Starting another Blog: Same Niche or New Topic
There is no denying the fact that I love blogging. Not only does creating content excite me, but I am having a great time learning the technical side of things as well. For this reason, I am thinking about starting a new blog. But as you probably know, this is not something you can jump into without considering all of your options.
The problem I am struggling with now is whether or not I should choose a topic similar to ChrisBlogging, or if I should venture in an entirely new direction.
A similar topic could be something such as the book writing process, freelance writing jobs, writing for magazines, etc. But on the other side of things, there are hundreds of other topics that I could explore. While not all of them would interest me, I am sure I could find a couple that would fit in quite well with my likes and lifestyle.
There are pros and cons of each option. Choosing a similar topic will allow me to more or less build off of the success of this blog. To go along with this, I have plenty of knowledge when it comes to writing because this is what I do for a living. On the downside, this may not give me much of a change, which could get boring in time.
If I choose a topic that is completely unrelated, the fun factor would be quite high; at least early on. After all, it would give me the chance to break away from writing about freelancing, making money, etc. And with this, I think that it could spice things up quite a bit. Facing off against this is the fact that I need to find a topic that I am passionate about, and of course, one that people are interested in.
I am not 100 percent sure if I should start another blog at this time. Do I have enough hours in the day to write and market a new blog? Probably. But with that being said, I do not want to add so much work that my freelance writing career begins to suffer.
Over the weekend I plan on brainstorming some ideas, and taking a closer look at my day to day schedule. Hopefully by next week I will have a better idea of what I am going to do!
August 24th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
If it’s the same niche, why have a separate blog? I can see that sometimes you might want things separate for similar topics with different angles, but other times, it might be best to cover it all on one blog.
A lot of bloggers stray from their main topic (some more than others), so it wouldn’t really be a big issue to have multiple topics on the same niche. It’s a lot easier to understand than someone who may blog about blog management one day and fruit flies the next.
If you want to start a separate blog, I’d do it in a separate niche. It’ll also make things easier to determine where to post. I mean, if you have two blogs on writing, it may be difficult to determine which blog should have the post on _____ writing. But, if you have a blog on writing and another on dogs, it’s much easier to figure out what post should go where.
It’s also easier to have a different mindset when you’re working on each separate blog. It’s easier to get into “writing mode” or “dog mode” versus “this writing mode” and “that writing mode.” If the topics are too similar, it will be more difficult to keep things organized and on-topic.
Naturally, there will be times when you’ll still have posts that may overlap, such as a post about the dog being with you while you write. In that case, you can post it on one blog, and then link to it from the other blog, with some commentary that keeps it on topic with that blog.
August 24th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
dcr - This is kind of what I was thinking. You did a great job outlining the pros and cons here. I totally agree with what you are saying as far as getting in different “mindsets” is concerned. Thanks for the in-depth comment; it will definitely give me some better insight when making my decision…
August 25th, 2007 at 2:48 am
Good advice from dcr.
Just wanted you to know that I’ve posted a list of my writing blogs, and you’re on it.
August 26th, 2007 at 9:15 am
Lillie - Thanks for adding me to your list of writing blogs. Glad to have you as a reader!