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GM&D #56

Web content management systems put control where it belongs, in your hands

After you've customized the template, your blog will reflect your firm's specific marketing goals and visual identity

Roger C. Parker
Profit Builder
$32,000,000 author
35 books, 37 languages
1.6 million copies sold
NY Times recommended
Training, workshops
Marketing coach
Design educator
Consultant
Speaker

Roger C. Parker

PO Box 697

Dover, NH 03821

603-742-9673

Customizing your blog

How to create a unique image for your blog, regardless of the software you use to create it

Blog hosting sites like www.blogger.com and www.typepad.comp, as well as blogging software like WordPress, offer easy-to-use templates that help you get your blog published online as quickly as possible.

You can, however, easily customize your blog so that it projects an image consistent with your other marketing communications. Here are some ideas:

Photograph

The easiest and most noticeable way you can customize your blog is by adding your photograph. A photograph adds personality that "voices" your blog and sets it apart from your competition.

Colors

The colors used in your blog should match the colors used in your firm's other online and offline marketing. The key is to choose a palette-or selection-of foreground and background colors, that work well together.

One of the best ways to use color is separate individual posts from other blog elements, such as:

Header, containing the title of your blog plus a brief description of the topics you're going to post about.
Sidebar contents, i.e., text and links that always appear next to posts, see below.

Consider using color to unify the different parts of your blog. For example, set headlines for individual posts in the same text color used in your blog's header.

Sidebar elements

You can easily customize sidebars-information adjacent to posts-including:

Background information, such as personal information, your philosophy statement, and/or e-mail links.
Categories, these make it easy for readers to access previous blog posts displayed by topic.
Archives of previous posts, organized by date.
Resources. The sidebars can include a list of recommended books, a glossary of important terms, or--even--a blogroll containing links to other blogs that your readers might be interested in. These resources build reader loyalty.
Calendars displaying the days each month when you posted new content.
Advertising banners and links to website pages promoting your publications, such as books, newsletter sign-ups, and promotions for upcoming events like teleseminars. You can also designate space for Google AdSense advertising banners

When you set up your blog, you can determine which of the above elements you want to include, and in what order. You can also determine whether you want sidebar elements to appear on the left, right, or above your posts.

Formatting text

You can choose a default typeface, type size, alignment, and colors for headlines and text. You can also emphasize key words and phrases by using style variations like bold, italic, and bold-italics.

When appropriate, you can improve the looks of your posts by using bulleted and numbered lists where appropriate.

If you are publishing a team blog, you can format each author's posts in a different text color or type style.

Logo and graphics

When first starting out, many set their blog title and description in the header as text formatted by the template.

Later, however, you can replace the default text header with a graphic created using your firm's typeface and colors.

You can also add your firm's logo as a graphic in the sidebar.

If you publish a newsletter and want to encourage sign-ups, be sure you add a thumbnail--or small scale picture--of your newsletter along with a sign-up form to the sidebar. Be sure to describe your firm's privacy statement, or add a link to it.

Choosing a URL for your blog

In order to immediately publish your blog, blog hosting providers like Typepad and Blogger create a URL for your blog based on your name and/or blog title in combination with the firm's blog.

These default URLs can be long, hard to remember, and hard to communicate, for example:

http://rogerparker.typepad.com/upcoming_events/

Once your blog is up and running, however, you can create a shorter alias URL that redirects visitors to the original URL. For example, the below URL redirects visitors to the actual blog location, above:

www.rcpevents.info

Getting started

By the time you've finished modifying the original template, your blog will reflect your firm's unique identity. Although you may have started with a "packaged solution," your blog will soon reflect an accurate and unique image of your firm or association.

For assistance identifying your market's information needs, and relating it to your expertise, e-mail Roger C. Parker or call 603-742-9673. Let me help you create a blog and integrate it into your firm or association's other marketing tools.

Questions? Call 603-742-9673 or e-mail me (roger@designtosellonline.com).

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