I've seen people who focus on family travel, single women travel, gay travel, cruising, backpacking, etc.

Pick what you love and run with it. Anything else will make you miserable in the long run.

In term of travel writing, this can be: as an expert on responsible travel, expert on Arctic, Adventure travel, High-end, Historicity, etc.

The other way of branding can be as a celebrity travel author, like Paul Theroux.

There are still other ways.

The point being, that first we need to answer ‘what’ we want to be seen as, before getting into the ‘how’ of marketing. For it is the ‘what’ that would drive the ‘how.’

Cheers,
Ashis

You certainly don't need a marketing firm unless you are getting so many requests for your time that you can't keep up. Until that point, you can do everything yourself.

Here is my advice:

• Be yourself
• Be opinionated
• Be Everywhere
• Be Engaging

I think it's important to decide what you want your brand to be.....your name? Do you use a pseudonym or something related to your niche (such as 'Angela's Adventures', 'Visiting Italy with Angela')? That would be the first step is figuring out exactly how to brand yourself.....

Another important question to ask yourself: What is your long term goal? To build an empire that you can sell? Or just to make some money on the side doing some freelance writing. Brands that are based on a single person can rarely be sold down the road, unless you 'sell' someone your name as well, and change the one you use.

An example of this is the travel blog MatadorNetwork. Founded by just a couple of individuals, they didn't name it "Ross & Ian's Travels", because it would have been difficult to grow it beyond just the two of them, without continually recreating their brand identity, not a good thing to do.

Once you've mapped out a plan for your brand, then you need to start making sure it stays consistent in everything you do - it's critical to get the domain name for your brand, set up accounts with ALL the social media networks with your brand name, develop a logo that can become identified with your brand, and start taking small steps. This applies even if you've decided that you do want to go ahead and brand your name. Can't get the domain name that is your name? Rethink your brand, because people will wind up at the wrong site.

I don't think you need to hire a marketing firm, certainly not right off the bat - there is so much free information available online if you search for it, you're bound to find enough helpful tips to get the ball rolling.

Rebecca has made a great point - people need to really sit down and give some thought to how they want to be known online - do they want to be a faceless persona representing their website, so the site becomes the brand? Or do they want something more personal and akin to celebrity, which is having their name become well-known? Or maybe by a pseudonym or pen name?

These are important decisions to make before you put a lot of work into creating something, as Rebecca found with her YouTube account - good that she figured it out after only uploading one video, but I know people who have hundreds uploaded - imagine having to re-do all of that, and losing any comments or ratings you've earned already....

Changing brands mid-stream can be done, but creates all kinds of work and issues, so I advise you to give some careful thought to the future.

One important factor is the ultimate goal of your efforts - are you trying to earn some income from your website? Income from your website will come from traffic, which comes to you easier when people know the site, so stay focused on that and develop it as your brand. Are you trying to create opportunities for yourself as a writer, regardless of your website? Then focus on branding yourself.

Good luck - I hope this helps!