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View Full Version : How Many Blogs is too Many Blogs



KristineS
09-22-2011, 12:51 PM
This is a question that's been plaguing me a lot recently, and I wanted to ask some opinions. I write three blogs professionally and, at one time, was writing four blogs personally. The three professional ones still exist, but I've backed off all the personal ones and will probably close a few of them down, but only because I have ideas for blogs on other subjects I think I'd like to start. I'm guessing, given that I'm interested in a lot of subjects, I'll probably have several blogs going at one time for the rest of my writing life. I guess what I'm wondering is how many is too many. Is it better to have one general purpose blog that covers all your interests, or is it smarter to have several blogs that target specific interests or groups?

vangogh
09-22-2011, 07:14 PM
I think it really depends on you and how many you can handle. For some people one blog is too many and others could easily keep up creating content for dozens of them. It also depends on how often you post to each and they type of post.

I think the best way to handle it is use the blogs you're writing for now as a baseline. You're managing to keep up with them and post when expected. Just add one more blog to the mix and see how that goes for awhile. Assuming you're able to keep up without any problem you can add one more to the mix. I don't think there's any reason why you should try to guess the number in advance that can work and then try to make that number work.

One other consideration is that with your own blogs you're probably going to be spending time marketing them too so you have to count that time.

Ultimately I don't think you can put a specific number on how many is too many. It really depends on the person blogging, they types of posts they create, how often they post, etc.

KristineS
09-26-2011, 11:41 AM
Yeah, I think you're right, how many is too many will depend on the person. I guess I just have so many different interests and I want to write about a lot of them and I start feeling like I could potentially have 10 blogs and that might be overkill.

vangogh
09-26-2011, 03:46 PM
There's no reason why you can't write about all the things that interest you. You could start a more general blog that could deal with a number of topics. Even better might be to write what you want, but not publish it just yet. Give it a few months and I bet you see you end up writing about one or two topics much more than the others. Then you'll have a few weeks or months worth of posts which you can launch a blog with and know it'll have content for awhile.

mfine
10-02-2011, 03:12 AM
I was actually wondering exactly the opposite. I was concerned that if I had only one blog that I would lose readers. Surely people who care about starting up a business wouldn't also be interested in the non-related subject of product reviews, or my hobby, or how my family is doing. I imagine that if someone discovered a blog about a business topic and it was heavily peppered with too much non-business stuff, that they might quit reading it. The same goes for any other blog. I notice that a lot of blogs seem to have laser focus, and that seems like it might be the key to their success. I wouldn't even worry about not having enough posts, as long as the posts are good ones.

I have a friend whose blog on Japanese photography has gotten a lot of links and interest around the world, most lamenting the fact that she doesn't post more often. I don't believe she's written more than 20 posts in the past 4 or 5 years.

So, if you asked me, I'd say keep your blogs separate and don't forget their purpose or goals. A weight loss and health blog should be separate from a knitting blog, which should be separate from a small business financing blog, which should be separate from a blog about female punk rockers. Don't worry about having too many!

Unless your question is regarding professional blogs only, and how many you should include as links on sites that you want to aide your career or help your business. In that case, I would say that you should keep that number small. I don't think it would look really great if there was a dozen blog links. It might look like you have too much free time on your hands or that you're unfocused. Three blogs professionally don't sound like too many to me, though, but I don't know what they're about.

greenoak
10-03-2011, 07:55 AM
kristine, im like you tons of interests....but whos bothering to read your blogs? that would be how i decided what to do....
if you could keep an engaged community on any one of them i think it would be hard to close it down.... if you just get a few readers a week well...its almost just a neat self expression /personal journal....fine if you have the time and like it...
there is a vibrant blog community in my world.... nationally.... im not sure if that happens in other worlds.....i go there for the fun and enjoy a lot of different blogs.... but i dont work at joining in like i used to , as it never seemed to bring in actual customers... lots of compliments from far away!!lol .
..locally for a business im not seeing a blog as very affective...and im not too interested anymore....i guess it depends on where your customers are..'and what you are trying to geto out of it.....
as a user i have so many neat connections on my faceboook i dont need or have time for the blogs like i used to.....fun and interesting things are right on my plate every morning... .

vangogh
10-03-2011, 10:42 AM
Surely people who care about starting up a business wouldn't also be interested in the non-related subject of product reviews, or my hobby, or how my family is doing.

It depends on how often you blog about the non-related stuff. A little bit of off topic posts can be a good thing since it helps your audience get to know you as a person.. Your readers do like that. You can't go off topic all the time, but a post here or there talking about you or your family is fine. Even better is to find a way to weave that information into on topic posts.

mfine
10-03-2011, 11:07 AM
kristine, im like you tons of interests....but whos bothering to read your blogs? that would be how i decided what to do....

I agree with this. For professional and business blogs, I think, "What sort of questions might a potential customer Google?" Then I would seek to answer those questions on my blog. I believe that "giving away" helpful information is the best way to gain attention, links, and a better pagerank on Google.

For instance, if I sold tea, then I might think, a customer might want to know why water temperature matters and how it will affect the flavor of tea. Then I've provided information that is timeless and useful enough that people in the webosphere will link to it, and people who love tea and want to know that answer would be brought to my blog. Those types of blog entries reveal my knowledge and experience with the product or service I provide, which makes the customer feel more secure about choosing my business over another.

Another example might be real estate. I think good real estate blog entries would focus on topics pertinent to the local area, so those local geographical keywords would bring new business to your blog when someone Googles a subject like, "What areas of San Diego have the highest walkscore?" or, "San Diego housing prices" those people would be brought directly to your blog.

I also think that a blog can increase a customer's confidence in working with your company, if you can demonstrate your competency through them, or perhaps by discussing some aspect that is a common concern when working with people in your line of work. I even think that blog entries can help prevent common problems that people in your profession often have with their customers or clients, say by writing (or vlogging) about those topics. At one of the companies I worked for, I advised the owner to vlog and write about the issues that they had, but from the perspective of helping clients have a more satisfying experience when they seek out custom software. Those kinds of entries can increase customer satisfaction by managing expectations, instructing potential customers about a process that they might not have any experience with (this applies to custom software, architecture, building, tailors, doctors, etc), preparing customers for common issues, talking about how to resolve issues in an efficient way, etc. The advantage of using a blog entry is the informality of the medium. One can use humor, informal language, and tell anecdotes, all of which may appear out of place elsewhere on the business website, which can inhibit a small business owner's ability to communicate effectively.

I believe that it's important to keep in mind the purpose and goals of the blog. I usually think it's better if there aren't a hundred entries, because that many probably won't be well-written and few people will go back and read that many old entries, but that depends on the purpose of the blog. A blog intended to informally discuss products that are in this week, sort of like Trader Joe's newsletter, won't be expecting anyone to read back entries. A blog that is intended to convey that "we are active and successful" won't do that if there's only three entries, each one regarding something new going on at the business, but the last entry is 18 months old. Sure, some people might assume that you've been to busy to blog all the things that you've been doing, but a lot of people will assume that the website doesn't actually represent a successful company. If "use us because look at how successful we are" is goal of your blog, then you do need to keep it constantly updated to convey that message, with entries like "this is a new product we're excited about" or "this project is especially interesting because" and "our business is expanding to these areas."

mfine
10-03-2011, 11:15 AM
It depends on how often you blog about the non-related stuff. A little bit of off topic posts can be a good thing since it helps your audience get to know you as a person.. Your readers do like that. You can't go off topic all the time, but a post here or there talking about you or your family is fine. Even better is to find a way to weave that information into on topic posts.

Absolutely. I completely agree. There's a difference between sharing glimpses into other areas of your life, and having one blog about so many different subjects that it can probably only appeal to a worldwide audience of one, which is my concern about my own blog, if I were to combine all the things I could or want to write about into one. I can think of a few examples of people who "stray off topic" and times when that has been good and times when it has been too much. I have a friend who peppers his political blog with long music entries, and while I share his political views, we do not have the same taste in music, so I never read his music entries. When there aren't too many of them, I can just skip past them, but sometimes when he's really talkative about this album or band and comparing musicians, etc, it really annoys me. I honestly think he'd get more readers if he split that blog in two, because not all the fans of the type of music he likes will share his political views, and people like me who share his political views might not agree with his taste in music, so he's probably turning off readers by writing about both on the same blog.

vangogh
10-03-2011, 11:32 AM
Yeah it's definitely a matter of how much. If you stray too often you'll likely lose readers who subscribed to read about your main topic. I think the best approach is the weaving of personal into posts that stay on topic. An occasional off topic post is fine though.

I think once you've been blogging for awhile though and have a good handle on your topic you can take most anything and find the connection to your topic.

Your friend does sound like he's trying to mix two topics and a second blog is probably the better approach for him.


it's important to keep in mind the purpose and goals of the blog.

Very true, though I would add that there's some room in defining the purpose and goals of the site. What I mean is many people only see the ultimate goal (for a business blog) as direct selling and so they make each post an ad for a product or service. That usually isn't going to work, because who really wants to read it. Usually you have to look at your blog as a less than direct method of selling and so define its goals beyond directly generating a sale. But yes you do need to keep the purpose and goals in mind when blogging.

KristineS
10-03-2011, 12:51 PM
Wow, this has become a great discussion, lots of things to consider. The point about having a blog with one main topic but going off topic is a good one. I tend to agree that blogs that are focused probably do better than blogs that are just journals. I also like the point about the political blog writer who goes off into music occasionally. I'd agree that splitting the two blogs would be a better approach. I tend to be that way too, if I'm going to read for one thing, I tend to be annoyed when too much of another subject sneaks in.

That said, I'm not against sharing the personal on a professional blog, or the professional on a personal blog for that matter. I just think it has to be done delicately. There's also a big difference between writing your professional blogs on behalf of a company which you do not own, as I do, or writing them on behalf of a company you do own. I'm guessing, in general, there's a bit more leeway on the boundary between personal and professional in the second case.

Ann also made a good point about who's bothering to read. Again, for some people simply keeping a life journal that family reads might be more than enough and all they want. For others, the goal might be a large audience of strangers. So your goal might dictate the subject and style of the blog as well.

I also agree with Vangogh that even a business blog has to have personality. A lot of businesses have seen their blogs go stagnant because all the blog has become is a long stream of press releases and corporate speak. Every blog should have a goal and help advance that goal, but that doesn't mean it can't stray on occasion.

I also think there's a danger of starting blogs and then letting them lapse, which is what I've done with the blogs I was writing as myself and not for professional reasons. (Side note, as a writer, do I ever write and publish anything for non-professional reasons?) To be fair, my life has gone through some serious changes in the last few years, and the subjects that appealed when those blogs started, don't appeal so much anymore. I just don't want to be the person, particularly because I write professionally, who serially starts blogs and then lets them die. So I need to find a balance I guess, and also decide how much of my personal life I want to share on the personal blogs and how quickly an interest will change.

vangogh
10-03-2011, 04:55 PM
A big reason to inject some of your own personality into your blog is that whatever you're blogging about there are probably many other people blogging about the same thing. Why should anyone read your blog over all the others. We'd all like to think our blog is the best, but there really isn't any best blog on any topic. Best is subjective and different people will find different things better or worse than others.

One of the things that will help make you appeal to someone over the next person is your personality. If you tell me about your pet dog Spot and I have a dog then we've just made a connection. I'm now more likely to read your blog over the person who writes as well as you and talks about the same thing with the same level of quality who doesn't have a dog. Even if I don't have a dog you telling me you have one now makes you a real person instead of some text and images on a web page. You become more real when you tell me something about your life.

It's not any different than the idea that we'd all sooner do business with people we like than people we don't like. Sharing some of your personal story makes us like you more.

KristineS
10-03-2011, 05:01 PM
I agree, and I think personality is a big part of any successful blog. Even if you don't consciously set out to include your personality in the blog, it will still sneak in. One example I always cite is a post I did for our embroidery blog. I was trolling for ideas and someone said write the Alphabet of EnMart. So I set up the post like an embroidery sampler and talked about a different aspect of the company or products for each letter. People thought it was great. It was fun and still promoted the business and it showcased a bit of my goofy (and lame poetry writing) side.

Now the next day, of course, I went back to writing more educational and informational articles, but the fun still pops up every once in a while, and I think that's why people keep coming back.

greenoak
10-03-2011, 10:43 PM
that sounds good kristine..

vangogh
10-04-2011, 01:24 AM
I generally don't write 100% personal posts, though I have here and there. On Thanksgiving day I usually post a bunch of images I've taken while visiting my family for example. At the end of each year I write a post looking back over some goals I set for the year and then follow it up with one making goals for the next year. The goals are all business related.

What I like to do more is where appropriate use examples that reveal my personality and share stories about my experiences. I work both into posts that are on topic, but it does let my audience get to know me a little better. I also do things like let people know when and where I made mistakes.

It's all about letting your audience see you as a real person. That's who they're connecting with. They're connecting with you and who you are as a person. Take our the personality and you don't have much of a blog. It's one reason why some blogs fail. They try to use the same old corporate speak they use in sales copy. Not that it works very well in sales copy either.

With words online people aren't seeing you or hearing your voice or seeing how you gesture while you tell a story. You have to work to show those things somehow. People need to see something of you to connect with you.

KristineS
10-04-2011, 11:42 AM
Definitely agree with using your experiences and your mistakes in posts. Some of the best and most helpful posts I've written are the ones where I've detailed a mistake I've made and how to avoid or fix it.

In the end, personality is what keeps me reading more than anything. I like good information and blogs that educate me, but I'll take something with a bit of personality over a dry, tedious explanation any time.

vangogh
10-05-2011, 12:27 AM
Admitting mistakes and faults only makes you human. None of us are perfect after all. It works when blogging because odds are people in your audience have made the same mistake and the shared goof is something to bond over. It also shows you aren't afraid to admit when you're wrong, which makes it more likely people will believe you when you're right.

Business Attorney
10-05-2011, 10:23 AM
In the end, personality is what keeps me reading more than anything. I like good information and blogs that educate me, but I'll take something with a bit of personality over a dry, tedious explanation any time.

Unfortunately, I read mostly legal blogs and it is the very rare legal blog where the blogger's personality comes through.

vangogh
10-05-2011, 10:49 AM
Yeah I could imagine that would be the case. For an article that's probably fine, but for an ongoing blog even just a bit of personality helps you and an audience connect so much more than the information alone.

KristineS
10-05-2011, 12:20 PM
I'm sure there are certain types of informative or educational blogs when less personality is more. I think you have to find a balance with your message and your goal. A legal blog is mostly, I would guess, about examining legal decisions or keeping people up to date on laws. In that case, I don't think a lot of personality would be appropriate. To much of the writer would distract from the message, which, I would think, would be the content of the decision or the law.

vangogh
10-06-2011, 10:51 AM
I think personality is important in all blogs. If I'm looking for information on a specific topic, say through search, and I land on a blog post filled with the information I want then I'll gladly read the post. However without the personality I'm not subscribing to get the next post. I don't think people will subscribe and continue to read a blog that's just dry information. Some might if the information is that good, but most people want to know the personality of the blogger if they're going to keep coming back again and again.

It's one thing that makes blogging different than writing a series of articles.

Diego
10-26-2011, 07:39 AM
I guess that the balance between quantity and quality has to be deciding in this case. If you can run 10 blogs with rich content, well then go ahead. If you notice that you are overstrained, then drop one or two.

vangogh
10-27-2011, 02:00 AM
If you can run 10 blogs with rich content

That still implies quality. I think quantity should only come after quality is being met. One blog with high quality content is better than 10 blogs with low quality content. Once you can create a quality blog then feel free to create a second high quality blog. I wouldn't let the first one suffer though in order to have the second.

LFinkle
10-27-2011, 08:01 AM
I don't think writing too many blogs is an issue. If people are reading them and/or business is coming as a result what's the harm? I think it's better to write more blogs on different subjects than have a one size fits all blog. How can you be considered an expert if the blog covers every subject imaginable? Better to have multiple blogs that cover various subjects and get your readers to know you for each of the subject areas.

vangogh
10-27-2011, 12:52 PM
There's nothing wrong with having several blogs. All I'm saying is that each needs to be of the highest quality you can provide. If adding one more blog means the quality of the rest suffers then you're probably better not adding the one more blog.


How can you be considered an expert if the blog covers every subject imaginable?

Why would any blog cover every subject imaginable? No one can be an expert on every subject so whether it's all on one blog or spread across many you're still not going to be an expert on every subject. A single blog should be focused on a particular subject (though it is ok to write a little off topic here and there) and if you do want to write on another subject you should start a new blog on that topic. You should still maintain the highest quality you can on every blog.

orion_joel
10-30-2011, 10:10 PM
I think you are asking the wrong question personally.

"How many blogs is too many blogs?" Will only get you maybe not the best answer for you. Mayb you should be asking a question like the following.

"How many blogs can I write. That provides quality content and value for my readers?" Take the time to fully answer this question for yourself and you will have a much better place to begin.

I wouldn't see limiting the number of blogs as an issue but, I would start with a small number, and maybe continue writing anything else that inspires you, and just keep it on hand.

vangogh
10-31-2011, 12:04 PM
Hey Joel. How have you been? Nice to see you back.


How many blogs can I write. That provides quality content and value for my readers?

Exactly. That's my point. There's no theoretical limit to how many blogs you can or should write. It's all about making sure they provide value to your audience. As long as you can create each blog in a way that provides that value then write as many as you want, but if one can't provide that value you either need to find a way to provide it or think that maybe it's one too many blogs or a topic that you can't currently do well.

KristineS
10-31-2011, 12:04 PM
You may be right Joel. Personally, I think I can write a lot of blogs because I like writing and I'm interested in a lot of different subjects. Market saturation would become a concern, but if I'm entertaining and informative who knows how many readers I could gather? The question is really how much can I handle or how much do I want to handle. That's a good way of looking at things.