Where to go Next?
I started my blog sometime last year with grand plans. After blogging for a while, I realized I wanted to blog about whatever I felt like blogging about instead of trying to focus on something ‘marketable’. So that’s what I did. I revamped my blog, removed categories & just started blogging to make me happy.
And then a strange thing happened. People started reading it. And while I’m not a widely-read blog, my biggest day was 740+ page views with well over 350 unique visitors. That day felt pretty good. And, I started paying attention to my statistics. I began to see that by far my best posts were on frugal cooking, frugal tips, recipes, etc. So, I started writing more to that niche. And I enjoy it. To an extent.
My big passion is to be able to blog on social issues. To find a cause and support it. To learn of current events and put a spotlight on them, possibly motivating others, along with myself, to take action and not be complacent about the world around us. A sort of social, political activist, if you will. But how do I reconcile that with putting out frugal recipes?
I don’t know how to make those two balance or mesh successfully on one blog. My blog is was geared toward anything that impacted my world and trying to find balance as a woman. But frugality and social activism do not seem to be related in my mind and I feel a little scatterwonked (my own word).
So, I’ve thought about moving the frugal bit to another spot. But I’ve wondered - will this impact my SEO? I’ve really gotten good traffic for frugal tips, etc. off of search engines. And then, do I have the time to invest in two blogs? What about subscribers, if I have any? Will it frustrate them if I change formats? Or would a welcoming email from a new blog help.
And then there is all that work I did registering in blog directories. Because I was blogging about both and everything and all of it I put it in my descriptions, used tags for that, etc.
Or am I worrying about nothing and is this no big deal really and I can just keep doing what I’m doing? For those of you experienced bloggers, can you provide guidance, feedback and input? What are your experiences when you branched out to more than one blog?
Thanks so much for the help in advance.
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Hi,
Doesn’t it depend on your aims. If you are doing this for personal satisfaction then surely the fact is you don’t need to spin off into another blog, just keep on doing what you are doing.
Having said that I can see the advantages of setting up a new blog, and having them keep to the topic on hand. Using Windows Live Writer would allow you to swap between the two easily.
I have two blogs, my main one is on the outdoors, while my second one is an outlet on tech issues for me (I don’t promote it, mentioned it once on my blog and thats it)
But at the end of the day a blog is whatever you want it to be. So if you want to mix the two subjects then why not?
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Yes, I see your point. And, so far that has been my viewpoint. But, generally speaking, the target market for frugal cooking (or at least the presence online at large) tends to be geared towards conservative stay-at-home moms.
Which is fine, but sometimes my views are a little more liberal than the average frau & I don’t want to ostracize those readers who might enjoy the cooking tidbits, etc. but not my political, social views.
Again, I don’t know if I’m fretting for nothing. Plus, I put a lot of time into my blog & I really don’t mean for it to be a money-maker, even though I play with ads from time to time. So, I don’t know if 1)it matters and 2)if separating the frugal bit would just be a bunch of work for naught.
I struggled with the same question, and in the end, decided to run 2 separate blogs:
http://www.divadev.com/blog/
That’s for work-related stuff.
http://www.lynnterpretation.com/
That’s my personal little “playground”.
What I like about doing it this way is that in my professional life, I have to maintain a certain… well, professionalism. That means certain topics would be inappropriate, if not down right boring to the audience. Having a personal blog is freeing. I can be more casual and spontaneous- which I am in person- and talk about ANYTHING, and I usually do.
In any case, I like your blog and enjoy your writing, and in the end- it’s whatever works for you.
Cheers,
Lynn
Thanks Lynn! I’m really leaning towards having two blogs. And I appreciate your compliments!
And your most recent divadev post is absolutely spot on.
Thank you, Tawnya. As you can see, my 2 blogs are relatively new. I’ve been so busy making blogs for other people, that I haven’t taken the time to make my own until recently. You know what they say about the plumber’s leaky pipes…
Now that I’ve got these blogs… I’m finding it difficult to find time to post! Having noticed that my best topic ideas come while going for that morning run, I’ve begun keeping a tiny little pen and sticky note pad in my pocket so I can jot them down. How’s that for multi-tasking?
Write on…
Good for you for following your passion!