In today’s video, I talk about how you can brand a website. I also touch upon how you can monetise a blog.
The question came from Ben from How to Learn About. It is the second part of a question Ben recently asked. The first part of the question was answered on Tuesday in a video entitled “How to Become a WordPress Developer“.
Ben’s second question was:
How to develop a brand and monetise a site. I realise this is very general, and your name is your brand and well recognised, but I am looking for ideas on how to begin from scratch and try to make an online income.
You can see my video response below:
Hope you all enjoyed the video. If you have any questions about the video, please leave a comment below. I also encourage you to subscribe to my YouTube channel to get updates about my latest videos.
Kevin
Thanks Dheeraj :)
Hi Kevin,
Nice video tutorial :)
Hi Helen.
A WordPress plugin was updated that was clashing with my theme and causing the content to be displayed in the wrong place. It’s all good now :)
Kevin
Your share buttons are blocking all your content. Does not want to make me read more.
You would be surprised. Some of the most popular tutorials on YouTube are screencasts that are around one hour in length.
I’d rather do a longer webinar. Seems a bit pointless to me to organise people from multiple timezones to come and connect with me through a live webinar and then switch off after ten minutes. Though I do agree with you that some people are busy and others cannot be bothered.
I will try and organise it when I am back in the UK :)
Kevin
Hi Kevin,
Thank you for your comprehensive response. I’ll be glad to co-host a Hangouts on Air chat with you or even just be one of the questioners.
I guess the best way is to start small and work up from there. Y’know like one or two minutes at a time, working up to a 10 to 15 minute mini-lecture. Probably any more than that and people start to switch off a bit – or at least short term minded marketers might do (grin).
Hope you’re having a great time and looking forward to seeing you back in the UK soon.
Regards,
Steven Lucas
Thanks Steve.
The notepad doesn’t have any notes. It simply had a written copy of the question so that I can read it during the video (i.e. to save me rushing towards my laptop to read it there). Everything I said was from the top of my head. I usually get everything in just one or two takes, but what I usually do before recording is walk around the house talking to myself about what I am going to say. Consider it a practice run so that I remember to cover everything.
I am going to record a video today about recording for YouTube. One one of the points I will say is that it does get easier over time. Practice makes perfect.
I made a conscious decision not to be too concerned about brain farts (umms, ahhs etc) and whether I made mistakes. The most important thing for me just now is to get experience and the only way to get that experience is to throw myself in the deep end and start recording on a regular basis. Hopefully, over time, I will feel more comfortable.
I really enjoy publishing videos on YouTube as it is such a great way to connect to an audience. So I am willing to put in the time necessary to become more comfortable in front of the camera. Time will tell whether that is 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, or whatever. I am not even thinking about the monetisation side of things. It is something I enjoy and something I would do even if I don’t get much compensation for it.
I am far from an expert on this, but I am keen on sharing what I have learned with others, whether it be editing, recording, equipment, or whatever. I would love to do a live stream with yourself and other readers. Perhaps through UStream or Google Hangouts. The video would then be uploaded to my YouTube channel. I could answer any question you have live on camera.
I will be back in the UK on May 7th. I will need to wait until then as my connection here is not good enough for live streaming. Let me know if you are interested in this. Perhaps I could start a thread about this on Rise Forums to let people who are interested put their name down. And if necessary, I can do a couple different live events :)
Kevin
Thanks Hussein. Glad you enjoyed the video.
If you want to promote your website and yourself, the answer is easy. Simply brand your blog with yourself. Have a detailed about page, display your bio underneath blog posts, display your picture in your sidebar. All of these things will help visitors realise who they are connecting with.
Don’t worry if you expand your blog later. If you add additional writers in the future, you can remove your picture from the sidebar and replace the about page with a “staff page” that details all writers and employees.
:)
Kevin
Hi Kevin,
Great video article. That’s something I’m not into yet, especially not on my own blog. Strange really because I’m not normally camera shy, but I think I am afraid I’ll just dry up and not have enough to say. You have obviously got used to talking on the fly and you’re not worried about ‘um, er’ delivery (That’s not a criticism BTW, just an observation). Is it just a matter of practice or do you have an off screen cue board? I notice you do have a notepad in your hand which you refer to. Does that have more that just the original question on it?
Perhaps you could do a video on beginning video blogging!
Regards,
Steven Lucas
Hi Kevin,
Great video, I was following you for a long time now and honestly saying I’ve learned a lot from you.
In my case you touched a pain area, I started my website recently and I wanted to promote myself at the same time, I really was and still confused about this “Should I connect my personal brand with the website brand or my website should grow separately while promoting my content as mine?”
do you think choosing an option over another well affect the website growth?
Keep up the good job.
Hussein