The ultimate personal branding Wordpress theme

Written on October 2, 2008 – 6:49 pm
Patrick de Laive, Internet entrepreneur and co-founder of Fleck

Blogging has become a major business.

Bloggers have become super powerful. Bloggers like Michael Arrington of TechCrunch, Pete Cashmore of Mashable, Arrianna Huffington of the Huffington post and Geenstijl (Dutch) are influencing their thousands of readers on a daily basis.

Another indicator of the importance of blogging is the number of conferences and events about blogging. We’ve had Les Blogs in Paris, US-based Blog Her, our own BLOG08 and many, many others.

Gurus and authorities

Blogging is not only used as a news portal tool, a lot of people use their blogs to promote themselves. By sharing their thoughts on their favorite topics they became gurus and authorities in their field. Robert Scoble, Hugh Macleod, Loren Feldman, Fred Wilson all became famous because of their personal blog.

Ask around what blogging have meant for the people who are passionate about it and blog on a regular basis. Tim Ferriss, author of the Four Hour Workweek said it really well when we were in Greece on a beach: “There are more currencies than money, take this as an example, we’re here because of blogging”. He is so right, although a small amount of people can actually live of blogging alone, there are a lot of bloggers who get other currencies than money out of it. They get jobs, invitations to parties and conferences, they meet people and get into situations that people who don’t blog (as passionate) miss.

Personal brands without blogging works for some as well. Photo by ∗natsu∗

Ultimate personal branding Wordpress theme

Blogging is a really important tool for personal branding. So is being present on social networks, having your photos on Flickr, share thoughts and ‘mindfarts’ on Twitter etc. etc. But here comes the question, if blogging is a must in personal branding, how come that there is no ultimate personal branding blogging theme for Wordpress?

I was looking for a new design of my personal blog. I wanted an upgrade, something that would

look neat.
would make it easy for me to update on a regular basis.
a blog that keeps track of what I’m doing all over the web, so my parents, less web savvy friends and people who are interested in me (for business purposes) get a one stop shop blog with all (interesting) info.

I couldn’t find the ultimate theme. I’ve thought about just using Facebook, but that doesn’t do it for me. I’d love to use Facebook as a marketing tool, but as a stand alone personal blog it’s just not good enough, maybe not different enough.

How would the ultimate personal blogging theme look like?

I’ve made a list of some things I’d like to see. Feel free to add your wishlist to it. I’ll get in some of the best designers and we’re gonna build this thing. If your suggestion is integrated (and you’re the first) you’ll get this theme for free (when it’s done)!!

Wishlist:

Twitter integration - show my tweets on my blog, but let them fade out and disappear after x minutes / hours (option in the settings)
Show my Flickr photos - not all but only my photos with a certain tag
(Livestream) video - Vimeo, Youtube, Qik, Kyte. I want to show the last video I uploaded to one of these services (maybe two videos, for frequent vloggers. one featured) I think this should be continues on the frontpage
Where am I - It would be cool if there is a map with my current location, but also where I’ve been traveling.
Testimonials - display at random one testimonial in a widget in the sidebar and give the opportunity to write one
Where can I be found on the web - some icons of all the services where I have presence.

All this in a stunning design (of course) and widget compatible.

Well it’s a beginning, I’ve left enough room for your creativity. What do you want for your own personal branding blog?

I hope you like that post!

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blog, personal branding, wordpress, wordpress themes

About the author: Patrick de Laive is co-founder of Fleck and initiator of The Next Web Conference, Bowlr and OpenCoffee Amsterdam. Check his LinkedIn profile for more information.

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39 comments/trackbacks to “The ultimate personal branding Wordpress theme”

Oct 4, 2008: Financial blog Bankaholic.com acquired for a mere million
[...] has become a major business” says Patrick de Laive in his post about the perfect Wordpress theme. He couldn’t be more right, read on for some [...]
Oct 5, 2008: Ep5: Companies Who Make Money: Stylizer visual CSS editor
[...] on from Patrick’s wish for a specific tool to edit the theme of Wordpress blogs, I want to introduce a company that I would love to use and have been drooling over but can’t [...]
Oct 7, 2008: Yo Patrick de Laive in tha house
[...] 1000times1000.com naar PatrickdeLaive.com? Vorige week schreef ik een verhaal op The Next Web over Personal Branding, bloggen en de ultieme persoonlijke website (/wordpress theme). Ik had net bedacht dat ik toch maar onder mijn eigen naam moest gaan bloggen. [...]

By edgar neo on Oct 2, 2008

u r completley right. that is the reasons (of many others) to start a weblog as http://www.greengrowthguys.com. not only for the fun of it but to share some knowledge on the art of starting and growing your idea into a sustainable business too. and yes for the recognition too ;-)

before we started several weeks ago we first did our tour. we put up as list with with essential tools, widgets, design, tweak and tuning options before actually buying 1 from woothemes.net. It has almost all of your favored options already built in

anyway: keep up the good blogging!

@gar

[Reply]
By Tobias on Oct 2, 2008

I am struggeling myself with this problem. I’d like to combine all of my profiles and sites online. So far I haven’t succeeded and decided to just keep my blog for my posts. I would though like the possibility to show a feed of interesting articles on my site. Maybe just del.icio.us bookmarks. Furthermore I’m a big fan of friendfeed and would like to show my feed on the site and also the friendfeed comments directly on my blogposts. (There are plugins for all of these things, I know)

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By Patrick de Laive on October 2nd, 2008:
friendfeed is definitely a good one for on the wish list, although I’m not using it myself.

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By simone brummelhuis on Oct 2, 2008

As an online business magazine for female internet heroes, http://www.thenextwomen.com we started with a fairly white, simple theme. Now we are looking further to more magazine style, with better archives, SEO, big headings.
Woo themes, Gazette is good
Revolution/news is good (i heard it will be free as of November)(http://wwww.thenextwomen.com/beta) and see the difference.
If you want to be inspired, the new black is white:
http://www.minimalsites.com/

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By Floris Dekker on Oct 2, 2008

I think personal branding requires dynamic content, which wordpress is very good at, but also dynamic visuals. If you have a picture of yourself on your blog(which is good personal branding if you ask me), your likely to change your appearence in the next few months (or years), and you’ll have to upload a new picture, which will most likely result in a difference between the current you and the you pictured on your blog. This also counts or when you put pictures on your blog about your personal interests, they will change, it’s just matter of time.

I haven’t seen any wordpress themes that allow the blogger to really change the looks of the blog in just a few clicks, which usually results in the blogger wanting a complete redesign.

One way to solve this problem is to use photography as your basic visual concept, like http://www.nalden.net does. Everytime he(or an advertiser) puts another set of photographs(or a new texture) on the background, it looks like a totally different blog.

I think the twitter way also works though, you can redesign your personal page in a few clicks if you have the right textures or photograph ready.

So, what I’m basicly trying to say here is that you want your personal blog to be dynamic in all aspects. Without having to go to a designer or programmer to help you change it everytime.

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By Patrick de Laive on October 2nd, 2008:
Totally cool idea. We need different photo backgrounds!!! Yeah!

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By Mircea on Oct 2, 2008

Maybe Sweetcron could help here: http://www.sweetcron.com (a personal automated lifestreaming web software - reviewed here: http://www.mytestbox.com/new-w.....-software/ ).

Now it’s in a early version but maybe in the future it will look and perform even better…look at the demo here: http://www.yongfook.com/ (the creator’s personal lifestream).

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By Brad Williamson - IAmGHOSTBLOGGER.com - Virtual Biographer on Oct 2, 2008

Thanks for sparking some discussion on the power of blogging for the purpose of personal branding. This is good stuff ;-)

As for myself, I’m a Virtual Biographer. I’m establishing a new marketing service where I produce for public figures an online, day-to-day, reality program about their life, called a Virtual Biography. Now, don’t get me wrong… I don’t manufacture content on behalf of clients like some “poser ghosters” do - I do things in a way where my client’s voice is unmistakably the driver of all the content, yet they don’t have to jack around with the production work involved in broadcasting it.

At the end of the day, the public figure’s fans develop a more intimate relationship with the person they admire, thanks to the transparency about their life they’re showing throughout their Virtual Biography. The whole production is great at developing a heightened sense of loyalty to the subject of the VB.

But, what I’m getting at is that you are so right about needing a centerpiece for one’s virtual identity, otherwise known as, what I like to call, a “Virtual Biography Homesite”. At this homesite, a person’s audience can enjoy literary, video, audio, photographic, interactive and promotional content about their life. All of their social media profiles will be located there as well, so that visitors can branch off the homesite and interact with other locations of their overall virtual footprint.

If you wanna see a yet-to-be-fully-developed version of my own Virtual Biography, I’d be flattered if you’d visit http://www.IAmGHOSTBLOGGER.com

Thanks for a great post! Keep’m coming!

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By Joery Bruijntjes on Oct 2, 2008

I faced the same problem some time ago. I wanted to create a place where everyone (be they experienced surfers or not) could check out what I’ve recently been doing on the web throughout different social media.

So I made this site I like to call my Social Resume. It’s still a little rough around the edges since I haven’t got around making a ‘2.0′ version yet, but it works great anyway. Check it out @ JoeryBruijntjes.nl

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By wpobsessed on Oct 2, 2008

There are some theme developers releasing personal branding/lifestreaming themes, and I think you will see more of this in the months to come. Have you seen Agregado by Darren Hoyt/Matt Dawson? What about WicketPixie social media theme from Chris Pirillo? Both of these themes cover a lot of the features you mentioned. Hope it helps.

http://chris.pirillo.com/2008/.....wordpress/
http://www.smashingmagazine.co.....ess-theme/

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By Geert Veneklaas on Oct 2, 2008

I was just looking for a Wordpress theme myself. I want to use my weblog not only for personal branding but in the same time for company branding (www.muziekvoormedia.nl), just because ‘my company is me’.
Because my business is music, I would also like to add a music-component in the personal part of this weblog. So a last.fm widget for example would certainly be on my whishlist !
Anyway, have fun in creating your new design !

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By Khurt Williams on Oct 2, 2008

This is a problem I have also struggled with. I toyed with the idea of building my own custom Wordpress template but I have neither the patience nor the design skills to start one from scratch.

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By David Petherick on Oct 2, 2008

I round up my main online activities at http://davidpetherick.com and this includes a Friendfeed ‘widget’ leading to other profiles and resources.I just remember though that I need to add my Virtual Bar to the list - http://buy-me-a-pint.com

I’ve also developed a ‘lifestream’ blog which I showcase at http://british-blogcasting-corporation.com and my Digital Biographer blog allows me to change the colours and rotate any of 8 different heading logos just with a click or two on the theme options. As for twitter, check… flickr, check…

Yes, almost all of the things you mention in the wishlist are possible with the right plugins and theme on the Wordpress platform - they just have not been packaged together by anyone.

Yet. I’ll get back to you next week after FOWA08, Patrick.

PS: My server seems to be slightly maxing out this evening - some rogue script or process is hogging the CPU and shutting things down, so apologies if these sites can’t be seen properly.

[Reply]
By Craig Fisher on Oct 3, 2008

What we need is a branding service that will automatically generate a web site for you with all of your preferred social networks and blog spaces integrated and formatted with a cohesive, easily changeable theme. Is that too much to ask? Or would that take all the fun out of it?

If it’s not already out there I’m sure it’s not far off.

I love this post and the great responses so far. Lots of interesting material.

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By Brad Williamson - IAmGHOSTBLOGGER.com - Virtual Biographer on October 3rd, 2008:
Great idea, Craig - and I’m sure it will happen someday - but I really think that such a platform would make its users lazy with their content. Never would they blog their interesting thoughts and experiences - they’d just flag articles, pics, videos, etc. they thought was noteworthy.

That, to me, is boring.

Ultimately, the people who would utilize such a platform the best would be those who frequently updated it, and most people don’t have the time or know-how to make such a commitment.

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By Craig Fisher on October 3rd, 2008:
Brad, totally agree 100%. But someone will make a fortune off the uninteresting ding dongs who use such a service. Funny, yet sad.

So are you interested in partnering with me to make a fortune off of some uninteresting ding dongs? ; )

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By David Petherick on October 3rd, 2008:
Just make sure you don’t use the phrase ‘uninteresting ding dongs’ in your marketing literature, guys. ;-)

Updates from mobile devices are going to become more and more common, and mainstream, and so there’s a big opportunity to aggregate such content.

By allowing customisation, mobile carriers / partner platforms can easily monetise, and also perhaps build (yet another) social network around this. I would guess a smart cookie would of course probably have ‘proximity alerts’ based on cell or GPS data as part of the mix, so you can find out which virtual friends are around your physical location.

Who knows - soon you might be able to network face to face - without even having to look up from your phone screen! ;-)

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By Craig Fisher on October 3rd, 2008:
David, appreciate the sage marketing advice. Of course I was kidding and didn’t really mean to implicate Brad in my evil scheme. But I honestly think anyone would appreciate a “short cut” through the whole social media process. -

P.S. Great info on Twellow on your site btw.

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By Brad Williamson - IAmGHOSTBLOGGER.com - Virtual Biographer on October 3rd, 2008:
Yes, Craig. I recently read somewhere that ding dongs were the future ding-a-lings. We totally need to capitalize on this remarkable demand.

Call me ;-)

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By Anne Helmond on Oct 3, 2008

I think such “ultimate personal branding” themes will become increasingly popular. WordPress themes are being expanded with all sorts of lifestream services. A prime example is the recently released Agregado Theme: http://www.darrenhoyt.com/2008.....-released/

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By ronald van den hoff on Oct 3, 2008

Patrick, you may want to check out http://www.mindz.com for your ultimate personal branding experience. Most of the elements you mention are there for free….
Now in public beta, per november 11th live!

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By Tobias on Oct 3, 2008

I would just like to add that what we’re looking for might just not fit in a wordpress theme. I would like my “centerpiece of online activity” to be a bit like my netvibes universe combined with the ease of blogging with wordpress. I should however be more customizable than netvibes since all you do is adjust some colors and backgrounds. What I like so much about netvibes is the use of modules which I think would be an absolute requirement. As you can see in the other comments everyone would like their own things in their website and modules and high customizability would make that possible.

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By rodney rumford on Oct 3, 2008

Hey Patrick,
What you are describing here is about 85% of what we are launching with http://www.sociallybranded.com plus a whole lot more next week. It is not a blog like wordpress; yet we think it has great value for all brands, public, consumer and personal.

Users could claim their own personal brand and we would give them tiered increased control.

Bloggers would also benefit from the momentum of the network for increased visibility.

Cheers!
Rodney Rumford

[Reply]
By Trace Cohen on Oct 4, 2008

Most people i know dont know or understand what blogging is, let alone how to create their own. This is a huge problem. In a world that is now dominated by online interactions, (aka web 2.0) sites like facebook and myspace give people a false sense of security that they are actually using the internet to the best of their abilities.

In terms of personal branding, this is just starting to catch on as a new “hot” word, so most people dont understand what it is. This would explain why their is no personal branding theme anywhere, everyone is different so how could you make one to please the masses.

But back to your first point, EVERYONE needs a blog, or some form of online presence with some thought provoking content. I dont think it’s so much as to call it neglect, but “ignorance is bliss.” They have gotten on perfectly fine with their lives without blogging, so why start now? We need to change this. For more actionable tips to strengthen your personal brand on the web please check out our blog at http://blog.brand-yourself.com

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By Bjorn Franke on Oct 4, 2008

I use WP-o-Matic to load my Twitter RSS feed into Wordpress. Works great. Wit WP-o-Matic you can blog the contents of any RSS feed.

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By GabeMac on Oct 4, 2008

Dude, look at my personal site. Everything you talked about, plus daily integration of my mobuzz shows automatically. It’s a free theme, and you just need to start adding stufff as widgets on the side and you got it. Have a look
http://gabemac.com

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By Tobias on Oct 4, 2008

I have looked through the comments and really the tips from wpobsessed.

I really like the design and layout of the Agregado theme, but would like the myfaves option from chris pirillo’s website.
Agregado: http://www.smashingmagazine.co.....ess-theme/
Pirillo: http://chris.pirillo.com/2008/.....wordpress/

The design of yongfook is also very nice, but is only for a lifestream: http://www.yongfook.com I would like more room for blogposts on it.

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By Marieke Hensel on Oct 4, 2008

It’s called lifestreams, there are a couple nice examples online, usually with squared modules next to eachother - that share the latest content from different web2.0 apps, like Twitter, FriendFeed, a book website (with your latest books), notes, etc. ReadWriteWeb has a great post about it: http://www.readwriteweb.com/ar.....hosted.php

This will be the next big thing, at least thats what I think. :-)
I look forward to a downloadable Wordpress theme, in different shapes & sizes.

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By eschnou on October 5th, 2008:
Agree, this is not about having a blog with the right theme but more about a whole new paradigm on how we present all the content we create online (from a blog post to a fav on youtube) in one place, with one consistent look, and ideally under a unique domain name. This whole then defines what some may call a ‘personal brand’.

I personally do it with stoytlr (http://storytlr.com), but there is also soup.io, lifestream.fm and even a self hosted solution: sweetcron.

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By Christopher Ross on Oct 4, 2008

It would be great to see how the the new ‘open source’ social networking sites can be integrated into this type of concept.

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By Brad Williamson - Virtual Biographer - IAmGHOSTBLOGGER.com on Oct 5, 2008

Let’s get one things straight…

Having a lifestream is not a personal branding strategy unless it also contains content which mirrors your physical life, virtually. This requires frequent updates on a blog of some sort, not just a collection of details concerning your web activity that your typical lifestream contains.

Many lifestream services and social media blog themes will be created to try and tie in all the necessary elements of a Virtual Biography, but until the user of the service commits to making the thing truly interesting by broadcasting their physical life, virtually, their efforts will be a half-ass attempt at a personal branding strategy.

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By edgar neo on Oct 11, 2008

i just stumbled upon yong fook’s sweetcron which you can use on your selfhosted (wordpress) blog.

i think this ones coming close 2 what you are aiming @

see for yourself:

http://www.yongfook.com/

&

http://www.sweetcron.com/

i’ll give it a try myself

grtz,

@gar

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By megamega on Oct 23, 2008

lots of adds on myspace
at: http://tinyurl.com/5g97ua

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By createmo on Nov 2, 2008

Thank you for your website :-)
I made on photoshop backgrounds for youtube, myspace and even more
my backgrounds:http://tinyurl.com/5cy5cq
Hope you had a good day and thank you again!

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By The Drunken Blogger on Nov 5, 2008

This is a nice one. I’m searching 4 a theme for my next site. I really like this one.

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By meagueobede on Nov 18, 2008

i want to share my free wordpress theme here.

Preview:
http://www.elegantthemes.com/preview/eVid/

Download:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/6uv0n2

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