I think it’s high time I discuss the monster that was the rebranding of my little piece of internet landscape, don’t you? I will most likely get wordy,and kind of technical, so I apologize in advance.
First, let’s start with the basics. What is a brand? Well, think of brands you recognize, like Target, Starbuck’s, Chevron, and on and on. These companies have worked hard to have “brand recognition”. You know them most likely by just their logos, and you have an opinion about them based on your experience – whether it’s good or bad.
The same holds true for blogs. As a blogger, we work very hard to build a brand, and develop brand recognition from our readers. For nearly four years, I blogged as One Tough Mother, and became recognized by my name, my logo, and the style of my blog. My readers knew me, trusted me, and liked what they saw here on One Tough Mother.
So why rebrand?
Well, I grew and changed, and after taking six months off from blogging, I realized that not only was I a different person, but this space was different, too. I’m in a different phase of my life, and One Tough Mother no longer reflected me. And really, that is what a blog should do, right – reflect it’s author.
Rebranding from One Tough Mother to Sweet Tea & Saving Grace felt like coming home, back to my roots, back to my original starting point. It was a sense of completion, but also a new beginning. When I originally started blogging, I wrote about my family and the things we did together. I shared insights into my faith, my struggles, and my joys. I got away from that and became the blog that most of my readers recognized, the one that reflected my tagline – “Organize, Decorate and Craft a Good Life”. There wasn’t anything wrong with that, but it wasn’t true to myself and my life.
To be perfectly honest, it was more stress than it was worth and that’s why I stepped away for a time. I needed to regroup and reassess and figure out what it was I really wanted to write about and share.
When I got to a point in my life where I felt ready to begin again, initially I decided to start over completely – a new domain name, a different platform, a new logo and tagline, and all new content. After a couple of weeks, I decided I wanted to just rebrand One Tough Mother and combine my old content with my new content. After all, just six months ago I paid big bucks to buy the hosting and theme and transfer from Blogger to WordPress, so why waste it, right?
How did I rebrand?
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I have debated back and forth about this for a while. For now I am keeping my blog the way it is, but I may still change/re-brand in the future. It is a tough decision and it is a good amount of work. But you have to feel happy with your blog and the image you are putting out there.
It is a lot work so you definitely have to make the best decision for you. I’m glad I did it, though, and I love the end result. Good luck Laura!
Wow, you are awesome! This is packed full of how to’s and I am sharing this with a blog friend who is struggling on the should I rebrand thing!
Thank you honey! I hope it helps her. Tell her to email me if she has any questions. I’ll be happy to help. 🙂 Love ya!
Hi!
Thanks for such a great post, with so much helpful info. I’m just starting the rebranding process and struggling to find the info I need, so your post has just made my day!
Thanks again!
Donna x
So glad I was able to help! Feel free to contact me if you have any specific questions that aren’t answered in the post. I’ll do my best to help. It was quite the tedious process, but I’m thankful I did it. Good luck!
You know how much I love the new blog and the rebranding that you did – – I had no idea how technical it all was, though! Props to you for persevering…especially when you were locked out of your own site. Eeek! That would have freaked me out! But it is all looking fabulous now. So glad we got to have dinner together this past weekend. If only that was a weekly occurrence…but I’ll take whatever I can get! Love ya, girl!
Thank you, thank you! You are always so incredibly supportive of anything I do. Loved hanging with you and the unicorns. We need to arrange a meet-at-the-GA-FL-border hangout, girl! Love you back! XOXO
Thank you so much for this post! I’ve been feeling like I’m stuck with my blog lately, especially after having about a month/two months off and it just didn’t feel like “me”. I’m definitely saving this post for when I actually get to rebranding. 🙂
You are so very welcome Cassondra! Good luck 🙂
This is such a fantastic article…a blogging friend (Tara at Suburble) recommended it to me because I am considering a full blog rebrand and am afraid of how complicated it all seems. Did you find your traffic dropped much after your rebrand? And did you have to fix any Pinterest links?
Hey Jo-Anna! Tara told me you might be stopping by 😉 Glad you found some of this info helpful! Regarding my traffic, keep in mind that when I rebranded, it was after coming back from a six-month hiatus, so my traffic had already dipped a bit (not much, thankfully!). I didn’t see any noticeable changes, however, after the rebrand. As a matter of fact, my traffic has continued to increase since that time. There were a few links on Pinterest that needed to be changed, but in all honesty, I’m still making my way through those. Once something is repinned, the original URL is what is attached to it anyway, and I can’t control those. I just periodically go in and change my original pins when it crosses my mind to do so. Feel free to email me if you run into any issues or have other questions. I’m happy to help!