The new media age of communication has created a brand new world of opportunities  for Internet entrepreneurs to connect with their customers and fans.

People identify with brands. At one time or another we have all sported corporate logos or tag lines on our cloths.  In the 70s, I remember that bright red “swoosh”  on Rob Burn’s tennis shoes. Now the Nike “Just Do it” slogan is recognized worldwide. We carry mugs and wear baseball caps that display some company brand.

If you are developing your business on the Internet, creating your personal brand is not complicated and certainly does not require you to hire expensive marketing advisers.  If you are thinking about branding YOU, here’s a couple of questions to ask:

Is your brand consistent and easily recognized? Does your brand clearly communicate benefits to your potential customers and fans?  Here are useful tips to get you started on your personal branding journey.

Use Professional blog and web designs:  Blog vs Website? I prefer using a Hub Site rather than just build a blog or a website. This site is kind of a hybrid blog/website with lots of marketing power behind it.   For the average person, building a WordPress blog using www.wordpress.org, can be a daunting task. If you don’t want to spend valuable time learning how to build a WordPress blog or a website, there are simple alternatives.

Most business owners do not have the time, patience or technical experience. That’s why I recommend using a Quansite, Hub Site.  I use Quansite and have developed my own WordPress pod casting site, Viral Video Ideas too. But from a time commitment standpoint for most people, Quansite wins hands down. OK, that’s my shameless plug but if you want a professional presence with a built in marketing system, the Quan wins hands down. The time savings, marketing benefits are just too much to list in this article.

Create Consistent Quality Content: People recognize brands because the corporation or person’s image and message is consistent.  For more exposure and superior search engine ranking, post articles and videos consistently on schedule. Create an expectation in your subscribers to receive your content. Create original quality content that gives your readers lots of value and potential benefits.  Use keywords in your titles descriptions pictures and articles. Also, I always include my name, Mark Petticord in the keywords.

Make Your Blog Look good: Use professional blog designs and logo designs.  Your logo header, personal picture and colors should be consistent on all your social networks, including: your blogs, websites, Twitter,Face book and all social networking sites. A professional looking blog, logo, and professional photo of yourself speaks volumes to your readers and brands you as an authority on your topic.  There are excellent simple logo creation programs like Logo Creator.

A Face is worth1000 Words: I don’t know about your but I like to see someone’s picture when they post a comment on my blog or subscribe to my videos on Youtube or follow me on Twitter. If a person doesn’t have a picture on Twitter, I usually delete them.

Here’s a cool program that puts your face out there.  Create a Gravatar, referring to a globally recognized avatar.  Your globally recognized image will display when you post a comment on any blog worldwide. Just go to the website and start the branding process with your own mug!

Contribute and Comment: Once you have your Gravatar, start contributing and commenting. Spreading yourself around in the blogging, Internet business community is by far, the fasted way to make friends and influence people. As a result, your brand will get recognized. I’ll now quote my own words from an article I posted on my other website, Viral Video Ideas.

What is the Social Networking Community? What is Internet Social Networking? It’s when people network and communicate online. We’ll that’s profound, Mark! So what, people have been communicating for 1000’s of years — nothing new here. The big difference is the Internet makes it simple to make a lot of friends all over the world at breakneck speed.

How do you make friends? The reality is, people love it when you complement them about their video or their blog. Guess what there are powerful life-changing benefits when you make new friends online. In addition, making friends by commenting and interacting boosts your search engine rating. No kidding! If that seems self serving its not. You’re actually giving them higher search engine rankings too when you make comments.

Higher search engine rankings happen when you interact and populate the Internet with your comments and observations. Comment about other blogger’s articles and videos and you will be rewarded with reciprocation. The social network community thrives on interaction, so get out there and make some friends and share your comments. It’s the old principle taught by our old friend Zig: Help people get what they want and you’ll get what you want. Give and it shall be given to you. Be sociable!

Be Consistent, follow Up and Follow Through: None of this matters unless you take action and start the process.  I recommend that you start by setting up a free WordPress blog.  Link your blog to Twitter, Face Book and other social book marketing sites. Go out and brand YOU in this brand new world.  Why not start right now?  If this article was helpful, please Tweet it and post a comment. Let us hear about YOU!