I am trying to work more on the branding aspect of my website. Right now the website is doing good [not in terms of revenue but statistics]. Anyways I am not focused on revenue from this website anyways, but I want to deliver quality content in here regarding whatever interesting things I find on Internet and whatever would be useful to my readers. There are couple of ideas to brand your website. This is what I have on top of my head.
1. Add a picture of yourself on your website and give a personal touch to your blog or website, so that people start recognizing your blog whenever they are flashed with your blog name.
2. If you are a webmaster, and want to spend some money; why not to think of distributing t-shirts with your blog’s or website’s logo on it with the name! Bloggers like Shoemoney, John Chow have already implemented this idea and it’s working pretty well I believe. Now, you must be thinking it’s too expensive affair but surprizingly it’s not.
How to limit expenses on your branding efforts with t-shirts?
Well, if you are thinking each t-shirt will cost you $10, and it’s becoming too expensive an affair for you then fortunately we can save a lot money there. What you can do is, buy wholesale t shirts online and get them printed with your logo and blog name. The cost of wholesale blank T shirts will not go beyond $1.5 to $2 each and printing cost shall go upto $1-2. Within budget of $3-4 per T shirt, you can get 100s of them printed and distribute them. Wholesaledirectusa.com can give you cheaper deals in wholesale shirts, check it out. You may search there by type of shirts, colours, sizes etc.
Now, you can think of as many ways possible as you can, to distribute your T shirts. Best way is to hold a contest on your blog, and give it to set of winners [Why set of winners, more you chose - more people you can give it away to]. May be you can think of giving it away to Top 10 commentators of your blog every month. This will be effective way to brand your website / blog in much cheaper way than just giving cash prices. You must have observed that people like actual stuff as gifts than the cash price many times, and I think this will really work out very well if planned properly.
Also read some interesting posts:
Yes, t-shirts are a great way for branding your blog. I am a screen printer who happened to get into blogging recently, and I’ve already picked up some business from a fellow Entrecard community blogger. What custom t-shirts add to your brand is something that is concrete and that people can relate to. While most bloggers are giving away “cyber” incentives such as ads, links, Entrecards, etc…. giving away (or selling!) t-shirts puts something “real” in the hands of your readers. There’s that extra added value of having something that’s last for years as opposed to something consumable. An example of my pricing structure is as follows: a small order of 1-dozen would run you around $8.70 per shirt printed, but an order of 100 shirts would run about $4.25 per shirt printed. This is all with basic 1-color printing; the price would increase the more colors you add. I realize that these prices are higher than you state in your post, but if people can get name brand 1st quality shirts done at those prices, God bless ‘em! Thanks for bringing a little exposure to my industry, it’s much appreciated. BTW, you can find me at http://shopdogdiaries.blogspot.com/