Rebranding Metallman?

Hey there. I was thinking... should I make a change as to how I am presenting myself? I have been going around the blogging world and notice that many bloggers, like myself, created a symbol or image to represent their blog. My symbol is that which you see in this paragraph. The name Metallman sprawled across a red dragon. I like it. I think it suits me well. However, I've noticed that many decide to place an image of themselves as the image to represent their blogs, and or websites. This intrigues me. Would it be better to project an image of yourself to personify your blog? Or would a character or symbol be better suited to represent your brand? I understand that to each their own, but would you be more inclined to read a blog if you know the face behind it?

If you don't mind, I want to use a blogging friend of mine as an example. Here is his mark on the world. I'll be the first to admit that I was drawn to the image. Being a dragon lover, I thought that the dragon displayed is simply bad ass. I knew nothing of the man behind it and already I was drawn to the site. This, my friends, is the power of a great image. Now, after several months of getting to know the man behind the image, I no longer see the dragon as the representative of the site, but I see the man behind the words. The site doesn't seem as anonymous to me anymore once I've seen the face that runs it all. It's almost as if I can connect to the blogger on a more personal level because of that. So I wonder, would it be wise to display your face as the image of your site? Would you check out a blog if a person where to greet you instead of an image? If the Dragon Blogger had his face to represent him in the blogging community, would I or anyone else, initially, still be drawn to his site? This is where I stand.

Mind you, the Dragon Blogger has other sites and uses an image of himself in one. I am curious to know how well that site is doing compared to the others. Considering that he is on both sides of the spectrum, his success behind his sites would tell the tale of the more successful image. I would like to be considered "successful". I would like to be in that mid-level tier of bloggers. I'm a realist, I'm no Perez Hilton and I doubt that I would ever reach hundreds of thousands of readers a day. It's just not going to happen. But I have slowly set goals and achieved them. When I first started, my goal was to reach 100 visitors a day. It took awhile, but I got there. Now, I try to reach the next century mark each time around. Yesterday marked the first time ever that I reached 600 visitors. A nice accomplishment. Should I thank the Metallman logo for the recognition?

OR MAYBE... I can be going about this all wrong and the image means nothing and "content is king." I don't know. I'll ponder on the thought of it a little while longer, just to see what else comes to mind. Image? Or Person? Until then, later.