Personal/General Do-it-all Blog (Single) vs. Every Niche a Blog (Multiple)

Discussion in 'Blogging' started by Static, Jun 16, 2008.

  1. #1
    Okay, so I'm not sure which way to go and would like your opinion if you are a blogger. Firstly, consider the following that comes with blogging:
    • Money
    • Reputation / Fame
    • Traffic
    • Networking / Relationship
    • Anything else, please include in your reply

    Also, your area of interest is quite wide, including webmastering, blogging, web development, and maybe a hobby or two of yours and your life.

    This is your option.

    Option #1: A single do-it-all blog that covers everything, although it is obvious that there is a slight focus on one topic. Let's say that your focus is slightly on blogging, but frequently you will also blog about your life, webmastering, etc.

    Option #2: As you want to slightly emphasize on blogging, you will create a separate blog for a blog about blogging. You will run another separate blog for your personal stuff like your life. Maybe in the future, a few months or a year down the road, you may create another blog for a personal hobby of yours like sports.


    Which one would you choose and why?

    I don't need anything long or something. Ex. #2. More opportunity for money making and selling links. Something like that would be the bare minimum.

    Thanks! :)
     
    Static, Jun 16, 2008 IP
  2. zeldaze

    zeldaze Active Member

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    #2
    I would chuck it all into one blog. As long as it is clear what your blog is about, one blog will do. It doesn't matter at all that you have some of your personal life etc. in the blog as that is what blogging is about and the more content the better. Which leads to my next point...If you have 3 or 4 blogs or whatever, how on earth would you have enough content to write for such bare topics and categories, and if you did, how on earth would you find the time to write quality articles for too many blogs?

    I will reiterate my choice on Ex #1 and I think that's the way to go. As you will be covering a few extra categories like you personal life etc. the blog will be full of content and nice and big and juicy. Just what a quality blog needs.
     
    zeldaze, Jun 16, 2008 IP
  3. myp

    myp Well-Known Member

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    #3
    Option #2 is the better one if you are looking to build a strong audience and perhaps make some money. General blogs tend to not do well because everyone won't be interested in the same group of things.
     
    myp, Jun 16, 2008 IP
  4. zeldaze

    zeldaze Active Member

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    #4
    Of course, having more blogs would allow you to sell more links and monetize them more but if you want a good quality blog and a nice community it is hard to build one of such bare categories. I mean who will be interested in the general life of you? Whereas if you mix it in with your blog about web design for example you could attract an audience that is interested in reading your content.
     
    zeldaze, Jun 16, 2008 IP
  5. Static

    Static Active Member

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    #5
    Thanks for your opinion guys.

    Does anyone else have any insight in this? The topics I'm planning on mentioning are:
    - blogging
    - web development / designing
    - some C++
    - general life
    - sports

    Thanks!
     
    Static, Jun 17, 2008 IP
  6. Lurker

    Lurker Peon

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    #6
    I have a blog that is dedicated to a particular theme but I also blog about other things like what I did on my day off or buying a new laptop. I'm not a niche blogger and I only earn about $5 a month from pure Google ads, which is not bad for a small blog. However ... if I narrowed my topics down to fit my niche, promoted my blog, optimized my content for search engines, advertised on relative sites, signed up with decent referral programs, built quality inbound links, etc. I would earn a lot more. Hint.

    If you wanna make money then you should stick to a niche.


    Good luck!
     
    Lurker, Jun 17, 2008 IP
  7. Static

    Static Active Member

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    #7
    I guess that which ever one you choose, it has its ups and downs?
     
    Static, Jun 17, 2008 IP
  8. myp

    myp Well-Known Member

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    #8
    Actually, no. That is not the way it works out most of the time. Most of the people on the internet are out looking for information or a place to interact with other people of similar interests. Everyone doesn't have the same interests, so it would be better to have blogs that focus on similar topics instead of random ones. This ensure your readers stick around. Now you can talk about related topics, for example if you have a blog about the internet, writing about computers once in a while won't hurt because your readers will be familiar with the topic and maybe even interested in it as well.

    The problem is when you start posting about random things like what you ate for breakfast today or something totally unrelated to your main topic. That is when you risk losing readers. The only exceptions I can think of to this is if you are famous/well-known or if you have been blogging for a long time and have created a well known identity for yourself.

    By the way I am saying all this out of personal experience as well as accounts from many other bloggers online, including some pretty big names.
     
    myp, Jun 17, 2008 IP
  9. zeldaze

    zeldaze Active Member

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    #9
    Well, I am fairly new to blogging and myp brought up some interesting points. I am not sure which way to go on this one and maybe I am wrong.
     
    zeldaze, Jun 18, 2008 IP
  10. hmansfield

    hmansfield Guest

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    #10
    I have one blog that is Entertainment, Digital Music, Internet Business, E Books, and Blogging. However, most of the traffic comes from Political and Social Editorials and rants, which are the main focus, and feature stories.
    Here is a link if you need an example: The Mansfield Herald.

    Most of the readers come to read my rants, but end up looking around and clicking stuff.
    If you are going to do an all in one, you need an anchor subject that is the main focus. I suggest using a theme that will separate them nicely for you, with separate RSS Feeds so readers can subscribe to the individual categories that interest them, and not a single all in one feed.
     
    hmansfield, Jun 18, 2008 IP
  11. pipes

    pipes Prominent Member

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    #11
    I considered setting up a general blog, and i dont mean 6 random categories either, i mean i was thinking totally general and random but i decided against it, for some of these reasons.

    Probably would get mostly one visit traffic, lack of focus on a niche would probably mean no chance of getting people to stay for long, probably a difficulty in categorising or category list needing to grow too much.

    The fact that some blog posts could literally turn out to be talking about nonsense, i guess leading to quite random commenting and then most likely leading to a lack of interest in the blog because of the blogs lack of focus.

    Glad i didn't do it now, come to think of it im glad i decide against doing many things, i like to look into stuff first and often realise that something would not be an ideal use of my time.
     
    pipes, Aug 23, 2009 IP
  12. TiffanyTheGreat

    TiffanyTheGreat Peon

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    #12
    I've done the do it all option 1 for about 2 years. It was essentially a blog about reinvention and my personal life. A few years back I wasn't really thinking about monetizing, until I was approached about writing targeted halloween posts. I started to see the potential. And now I wish I had 10 more.

    Now I'm looking to purchase some pr 2+ blogs. Wash, rinse, repeat.

    I really think you can alientate an audience pushing and testing different monetizing solutions. I get on average 100-200 comments a day. I don't want to drive anyone away.
     
    TiffanyTheGreat, Aug 23, 2009 IP