Branding and your websites?
 

I have been reading some about branding.

What is you guys opinions on branding with your sites free and pay.

Like Green Guy Link is a huge brand been around forever and is known, same with The Hun and what not.

Do you do things to specificaly build your brand and name itself?

Trying to get a search term in the domain name has played a role in website and has affected the quality of branding. I personally like to see names and themes that have nothing to do with the site. Green Guy and Jim vs Adult MessageBoard. The SEO mind would go with "adult message board" in the domain name and the creative mind would choose "greenguy and jim". "download free porn" vs. "the hun". Create a theme, logo, slogan etc...

Branding is a HUGE subject and goes way past seo. Can you get someone to sing your silly little jingle, get them to embed your product in their mind so they come back and want more.

So - yes and no........
Not sure why I would want to "brand" my free sites? These are tools that are better used to "brand" my product - and not something that should be branded on it's own.


Say I'm selling BBW porn and I decide to "brand" said content as plumpolicious with a logo to match - every piece of literature I produce should have plumpolicious and the logo on it.

Just because I put the name and logo on my free site doesn't mean I'm branding my free site - I'm using the free site to further my brand of plumpolicious. And in doing so, hopefully get people to recognize plumpolicious as their best source for BBW porn.

Getting "plumpolicious" to place on google's top page shouldn't be all that difficult there is no real competition - but it has no value if no one is searching for "plumpolicious".

Use advertising (which is what free site are) to give the customer a reason to visit your site - put the name and logo on the free site where that can see it, reinforce the experience by having the same "brand" on the site you send them to - make the experience a good one. Do this consistently and you will start building brand recognition. Repetition, repetition, repetition....... This is one reason to watermark your content.

Yes, having key words in your domain seems to help on search engine placement - but this is more important to your advertising effort than to your branding effort.

Get a clean brand (domain) that is easy to remember, spell and somewhat unique (can you say Google), and start advertising that brand.

Just calling a site "BBW Porn" is in it's self not branding just because you have the word in the url. You may get a lot of BBW porn traffic but never become successful in branding the term BBW Porn. On the other hand, your branded BBW site may be plumpolicious.com (currently available) with a cute plump logo. Properly branded, people will remember it and develop a trust in it that will make them use it over other BBW sites.

But I wander.............

Very true, and while I would love to mave more SEO traffic, branding would be much more valuable to me I think. Branding is *mine*, while SE traffic is dependant on Google and the other SE's...it can some and go, too.

When people are looking for TV's and electronics, they will often type in the name of a big retailer (Best Buy for example) as opposed to the product they want to buy. That's the kind of branding I would die for.

I second everything Papa said.

Branding my name ...yes, branding every free site i have...oke if they are on the domain with my branding name yes, willing to haunt everyone who use my branding name and stuff, and all the efford i need for that ...no!, yes i would use branding if i use a domain for that which i think is realy worth it, branding cost money, so also be sure you use all to make it profitable.

good point on the going after people.

I've spent quite a few hours getting people to stop using hotmovies.

Yep that would be the biggest issue for me, haunting all who use my branded name...try to get the money from them, you wont succeed, reason you deal with different people from different countries , its the same with non branded names and people who just use your stuff...you wont win, oke maybe with some person who is from your country but not the one who are foreign...it will be a endless fight...bin there, done that:D

When I started making sites I said "there is no way I'm going to brand my sites using search terms." I got over that quickly. If I wanted that SE traffic, I'd have to adapt good SEO standard practices and change the way I built and market web sites. Later, I realized that if you are lucky you can take a generic search term and practically own it over time and brand it as your own. But both have their place. Having your own brand is more fun, interesting, and it gives you more wiggle room on the creative side. But if you take a search term and practically own it, it can become synonymous with your web site. Both are a win-win as far as I'm concerned.

As a surfer I think having your own brand and name is more exciting. Take TMZ for example. They have become synonymous with paparazzi. Now, if their product (web site and television show) was called Paparazzi Photos and Videos it wouldn't have the mystique that the name 'TMZ' gives it. And what does TMZ mean? It ambiguous, like an inside joke, and sticks in people's minds.

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing is a good book on branding.

very interesting recommendation, I'll have to see if the local library has that one

summary of 22 laws