Branding your name online: your name is you, use it

« « Fab Web Writer Discussion Group - join to network with other Web writers | Blogging For Beginners 2: Keywords - and how to choose them » »

Friday, March 23rd, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

New Web writers often make a classic mistake - they attempt to brand a business name before they brand their own name.

My advice is to brand your own name first.

This is vital.

Brand “Sam Julian Heyward Smith*” before you attempt to brand “The Web Writery*” or whatever you want to call your new business. (If you’re not au fait with branding, here’s a brief intro: “What is Branding and How Important is it to Your Marketing Strategy?”)

The primary reason for using your own name is that it’s HARD to brand any name, so why attempt to brand a business you may not be running a year from now?

Here are some additional reasons to brand your own name:

* You may discover that although you’ve researched “The Web Writery*” diligently, you somehow missed that the name was trademarked by a company five years ago, and you’re shocked when a cease and desist letter arrives in the mail;

* One of your customers tells you - “I almost didn’t hire you, because your business name sounds so much like Company X which was involved in a scam…”

* Within nine months you take on so much highly lucrative search engine marketing work that you’re now a SEM company. Your “The Web Writery*” name stops you getting more profitable SEM contracts. You want to ditch “The Web Writery*”, BUT your clients know you under this name. Changing your name and your URL leads to lost business.

Never mind the cute name, just get the work

Many new writers spend days and weeks trying to get their new business name just right. I call it the “business card syndrome” - trying to get everything “right” (there is no “right”) before the new company takes on its first client. It’s a form of procrastination.

Please - forget the business name, business cards, and everything else that goes with starting a new business. Here’s a FACT: until you get a customer, the business doesn’t exist. Get contracts, get writing, and use your own name.

Not too many weeks and months down the road, you’ll be glad you did.

* Please note: The names used in this post are fictitious. They’re not meant to refer to any real person or business.