HowToMakeMyBlog reader Tom sent the following question via my contact form couple of days ago:
Hi Marko, I just read your Twitter marketing book. Really great, and I have followed many of your advice. I have a question though: does it make more sense to promote all information on one site in order to get best visibility for that particular one, or to create several sites for different related topics, as you did for your book. I try to put all information on the same site, but I really see the point to what you had done. I think instead of answering it privately, if you feel many people have this question, it would be great if you addressed this issue in one of your posts. Thanks a lot: Tom
Focus your blog topic on a narrow niche
The more you narrow your blog topic, the better it is for your blog’s potential. I look at it from the visitor’s point of view. If I click on a tweet, read a blog post, and I like it, I will click onto the main page and browse to see what the blog is about.
If the blogger jumps between topics from post to post, it will be very hard for me to subscribe as there would most probably be a lot of content that I am not interested in. On the other hand, if the blog is very focused, and concentrates on a specific topic, then I would most probably subscribe to it.
It is much easier to attract visitors and subscribers if you have a very focused blog topic. You brand yourself as an expert within that field and your readers know what to expect from you. It is also easier to monetize a narrow niche as advertisers are looking for targeted traffic and a blog with focused topic has a very targeted audience.
Keywords in the domain name
In TwitterMarketingBook case, blogging about blogs, and blogging about how to promote your blog via Twitter is pretty relevant and could be on the same blog. But my thinking behind creating a new domain name was because of Twitter itself.
Twitter is so new that I wanted to create a Twitter domain, and get some links to it, so hopefully it will soon start ranking high for some Twitter viral marketing keywords. From my Google PageRank case study I have seen how important it is to have relevant keywords in the domain name.
Take it one blog passion at a time
If you have passion for more than one blog topic, I would recommend taking it one topic at a time. Start one blog, give it some 3-6 months, focus on writing good and quality content, focus on promoting it to your audience.
After some time, the process will become easier, you will get into the rhythm of writing 2-3 posts a week and marketing will not be much more than sending out a tweet about your article. You will be able to automatize your blog by writing on a consistent schedule and encouraging your visitors / subscribers / Twitter followers to spread the word about it, which will leave you with more time to start another blog.
Image by See Recursion
Join thousands of bloggers and get all my blogging tips for FREE! Subscribe to HowToMakeMyBlog via RSS or via e-mail.
If you liked this article, you may also like:
Why I run my blog on Thesis Wordpress Theme
Thesis theme gives my blog a professional, clean, easy-to-read layout and SEO friendly design. Thesis makes it simple to make your own blog unique. See more details and get your own Thesis today.
{ 15 comments }
Taking one passion at a time is the best advice out of this article for me. I have had my main blog for almost a year, and I am finally going to launch a new one in the coming months. The experience and knowledge you gain from the first blog will help you move forward with your blogging career.
Thanks for comments!
@Kyle Judkins – That is a great point. The experience you gain from 1st blog will help you create a better and more successful second blog, and so on.
This really is great information. I know from personal experience that keeping three blogs going is tough. I definitely agree with Kyle that you really gain a bunch of knowledge from that first blog. Things that you wanna try, do differently, or never do again. Great post!
I agree that you should definitely wait between starting blogs. You don’t want to have an overload of trying to build traffic to multiple new sites. It can be a real hassle.
I have to disagree that experience from 1st blog will necessarily help you create a better and more successful second blog. For instance, the person makes a lot of mistakes in his first blog, and then make same mistakes in second blog, third blog, and so on.
A mediocre content blog with random thoughts can do just as well as a blog with a specific niche. The power of marketing can turn the mediocre blog to a “must-read”, which ultimately drives a lot of traffic to the site regardless of how well the content is. Think about some of the best-selling books out there in the bookstores. Some of them are equivalent to garbage. Why do they sell so well? Because the publishers are very skilled at marketing. The author goes on talk shows, radio, magazine, etc. and so much words go out about the book that it must be a must-read.
@Kai Lo – Of course, there are exceptions to the rule, but for a blogger it is a much better option to be focused on a niche as it is easier to market and “sell” your blog to the potential visitors that way.
About experience, if you do not learn much from your first blog and do not improve your starting the blog / promoting the blog / writing of content skills, then something probably went wrong with your first blog as you definitely should learn a lot from the experience.
Grammar is my niche. For the sake of better blogs and because the_gman is sending a link on Twitter about this blog, I am compelled to point something out. I hope you’ll fix it, then delete this comment, because I am not doing this to embarrass you or get attention for myself. (In fact, please delete it.)
Marco, you say “focus on writing good and quality content,” It is “writing well”
One person making a comment does just the opposite: “regardless of how well the content is”. It is “how good the content is”
Here’s why: “good” is an adjective, “writing” is a verb.”Good” needs the adverb “well”.
“Content’ is a noun. It needs the adjective “good”. Always match adverbs to verbs and adjectives to nouns.
I love your blog and suggest careful proofreading for any blog.
@Mary Cate – Thanks for the correcting the grammar. However, I believe getting the point across is more important than worrying about grammar. I assume you understood the entire post that Marko had posted. I’m not here to speak for everyone, but if I am too worried about grammar, I would lose my train of thought. This isn’t exactly an article for CNN, and nobody is perfect. It is very difficult for me to write this comment because I am being very careful with grammar. I probably made a thousand mistakes in this comment alone. I am not myself when I am worrying too much about grammar. Hope you understand the difference between a blog and the perfection of the work from CNN.
Kai Lo, my apologies. I did not mean to single you out, it was just for illustration. Even I think comments are off limits. They are quickly written and the exception. I am here to help. Not judge. I agree with your original comment, but even a mediocre blog will not become a “must read” for long if grammar is ignored.
My purpose was not to make anyone self conscious. Truly. My grammar sucks. And I know blogging is more organic than more “formal” or printed forms. However, the topic, and even the sentence, was about good content. And that includes grammar, whether bloggers like it or not.
Good writing is all about the reader and not stopping them even for a millisecond, if you truly want to have an impact. It is part of the writer’s responsibility and credibility. As an editor, I want to hone the writer’s skill, not force fit it into rules. However, the basics are important.
With the fall of newspapers and move to citizen journalism, people forget the importance of good editing. Every blogger should have a copy of the “Little, Brown Handbook” It is the easiest reference, very well indexed, and super clear on the rules. Writing is the art of revision.
@Mary Cate – English is not my first language, so it is natural that I can make mistakes. Personally I am like @Kai Lo and I care more about the point of the article than about some grammar mistakes here and there. Just wanted to say that when I said “focus on writing good and quality content” I referred to content and not to writing. Basically I meant “good and quality content” and not “writing good and writing quality content”. I hope it helps. Also if we are talking about small things, I wanted to note that it is impolite to spell someone’s name wrong. It is Marko with K and not with C. I am glad you liked my blog.
Marko. Touché on the name. My apologies. However, you are not off the hook. You are an excellent writer, whatever your first language. As a professional editor, I offer my advice to contribute to the topic and conversation.
When I see writing as good as yours, I can’t resist wanting to tweak the details to go from good to great. That is what editors do. Blogs, after all, are first and foremost about writing. If I thought you, or Kai Lo for that matter, were not already good writers, I would not have bothered.
From you I am learning all about blogging, more so than any of the many other sources out there. I ventured to be more active in this community, which for me was a big leap. I am doing so with all sincerity.
Of course there will be mistakes in my writing, as well. (Each written piece requires the writer to challenge himself to rewrite and an editor or at least a proofreader to catch the details.) I am sticking around and look forward to pissing you off in the future.
And Kai Lo – no disrespect intended. I love your perspective. I hope there is room for mine. I will not make the mistake again of using another person’s comment as an example.
Cheers!
@Mary Cate – Thanks for the comment! I understand it, I enjoy it, and I am looking forward to hearing more from you in the future.
‘Writing’ is my niche, it is not narrow, but I write from the heart with passion. I think there are successful blogs without a narrow niche. I just wrote a blog post about this very subject, well NOT having a niche.
@Mary Kate: Kindly loosen up already. It’s hard enough to summon the guts to leave a comment in somebody else blog. Please don’t make it more difficult for us. As a reader, I can overlook some grammatical lapses or awkwardness in sentence construction. I go for the meat or substance of the post. With you in the same room, I’m likely to bite my tongue instead of bothering to leave a comment.
But not today. Simply because I want this said: When I’m in another blog, I do not flash my credentials to startle people. I’m just me, just another enthusiastic reader who’s eager to learn.
By the way, I also learned from you today, if it’s any consolation. So it is not such a loss after all. “,)
Hello,Marko.It’s my first time comment in your blog.I feel your blog is very good for me who is learning to a blogger.You see my name is chinese,so you can guess where am i,english is my second language like you,but i can’t write so beautiful article as yours.Wish you have more good post.