i passed by a billboard this morning on the way to whole foods that said something about build your brand and it made me think about effective branding and what that really means.

“branding” is the new buzz-term in internet marketing lingo.  it applies just as much to your corporate identity as it does to your personal online identity.  effectively branding your business or online identity means that people know what you are and what you’re about based on your presentation.  (marketers, correct me if i’m wrong here…)  so this “build your brand” thing made me think about arcane palette and how i can better build the AP brand and i started thinking about a blog i read regularly, upstart blogger.

i had gotten this sense that this guy knows what he’s talking about, he’s well-respected, he’s a big-wig. even if none of those things are true, they felt true to me, and gave his posts more creedence.

i started reading upstart blogger because the site was referenced over and over across the twittersphere (well, a specific region of the twittersphere, anyway).  eventually someone linked to a post; i read; i liked; i added to my rss reader.  the important point here is that when i started following upstart blogger, i had already gotten this sense that this guy knows what he’s talking about, he’s well-respected, he’s a big-wig.  even if none of those things are true, they felt true to me, and gave his posts more creedence.  

upstart blogger is a blog about blogging, specifically, making money with your blog, which is a subject i’m not all that interested in, generally.  still, i enjoy his posts and have this impression that he’s an authority on the subject, so if there’s only one of these types of blogs that i read, well, this is the one.  and i have learned a lot and started thinking more about things since reading it, and i have started taking some of his points into consideration when i do things.

it’s the perception that means everything because that’s what drives my clicks to his site

this is an example of effective branding.  before subscribing to his blog, all i knew of upstart blogger was from the way people referred to the blog, headlines, and maybe reading a post.  i don’t know how he got to be the authority (well, after reading his blog, i actually have a few ideas), but it’s the perception that means everything because that’s what drives my clicks to his site.

so the challenge for the next year is going to be how to create a similar rep and effective “brand” for arcane palette.  we’ll see what happens…

i’ve been hard at work working on a new look for this site.

okay, actually not, i’ve been slacking, but i did finally come up with a design that i am going to start building.  here’s a peek at the new design.

the new look for jazzsequence.com

dr horribe, which i quickly mentioned last time, is joss whedon’s latest entertainment foray as an internet-only, 1 week, limited, totally free, musical/blog thing.  it stars neil patrick harris (doogie howser) and nathan fillion (firefly’s malcom reynolds) and i can’t wait.  here’s the teaser:

Teaser from Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.