Blogging Strategy question - multiple topics in different blogs?

Content
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Hello Sitepoint Community. I have a bit of a dilemma that I would love for the community to give their advice on.

I would like to be a more active blogger but struggle on deciding whether all the things I blog about should be contained in one blog or should be separated into different blogs because my areas of interest are so varied. I worry that some of my content may not be interesting to my subscribers. The down side to separating though is increase in maintenance and splitting of my traffic and pagerank.

My primary goals with blogging are as follows:

  • increase my internet popularity (mostly, for purposes of getting more traffic)
  • pass that lovely traffic onto my primary content sites:
    — paperdemon.com, an art and writing community site similar to deviantart.
    — paperdemonmedia.com, a site where i post my animated works.
  • income (would be nice but not essential)

The following is a list of areas with blogging potential. Some I have already done some blogging in:

Doodler Blog
content amount: medium
I work for google as a doodler: do a google search for “google triforce.” I could post when I have a new doodle up somewhere in the world. Usually have one every two to three weeks somewhere. This seems more of coming from a “professional” angle than a personal angle which makes me think this maybe should be separate?

Video Game Music
content amount: very low, infrequent
I used to be active in recording video game music (zelda, metroid, final fantasy). I don’t have much to say/post on this topic, but its an area that I am well known in.

Cosplay (Costumes)
Content amount: high
I usually make one costume per year and usually they are very involved, requiring multiple blog posts to explain the process.
pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/bogusred/Halloween2008IkeLink#
example blog posts: http://www.bogusred.net/blog/10/archive_2007-10

Zelda Wedding
Content amount: med-high
planning of my zelda themed wedding (it will be epic). I’m pretty sure this should be separated from everything else. But this content will only last one to two years. Content will be how I create all the zelda themed props, decor, and my dress. Maybe should be combined with the cosplay blog?

Dementia
content amount: high
Do people really care about the stuff going on in my personal life? Probably not. But one thing that I’m going through right now is caring for my dad who has Dementia. Blogging about it could be therapeutic for me as well as provide guidance for anyone else going through something similar. I haven’t blogged about it yet but I’ve kept a personal diary of everything that’s happened since it started. But it seems this one is most likely to be separate from everything else.

Web Development and design
content amount: med
I used to be interested in this but there are so many bloggers that blog on this topic, is it worth it to get into it? It’s an area of great interest for me as I do develop in PHP, jQuery/Javascript, MySQL, XML. PaperDemon.com is my biggest project which I could draw examples from. I could also discuss strategies on running the community.

Animation
content amount: low-med
Could have potential to go to high content amount if i blog about in progress stuff rather than “new episode posted” type content. Currently split into different sections of this site. I think they should at least all be combined into one update feed. SHould it also be combined with other topics above?
main: http://paperdemonmedia.com/
zarbon’s masterpiece theater (no new episodes will be released as the show ended): http://zarbonsmt.paperdemonmedia.com/
surviving together: http://survivingtogether.paperdemonmedia.com/

Farmville
content amount: high
Last year I got into Farmville and started a strategy blog. I got myself out of the game in February but am thinking maybe this blog has potential. I get more comments on this than I do any of my other blogs. However it does not fulfill my primary goals, except it brings in a bit of income. This can waste a lot of my time though. the game is addicting. It is currently separate.
http://harvestguide.net/main/

Also I wonder if some of these topics above should not be blogged about at all. I could end up spending more time blogging than creating my “primary content” (PaperDemon.com and PaperDemonMedia.com).
I look forward to any insight the community can give me here. This problem is a major reason I haven’t blogged too much. My current blog seems so disorganized and random.

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Yeah, you have some blogs. Honestly, from my point of view i’m going for doing and dedicating to less websites and making them more professional. Ussually when you make more things in the same time you lose your focus, you divide it. When you concentrate on one thing you have much bigger chances to get more successful because all your brain puts its energy on one thing. But this doesn’t mean that you have to put all the content of your blogs in one, because there are different thing and the most successful are the targeted ones.

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That is quite a few different topics. Clearly you are going to want them divided in some way, but as Alexa stated, it’s good to have some sort of focus. I have a tendency to have many projects going at once too, but have learned that it’s far easier to succeed with a blog on a larger scale if you put most of your time into that one, instead of dividing you efforts for multiple small level successes.

On the note of the web development blog, this is something I’ve wondered about as well. It seems there are so many covering the subject that it’s hard to be noticed. But dedication and hard work can lead to the achievement of anything you put your effort towards. It’s all up to you really.

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I kinda have done the “get a specialized blog for everything”. Now I cannot focus on them anymore and they all “die”. Fortunately i am still able to sell from there and now I’ll be focusing ON ONE ONLY. This means I can post DAILY, I can promote one venture and not 10 and also will earn from one good blog more than from 10 not trafficked, almost inert ones.

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I would go against the advice of what others have stated. The problem I can see with your enthusiasm would be that rather than focusing all of your energy into one high quality venture, you’re breaking yourself into several lower-end solutions. While it’s great that you have lots of interests, the problem is that you only have so many hours in the day. It’s all well and good starting up a whole bunch of blogs that post irregularly but if you want to gain a decent audience, you want to be doing regular updates and focusing yourself rather than spreading yourself thinly. My advice would be to pick one that you feel you can give the most too, and then stick with that (at least until you are in a situation where you have others writing for you or until you can guarantee loads of time to start a fresh venture alongside). :slight_smile:

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Have you thought about selling some of your blogs that are lower on your interest list? If you have traffic that is or could be monetized, you could make some quick cash on Flippa.

Alex

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Oh, and i would go for what i like more; find the passion and put it in the blog;).

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its nice info, and i just say…wow yuu have many blog…and i think you must learn about your heart say:blush:

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hello, I wrote a few tips here :
http://blog-money-wiki.com/blog/2010/04/serious-tips-to-earn-fast-with-adsense-for-beginners-intermediates.php
the main point is easy to understand, the more general your topic will be, the more people could be interested in it, and the more ctr you will get because the worst ctr comes from technical people.
in case you need more information about this article, pleqase ask here or on the comment form of my blog, but it is pretty straith forward.