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