I’m in the process of developing my theme series that starts on Monday and one of the noticeable things is that, despite having largely decided on the page layout, navigational structure, single post layout, I still haven’t felt the need to add the name of the blog to the theme. I’m wondering then why it is that we feel the urge to give a blog a name?
I am assuming that, like me when I produced this blog, adding the name as a header is something automatic that isn’t even considered. It feels wrong not to have it, but we have no idea why. But if it was considered what reasons might there be for including it?
Personal branding is one reason; the blog owner wants their name front and centre; but their name would still be on every post, and that after all is their content. Where else does it need to be for people to see it?
If the blog is named after the author then people will write blog posts saying “John Smith said …” so it makes little difference to title it with your own name.
If the blog title isn’t the bloggers name then surely that can only serve to dilute both of the brands can’t it? You will get either one or the other or both used on posts. If you want to be known by a made up name instead of your own name then I guess that is fine.
If the blog isn’t branded by adding the header won’t people lose track of which blog they are on? I doubt it. If you have your blog name in the title bar then they will know, your URL will be in the address bar, and your name will be on the actual post. Not to mention the options of checking out the home or about pages.
So what next? Are bloggers branding their blogs because secretly they want to be their own little company, or perhaps they like to think of their blogs are digital books, and that they are published authors?
OK, but surely a multi-author blog needs a name to describe the collective concept? but isn’t each article still written by one person?
It must be a matter of style then, but for the majority of blogs the name is just sitting there in bland type doing nothing.
There are clear cases where it is beneficial. I don’t think I can reasonably suggest otherwise. Corporate Blogs, Blogs with a specific purpose, like the Reader Appreciation Project, but for personal blogs, even very popular ones, do we really need to name them?
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Andrew Rickmann
I hadn’t considered changing the name according to circumstances, that’s an interesting idea Andrea.
I can also see the problem that people would have if you regularly change themes. Any ideas how often the average WordPress blogger switches themes?
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Andrea_R
Heh, well I do tend to pick descriptive names. My personal blog, atypicalife.net, says it all as well. I do use a tagline there sometimes, depending on where we are and what we’re doing.
The domain itself leaves one wondering where the spaces are: are we a typical life, or atypical life? The tagline there, again sort of pulls people in a little more. When my oldest was prepping and leaving for college, the tagline reflected that, and recently when we moved to the country, I changed the tagline to match.
Actually, I can’t remember what that one says now and I think the theme I recently switched to doesn’t have a tagline on it.
And running a few blogs for a while, and a blog network, the name & tagline are handy if you keep changing themes. Without it, people aren’t sure if they’re on the same site. :D
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Andrew Rickmann
Andrea, It is the fact that I never thought about it either that most interested me.
In the case of WPMUTutorials you have described what the blog is about, a blog that specific probably does benefit from having a name.
Likewise Ronald, Reader Appreciation Project makes it clear what you want to achieve which I think is a good plan.
Isn’t a blog without a tagline, a tagline?
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Andrea_R
I mostly have the domain name there, and linked as a way to get back “home” and to tell people where they are.
Never really thought about it. Hmmm.
Here I thought you’d be writing about naming themes, which is a different matter entirely.
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Ronald Huereca
One of my favorite Spanish blogs is titled, “Un blog sin tagline”. Which is, “A blog without a tagline.”
On my personal blog I’ve struggled to name it, but I just used my domain name. Giving it a title would be like naming my apartment. But for RA Project, it would be more like naming a business or organization.
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Andrew Rickmann
Thanks Ian, I hadn’t seen that before. It is interesting.
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Ian Stewart
No brand is one of the many things I loved about Adam Freetly’s entry into the Sandbox Designs competition, Promised Land. It’s an interesting idea.