Tuesday, May 25, 2010

How many blogs should an online writer have?

So you've been writing on some of the content publishing sites for a while. Your starting to make a little money. Not big money, but enough money that you see potential to make more. Maybe you've tried out other content publishing sites, spreading your writing out further on the Web in hopes of drawing more readers and making money. You've plugged in AdSense, and possibly are using some other online advertising sites. Again, there's a little money rolling in, but not big money.

Or perhaps you aren't interested in the money-making aspects of online writing. Maybe you just feel the need to express yourself and to have others read your work and possibly to comment upon it.

If that's the case, it's time for a blog. Or if you have one already, it's time to get to work publishing on your blog and marketing it.

Again, you've added a little advertising to your blog. It means a little more money. Still, you're not getting rich, but it all adds up. You're blogging every so often, enough to draw a handful of readers to you blog every day.

But you want more readers. Or maybe you want to make more money.

What to do?

Time for another blog!

Well, maybe. Maybe not. Blogging can be a lot of fun, and it is a source of making some money, but it's also a lot of work.

If you are considering having more than one blog, you have to ask yourself if you really have that many strong interests. The key to a successful blog is to write about a topic not only of which you are familiar, but also in which you have personal interests. That helps to draw readers and, hopefully, to make you a little money.

Another big factor is time management. Do you have the time to write on more than one blog regularly? When a blog is just starting out, you should probably try to have at least one post a day. Don't worry, you won't have to keep up that pace forever, but early on a blog needs as many solid posts as it can get in order to draw the interest of potential viewers. More posts also means your blog will be more noticed by search engines.

Also, you need to keep in mind if you have more than one blog, your blogs should not focus too closely on similar topics, otherwise the blogs are competing against one another for readers. What you want are blogs with different topics, or at least topics that might be related but not so much as to harm your readership. For example, yes, it would probably be okay to have a blog on book reviews and another on writing. On the flip side, you probably wouldn't want more than one blog about video games unless each blog focuses on a particular game or gaming era.

Sometimes a blog's focus can be too narrow. Again using video games as an example, if you were to focus on one particular game, you should probably make sure it's a very popular game. Otherwise, no viewers. And no money. Or you could blog about the one particular game while realizing the game will eventually lose its attraction to many gamers as they move on to other games, all the while planning on this blog being only a temporary blog.

What's a temporary blog? It's when you keep up with for a limited time period, anything from a few months to just a few years. They can be popular for a while, depending upon their topic, and they can bring in a little money. An example here would be a blog about the popular ABC television show LOST. The show is now finished, in re-runs, but while it was live on the air there were plenty of blogs about it. What's to happen to those blogs now? Most will remain, still drawing a few viewers and possibly bringing in some money, but for the most part the activity on those blogs will dwindle. There's nothing wrong with that. It was fun while it lasted.

So, you're going to have more than one blog. How many is the right number? You'll have to figure that out. Blogs come and go all the time, so don't feel too disappointed if you've tried a blog for a while, it doesn't do much for you and you have to kill it or permanently leave it alone. Some professional bloggers will try a dozen or more different blogs before settling on a few favorites that are bringing in the most money. You could try that route.

You want an exact number, or a range, on the number of blogs you should have? I'd suggest no more than six, and that's probably pushing things. If you are just starting out blogging, you probably shouldn't have more than two or three. Always remember, you can add (or delete, for that matter) a blog at any time.

And keep in mind the more blogs you have, the more work it's going to take you. Honestly, writing is the easy part. It's all the marketing and promotional work that is the really hard work. You might be able to sit down and churn out a few articles in a matter of minutes, but it's going to take a whole lot longer than that to draw attention to your blog.

But that doesn't mean it can't be done. And remember to keep it fun!

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