Ask HN: Single Topic vs. Multi-Topic Personal Blog ?

10 points by jocatalin 8 years ago | 9 comments

I'm planning to start a blog for some time and I'm seeking advice regarding the (amount of) topics that I plan to cover. I mainly want to write about technical stuff, but I also wanna share reviews about books I'm reading and some articles about my previous startup (that failed). Is it a good idea to mix all these topics on a single blog? Do you know successful blogs that cover 2-3 topics?

caseysoftware 8 years ago |

Just write.

Seriously, the biggest problem that most people have with blogging (myself included!) is blogging regularly. From a traffic perspective, you'll want inbound links all going to the same site as that helps in general.

If you tag things well, that will solve 90% of your (described) concerns.

For successful blogs: Think of many news/opinion sites like HuffPo, TechCrunch, Forbes, and hundreds of others.

PaulHoule 8 years ago |

Plenty of successful bloggers blog on multiple topics. The main thing is that you write a lot; the most common way of failing at blogging is writing two or three articles then quitting.

kylegalbraith 8 years ago |

I personally blog on more than one topic because there is more than one topic that interests me. I think there are enough publications out there to submit your posts to that why not write on more than one topic?

As long as your content is interesting and thought provoking, go for it. If you are just going to crank out half assed things, don't do that. Write meaningful content that is beneficial to your reader.

e59d134d 8 years ago |

As a writer, I like to talk about different topics.

As reader, I return to single topic blogs more often than blogs which are allover.

So for now, I am got multiple blogs, but it is harder to manage.

detaro 8 years ago |

That should be fine to share. If in doubt, have multiple clear categories and separate pages and feeds for them, so someone really only interested in one thing can look at just that.

pasbesoin 8 years ago |

ongoing.org

Tim's been doing this -- and/or his own thing -- for years.

Some technical. Some photography. Some about "the kid" -- or more so, thoughts "the kid" raises.

Write about what interests you. Be careful to say something others will be interested in, and do so with some thought -- if you're interested in "growing" an audience.

Be authentic.

tga 8 years ago | |

You probably meant http://www.tbray.org/ongoing.

pasbesoin 8 years ago | | |

I definitely meant Tim Bray, yes. Don't know why I thought he had that domain; haven't been over there, lately.

Thanks!

dudul 8 years ago |

Perfectly fine to write about more than one thing.