Jan 30, 2013 / Intermediate

Branding Your Blog: Let’s Get Visual

Creating a compelling visual identity for your blog will help you set yourself apart from the crowd.

bookcover

If you’re old and/or hip enough to remember the days when books were printed on paper and sold on shelves, you probably have a handful of favorite book covers. The visual design of a book not only grabs the attention of would-be readers, but also sets a tone for the content sandwiched between its covers. Covers and spines that all look alike make for wonderful soft furnishings, but in a world in which ideas have to compete for attention, they often don’t cut it.

Cookie cutter blogs with the same look and feel as countless others have the same impact. Which is to say, not very much. So in this three part series on visually branding your blog, we take a look at some tips and tactics for thinking through and putting into action some simple ways you can set your blog apart, whether you’re an artistic maestro itching to make a masterpiece of your magnum opus, or simply a concerned party worried that your blog is an unbearable aesthetic train wreck.

 Identity, Meet Visual Identity

Your writing, and by extension your blog, very likely has an identity all of its own. Whether that’s in the stylistic details of how you write, in the persistent themes and ideas you write about, or a combination of the two, when people read something you’ve written, they’re going to get an impression of you through your use of words.

Creating a visual identity, however simple, for your blog, only reinforces that idea. And if your visual identity is going to make sense in the context of your writing, it should spring from that writing. If you write about crafts, how could you translate the mood, feeling and act of crafting into the look of your blog?  If your blog is a personal journal about your travels, how could you make it feel more personal with a few visual flourishes, and how could you emphasise that it’s about travel to the casual reader? Today we’ll look at these problems and how to solve them.

The Why Behind the What

Before you get your marker pens and watercolors down from the attic, start thinking about why people would want to read your blog, what they’re likely to find there if they do, and what makes your blog unique. In other words, before putting pen to paper when it comes to visual design, it’s a good idea to think through why you’re doing what you’re doing. What are you hoping to achieve?

In the case of a book or movie poster, there are a few elements that make up the “why” of what it’s trying to achieve:

  • Stand out from the thousands of other brilliant ideas and offerings competing for peoples stretched attention.
  • Contextualize the book or movie so that passers-by can get a very quick idea if it’s the “sort of thing they like”. Is it literary fiction? Is it horror? Is it a heartwarming tale of a dog and cat on a one way mission to Mars?
  • Set the tone within that broader context you’ve settled on. A comedy-horror film will have a different look and feel to one played straight. A Tim Burton animation will visually position itself in a different way to a classic Disney film. A 1000-page academic treatise on the mating cycle of lesser spotted herons will likely present itself in a different way than an Idiot’s Guide to Heron Mating.

Let’s put this into action:

Action Time: Now to nail down some of the ideas that might inspire the look and feel of your blog:

  • Figure out your blog’s unique proposition, the thing that sets it apart from everything else. Get the ball rolling with “It’s the only blog that…” and take it from there.
  • Think about the broader context of your blog. Are there any other blogs like it? If your blog were turned into a book, where would it be filed in a library or bookstore?
  • Do some spontaneous mood setting. What kind of atmosphere would your blog have if it were a cafe, restaurant, or bar? Loud and exciting? Relaxed and peaceful? Jazz music and beard stroking by dim light? Think about the lighting, decor, furnishings, soundtrack, aromas, people you might find in there.

Toying With Taglines

Okay, okay, we’re nearly at the visual part. Before we get there though, let’s try and boil everything down into an elevator pitch of the mood, feel, intentions, and hopefully audience for your blog. We’ll do that by working on a one-liner. The conversational way you’d describe what your blog is and who it’s for if you had thirty seconds passing a friend in the street. Think of the blurb on the front or back of a book, or the one-liner on a movie poster, only less formal. The idea is that you’re going to let the would-be, fly-by reader know exactly what’s going on with this here blog before they commit to reading a post.

Action Time: Boiling down your whole blog into a useful sentence is tough. Here are some questions to ask yourself if you get stuck:

  • The old journalistic W’s: run your blog through the trusty old journalistic W’s of Who (who is this blog for); What (what’s it about);  When (what’s the average speed of posting? Is this a quick fire bulletin or a slow burn meditation?); Where (where is it being written/where are the audience located in geographic or psychological space), How (Ok, not a W, but don’t shoot the messenger – how are you/will you appeal to the casual or would-be reader? What kind of posts are you putting out?)
  • Jaws Meets Heat, On Mars: when scriptwriters pitch their ideas in Hollywood, they often use shorthand to get the gist across about their idea by mashing two existing, well-known examples together. Is your blog “Gawker, by way of Sartre”, “LOLCats meets political analysis”, or “A blog about pince-nez, in the style of popular 1970s tobacco advertising”? Possibly none of the above, but you get the idea.
  • At gunpoint: if you’re still sweating it and can’t commit to what the heck your blog is about, just imagine a maniacal clown with a 60-second egg-timer in one hand, a revolver, pointed at you, in the other, and a vacant, somewhat unpleasant stare. Set your own timer if you have to. Don’t anger the clown.

Hopefully that’s given you a tagline. A tagline you can use as your own secret inspiration for the visual funfair awaiting us, or a tagline you can use as, you know, your tagline.

Think Visual

So by now you know what your blog’s about. You’ve boiled it’s essence down to a killer tagline. You’re ready to start playing with visuals. Right?

Almost.

Action Time: Put pen to paper, fingers to keyboard, or voice to… voice recorder. Answer the following quick questions as instinctively and spontaneously as you can:

  • What was the last book (magazine or movie) you paid for? How did the cover (or poster) convey that it wasn’t a book from a different genre? If it appealed to you when you picked it up, how so? If not, why not?
  • If your blog had a book cover (or movie poster) what would it look like? Describe it in simple terms, or make a quick doodle. Why did you make the decisions you did?
  • Does the subject of your blog have its own existing, popular “iconography” attached? Think knitting needles (crafts/knitting), typewriters (writing), dog leashes (dogs), ribbons (crafts, pretty things), blood spatters (crime/horror). If there aren’t any, how could you best represent the topic of your blog visually? If there are, how could you put a fresh twist on the familiar imagery?

Back of a Napkin

In the next post in the series, we’re going to be looking at how you can creatively use headers and image widgets in your sidebar to visually brand your blog. Until then, why not pitch your taglines, thoughts, and if you’re brave enough, your wild scribble-scratched napkin sketches of some of the ideas you’ve had about how you could visually brand your blog? And if you’re feeling especially nice, why not throw out some feedback to your fellow blog branders?

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  1. GREAT subject today…I looked at so many new blogs today and I made some comments. I was thrilled to see so many people interacting! We all put so much of ourselves into our blogs and this seems so nice to get feedback from new people! Feel free to check out mine and leave feedback!

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  2. I am looking forward to the next few lessons. Having had my blog for less than one month, I am still struggling with each post and seem to be hitting invisible buttons with very visible consequences that I don’t always know how to undo. I want a permanent visual header but right now each new post and its picture takes over the front page. I had a slideshow as a visual header which I liked (but have no idea how I managed to create it) and then this disappeared with other posts.. Oh well, it’s all a learning curve and I am learning to be patient….

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  3. This is SO helpful for me too ! Excellent post. I am so clueless on how to set up a visually great blog page using the free tools available. I play around with it when I can to see what I can change but get a bit lost. So thank you – its nice to check out other blogs to see what they look like and I have a couple of new ones I like which I have now started following thanks to this post. Double win 🙂

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    1. I really like your header image. It’s so wacky that it definitely ties into your blogs title – there must be a tale to tell about a clothesline of lacy underwear! But you’re right, your blog does have some quirky formatting to it, there’s one post that doesn’t show up in line with the others.

      And thanks for following 🙂

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      1. You are welcome, and thank you ! I wanted it to be quirky. I did notice that post the other day – I think as I had posted it as a “link”. Thanks for the reminder to go back and check that out ( assuming that is what you are referring to ).
        So great to have people happy to help out. I am getting some great advice from people in the wordpress world 🙂

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      2. Yes, I think it was some kind of a link to a youtube video or something.

        I think we’re all happy to have a sounding board of people who also are interested in improving their blogs. We don’t want to spam our readers with “do you like this? do you like that? what about this minor tweak?”… Anytime you need a second opinion let me know! And if you have any feedback on my blog, please let me know 🙂

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    2. just checked your site. Enjoyed the narrow band of pictures running down on either side of your blog. It is immediately clear this is about travel. What I couldn’t easily find was a “Comment” area. It kind of got lost and I had to really search for it. Would like to learn how to arrange a large amount of small pictures into a photo collage, like you did.

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      1. Thank you for taking some time to have a look and give me some feedback 🙂 I will check out the comment part – I am guessing it is the way the ” theme” is designed. I will see if it can be changed though.
        Re the photo gallery, I use the ” tiles” option when I insert my gallery into a post. I have also played around with a few different themese and so far the Yoko theme is the only one I have found that shows photos like this on the main page of my blog. Does that help ?

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  6. I started my blog exactly two months ago and articles like these are really helpful to a starter like me. I have chosen a very simple theme and am planning to personalize it soon. I would love some feedback on the current state my blog exists in.

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    2. The biggest thing is that your blog background, tagline, and font do not really tie into the “generous helping of ‘makeup and fashion'” that you describe on your about page. The header photo you have chosen is great, but the simple blue text and the plain blue background do not scream “makeup and fashion” to me. Do a google image search for “beauty blog backgrounds” and see if you can get some inspiration.

      Hope this helps!

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      1. Thanks for your feedback wanderoneday. Ya my bad about not changing the About page. I have actually started a new beauty website and kept this blog for non-beauty things. I would definitely improve my blog visually, it does seem simpler than I would like it to be. Thanks again.

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  7. I really enjoy tweaking my blog and, just as you say, massaging it into an image that speaks of my message. I tend to avoid clutter and am usually looking for ways to put sidebar content into a form that doesn’t feel like an obstacle course. I’m dealing with a few issues right now, notably the “blogs I follow” list that keeps on growing and growing….I’d really like it to be a dropdown menu but my theme doesn’t support that. Any good ideas for a theme that could do that?

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  8. I didn’t really give much thought to it when I started out the blog. Just wanted a place to put my doodles online and maybe add a bit of happiness to the world if possible.

    Guess it is time to review my blog if I got things right…

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    1. It’s fantastic don’t change a thing … and I can totally relate to trying to play piano with short fingers! There are pieces I simply can not play because you need more than an octave spread.

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  9. You’ve raised some really good points in this post, so good that I felt compelled to relook at my blog set up. Although I contantly tweak its appearance and am happy the theme (I especially like black against coloured drawings) and header (but am thinking of redrawing to reflect my ever evolving drawing style), I do think my tagline needs a serious workout.

    I thought it was really cool at first as it described my content well, but I have noticed that it is less than unique as far a catch phrasing is concerned – I’ve lost track of how many blogs have a similar tag line. So I think this weekend’s challenge is to come up with a new line to capture the imagination of visitors to my blog.

    If there are any suggestions floating out there in cyber space, feel free to leave a comment.

    http://www.justoutsidetheboxcartoon.com

    Thanks, Marti

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    1. Hmm … nice reference, by the way. I like the “in between” part of your current tagline. What’s in between life and the universe? I’m not really sure, but it might be a good starting point for coming up with a new, more unique one. Good luck, and don’t forget your towel!

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      1. Thanks for the feedback. Life was meant to refer cartoons about ‘life’ (you know, ‘that’s life’ kind of comments) and universe refers to my love of space and alien life forms. In between was anything which didn’t fit into either of the other two. I included this tagging into my catergory selection widget and inbetween covers animals, dung beetles and more.

        However, it’s become clear that I’m obviously a bit too obscure with that connection.

        I’ll brainstorm it this weekend. Many thanks again.

        Marti

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    2. Perhaps you should include the names of your characters in the blog tagline, like “Evil pink aliens meets the secret lives of giants” or something like that. That way, it ties into your characters specifically.

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      1. I like that idea. I started the blog a year ago with only 10 cartoons under my belt – no characters, no themes – just 10 cartoons covering anything. But after a year of cartooning, there’s more content to better define what the cartoons are all about.

        Many thanks for taking the time to view my site and share your thoughts.

        Marti

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  10. I really like my tagline and my header photo, but I’m not too jazzed about my background, my fonts, and the general possibility of over-simplicity in my blog layout and style. Help?

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    1. I like the background, but if you don’t … what about a solid color? or perhaps something related to writing? As for fonts, I think the ones you have work, but something that looks handwritten would be really cool. I also think the simple layout and style work well, but then I’m a bit biased – I think we have the same theme/layout. You can preview other themes/layouts without having to commit to them on the WordPress themes page if you want to experiment with alternatives. Let me know how it goes, I’m curious to see what you decide to do!

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      1. Thanks so much Ziya! Forgive my newness, but is it possible to change my fonts without upgrading to the not-free blog? I’d love to get a little more creative with my layout but I can’t really afford to pay for it right now.

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  11. I bought a theme from WP and customized it (with the help of some very nice and helpful people). I thought my previous design was nice and clean but for some odd reason, my new design attracts twice as many people per day as the old one! I have no idea what happened. I do like the large pictures and that could make a difference, but I am not sure happy about the tagline appearing at the top of my browser as a very very long title… I would like to make my blog look even more “comfortable” but I don’t know what else I could change.

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    1. I think the only thing that makes it seem “uncomfortable” are the cold image at the top and the sharp corners on your post photos. But I don’t think you need to change anything, the site looks wonderful – I don’t know what it looked like before, but I think your money was well spent.

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      1. Thank you very much for your feedback, I really appreciate it! And yes, it was -42 here, yesterday, so it can be a bit uncomfortable for everyone every now and then, hehe :))

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    2. I am curious, what kind of percentage of increase you have, and the cost of the new theme. I love those animals but not so much the grayish not so vivid mountain background which your eyes will lay on first waiting for the whole picture to unload. those picture thumbnails for each of you post is so good. Is it something to do with your theme or the format. i.e. picture, video, gallery…? I am very tempted by those thumbnails to read the post. Sorry I don’t understand French

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      1. Hi MABEL8BLE, I used to have 300 to 400 visitors a day and now I have 800 to 1000. The thumbnails for each post are part of the theme I bought, yes, although I added the shadows behind the pictures. I made tons of small changes to the original theme, which cost me I think $75 plus the cost of the customizations, $20. It’s called Gridspace. Glad you like it 🙂

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      2. Sorry Dr. CaSo. I just saw your reply. Don’t know I don’t get response in my email. I am new to blogging.

        Well, thanks. I just wonder how people did the thumbnail.

        You have a very blog. Too bad I can’t read French.

        Have a great day and thanks again

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  12. I recently changed my tagline after I realized that my most recent posts were travel-related, but I’m not always that lucky to be perpetually going around the world — so I’m wondering if you guys think the tagline effectively captures both the “travel” and “occasional musings” aspects of the blog?

    I’m also aware I should get a more cohesive logo or icon, but I’m so afraid to committing to ONE image other than my face :p Additionally, I like the Suburbia theme since it allows new readers to see all the stuff I’ve written about at a glance, but I’d appreciate all your thoughts on whether it even spurs you guys on to click! 🙂 Thanks in advance!

    http://rachelay.wordpress.com

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    1. I really like the theme you’ve chosen – it does all you to highlight the photos and text, and the grid layout keeps it clean. And you are right, the tagline captures both the travel and the local aspects.

      For us travel-addicts out there, perhaps you could add further breakdown to your ‘travel’ category – like locations (eg South America, or more specifically, Peru, depending how you want to break it down). This is somewhat optional, I suppose, since your layout makes it pretty easy to scroll through all of your travel posts for now – but once you get beyond the first page of travel posts, the breakdown would be helpful.

      Hope that helps!

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    2. Actually, after looking at it a little more, even your non-travel posts take places in various cities, I think by categorizing them by destination, it would help to find all the posts related to one destination (like your photo/travel summary of Edinburgh coupled with your food post about Edinburgh).

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      1. This is such a great suggestion! I’ll work on that over the weekend — thank you so much 🙂 And thanks for your comments on my blog – you’re awesome!

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  13. I like to think that the branding of my blog is near-perfect. The background and header [I designed it myself] are relevant to the content … however if anyone has any constructive criticism to further improve the layout – I’m all ears!

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  15. One of the best things about living in a different timezone is waking up to see how much everyone here has been sharing their ideas and thoughts. Thanks to everyone who’s shared their own experience, blogs or feedback, you rock.

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    1. I like the idea of your header. It definitely describes your site and what you do. I think it would be more effective if you didn’t have that white bar with nadiajwriter.com and the search bar above it, but I doubt you can change that option in your theme.

      I would suggest keeping the background static, so it doesn’t scroll along with the rest of the page. I like the lights, but seeing them scroll as I’m trying to focus on the text is a bit distracting.

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      1. I tried taking that off but then it squished the search bar in with the menu and made it look really cramped. I’ll take your advice about the scrolling background, thanks! Thank you for taking the time to look 🙂

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  17. I love writing, hence the Blog. But what I know about links, headers, sidebars or anything else which might make my Blog more accessible could be written down and still leave room to spare on a pinhead. I know it’s a good idea, but I fear that is all it will remain with me

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  18. I’m constantly blown away by how many people are so willing to offer advice and help to fellow bloggers!

    I would really love and appreciate some feedback about my blog.

    At the moment its based around the renovation of our trailer and some Airstream inspired articles and family photos, but as soon as we begin our roadtrip I hope to post in a much more relevant way! In the meantime though, I’m working on getting to know more about wordpress and the aesthetics of my blog.

    Thanks to anyone who is willing to check it out and let me know how it feels to be on there as a stranger!

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    1. I really like the heading on your blog – very unique and creative! I also like the clean lines of the rest of the site, interspersed with the colorful photos. In fact, if I were to make any recommendations at all, it would be to make your gravator image while the photo you are currenty using is kind of hard to see.

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    2. Ugh sorry, I think I deleted a line of my comment – I meant to suggest making your gravatar image the “airstream family” logo that is in your header. It is unique and clearly describes your site.

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      1. Hi Wanderoneday,

        Wow, you blog looks like the best blog like Houghton Post. I like some of your travel pics a lot. I am a rookie. my theme is: live well, eat healthy, have fun. Right now, I only have mabel8ble there, if I add livewelleathealthyhavefun after mabel8ble, 1)would it be too long to much too confusing. 2)would it screw up my URL make it impossible to search my blog? Thanks for any advice

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  19. Since I started blogging about a year ago, I have gone through several phases, and I have learned a lot. At first, I published my photoshopped pictures of the neighborhood. My facebookfriends were the only one watching.

    Then, I added some writing – in Swedish. After that I started following the Weekly Photo Challenge, and the number of visitors have increased dramatically. But I had to write something in English (Difficult, believe me) for them, as the majority came from abroad.

    Today, I’d say 70 % of my visitors are foreign. They know very little about my country and city. I have to communicate differently, which has given me several ideas for future blogging projects.

    But I would really like to get some feedback from you, devoted bloggers out there. I would like to improve my blog.

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  22. Wow.

    This is incredibly helpful. Just what I needed.
    Haven’t applied it, yet, but I KNOW this content-rich post will render me ABLE to sort my intentions and get on with sticking to them.
    I cannot express my thanks enough. Had to download an enormous THANK YOU before I could continue thinking about how this as it applies to my site.

    I now know I can make this happen. Thanks, again.

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  23. This is such a great article! In creating my blog, I didn’t really expect to get any readers and just wanted to make a nice, calm place for myself to write and enjoy. I have kept things pretty simple and am only just starting to mess about a little with widgets. This series will be a great help to me! Thanks!

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  25. I would love getting some feedback for my blog. I’ve been working on it really hard lately, but I’m sure there is a ton of room for improvement 🙂 I really liked this article and can’t wait for the next one!

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  26. It seem no matter what I do(tags, blogpost photos, cool lead-in lines), my blog never shows up in the wordpress feed. I have checked all the categories I post in, repeated – a post popped up once, after 3wks… and surprising, yesterday, right after I posted, but only in one category. I often asks myself, ‘aside from the good blogs, how does all that garbage make it into the feed!’ My readership numbers are growing, not from anything WP has done(thanks for the free blog), but because I really like reading, discovering new people and ideas, I enjoy engaging with people globally, therefore I do…and I actually ‘talk2people’ and stick with the ones I really liked. But I do wonder why my blog never shows in the feed(yes, it’s public).
    still for all the positive tips. Cheers.

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      1. What a curious thing! I just don’t understand it. In some topics, certain blogs are even repetitive, because of insufficient content, and I don’t show up. Frustrating. That’s blog life, I guess! I hope not.Thanx4d reply. Cheers.

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      2. I am so sorry to hear that. So how do people get to your site? Did you ever contact the WordPress help/support? Or do they have any? It’s weird seems you are the only one who has the problem? One time I just couldn’t log in for the whole day no matter how many new passwords I changed and used. The next day, changed password again and somehow it worked. don’t know what happened.

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      3. My last post showed up immediately, in every section it was tagged in. Why? Well, it is the first one that I wrote and published in one go. Most of my posts are scheduled – posted way later. But WP tech, it seems(with those), reads the date on which it was created!!!! Let’s just say, in the future it’s going to be ‘new post-copy+paste-publish.’

        a liunk2that post>>>>http://lexborgia.wordpress.com/category/high-yield-warheads/
        Cheers.

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      4. yeah, tell me about it. I learned my lesson too. By the way, how much time does it take to put up a post or how much time you blog every week. If you don’t mind. It takes me over half a day to do one usually. takes a lot of my time. Thanks and happy blogging

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      5. Depends. I always have several drafts on the table – the length varies(category). I work on them simultaneously(active and mentally). After I put out the post it can takes another 3-7days to refine it. I can publish something every 5-7days, but I won’t pressure myself. Just let it happen, or not. If you’re a writer, you will write, nothing to panic about. Writer’s block is also mind gymnastic. I enjoy the productive times and I revel like a sow in the melancholy periods.

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  27. I changed a couple of times my blog and not entirely happy with it, trying to decide which theme should I use. I like simple and clean layout and dark colors. Despite this, I chose white background. I’m not good with making blog but trying to learn.
    Thanks for all the great suggestions.

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    1. I want to add more to mabel8ble which doesn’t say anything. But I am so afraid to disturb URL to make it impossible to for the search engine ? I don’t know. Not good with computer. Did you encounter any interruptions when you changed your blog?

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      1. mabel8ble, I do not really understand what you want to say with your comment?
        Yes, I´m encounter interruption when I´m changed blog but do not have time to read how do I solve this problem.

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      2. I do not really understand what you want to say with your comment?
        Yes, I´m encounter interruption when I´m changed blog but do not have time to read how do I solve this problem.
        Thanks 🙂

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      3. Ok, I am saying to change my ID name. Looks like you are talking about the theme. Anyway, I decide not to make a move at this time. don’t want to fool around and screw up my setup search pattern. swamped anyway. Have a good weekend

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  28. Hello Michael,

    I have a few questions related to branding.

    I’m having a hard time figuring out how my blog fits into any of the topics that are listed in the WordPress “Reader” guide. Should it fit perfectly under one topic or a few? For example, mine: “Intrinsic: Self-directed Learning” contains elements of education, culture, entertainment, psychology, or even art and design–depending upon who I’m profiling at my site: kristinshermanolnes.com

    Also, should drop the by-line “self-directed learning”? I added it because I felt it defined what I was doing, because when I searched “intrinsic” on-line there was a lot of use of that word.

    Also, my “Watson” premium theme has an option to list “tags” as well as categories; and I’m not clear about the difference between the two. I think I’m duplicating them both as a result and I’m not sure which one of them is what search engines use.

    Any suggestions would be helpful and appreciated.

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    1. Hi Kristen!

      Categories are broad. Like “desserts”.

      Tags are more specific. Like “pie, apple, cinnamon, crust” OR “cake, chocolate, frosting, Red Devil”.

      See?

      Categories are for helping you organize. Tags are for helping me find. Although I might just click on “desserts” and drool awhile. 🙂 Does that help?

      Yes, you should have both.

      Now I must go over and read your intriguing site! 🙂

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      1. Hi Katharine,

        Thanks for your clarification above re: tags and categories. It helps.

        If no email option was visible, you must have been on my “sticky” page with my current post; click on my blogs’ name and it will take you to my home page, rt. column, email option. (I’ll need to address that.)

        Hope it works! I’d love to have you visit again.

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      2. Thanks! I’ll look again, but only because I really, really, really want this input. If I were only somewhat interested, I might just shrug, you know? So, yes, DO fix that! 😉

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    3. @Kristin – my first impression when I checked out your blog was that the emphasis was on self-directed and alternative education, and that the other topics fed into that main theme, which I think works really well and has a clear focus. If anything I’d say our Reader recommendation categories aren’t broad enough rather than that of your blog to fit any of them. People will still be able to find your work through your tags, which Katharine (thanks, Katharine) did a great job of describing but this is a big area we should consider in future iterations of the reader.

      We’re also looking at way to further highlight and serve the needs of educators (self- or otherwise) on WordPress.com, and you’ll definitely be hearing more about that in the future if you stay tuned to the WordPress.com blog. Coincidentally, Michelle posted about Education Outside the Classroom today.

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      2. Hi Michael,

        I see you wrote back to me in the wee hours of the night and I’m grateful for your effort.

        For me it’s easier to get up early, in this case 4:30, to catch up on emails, including yours, which was worth it.

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  29. I think branding is hard, especially when you have a “little bit of everything” type blog like I do. I did have a new idea I’d like to try out this weekend (when I have time) . I was inspired after reading this post. Any thoughts as of now?

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