The Personal Branding Emporium

Welcome to Youtique

Information and inspiration for building an exceptional online identity and enhancing your brand environment

“Emporium” seems exceedingly presumptuous for a new blog with barely a morsel to tempt you. Indeed, it would be fairer to call it a market barrow, offering a few items of homemade produce, with aspirations of providing a veritable feast of goodies that would rival Harrods foodhall!

Well, every blog has to start somewhere and in time I aim to build Youtique into a useful resource, exploring all aspects of personal brand expression, with a little bit of me mixed in, because …why not …it’s my blog.

If you’d like to keep up with the latest postings on Youtique, click this label to link to Widgetbox, where you can customise the widget colour to match your branding, and post it to your blog or website.

Your personal brand will never stop evolving and every day there are new developments in social networking, blogging and website design that can help to grow your online visibility and exude your brand identity. Trends in design shift and your website or blog can easily date if you don’t keep up.

The trouble is, there’s just so much information. I’ve been trawling the internet ever since I started defining my own brand, and have amassed a vast collection of bookmarks relating to personal brand expression: design trends, useful software, font banks, image banks, design tips, writing tips, must-have tools, thought-leaders, books, services, cool products, examples of the best of the web, expert advice, widgets & gizmos. I aim to take some of the leg-work out of your search for ideas and information with my reviews, reflections and suggestions.

To whet your appetite, here are some of the items planned for my menu:

• Widgetbox and Naymz – incredibly cool ways to increase your online visibility
• Headshots that make a compelling first impression
• Communicating your personal brand
• Pros and cons of Typepad versus WordPress
• Updates on the A Brand You World – see below
• Everything you need to know about headshots
• The importance of colour
• Working with a designer
• Website or blog? Pros and cons
• Links to font sites and image banks
• Soopers & Bloopers – the best examples, and how not to do it
• Resources for optimising your website
• Customising your environment
• Latest trends in website and blog design
• Information about personal branding and links to experts in the field
• Cool tools and useful downloads to help you build your brand.

Setting up this blog

I’m a graphic designer and writer, with many years experience working in Photoshop and Illustrator to create logos, graphics and web layouts. My expertise lies in creating visual identities and polishing copy. I’m new to WordPress blogging and SEO, and as I continue to add content and widgets etc, I’m learning all the time. I don’t pretend to be experienced with coding etc therefore I can relate to anyone who’s setting up their first blog. I’d really love your feedback and suggestions to help me improve the Youtique blog.