Well, bon voyage, Newstilt. The venture that I featured here on the site a few months ago (and tried using on three different occasions) has officially bitten the dust after not much time at all.
Well.
Now that Newstilt’s fading away, I thought it might be fun to take a little peek at the branding advice that I got from Paul, the site’s founder. I was using the brand name “mattymatt” on the site, since it is the name I tend to go by online. Paul wrote to me to ask if I wouldn’t rather use something else. The problem, he pointed out, was that if I ever hired additional writers, it would look weird to have multiple people writing under my own personal brand.
Well, okay, that’s true, I suppose, even though I don’t have any intention of hiring anybody. But, I asked, what would be a brand name that covers all of the topics that I write about? Science, LGBT equality, comic books, transit, etc.
Paul responded, “The best thing would be to pick some generic words that resonate with you, something like idavar.”
(“Idavar” was the brand name being used by another Newstilt writer, whose real name happened to be Iran Davar Ardalan.)
So! Make of that what you will. When branding online, don’t use your nickname; use some generic words, something like your nickname.
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I'm a writer and photographer in San Francisco, curious about how people can get away with writing all day while also being able to afford to buy groceries. 