Here's how new opportunities came when I rebranded my blog.
I rebranded my blog a little more than a year ago because I felt that the
old name no longer resonated with the content that I was writing. It was a
move that was, in a way, I thought was risky and somehow bold because it
could turn some readers off. In the end though, I was happy with my decision
because it turned out well and I was more at home with my blog’s new
name.
How Rebranding My Family Travel Blog Has Led To More Opportunities For It
Why rebrand your blog?
There could be many reasons for rebranding your site. It can be as simple as
wanting a cute name for your blog or it could be that your current life
circumstances are no longer aligned with your blog’s content direction.
whatever your reason for rebranding is, it’s perfectly fine as long as you are
happy with the result.
For my case, my blog has been through several name and even platform changes
over the course of 14 years. I started this blog as a personal blog because I
wanted to hone my writing skills. My blog was born out of passion and I never
really had any big dreams for it in terms of monetization and brand
partnerships.
For the longest time, I wrote poems, short fictional stories, anecdotes from
my day to day life, my trips to Intramuros because I love old Manila, and so
on.
Shifting to the travel niche
When I got married, I wrote about our honeymoon in Macau because it was an
experience that I wanted to relive over and over again.
That was the start of
the evolution of this blog as a travel journal. I wrote about the places that
Mommy Khris and I visited so the focus is mostly couple travel (for some
readers, you might remember the name Ivan + Khris’ Travels). I do enjoy
traveling and I loved documenting our trips.
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| Photo courtesy of pexels.com |
While it’s true that monetizing my blog was just a secondary goal (an
insignificant one at that), I still wanted to network with my fellow bloggers
and brands because I knew that I could learn a lot of things from them.
However, I soon realized that the local travel niche is already a little
saturated and the more established travel bloggers dominated the field. At
some point, I felt that it was a big challenge just to network with some of
them.
I perfectly understand that because they worked hard for their success.
I also recognize that brands would indeed rather work with bloggers with a
good portfolio behind them.
Just the same, I would be forever grateful to well-known travel bloggers and
brands that have helped me in my blogging journey.
Focusing on family travel and parenting
When Mommy Khris and I became parents, I started to share my experience as a
new father in my blog. I didn’t really change this blog’s direction in terms
of content because I still wrote about family travel but I added a new topic
which I did enjoy writing about.
However, I did feel that my blog needed a brand refresh to be able to
effectively marry the topics of family travel and fatherhood. I soon settled
for the name “Dad On The Move” because it denotes being in motion as well as
parenthood.
To be honest, I didn’t really have any grand plans for my blog when I
rebranded but I was happy with how it turned out. I felt that I was more at
home with it. A few readers still stuck and continued to support my blog.
Over the course of a few months, new opportunities opened their doors to me in
ways that I had never imagined.
How I did my blog rebranding
Frankly speaking, my blog rebranding exercise is not really a complicated
process and I wouldn’t try to make it look like one. At the same time, it
wasn’t also a simple procedure because I had to think about it for several
days because I wanted the new name to echo the topics that I love to write
about.
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| Photo by cottonbro from Pexels |
If you are also planning to rebrand your blog but don’t know where to begin,
here are some ideas for you:
1. Start with a name
List possible names that appeal to you and that effectively capture your voice
and blogging directions. It has to be a name that you really like and
something that you’d stick with for life. Once you’ve picked a name that you
are in love with, everything else will follow.
2. Come up with a new username for your social media pages
Now that you have a blog name that you like, see how you can use it as your
username for your social media pages. You have to see if the usernames are
taken and if they are, look for possible combinations that are still
available.
For example, when I decided to use the name “Dad On The Move,” I tested if the
username “@dadonthemove” was still available. Unfortunately, it was already
taken in Instagram so I have to look for another option that’s why I checked
“@dadonthemoveph” and it was still not in use. With that, I grabbed the
opportunity to revise my social media usernames using that one.
3. Decide whether you want a new website address
I decided to use my existing domain name because it contains Mommy Khris and
I’s name. It has a sentimental value to me and I’ve had it for a long time
that’s why I wanted to keep it. However, I also purchased the domain name
www.dadonthemoveph.com because I
also wanted to own it and just redirected it to
www.ivankhristravels.com.
You can also do the same or opt to totally change your website address.
However, you do need to properly redirect your old address to the new address
so as not to lose authority, traffic, and rankings.
It’s much easier in WordPress because there are plug-ins that can help you do
it. On the other hand, I’m not too sure about how to do it in other platforms
that’s why I can’t give much information about it.
4. Create new visuals for your rebranded blog
You might want to create new cover photos and profile pictures for your
rebranded blog to create more impact when you finally announce it.
5. Make an announcement
when you have done the necessary revisions on your rebranded blog, you have to
announce it to your friends and followers just to give them an idea on the
move as well as what to expect from your blog.
The 4 possible factors that led to new opportunities for my blog
One of the reasons why I also rebranded my blog was to regain the traffic that
it lost because of the pandemic. I mostly had travel content but, as we all
know, the travel industry was badly hit by COVID-19.
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| Photo by cottonbro from Pexels |
I wanted to diversify my content and attract more readers and I felt that
sticking to a single niche would be too limiting for my blog. I never really
had any expectations for my blog in terms of securing brand collaborations.
With hard work and some luck, opportunities came and I’m nothing but grateful
for those.
In any case, here are the reasons why I think my site’s rebranding ushered in
new opportunities for me:
1. Expanded content
The expanded content meant that my blog could accommodate a wide-range of
topics that appeal to more readers hence resulting in more traffic. As well
all know, traffic is the lifeblood of blogs and those that have good stats are
deemed more attractive to brands.
2. Relatable voice
I think being relatable is also a huge factor for my blog. I began to share
more stories about fatherhood and parenting in general based on my own
experience. I also made reviews about the products that we love in our family
and I believe that made my content easier to relate to.
3. New audience
I believe that the inclusion of parenting articles and product reviews have
attractive new audience into my blog. These are also people that brands can
tap into through various arrangements like social media promotion, article
seeding, and even online events.
4. Aligned with brand’s ideals
I’m very honest when it comes to my values and the causes that I support in my
blog. I have further emphasized these when I rebranded my blog and I reckon
that it had meld well with the philosophies of some of the brands that I’ve
worked with.
Epilogue
If you are thinking of rebranding your blog, you always have to ask yourself
why you want to do it. More often, the answer would be related to the
editorial direction of your blog. Once you are sure about the move, it’s a
fairly simple process that you can easily accomplish.
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