It took a reader to help me realize the value of my long established brand. I’m a one-person business (although I work with people all the time — they all work for a different company in name) and when clients hire me — they get me. My caring about their business, my wanting to understand their business, my doing the little things to help them.

While my company name doesn’t give you a clue as to what I do, it’s been around since 1995 — why mess with that?

@ James - You guys are the king of branding. The good news for Harry is that, eventually, someone else could be the man with the pen. Besides, we all know you’re the face and Harry is the brains.

@ Sharon - excellent point!

@ Karen - True enought. But again, like I said to Natasha, when Oprah retires, no one can ever be Oprah again. Nor should they be.

@ Michael - Thanks for your perspective, and for the chance to do the guest post! Any time you need anything, say the word.

@ UltraRob - That’s Ultra cool. The thing is, if you’re going to change your domain you should do it sooner rather than later. IMHO, I think you stick with “UltraRob.” It makes the reader (like me) smile before they even know what the site is about.

@ Wendy - I’m glad it’s you and not me going through the process! It looks damned painful. We’re rooting for you, though. I’m confident you’ll come out the other end plenty shiny.

@ Rob - Even for a “business” blog, you want to inject your personality into it as much as you can. That’s what gives it life and makes it stand out. The split between what’s personal and what’s business can be lessened by personal/micro blogging sites like Twitter and Tumblr, too.

Great conversation here around the subject as well. I think this may become a more ‘common problem’ as more and more people find that their ‘hobby blog’ took off more than they expected.

eMoms was never supposed to be my business. If it was, good grief I would have taken an entirely different approach from the get go.

I’m still trying to figure out how to fit a little bit of ‘eMom’ into the new brand. I feel the new name will be a true extension of what I started, but it truly is no longer just about me anymore. I’m thinking I’ll do a weekly column or something and call it ‘eMom on Something or Another’. That has been the most awkward part of this whole thing - how do I move my own blog forward as something separate from the brand?

Stay tuned, I guess, because I don’t know the full answer to that yet.

Thanks so much Bob!