G.K. Chesterton said: “Break the conventions; keep the commandments.” And I think that goes for blogging, too, so my advice is:
Don’t be afraid to blog about a variety of topics.
Conventional blog wisdom says: “Pick a narrow topic, one subject, and stay on target with every post. If you stray and blog about other things, you will lose readers and effectiveness.”
I don’t know about you, but there’s no topic I am so interested in that I never want to discuss others. So while I enjoy apologetics and think it is valuable, days and even weeks sometimes go by where I am not cogitating on any apologetical arguments.
With me, typically waves of ideas come: these two weeks it’s single life, dating, marriage; the next two weeks its the canon of Scripture; the next it’s Eastern Orthodoxy or agrarianism or the sad state of Catholic parish music, and so on.
It’s shows you are human when you blog about a variety of topics.
I always love reading Jimmy Akin’s blog because you never know whether it will be something about science fiction, Catholic apologetics, or low-carb recipes. Granted, I couldn’t care less about low-carb cooking, so I just skip over those posts. Big whup.
If I lose readers because someone is interested in apologetics but not agrarianism, then oh well. I say to them (like the Southwest Airlines’ CEO said to a customer who didn’t like the way they did business): “You will be missed.” Because to stay sane I want to blog about diverse topics.
That said, I don’t advocate blogging about all manner of disparate hobbies you may have. If you like model airplanes and, say, quilting, by all means start two different blogs. But if your interests center around something important–like your Catholic Faith–bringing them all into one blog can create a tasty blend of spices that complement each other.
The main goal is to keep writing. Your one-topic blog will not reach anyone if you quit blogging due to boredom and everyone stops reading. I started this blog in ’05 as a grab-bag of whatever I was thinking about at the time, and since that time it has evolved and meandered and slowly found its niche. Through blogging about a variety of topics over the years, I have found what I’m interested in (and where that overlaps with your interests).
Great advise. I recently had the experience of a “convergence” of seemingly disparate interests which made me appreciate this topic of blogging about and/or connecting different interests. Here are the disparate topics:
A. Growing interest in having my own business/leaving the office worker rat race.
B. For the past few years I have been more and more interested in zombie movies.
C. Growing interest in agrarianism.
D. Desire to strengthen my family’s faith life and sacramental life and be a better leader.
Okay, so how in the heck do zombie movies relate to the other topics? Well they do. And I wrote a post about it recently. (shameless plug:)
http://newchristendom.blogspot.com/2012/07/will-there-be-zombies-look-around.html
It was fascinating when I made the connection between zombies and the simple agrarian life. I realized that I was interested in zombies because I am a zombie. Whether it is Wall-Mart shoppers, rush hour commuters, teens playing video games, or corporate cubicle workers, we modern city dwellers are zombies. And I see agrarianism as a solution to this zombiness. Agree or disagree with my assesment, but my point is that these issues were far more related than I could have guessed.
Perhaps low-carb cooking has some big connection with Catholic apologetics for Jimmy Akin?
David, great comment. Brief story: in college a young Caucasian man who always looked either drugged or really, really tired would come into our Chemistry class and sit in front of us. About once a week he wore his rock music shirt that on the back said White Zombie. He would promptly fall asleep or zone out, and my friends and I would laugh!
Great to read this. I started my blog in 06 with no real focus and it has evolved over time. I often look at blogs that have a theme or focus and wonder if I’d do better if I had a more focused blog. But I also don’t know that I could focus on one thing and have enough to write about. So thank you! Makes me feel better about my multi-topic blog.
Thanks Kerri!
Well said, Devin.
Maybe it’s because when I started my blog I never intended to have an audience– I just stumbled into one in part because at the time my husband’s blog (though then he was just my boyfriend not even my fiancé) was one of the top Catholic blogs– but I’ve never tried to have a focus for my blog and never wanted one. For me it’s always been a grab bag of whatever is on my mind. Often it’s literary or intellectual– whatever ideas are grabbing my attention at the current moment– but sometimes it’s just about trying to capture the moment or get down a thought or respond to something interesting I read or saw. Once I began to have children my blogging naturally drifted toward thoughts on motherhood and then homeschooling. Long before Facebook took off it became a vehicle for sharing pictures and updates about the kids with distant friends and family and I still use it that way because I’ve discovered that I enjoy the process of composing what I think of as photo essays, words and text that go together in a certain way too tell a story that Facebook updates and photo galleries cannot quite tell.
I’m not a one dimensional person and I see no reason why my blog should be. While I do appreciate highly focused blogs that have a theme and purpose, I find that the blogs I really enjoy reading for any length of time are those that are more like mine, diverse and quirky just like the person who writes them.
To me what makes blogging worthwhile– both as a write and as a reader– is that blogging at its best is really about creating relationships and community and not about information sharing. It’s hard to have a relationship with a single-dimensional person.
“I’m not a one dimensional person and I see no reason why my blog should be.”
Brilliantly stated.
Melanie, thanks for sharing your veteran experience. I totally agree with the one-dimensional point and also about creating a community and relationships. I’ve enjoyed getting to “know” many of my blog readers and having a place where arguments and ideas can be hashed out in a respectful atmosphere.
God bless!
Devin