Branding Battle: Favicon to the Rescue

Seth — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 18:41:30 +0000

Branding is an essential part of blogging and includes developing a recognizable product, service or blog.

Most good companies not only have a product that you can recognize as a customer but also a logo or icon. For instance, if I told you to tell me what the logo for Google was you could probably draw it. Same goes with Yahoo, Twitter, Facebook, and Digg logos. Their logos are easy to remember and are as important to their brand as the product itself.

An important and easy way to build a stronger brand around your blog is by creating a favicon.

Branding: Favicon to the Rescue

To learn about Branding be sure to start with SEOBook’s article two best articles on the subject [#1 and #2] and some of their suggested reading.

On Blogussion we have talked a lot about marketing but building a brand is a bit more than that. So far you can learn about ways to build your brand through WordPress back-end branding, brand building over instant messaging or through guest posting. This post is one more step to building a successful and long-term brand: the Favicon.

What is a Favicon?

So far the only time we have mentioned favicons at Blogussion is to discuss Google’s favicon. What a favicon is will be easiest to understand if you see it. For example here is Blogussion’s favicon:

It can be seen at the top of your browser’s screen or tab next to the title of your current open screen. Right now you should see our red and white favicon at the top of your screen.

To be clear then, a favicon is a small image or icon [16 pixels by 16 pixels] that automatically loads with each page or post on your blog or website. If you do not have a custom favicon for your site your web browser (Firefox [recommended], Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer [not recommended]) will create one.

In summary I am writing an entire post about a 16px by 16px image. Read why they matter though…

Why Do Favicons Matter?

Brands are built around awesome images no matter the size. Every time someone lands on a page or post of your blog they will see the favicon you have installed. Your brand is one more step clearer to them and they not only get the benefit of seeing it and connecting the image with your other products and pages but also never get confused about where they are.

Your job as a blogger is to make the reader of the best experience possible. I know for myself that I never have just one tab opened in my web browser but sometimes up to a dozen. The sites with favicons always are faster to locate, better bookmarked, and clicked on more. For example, in my bookmarks only the blogs with favicons are easily recognizable in my toolbars and drop down menus.

You see I am a visual person and I associate images instantly with everything I read or see. A favicon for me goes a long way and helping me remember your site. Many other people are just like me and having images associated with your blog really helps.

What Do Good Favicons Look Like?

I found a nice collage of favicons from many of the bigger blogs and websites. Some of these are not that special and others are very nice looking. To help you understand what is nice be sure to check out Remarkable Favicons [broken down into symbols and typography] and also a Favicon Review [includes commentary]. Which ones below do you like?

How Do I Make Favicons?

This part is less difficult than you may have ever realized. There are dozens of favicon generators where you can either draw the favicon yourself using their pixel art applications or turn an image into a 16px icon file. Here’s some quick resources to get started.

How to Create a Favicon

Create a favicon (Use one of the generators listed below)
Upload favicon.ico to root directory
Copy and Paste the code to header (head) section:
Reload your sites and finish! (note: it may take a few hours for the favicon to appear)

Favicon.cc [Recommended]

Favicon Tool

WebScriptLab – Favicon Generator

Once you have installed your favicon on your blog you are finished. Your brand is better and your blog is more recognizable. By the way, your favicon will look especially nice with Blogussion’s new Thesis Skin as its home. Check it out!

What do you think about favicons? Is there anything you would add? How about any other branding tools to improve your blogging?

5 WordPress.tv Videos Worth A Watch!

Janith — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 20:20:05 +0000

Wordpress TV was launched earlier this year, which was soon followed by Alex’s post on the new project. Personally, I thought it was a great idea because when I saw the videos for the first time; they were extremely high quality both visually and content-wise.

So, since their launch – what does WordPress TV have to offer? Countless number of useful tutorial videos. Everything from simple installation of themes to complex editing tutorials; it has the lot. However, I want to share with you – just five of these videos that I’ve found quite useful.

Getting Started With Google Analytics

Installation Google Analytics on a WordPress blog is relatively easy, but there are so many ways – that it can become a bit messy. This video will follow you through the step-by-step process of installing the coding successfully.

Introducing the P2 Theme: Blogging in Realtime

Want to post a quick message, while not having to run through the post editor? The P2 Theme introduces a “Twitter-like” blogging platform to WordPress. It’s a nice little idea to further enhance your WordPress blog.

The Twitter Friendly Links Plugin

No longer do we need to confine ourselves to ugly TinyURLs that are are from an external domain and a random string of characters after the slash. This plugin will allow you to create your own shortened URL under your own domain.

Speed up WordPress with Gears for Firefox

I’ve never used Gears (or Turbo, I think it’s called now) before for WordPress because quite frankly; I had no idea what it was. They promise a “faster” blogging experience, so it’s definitely worth a check.

Intense Debate Plugins : Taking Your Comments Even Further

Replying to comments, rating them and tracking them has never been the same since IntenseDebate came into the blogging field. The developer’s team “recently” joined the Automaticc (people behind WordPress) and they take the commenting system to a whole new level with every update.

Blogussion » how-to