From Building Your Website To Building Your Brand

This is a guest post by Alan Johnson, find out how to build a long-term income generating website in 10 days by visiting TheRatingBlog.com.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that all there is to being an online entrepreneur is building websites and that monetizing them is the only way to make money. Is that really all there is to it, or does being an online entrepreneur have far more potential than meets the eye?

You may not realize it but, with every project of yours, you are actually building a brand around yourself as well. Sure, you may have only been interested in branding as far as your websites are concerned but, like it or not, you are the person behind them and, as such, a lot of people, especially other webmasters will judge you based on how successful your projects are.

Why would you want to ignore this aspect and not use it to your advantage? Let’s say that your first project has been a huge success and that the community has given you credit for your achievements. As such, every new project you choose to launch will have an important advantage as far as exposure is concerned, as a result of the brand you’ve created around yourself with your first project and as a result of the contacts you have made.

Bloggers who you have been in good contact with will gladly write about your new projects and the effects will be more than worthwhile. Let’s face it, a project launched by a person who is both well-known and respected stands far more chances at being successful compared to a similar project launched by an online entrepreneur who does not yet have a strong brand associated with his or her name.

But with such important advantages also comes a great deal of responsibility because, in the end, you have a reputation to protect and it is inevitable that people will judge you based on your achievements as well as based on your flops. While they will give you credit for the things you do right, they will also show no mercy once you make mistakes and, as such, your brand might have to suffer.

Being well-known will never guarantee the fact that a certain project of yours turns out to be a huge success. Yes, you will receive more exposure and yes, that will increase your chances of maximizing results but no matter how popular you are, you will never be above failure.

In the scenario I have previously mentioned, if you are popular for being behind a successful project, there will indeed be some great advantages you can take advantage of but on the other hand, rest assured that, if you continue by launching one flop after another, your reputation won’t be what one would call stainless and, as such,
others will not be as thrilled to cover every new project of yours as they initially were.

You have to understand that there is more to being a webmaster than simply making money as a result of monetizing your websites and you have to understand how important the brand you are building around yourself can be and why taking this aspect into consideration is a must.

Note from Daniel: I agree with Alan’s points, but I think there is an even more important issue around it: integrity and ethics. If you keep your integrity and work under ethical values on all your online projects people will respect you for that. If, on the other hand, you fall short to using shady and unethical techniques, even if just once, your reputation and credibility might get damaged for good. So think twice before trying to find shortcuts to hard work. There are none.

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