog Header shown above is a simple representation of the identity I am trying to establish. The blue circular arrows represent cash flow that is recycling itself. The orange wording – ‘Passive Family Income‘ tells my readers the name of my site and where they are at. Someday I may choose to enhance this logo but I think it works well for what I have right now.
Gravatar
A Gravatar stands for a Globally Recognized Avatar and is one of my favorite ways to identify myself (and eventually my company) to the rest of the online world. A Gravatar helps to identify who you are when you leave a comment on another blog that supports the use of Gravatars. If you still don’t know what I am talking about – check out the comments section on this site and you will see the images displayed next to the commenter. I am a firm believer in using images and pictures to get the point across. What better way to identify yourself on other blogs than to use a Gravatar to define your presence. I absolutely love seeing my Gravatar show up after leaving a comment on another bloggers site.
Creating a Gravatar is one of the simplest things you can do to establish an online identity for yourself. All you need is an image (most formats are accepted) and an email address and you are set. Take a look at the PFI Gravatar displayed above. I have mentioned it before, but that image represents my cash flow and how I recycle it to make more cash. Leaving comments on other sites that use this image identifies who I am and gives the readers (on other sites) a reason to come over and check out PFI.
Favicon
Check out the PFI Favicon image above. This icon is just a smaller version of my Gravatar and is another reminder of how I am trying to establish my online identity. Please note that my Favicon is actually not working currently (at the time of writing this post). I broke the functionality when I recently upgraded my version of the WordPress theme I am using. If you need some help understanding how to install your Favicon – drop me an email and I will walk you through it.
Entrecard
An Entrecard is yet another way to establish your online identity more or less for free. All you need is another image of your identity (or product). You can simply create an Entrecard account using a 125 x 125 image. The PFI Entrecard was used to setup my account and can be seen on other blogs from time to time using the Entrecard widgit. I can also use this image for other advertisements if I decide to promote my site, as the 125 x 125 image is common around the blogging community.
Email Feed icon
A recent new addition (not officially launched at the time of this post) is the customized PFI Email Feed icon. I am so excited about this new iconto notify readers to sign-up for free email feeds. I started out using a free icon found on another website to sign-up for my free email feed. As part of my long-term strategy – I wanted to continue to establish my brand so I had a custom icon created that nobody else out there had. The icon was built off of the same concepts used for the Blog Header, Gravatar, and Favicon. The blue arrows circulating around an orange email envelope.
RSS Feed icon
The PFI RSS Feed icon was built around the same concept as the Email Feed icon. I wanted a customized RSS icon so my new readers could sign up for free RSS feeds that nobody else had. Once again, the blue circulating arrows were used around the traditional RSS orange icon.
Like the quality of the images you saw for PFI? Consider using Logos for Websites as a resource for quality produced images at a very reasonable price! Click on the Logos for Website image and receive a 5% discount off the original price!
How are you creating your online identity? Do you use images like the ones I noted above to establish and build your presence? What other ways can bloggers use to identify themselves and stand out?
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I have used Logos For Websites on more than one occasion and was extremely pleased with the quality of the logo AND the quick turnaround. You really can’t go wrong having them create your logos.
Dusty’s last blog post..3 Things You Must Do Now In Order to Minimize The Risk Of Losing Your Job
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I have never even thought of most of these ways to further your brand. I would really like to start with a personalized blog header. I have some ideas and might try to produce it on my own, but I don’t know how well that will go. Thanks for the informative post.
Steve’s last blog post..Comment on Book Review: The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by Allen Taylor
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Thanks for the plug for Logos For Websites! I appreciate it!
Pete’s last blog post..Social Media Tip For Bloggers: Link Your Social Media Profiles To Your Blog URL
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I definitely agee that every blog or every company for that matter needs to build its own brand. A favicon and main banner can go a really long way. People will remember a specific image or set of colours before they remember some arbitrary text stating your blog name. Brand marketing is very important for all new pf bloggers to read about. You want to build as much brand loyalty as possible these days and images are a great start. This is why many retailers have their own card, they are simply building brand loyalty. I got to catch up to you and get my own feed image though!
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@Steve – I tried for months to create a header and gave up. I am not much with creating graphics so when I found Pete’s site I took advantage of his skills.
@Pete – I appreciate the great work!
@Studenomist – Content is king in terms of a blog but images and icons can go a long way to establishing yourself.
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