10 years ago I had heard about blog commenting when new to the blogging game.
A few years after that I dove into blog commenting.
A few years after that I became known as the blog commenting guy.
But the current day version of me doesn’t do blog commenting like I used to do it. I also closed comments on my daily travel pages.
What gives?
Wasn’t my brand supposed to be all about blog commenting?
Why would I dream of closing blog comments on my travel pages? Seems like brand divergence, right? Shouldn’t I be branding myself consistently?
I know this sounds super confusing to you because I and other bloggers stress how successful branding is consistent branding. But as you grow, evolve and shift, your brand needs to grow, evolve and shift too.
By all means, be consistent with what you value, branding-wise. Being generous, allowing fun and playfulness to bleed through your brand, helping people and building connections are branding fundamentals for most bloggers. Remain true to these ideas.
But you need to change the tools, channels or even actions associated with your brand as you grow and as your blog grows.
What is the ultimate branding tip that may confuse you but that you need to honor as your blog grows?
Be Flexible
Or, be flexible and build a flexible brand.
I am the former blog commenting guy.
I became the guest posting and Facebook Live Broadcast guy over time.
As I became busier blogging-wise and my responsibilities grew I had to make changes to my blog, my brand and my daily activities if I wanted to stay on point, to have fun and to best serve my readers.
I closed comments on my travel pages – even though I was the blog commenting guy for so many years – because even though it appeared to be inconsistent branding, I learned that being flexible with your tools or strategies, always remaining true to what you value most, affords me the ability to love the blogging ride and to render the best service possible for you.
Case in point; the 10 minutes I save sifting through blog comments on my travel pages – since I post there daily you better believe I’d be getting waves of spam comments from my daily posting over the past 4-5 months – is now devoted to Facebook Live Broadcasts daily. Said broadcasts have been a big blog brand builder for me, to the point where I was mentioned on John Chow’s blog as a live video guy to watch by this site’s owner Zac Johnson.
Why did I find and hone this video talent?
I was not filtering through hundreds of spam comments on my travel pages.
I keep comments on my blogging tips posts open but who knows? Maybe I will need to close comments on my blog someday when the volume of comments becomes too much to handle.
You never know.
I am flexible.
My brand is flexible.
The Big Mistake of Not Being Flexible
Not being flexible causes you to carry energetic anchors through your blogging career.
Said anchors hold you back, retarding your progress, because the activities you should have let go last month or last year because you stubbornly hold onto activities you have outgrown, sap your energy, dissipate your creative juices and pull you away from fun activities, into drudge work.
If you and your blogging brand are inflexible you will grow at a snail’s pace.
If you and your blogging brand are flexible you will grow like a weed, being nimble, adaptive to change, and willing to release activities you have outgrown to make room for higher level activities for you, in the moment, that greatest benefit your readers.
I love commenting on top blogs. Ditto for reading and responding to comments on my blog posts. But I reached my blog commenting limit with those 2 activities. If I lacked flexibility and mistakenly held onto filtering through, reading and responding to comments on my travel pages I would feel overworked, plus I would have no time for my rocking live videos on Facebook.
Can you see why being flexible helps grow your brand as your blog grows??
Video
Watch the video as I discuss this concept: