Branding Yourself as an Online Writer

When you look around, you will see brands everywhere. From the shoes on your feet to the light bulbs that you use, brands are everywhere. As an online writer, you should also have a brand. It will make you more recognizable which, in turn, will get more readers to your online work.

Branding yourself can be challenging, but is isn't as difficult as you might think. This is especially true if your are a niche writer. When your online articles falls into a niche, that niche can take on the role of your brand. For those of us who are not niche writers, it may take a little time to come up with a brand that suits us, our online writing and our writing style.

I have worked hard at branding myself. Once I realized that "online writing gigs" were profitable, I knew I had to brand myself and my work. By that time, I had established myself as a "non-niche writer" and there was no turning back. I had to find a way to make myself stand out from the millions of other online writers my readers could turn to.

I had to figure out what made me different from all other online writers and use that to my advantage. I had a few things going for me from the start - an unusual name, a cute little dog as an avatar and a nickname I had for years. I knew I had to make those three things work together as my individual brand as an online writer.

• Emma Riley Sutton - When I first started writing, I was simply Emma Sutton. I did a Google search and learned there was an English actress that shared my name. I knew that even if I could compete with her and her career, I would get lost in all her acting credits when it came to online searches. I added my middle name and the rest is history. 

• Maisie -  Because of my personal safety issues, I never use a photograph of myself. I started using a photo of my service dog, Maisie, instead. I was constantly getting "oh, what a cute dog" comments and emails from all over the world. Maisie now served a new purpose - the face to my work. It also helped that I was doing a lot of writing about animals and animal issues. This was working well for me.

• The Queen of Useless Information -  I've been known for years as "The Queen of Useless Information" by friends and family members. Because I am not a niche writer and really have no interest in pigeon holing myself into one or two categories, I began using this nickname. This is working great. If my readers do not remember my name or Maisie's photo, they know my nickname. As my online portfolio grows and covers more and more unrelated topics, The Queen of Useless Information suits me better and better.

I played to my strengths when began branding myself. You should do the same. Consider all the things that you do well as an online writer and find a brand for yourself that encompasses as many of them as possible. Take a look at your online writing style and create a brand that will complement your unique style.

Another important key, perhaps the most important key, to branding yourself is using one name and one name only. You want your readers, your fan base, to be able to easily access all of your online articles. When you use more than one name, it is difficult for them to find your body of work in one place - such as search engines like Google and Bing. Keep in mind that many readers do not understand that writers often use pen names and those who do will not understand why you would use more than one name.

Discovering your brand can take some time. Work on it daily and find the brand that will work best for you. By creating a brand for yourself, you will see much more profitable your online writing can be.

Writing Teasers for Promotion

Although I am (almost) famous for being "The Queen of Useless Information," I've been told that I may soon become "The Teaser Queen" as well. That is due to the fact that I writer "teasers" to promote my online articles. I have found that my teasers increase my page views and, in turn, helps to increase my ad revenue.

Writing teasers is relatively easy when you keep your goal in mind. The goal of writing teasers is and should always be to get readers to read your online articles. The goal of teasers should never be to trick readers into clicking on your work. Once that happens a few times, readers tune out your teasers and the online work you are trying to promote will be ignored. These are a few tips to writing successful teasers that will draw in readers to your online articles:

• Know Your Online Article - Fully understand your online article. Keep in mind the keywords that you used. Know the purpose of your online article. Was that particular online article's purpose to inform readers of something? Was it suppose to entertain them with your wit? Was the online articles purpose to cause your reader to take some sort of action? Use the keywords and your online article's purpose to write a successful teaser.

• Understand Your Target Audience - Think about who you wrote your online article for. If you wrote it for anybody and everybody, what type of person do you think would be most likely to read your online article? I'm not just talking about demographics, but also the "emotional side" to your reader. Write a teaser for that person that will make them want to write more.

• Use Humor When Appropriate - Almost everyone likes a good laugh now and again. Teasers can be humorous, if your online article is not serious. Make sure that your funny teasers do not mislead your readers into thinking they will be reading one thing and it turns out to be something completely different.

These are a few of the most successful teasers I have used.  I'm not going to tell you what online article they will lead you to. I'm going to "tease" you into clicking on the links. Use these ideas to write your own teasers.

• I sleep in chains. I even have a list of favorite chains to use.

• It isn't my fault if you start humming.

• Get them off the dog and have some fun.

• Read past the first paragraph before you judge me.

• There is a hyperbole in my lap.

Now that you have a few ideas, start writing some teasers to promote your online work. Remember to always be honest and never mislead your readers. As you begin to write and use teasers to promote your online articles, you will see an increase in your traffic and revenue.