Cyber Personal Brands
Blogging became the main instrument for anyone trying to create a kind of “cyber brand” around himself. In contrast to real world personal branding, the kind of cyber brands can start right here and now, without any history.
One of the biggest cyber personal brands is definitely Matt Drudge. Without any background in journalism, or any career in the news business, he became (over a few years) one of the strongest news brands on the web. Certainly, his unbiasedness is more than questionable, but on election night, he had more visits on his site than the New York Times. His whole “fame” is just based on his website and his ability to choose the “right” news for his audience. It is an amazing job he is doing, and it’s amazing how he can earn a pretty good living by his site (about 10 million visits a day, .50c/1000 (lowballed) are ~ $5ooo a day)
But as you probably know, he didn’t only do this, he had also his tv show on Fox News, and now hosts a talk radio show every Sunday night. Without his strong personal brand on the web, he would be a nobody. In my view, he could be even more successful if he would work on becoming a stronger media personality on screen and at the mic.
Another good example is the guy who ran the Apple insider website and started it at the age of 13, now being 19 years old. Seth Godin wrote on his blog, “I figured that Nick was about 50, a burnt out engineer shopping at Fry’s and living in the Valley.” This is an amazing story about Cyber Personal Brands. How someone can create a myth around himself, playing his role straight forward, and staying credible the entire time. (Ok, until you get a law suit)
Driving it into a more philosophical direction, blogging is one of the most tolerant fields existing today. A blogger is judged not by his race or color, not by his age or resume, not by his big friends or his huge office, it is only about content, knowledge and the feeling for your audience. That’s a wonderful thing, and it is a great help for each and everyone to create their own cyber personal brand. How about you?
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