Searching for a personal brand, an identity

It was quite a challenge coming up with something new. With my job now related to the Singaporean social media scene, I wanted to create some sort of identity for myself and for nanyate?!. I’m not sure about professional web designers, but I always get stuck when it comes to creating a brand for myself. The stress of wanting to be perceived a certain way, and the questioning the accuracy of my perception of myself is all too overwhelming. And of course, I still have my readers from my previous political blog, and those who just stalk my site for new designs, and those who’s become online friends with me since my first blog in 1999 – with the amalgamation of such a diverse audience, I no longer knew how to cater to everyone’s liking.

So for the first redesign, I illustrated an Edo Fuurin – Edo-styled windchime – ornament as nanyate?! logo.

But it was too contrived. It does reflect the anime otaku in me but that otakuism doesn’t quite define me, and more importantly, what I write about. So it was promptly scrapped.

Then I remembered what my rhetoric professor would say when we got stuck with essay topics or research: “when in doubt, keep it simple”. So, came theme “minimetamorphasis”.

I was initially proud of this theme, since minimal layouts that rely on typography and a solid grid system aren’t easy to create. But when I showed the prototype to some friends, they all said that it was just too blah.

Blah?! There’s no way I’d want to come off as a boring person, with a boring site. So it too was scrapped.

And suddenly, it hit me. Why did I need to go through such great lengths to design something so different than what I usually design, just because I wanted to have a more permanent identity? I mean, it’s not like I didn’t have an identity in the first place – I just didn’t consciously think about it. So came Zen, a remix of my previous theme – just louder, bolder with more SEO and Web 2.0 than ever before!

So What’s New?

Search Engine Optimized Coding

Well, it’s not like I never had meta tags, or didn’t search engine friendly URLs before, but I just never paid too much attention to the nitty gritty. And by that, I meant the coding.

Some examples of the SEO coding including paying attention to the H1 – H6 titles and content frontloading. Search engines give priority to the words used in H1 – H6 codes, that’s why you should always make sure to use H1 – H6 for titles instead of [span] to customize your headings. Search engines, like humans, will also read your code from top to bottom and give priority to what you put on top. So you should place your content code on top, and your menu and/or sidebar at the bottom.

To see how your site looks like to a search engine spider, visit SEO-browser.com.

Relevant, Targeted Content

I could write a book on my life, add 300 fanlistings and rant about my lunch. Unfortunately, no one would actually bother to read it. The only people that would are probably only the new visitors. They want to know what this site is about, and who the owner is – and they want it fast. So a short biography should suffice – what I do for a living, where I’m from, what I stand for. And with that in mind, I re-wrote my about page.

Typography

What’s branding without font? So I scoured, and searched, and sunk into the depths of Internet to find that one true font destined to take Nanyate?! to the next level only to end up with the pre-installed Apple font, Kozuka Gothic Pro Extra Light. (If you have the font installed, I use it for my title tags. If you don’t, it’s the font on the nanyate?! logo.)

I am exploring the use of sIFR (this script that converts text into flash) so that everyone can read my site in Kozuka, but haven’t had time play around with it yet. Will get to it when I can scavenge for time.

Lifestreaming (coming soon)

I’ve become very busy with work lately, so Twitter and his bigger cousin, Tumblr, have become a more effective avenue for me to stay connected with people and express my opinions. As a result, I’d like to have them play a more central role on nanyate?!.

And then the incredibly hot talented dude called YongFook developed exactly what I needed: a lifestream to allow me to stream all my feeds into my blog. (Although, I have yet to play around with the script.)

Well, I guess you could say it’s the epitome of narcissism to stream your entire life on your blog. But I prefer to see it as the epitome of Web 2.0 social networking, where your blog is now more than just a place to express your opinion; it’s now a place to display your life, reach out and connect with others.

Still Work in Progress

So I hope you enjoy the re-invented theme and content, and my mini pitch SEO and social media. “Zen” is still on beta release, as there are still some bugs that need ironing out – especially for my arch nemesis, Internet Explorer 6. The navigation menus for the sub pages are also in dire need to be more user-friendly. And I also need re-write quite a bit of content. There a few more things I’m exploring to do to this site, but it’ll have to wait until I have time to spare.

So, look out for those changes in the near future, and do let me know what you think of the new design and the new direction nanyate?! is headed for. If you’re a web designer, do share your experiences on how you developed your brand online.

(Sorry, for all the grammatical errors. Will fix it in the morning).

Related posts:

1. Nanyate: Springley Edition (Final)

Having owned a site from the world of Geocities back in 1996, and many frequent hiatuses, the world of Web 2.0 is, for the most part, still quite alien to me. I don’t fully understand the sleuth of social bookmarking sites or the function of Google pageranks (other than the fact that it drives traffic). I have slowly transformed my site to work according to certain Web 2.0 standards such as code validation, ensuring that they are 508 compliant – a standard to assure those with disabilities, particularly the blind, can access my site like everybody else.

Regardless of Web 2.0 standards, I measure Nanyate’s success by delving deep into my Statcounter. While most people only look at their unique visitor count, pageviews, and referrals, I find that miscellaneous statistical information can provide key information for blogger-designers like me (and, I presume, most of you too!). For example:

• Visitor Length – Reflection of your content and design quality

  For me, this is by far the most important number because how long your visitors stay on your site reflects on the quality of your blog content and to a lesser extent, how aesthetically and functionally pleasing your site is. By aesthetics, I don’t mean designing the site with the caliber of NDesign Studio, but just one that I can view without getting a migraine from flashy ads and horrendously tiny text.

  

  My visitor length averages at approximately 4 minutes. Since my blog is a niche blog, mainly appreciated by women and personal blogger-designers, having 50% of my visitors stay on my blog for more than 30 seconds is considered pretty good. I don’t quite understand the 20% of visitors that stay on my site for an hour. But I’m grateful. You must really love my site – more than I do!

• Returning Visits and Feed Subscribers – Barometer of content quality

  Having returning visitors is a sign that your blog is producing original content, and generating interests among others. Unlike visitor length, the percentage is not as important as the actual count. Out of 200 visitors, I have around 50 returning visits and an average of 30 feed subscribers (including comment feed). It means my blog could do better to target more people and expand its niche. But for an almost 4-month old blog, I think it’s not too bad.

  

• Browser – Accessible coding for all

  There are so many designers out their fighting about whether to design for Firefox or IE. A simple look at your statistics can show who you should cater for. For me, out of 500 people, 350 Firefox, 100 use IE and 50 uses Safari. The answer? If you want returning visits or make it into design galleries, design for all of them.

• System Stats – Accessible design for the masses

  Like the browser problem, many people condemn designers for leaving 800×600 resolutions behind. But here is the hard cold facts from my Statcounter: 300 visits from 1280×1024 resolution, 100 visits from 1024×768, 10 from 1152×864 and a measly 5 from 800×600. Do you mean I should jeopardize the ease for 400+ people who have bigger resolutions for the 5 who have 800×600? Of course, I can design sites that have expandable divs, but I don’t think it’s worth the trouble as I’m unwilling to forgo the ‘personal’ part of my personal blog for minor increase in accessibility. (But of course, you may beg to differ.) Besides, with the advent of feeds, they can ignore my inaccessible design for my content, if they wish so.

I’m not sure how you guys analyze your statistics but I hope I have enlightened a few people. And like I said, I’m not Web 2.0 savvy, so…

…do share your views on how you analyze statistics!

FYI, I am using the free version of Statcounter that can only view the latest 500 visitors’ in-depth stats, which can skew my analysis. Also, I blocked my IP, so statistics provided here do not include my own visits to prevent any further distortions.

P.S. A major update, WordPress 2.5 is planned to be released tomorrow, so be sure to standby for the annoying yellow reminder. I guess not. Regardless, I’m psyched! Can’t wait. The Dashboard looks amazing and is AJAXed out!

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1. Gratitude: The Joys of Blogging
2. Thank You To My Housemates