Are you a solopreneur who hasn’t yet taken the first steps to create your online brand, but you really desire to (but just maybe don’t know how)?

You can do this. Let me be the first to assure you that all things are possible, and it just takes one step at a time on this journey to make your online brand happen.

Follow a few of my sure-fire ways to get up and running with your online brand. It will take time and you won’t be able to zip through any of these steps, but at least it will give you some direction about how to get where you want to be. I don’t recommend rushing through any of this, as each step is crucial for your online brand and business success.

If you prefer watching rather than reading, go ahead and hit ‘play’ on the video below.

6 Steps to start your online brand

Starting is the hardest part…and I get it (I really do). Sometimes it’s so hard to take the first steps to push past insecurities and to make a decision that you’ll start your online brand, no matter what. If this is a strong desire for you, you’ll find a way to make it happen. And this post, hopefully, will help to give you the push you need. At least, that’s my hope.

Step 1: Gain clarity of your online brand’s mission.

Before you begin creating online, you will want to discover what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Finding your mission through your purpose is crucial to giving your business longevity. Knowing your ‘why‘ keeps you going through the long haul.

Is your mission to make people laugh? Bring joy to others? Bring hope and peace? Heal broken hearts? Bring a product solution to the tech space in order to solve a common problem? Help children to learn easier? Help teachers to better teach? Help small businesses manage their clients? What solution does your product or service bring?

My services and products are geared toward solopreneurs to help them start creating content online that brings them income. I solve the problem of help getting solopreneurs unstuck so that they can begin creating, and their time and money spent isn’t wasted.

What is your why? What motivates you to do what you do?

Step 2: Decide on the main message of your online brand.

What is the message you are trying to convey through your products or services? Figure out what you want to share with your audience and what you want to see them have accomplished as a result of your business.

I help mainly female solopreneurs (but I don’t discriminate!) learn to strategize their online content to begin making a profitable income online.

What is that you offer? How can you convey that message through all that you do online?

Step 3: Decide how to package and deliver your content.

Branding is all about how you look online. As a solopreneur, your brand centers around you and your personality, so it gets very personal. Bring your very best to the table and put your best foot forward. Don’t sabotage your success by not doing the things you need to build the kind of brand “storefront” you want others to see.

In this step, you’ll need to think about your color palettes. Based on your preferences and the feelings you want to convey to your site visitors, which colors do you think will be best for your brand?

Start thinking about this, and share your desires with your web designer and logo designer.

Also, be thinking about font pairings (or just let your designer do the heavy lifting and decide that for you.) I happen to like Montserrat, Poppins, and Modernline (I’ve used these fonts a good bit on this site.)

Then get a logo designed. I used Fiverr for my design and it worked out beautifully. I am pleased with the design and it cost me less than $50.

Step 4: Decide on your brand messaging.

What is the underlying tone of your message to your audience? Really think about this because it will encompass all that you do online. Also, you want to make sure that you feel comfortable in this role, so if you’re typically professional and polished and you’re trying to be something that feels unnatural to you, then you may want to ask yourself why you’re trying to come off that way. Why not just be yourself?

Be comfortable in your skin and just shine online. If your business is enjoyable and you have a fun and bubbly personality, let that shine exactly as you are through your online brand. If you are normally sassy and spunky, then it doesn’t hurt to let that show through your work. You’ll attract people to you who like who you are and how you bring it.

Step 5: Decide on your website platform.

The first thing I always recommend is to make sure you choose a website platform that allows you to blog very easily. Your blog will be the “bread and butter” of your content creation strategy online as you build out domain authority. So, you’ll want to choose carefully with this step.

I highly recommend WordPress after many years (17+) of dabbling on different platforms and coming to the conclusion that WordPress meets my needs in so many ways and is incomparable thus far.

I understand that WordPress can be a learning curve for some, (and really soon I will have my blogging training course available!) but once you get started on it, you’ll find that it’s really not too difficult.

However, if you just find it to be overwhelming when you’re first getting started, then I can recommend Squarespace to start with, just to get your feet wet…with the recommendation that you switch to WordPress at some point soon.

Step 6: Start creating content for your online brand.

This last step is where the ongoing work keeps you busy, but it comes at the tail-end of all the hard work you’ve put in the beginning. So, congrats for making it this far!

Decide on your broad topic categories for what you want to teach or talk about on your blog. What topics resonate with your audience and how are you helping them? List out these topics and be sure to begin creating content for each of these topics on a regular basis on your blog, podcast, videos, digital products, and social media.

And that’s just the start, my friends! Once you begin creating content, and you are attracting your tribe through social media and other outlets online, you will begin to see an increase in your business endeavors online.

I wish you the best!