Many blogs begin as niche blogs covering a topic of interest or expertise, especially blogs started to help develop the author’s personal brand. Over time, however, the audience takes greater and greater interest in the author’s thoughts beyond the primary topic and, eventually, in the author’s personal life. At the same time, bloggers often feel constrained and even bored by their primary topic and want to treat a broader range of subjects. This is a natural and desirable progression for both author and reader.
It can be tricky, however, to balance writing about the main topic (that readers initially signed up for) with posting thoughts on other subjects and sharing more of the author’s personality and personal life.
Here are some of the options for how to respond to the progression of reader and author interest:
- Ignore it. Continue to write on the initial topic only.
Pros: The blog remains consistent, helping to establish authority, welcome new readers, and supply existing readers with the content they signed up for.
Cons: Remaining narrowly on topic can grow boring for the author and long-term readers. It limits differentiation of the blog and prevents readers from connecting with the author. The author is confined to building credibility and expertise in the original topic rather than branching out and developing some credibility on new interests.
- Stretch the topic to encompass other interests or personal stories.
Pros: The blog remains fairly consistent. Broadening of topic or inclusion of personal elements leads to differentiation along with increased interest for reader and author.
Cons: This often leads to posts with a tenuous or forced connection to the main topic. This can be off-putting when the site proclaims to be strictly on topic. Even then, there are some thoughts, some subjects that cannot be naturally be connected back, no matter how creative the author.
- Write off-topic, at least occasionally.
Pros: This approach completely satisfies the author’s wish to write on other interests or on personal topics. Certain readers who have taken an interest in the author’s thought or the author’s life will grow more interested and more attached, creating a measure of celebrity (however small in reach) for the author.
Cons: It will significantly disrupt consistency, turn off some readers, confuse new visitors to the site, potentially dilute SEO, and clutter the attempt at establishing authority.
- Run multiple blogs on different sites.
Pros: The topical blog remains consistent, the author is able to write on any topic of interest, and readers are able to opt in by visiting the separate blog if they are interested.
Cons: Separating the expertise, other interests, and personality of the author onto separate blogs will lead to a disjointed reading experience and a fragmented online presence for the author. The link between the blogs is likely to be weak, and transitioning readers between multiple sites will be difficult without somewhat intrusive plugging of the other sites.
What I’d Like to See More Of…
- Multiple integrated blogs off of one site, one template. Imagine a set of tabs at the top labeled “Marketing” (or whatever the topic is), “Other Thoughts,” and “My Life.” Boring titles, but it gets the idea across.
Pros: This would allow for consistency on the topical blog with no straying from the main subject. At the same time, the author could write on whatever he or she wanted, including personal matters, without losing or annoying any readers who prefer only the primary topic or who aren’t interested in personal blogging. By being located in one place and obviously connected, the multiple content streams/blogs would allow readers to easily move from topic to general thoughts to personal posts according to their interests, and it would keep the blogger’s online presence unified.
Cons: Technically the most complex of the solutions. I’m not sure how hard or easy this would be to do, but I know most blogs don’t have this functionality out of the box. Otherwise, I don’t see many cons. I want this option for my own blogging.
Well that’s it. I think that last option would be a great fit for almost any blog aimed at creating a personal brand. What do you think?
