I was thinking about my blog and realised that it can be quite erratic at times.
One moment I’m talking about Web2.0 and stuff we’re doing on backstage.bbc.co.uk and then suddenly I start talking about games consoles or strategy methodologies. And that’s when I’m not just posting utter crap.
Plus there was 3 weeks of thoughts and views from the Far East a month ago (what was all that about?).
I can also be a little up-and-down with posting frequency too – days without a single thought and then suddenly 4 or 5 at once – it’s worse than the number 8 bus!
I was thinking about what makes a good blog, and the obvious answer is needs to be about a topic. Group blogs, like Engadget aside, lets look at some successful single-author blogs:
- Michael Arrington’s TechCrunch is about Web2.0 startups
- Om Malik’s Om on Broadband is about broadband, VoIP and “next generation Internet usage”
- Alice Taylor’s Wonderland blog is about computer games
- Bruce Schneier’s blog is about online security
In all cases they are very much “that person’s blog”, but yet they stick to a strict theme. We never find out where Bruce Schneier buys his socks or what Om Malik thinks of the new Madonna album.
(There are some notable exceptions of course – Jeremy Zawodny writes about his experiences of the industry, college jokes, problems with FedEx and even learning to fly an airplane (very jealous, btw, Jeremy). Robert Scoble writes about all sorts of technical stuff).
In my case my blog doesn’t know whether it’s a web2.0 blog, or a gadget blog, or a BBC blog. It’s having an identity crisis!
So my question to you all is this:
“Should I keep on posting a very eclectic mix of things that interest me, or start focusing on a specific topic? And assuming the latter, should I do that on a separate blog and keep the rest of my hotch-potch of ideas on this ‘personal blog’?”
If you could spend 60 seconds replying to this post with your comments on the above, I’d be most grateful 🙂
Thanks, Ben
Ben,
I find your blog interesting *because* of the range of topics its covers. As you’ve already pointed out, there already exist other blogs that individually cover the topics you do, and could be argued that you’d have some ground to cover to match them, and you may lose some of your readership by changing direction.
That’s my tuppence-worth, but I’d say keep going, you’re doing a good job.
Ryan
Yes it is quite erratic but its not like it throws me off compltetely.
If your feeling so iffy about it…. Why not cut your website into 3 and have BBC / etc like Matt Cutts did.
Keep it erratic – always good to know what is on your mind …
Yeah, it makes up for when we don’t talk at home…
I like the erraticness too. I think it’s one of the whole *points* of a personal blog that you can post about whatever happens to be holding your interest at the time.
I don’t think your blog is any more erratic than some others – so don’t worry about it.
The only thing you should post less of is the self–deprecating stuff… 😉
Frankie
I agree, leave it as it is, I like the variation 🙂
Ignore the people above, the Jenson Button fixation has to go as do the travelogue holiday narratives. Your pseudo black man Grime thing works in a sort of Ali G boy from the ‘burbs way. I find that endearing :-P. And I agree with Frankie – give up the self deprecation up – you’d sell your soul to be in the top 500 – like the others have.
But you’re right about the more popular single author blogs having a theme. I find your best posts are those where you use your considerable intellect to actually pass comment on issues such as DRM – most of these posts seem to be in “thoughts and rants”. Most commentators here are liberal lefties with little technical knowledge. praps you should brand yourself as some gangster tech blogger gunning down the liberal digerati?!
as long as your posts are categorized, I see no reason why limit yourself to a particular topic area.
I’ve only been reading your blog since, well, today :-). Definitely keep the wide range of topics- if I want something specific I’ll go and find a single-subject blog.