Over my first 4 years of blogging I started in excess of 25 blogs. Most failed and no longer exist – but in those first 4 years I started a new blog every few months.
In hindsight I now look back on that period and realize that my strategy was flawed.
I did learn a lot – but I was writing too many blogs, I was writing about some topics I had little interest in, I was not writing enough original and helpful content (I was too stretched) and as a result of all this – the vast majority of the blogs I started in that time failed.
As a result of this realization I changed my blogging strategy and decided to focus my energy upon two blogs – ProBlogger and Digital Photography School.
I decided to resist the urge to start new blogs and to focus my energies on producing a higher quality destination for readers. The strategy worked. The extra attention I gave my blogs led to better post, better design and a better reader experience – the blogs have grown strategy.
In the last two and a half years I focused upon two blogs and didn’t start any others. In a sense the pendulum swung from a place where I was starting new projects every second month – to one where I started none.
Last month I decided that it was time to start a new blog – TwiTip. In doing so I realized that perhaps in not starting a blog for a couple of years I’d been missing out – perhaps the pendulum had swung too far.
5 Reasons Why Starting a New Blog Can Be Good for You
Here’s some of the reasons that I have enjoyed launching TwiTip (and why I think occasionally starting a new blog is a good idea):
1. To Keep Fresh – perhaps the thing that I’ve enjoyed the most about the process of starting TwiTip is that it’s given me energy. While I love ProBlogger and DPS and they do give me energy – there’s something special about new blogs. The excitement of launching, the gathering of a new readership, exploring new topics, seeing how readers respond to your posts, connecting with other blogs in a niche. Starting a new blog can give you energy and keep you fresh.
2. To Explore New Tools – I’ve found it harder and harder to keep up with the latest plugins and tools available to bloggers in the last year or so – simply because my main two blogs have gotten to a point where they are quite stable and don’t really need too many tweaks. TwiTip has allowed me to play with some new tools/plugins, techniques, features that I might not have tested otherwise. In a sense TwiTip has become a live testing ground for new techniques – some of which will probably be incorporated in my other blogs.
3. To Explore New Design – In a similar way – TwiTip has been fun for me to explore a new way of presenting content with a new theme. I’ve enjoyed the Thesis theme a lot and have played a little with some of its features. In coming weeks I hope to unveil a new design too which again will be fun to present.
4. To Experiment with New Voices – Sometimes when you have been writing a blog for a few years it is easy to fall into patterns in the way that you write. The patterns might not be bad (they could work well for your audience) but it is easy to become a little dry as a result. A new blog gives you space to explore new styles of communication.
5. Extra Income Stream – I didn’t expect it to happen quite so quickly but in December TwiTip welcomed its first ever sponsor – SitePoint. I’ll write about the process of this at some point soon – but it essentially happened as a result of building a decent daily readership and while it’s not big dollars – it certainly is a nice extra income stream.
A Word of Warning
What I’ve found in the pendulum swings that I’ve been through – from having a single blog, to starting 25 or so of the things, to not starting anything new…. is that new blogs are good – but in moderation.
Don’t bite off more than you can chew – if you do the quality of your blogs will suffer.
I’m sure different people have the ability to juggle multiple projects differently – but at least for me I’ve found that I work best when I’m able to focus my energies on a small number of projects (for me that is 2-3 blogs plus a few social media accounts) – but that I also get a lot of energy from new projects also.
In short – it’s a balancing act!
Tomorrow I want to extend this post with some tips on ‘how’ to add a second blog to your stable of blogs. Stay tuned.
