When your blog becomes a brand

Those of you who are blogger friends may know what I am talking about, and everyone else may be able to relate to this in another way. But what I have been dealing lately is the switch from my little blog being something I do for fun, to having essentially a business on the side. Now, I’m not going to quit my day job or anything, and I am definitely not raking it in big, but The Accidental Mrs. has definitely taken on a new life, one that I am very proud of but very intimidated by!

What I am going through is my blog becoming a brand, and I am definitely just learning as I go and probably not doing it right. Your brand essentially starts from the moment you pick a name. You then have to buy your website, pick and create a logo, determine your colors (and stick to it all!) For a while, that was enough, but now I am looking at things like  business cards – I definitely want to have them and feel like I need to have them once I start putting my name out there.

I’m consitantly thinking up new ways to grow my Facebook and Twitter fans. I mean constantly! I look at my readership numbers and think, what would be interesting to even more fans? And then, I think about ways to grow my newer channels, like YouTube and Pinterest. Beyond just building fans, you then have to think about your overall branding, and building a well-rounded brand with all of your channels, sites and communications, all going back to sticking with your branding like I mentioned before.

For the past few months, I have been joining groups, scouting events to cover, and applying for every ambassador or review program I get. I am always brainstorming content and jotting it down, and am trying to deal with changing my mindset from blogging for fun to having a brand and image to uphold. Sometimes, it even brings on more stress than before, knowing that it’s not just for me anymore. But, what I need to remember is that at the end of the day, it IS just for me. This blog is my baby, and you know what, if I decided to shut it down, I don’t think the world would stop turning! So, while bloggers can become ambassadors, public figures or even, in some very special instances, “VIPs” (as we’ve been discussing in some of the groups I am a part of) bloggers are still every day people, and blogging is still a *hobby* (at least for the vast majority of us!)

Yes, my blog is slowly but surely becoming somewhat of a brand, but when you lose the fun I think you lose the sparkle that made people interested in the first place. I’m interested to hear how other bloggers have dealt with the evolution of their blog to a brand?

XO,

Amanda