Once You're Known.... There's No Going Back | One Year Blogoversary Celebration (1)

Welcome to my first day of blogoversary shenanigans. Aka. "Sofia thinks she can actually write advice when she has no idea what she's doing herself. 

" Those five words mean a lot to both me and my brand. They're in my Blog/BookTube Channel URLs, they're what people refer to when wanting to contact or mention me, and I've been addressed to as "Loving the Language of Literacy" by quite a few spam-filled review request emails.

Why Loving the Language of Literacy?

Despite being the self-proclaimed "Queen of Backstories," my reasons for this name aren't long and dramatic. On Friday, December 6, 2014, I made the conscious decision that reviewing books JUST one Goodreads wasn't enough. I needed to kick it up a notch and create my own blog name. Right now, I'm just thanking the heavens that my amateur blogger mind did not choose "Sofia Li" as my name. 

My Goodreads Reviews

What I did want, originally, was an alliteration, USING my last name. Of course, my first name would have been more convenient, but I learned within the first thirthy seconds of my thesaurus searching that there were a heck of a lot more literary-related adjectives starting with the letter "L" versus the letter "S." 

I know right *flips hair*

I think I searched up "Random Blog Name Generator" or SOMETHING like that, and found a website that gave me a bunch of random adjectives/synoyns. So through around 15 minutes of avid investigating, I came up with "Loving," "Language," and "Literacy." What I figured out at this point, was that adding my last name somewhere in there (most likely, Li Loving the Language of Literacy) would make an already too-long blog name.... too long. Therefore, Loving the Language of Literacy was born. 

Are You Happy With This Blog Name?

To be honest, I am. I completely lucked out on this aspect of blogging, as I am still loving the language of literacy a year later. This love proved to bbe extra handy when it came time to creat my BookTube Channel, because all I had to do was usee the same name, that I was already known by and had already created a brand for. Literally, my ONLY regret is that Loving the Language of Literacy is a heck of a lot to type out. Plus, it proved challenging when trying to create my brand elsewhere. 

Why Would I Advise a *Slightly* Smaller Blog Name, Character/Word Wise?

Amy Poehler says so too! PS: I just read her memoir :)

When you're tryign to create a brand, you want it to be consistent amongst ALL of the social medias. This includes Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc. This proved to be the biggest problem with Twitter and Instagram, because, as you know, there are character limits on Usernames. Loving the Language of Literacy is THIRTY-ONE characters long. Waaay too long for a Twitter/Instagram Handle/Username. Plus, it is a pain in the you-know-where to try to fit into character-limited tweets. Plus, if you're lazy like me, you don't want to write all of that out each and every time you sign up for a blog tour. 

I've Already Made My Brand Known & My Blog/BookTube Channel Name is Too Long, How Do I Make My Brand Consistent?

Learning of this character limit tragedy early on, I decided to use my other name that I was known by on some small, dusty corners of the interwebs. @sslluvsbooks Having a short & sweet username, maybe with your name (SSL are my initials), what your brand specializes in (books), and maybe a verb (luvs) helps a ton.

Why Might You Want To Be An Independent Blogger, At Least When It Comes To Your Brand?

Or a Man... If that's what you are

I am in no way trying to insult you, I was so close to making hte same mistake myself, but DO NOT, I repeart, DO NOT, add the words "book" or "read" to your blog name. There are too many of us out there with htat, and you will be indistinguishable from everyone else, plus your lack of creativity (something I am fully guilty of) will show. Three of the most popular, most distinct bloggers/vloggers out there are Nose Graze, Parajunkee, and PolandBananasBooks. With those three names, would you guess, in a million years (minus the books) that any of these channels/blogs have anything to do with books? No, you don't. Wile this might slightly hurt your SEO at first, in the long run, it will make you distiinguishable on the interwens, and even at real-life events (not that I know what those things are).

Why May You Want a Brand Name That Is Related, But Does Not Spell Out What the Majority of Your Content is About?

Post ALL of the Things!

The answer to this is simple - You may want to post something non-book related. Maybe you want to post about a really great race you had, or your latest writing project, or your newest vegan friendly recipe. Having a flexible blog name gives you the freedom to expand a little, if wanted. Of course, if your blog has the words "cooking" and "food" in it, and you start posting about pro-wrestling, you might want to consider starting a new blog because the two audiences don't mingle too much. Lately, I have become so thankful for Loving the Language of Literacy because it doesn't spell out books or reading. Language and Literacy have positive connotations that could relate to writing, so I feel the freedom to post about my NaNoWRiMo Adventues, school assignments, and random writing pieces I want to share with the world.

Of course, these are all pure ramblings from someone who is, in no shape or form, an expert when it comes to brand name-site traffic correlation. This is just my two cents on the matter and my personal experience. 

Fun Fact: When I was first considering creating a BookTube Channel and when pondering what I would name my blog if I had to start all over, I considered changing my name to "The Language of Liteture." This sounded so much more posh and professional, yet it's probably a good thing I chose not to change it for SEO reasons AND because of hose posh it sounds. "Loving the Langauge of Literacy" has a nice sound that rolls of the tongue, "The Langauge of Literature" sounds a bit too uptight, which is the opposite of how I want to come off to people. I want to be a reprieve from school, not an annoying reminder taht it exists. Plus, the word literature is somewhat exclusive to books and the written word. The word "literacy" is about competence with reading and writing. So in the end, I am basically saying the most unoffensive, but still snarky way possible, "I Only Love People Who Are Competent In Language And All Of You LOL-ers need to take a hike."