How to Decide What Your Blog Should Be About When You have Many Interests

Apr 2, 2009
23 Comments

gumballsAre you interested in many different things, and have a hard time choosing just one? If so, you may feel it’s impossible to ever have a great blog about a single subject.

Well, who says you have to have a blog about a single subject? :)

The conventional blogging wisdom says that you should choose a very narrowly defined niche in order to attract relevant search traffic and, if you’re monetizing your blog, relevant advertising.

If you’ve been reading Remarkablogger for any length of time, you know I am not a fan of conventional wisdom. Conventional wisdom sounds a lot like “what everybody else is doing.” And if you’re doing the same thing everybody else is, you will never dominate a market with your blog. You can’t be a sheep, you need to be a shepherd.

Does that mean if you have a variety of interests that you should just blog about any or all of them?

Hell, no!

You still have to be smart about this. You may have a need to express yourself and geek out with your interests, but it still has to be something others want to read, spread around, and ingrain into their lives if you want to have a killer blog.

Pick Winners

Narrow down your interests to those which have a strong chance at attracting an audience and money (you may not want to monetize at first, but never say never). A great guideline is if there’s a magazine for it, it’s a big enough market. If no magazine exists for your topic, it’s probably too small to attract a big enough audience. Check the magazine selection at a big-box bookstore near you or head over to your online bookstore of choice and search using basic keywords for your subject (”fly fishing,” or “espionage” for example).

Group Related Topics: Create a Lifestyle Blog

You may be into gardening, but you also may be into cooking and homeschooling. These topics are related because they all take place at home. You’re tapping into something more powerful than a narrow niche: you’re entering the realm of the lifestyle blog. You may be into science fiction, fantasy, comics, video games, and anime. These are related because they constitute nearly the entire pantheon of geek entertainment, and that’s a lifestyle if there ever was one.

Yes, this goes against the “narrow niche” conventional wisdom. You already know how I feel about conventional wisdom. Presenting an entire “lifestyle topic” can be much more fertile ground for a successful blog than an extremely narrow topic. And let’s face it, who’s really going to want to read a blog post every single day about some super-narrow obscure topic?

Also, look at all the super-successful sites out there now that are lifestyle-oriented: blogs like TechCrunch, Kotaku, and the original homemaker lifestyle maven, Martha.

Success Tip #1: Gather a group of people who are each an expert in the different aspects of the lifestyle you’re covering and create a team blog. This way, you’ll be able to crank out the content for each niche within your lifestyle area. This kind of blog should be posting large amounts of content every single day.

Success Tip #2: Use an editorial calendar to ensure a consistent publishing schedule for a blog like this. You may not want one or two subjects to completely dominate because those authors are more prolific. Strive for an even mix and a rock-solid regular publishing schedule.

Juxtapose Unrelated Topics: Create a Crossover/Synthesis Blog

Don’t think that because you happen to like sexy babes and robots that you have to have a blog about either sexy babes only or robots only. You can have a sexy babe robot blog. If you like sailing and Jazz, then create an Ocean Jazz blog.

What’s great about this idea is that it’s arresting: it stops people dead in their tracks. It gets attention through novelty. Where it wins is in the fact that at least one or both of the unrelated topics enjoys a very sizable audience, and you’re now introducing them to each other.

This kind of blog is a bit harder to pull off. The juxtaposition has to work, and getting it to work takes an artful eye and instinct. A blog about Jell-O and barbed wire may not work out so well as a blog about celebrities and religion (Tom Cruise and Scientology, anyone?). This one definitely requires some imagination. But if done well, this is the kind of blog that could explode into an online viral sensation.

Success Tip #1: One way to make this work is to have one of your topics be broad, while the other one is quirky. It’s the quirky one that makes people do a double-take, but it’s the broad one that gives you all the traffic.

Success Tip #2: Another possiblity for this kind of blog is to take two topics that create controversy when they overlap, such as with the celebrities and religion idea. What about envronmentalism and technology? Terrorism and medical care (how to treat, respond, etc.)? Journalism and Law?

By the way, if anyone decides to do the sexy babes and robots blog, please let me know so I can subscribe to it immediately. :)

  • Thanks for sharing. This is such a tough topic to figure out. What I have come to learn is that you don't have to focus on one thing your entire life on your blog. Focus on what you are into now, then give yourself the freedom to change and grow into other areas of interest.
  • remarkablogger
    It depends on what you're ultimately trying to accomplish. Many people have
    no ultimate destination, no plan. They wander aimlessly. If you're OK with
    that, then fine, but then any kind of long term success will be elusive. It
    seems success belongs to the single-minded. Not saying anything is right or
    wrong, just that seems to be the difference between the successful and the
    unsuccessful.
  • I agree with you that without a single-minded long term plan, success will be elusive. But that depends entirely on what your definition of long term means. My point is that people and companies evolve and change. Sure, you can become the best in a narrow niche for 5 years, but when the terms and technologies change, you better be positioned to change with them or you will find yourself changing your domain name, niche, and company altogether. For example, I already feel sorry for all the companies with "Twit" in their name!
  • remarkablogger
    LOL, yes good point!
  • This is a nice post. It would also be good to come up with a nice blog topic in order for it to have a higher search engine placement.
  • Oh well. There are many topics under the sun. On what topic to write, it depends on your interest. For a php script programmer, for sure, he/she will write about php codes. For travelers, they write about their travel experiences.
  • Well, it is also good that bloggers have their specialty. For instance, if you blog about travels, lifestyle, or sports, then you are called according to your field - travel blogger, lifestyle blogger or sports blogger.
  • blue_debbie
    Thanks for the tips. My interests are so varied and run from politics to home decorating and ceiling lighting to food and travel, it gets difficult to decide what to blog about first. This article is very helpful.
  • itjobs1
    Nice post on a subject I'm fond of. I've always been fascinated by people's choice of subjects and how tightly they focus on it.
  • I always struggle with this topic. I have blog for my website on auto repairs and I always think that it will be useful for the readers if my blog is about cars. However, I do want to write about other things and always feel wrong whenever I post something which I love but has no relationship with cars or other vehicles. Well I own the blog so I can write whatever I want to!
  • Blogging is more of having fun for me and earning at the same time too. That’s why my posts are more of “personal”. I don’t have that excellent writing skills as compared to others but what’s important is, i love what i’m doing.
  • Thanks for the great information and tips. Plus, it never hurts to spread the word that you can blog about anything as long as you choose quality over quantity.
  • ah, this speaks directly to the issue I've been struggling with the most lately. Thanks for the insights.
  • @Scott - sent you an email. :)

    @Tim - EXACTLY.

    @Kristin - The "right way" is the way that gives you the results you seek. Often, that's not the way everyone else is doing it, because most people aren't getting the results they want. And if you're not getting the results you want, you don't keep doing more of the same--you change your game up.

    @Solomon - I'm not surprised that an article along similar lines would appear on Zen Habits at the same time as mine. I think maybe even Darren Rowse wrote about the same idea recently, as well. My post has been in draft and been worked on for a couple weeks and was set to publish in the future when it was finished a while ago. You may be familiar with the idea of the "collective conscious?" I think there may be something to that notion, since this happen a lot on the web: everybody talking about something similar, but not in a causal fashion.

    @Margaret - LOL! I know what you mean.

    @Elaine - Use the info in this post as a guide.
  • Great information Michael, need to get my thinking cap on now - I love blogging but want to do something different.

    Thanks for a great post
  • Wow - I've been feeling "guilty" about my blog - because I didn't stick to just one topic. The truth is I get bored - and need some variety in my life. Sticking to just one topic gets too intense for me, rather like being pursued by an ardent but unwanted lover.

    .... er, that last thought is something of a distant memory, of course! LOL -

    Margaret
  • Hi Michael,
    Great Post! Yesterday, in Zen Habits I read an interesting article by Leo that blogging should be generic rather and should address wide audience. Today, yours' too advocates the same. I'm blogging on my journey into copywriting and my predicaments and experiences. I wonder if I also miss out a large group of people who may not be interested in my ranting.
    I'll make it more generic with a pronounced emphasis on writing; copywriting per se.
    Thanks for the great thoughts!
    Solomon
  • THANK YOU for writing this!

    I'm getting really tired of hearing about the "right" way to do a blog and the "right" way to use Twitter.

    As someone whose blog falls somewhat into the lifestyle category you describe, and sort of into the crossover category, I can relate to the struggle of trying to figure out what your blog is "about." Trying to communicate that brand to others is an even bigger challenge. I like to say I subscribe to the anti-brand-brand. :)

    I don't want my readers to feel lost and confused, though. I've found that a blog design can really help your readers get their minds around what you're about, and navigate their way to the posts they're most interested in.

    On my blog, the most recent post is up top, in full, but if you scroll down to the bottom you get an index, of sorts. Each post I write falls into one of three categories, and the index highlights the three most recent posts in each of the three topics. I hope my readers enjoy mixing things up, but if they're really interested in one of the categories, it's easy for them to isolate just those posts.
  • Great advice. Seems like if you do what everyone else you doing you just become average. Why be mediocre? Besides who has only one interest?
  • Nice post on a subject I'm fond of. I've always been fascinated by people's choice of subjects and how tightly they focus on it.

    Scott, make sure you type the URL of your blog correctly when you comment. Good advertising, but only if people can follow the link. The @ in a Wordpress dot com URL will only work for the owner of the site.
  • Scott Schwager
    Hi Michael,
    I need help. I know next to nothing about blogging. My wife says she thinks my blog is cool and people would want to read it. She knows even less about blogging than me.I am into knowing about science and technology. I am also into very-short story writing (less than 500 words)I am wanting to marry these two interests. I want my blog to support me intellectually and financially. I am willing to pay for your services but I'm afraid my ignorance could bankrupt me. If you get technical with me, you'll probably loose me. But maybe not...
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