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Should I stick to one topic or go with all my passions?

by aaronjunited
21 replies
I am in the process of planning out a new blog and I need some brainstorming/opinions to help me decide the general area that I want my blog to be about.

I have so many passions and i'm a very opinionated person when it comes to the many interests I have.

I am diabetic and my original plan was to build a site around the illness, providing help and guidance on that subject.

However I don't feel comfortable just building the site around diabetes. I want to aim it towards people who have the same interests as me, the topics I like to talk about. I'm not gona list the topics I want to talk about, but I have knowledge with them all.

I suppose you could say the site would be focused on the topics I love talking about, but with the different topics on the one website what Is it I should be aiming at, in terms of how google is going to view my site.

Is it considered bad practice having many topics on a blog? Or would this be seen as normal (i'm opinionated and want to talk about many things)

I hope you get the gist of what I'm saying.

Any help would be much appreciated.
Aaron.
#blog #passions #stick #topic
  • Profile picture of the author John Taylor
    Aaron,

    While I get that you have opinions you would like
    to express on your blog... and it's your blog so you
    can write about whatever you want... your post
    fails to mention your target reader.

    I'd start by defining my target audience and then
    listing topics that will be of interest to the people
    you want to visit your blog.

    John
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    • Profile picture of the author AffiliateWaves
      It happens with all of us ,we start to discuss about motorcycle ,then we start blog about cars and then whole auto sector .so our direction is lost .

      I guess you must stick to your most informative subject ,about which you can talk even in sleep .

      You can blog about many off topic like Expendables 3 or Beyonce ,it is up to you

      Thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author Tim Fuhrman
    I would start with your main topic of diabetes and what that means and then because you are an actual human being with other interests etc. you can let you audience get to know you through those conversations or discussions. This is actually a great thing to do. However, if you really are trying to monetize your site you have to be careful of topics like religion and politics because undoubtedly you will offend someone. Put if you start telling a story about how you like to go hiking I think that is part of who you are. When possible it's a great idea to link these personal interests with your main theme. So for example if you did write about hiking what do you as a diabetic have to consider and plan for when you go off on a hike.
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    • Profile picture of the author discrat
      Originally Posted by Tim Fuhrman View Post

      I would start with your main topic of diabetes and what that means and then because you are an actual human being with other interests etc. you can let you audience get to know you through those conversations or discussions. This is actually a great thing to do. However, if you really are trying to monetize your site you have to be careful of topics like religion and politics because undoubtedly you will offend someone. Put if you start telling a story about how you like to go hiking I think that is part of who you are. When possible it's a great idea to link these personal interests with your main theme. So for example if you did write about hiking what do you as a diabetic have to consider and plan for when you go off on a hike.
      Aaron,
      I agree. I think the Diabetes thing is a great Niche since you have diabetes and you could potentially help others in dealing with the disease.

      There are a number of decent products that are informational that helps people to deal with Diabetes and in some cases reverse Diabetes type two altogether.

      Just use those medical disclaimers on your blog and make it known you are no MD.

      At least I do not think you are. But maybe you are


      Robert
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      • Profile picture of the author Philipg68
        Hi If you start with your most important interest, say diabetes, and give people your true opions of what you belive, and that you can substantiate what you have written, your readers will regard you as an expert and will follow and look forward to your every written word, you will then be in a powerful position to monitise what ever your product/s are.
        Then if that 1st web/blog is successful you will be in a great position to diversivefy and rinse and repeat.
        philipg68
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  • Profile picture of the author aaronjunited
    Thanks for the helpful replies.

    John - Diabetics certainly come into focus with the topic of diabetes. Not just diabetics, but diabetics of all ages, young and old with type 1, type 2, overweight, active, newly diagnosed and so on. All those people will have different interests and hobbies.

    I can cater for all those people on a blog about diabetes, but there is so many other things I'm very opinionated about, and I just can't see how all those other opinions can be left inside my head.


    Tim - Very good idea in fact. It makes a lot of sense. It's getting the message across, the message of what my site will be about apart from diabetes.
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  • Profile picture of the author datingworld
    Certainly start with diabetes,
    You can always expand to other topics which you feel are interesting.
    The best thing is to see how your blog readers react to what other interesting things you write. I would certainly write for blog readers, forget about the Google, write for your readers, once your readers are happy, All will be happy including Google.
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  • Profile picture of the author wolfe655
    If you are very opinionated, what if you started a personal blog where you could talk about anything you wanted without taking away from the niche blog. Then start one niche blog and direct people who are interested in that direction. I have thought about doing this as I would like to have a personal blog.

    On your niche blogs maybe you could have a blog page where you talk about anything. Call it Off Topic or This -N- That or something
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  • Profile picture of the author a2hosting
    I would start with the Diabetes blog. Build this one out and try to keep it targeted. If you find yourself going on rants or talking about off topics, try to group those together and consider starting another blog with a centralized theme. Often times when I start a new site I think "I have so many things I want to write about, maybe I should start a few blogs at once." It turns out that really isn't the case because I just don't have time to update multiple blogs and prefer to stick on topic.
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    • Profile picture of the author aaronjunited
      Originally Posted by datingworld View Post

      Certainly start with diabetes,
      You can always expand to other topics which you feel are interesting.
      The best thing is to see how your blog readers react to what other interesting things you write. I would certainly write for blog readers, forget about the Google, write for your readers, once your readers are happy, All will be happy including Google.
      Totally agree on writing for my readers first and foremost. I'm edging away from the idea I need to write for google, which has been my mindset over the last few years. Only now am I beginning to understand that I must write for the reader and everything will fall into place if the content is good quality and interesting to my readers. The idea of a blog based around my life and how I manage my diabetes, providing help and information along with tips and related info, sounds better when I include my other interests in life.

      Basically the blog would be an opinionated source of helpful and practical information, but with my interests and experiences thrown in. By thrown in, I mean deliberately talking about my interests with passion and direction.


      Originally Posted by wolfe655 View Post

      If you are very opinionated, what if you started a personal blog where you could talk about anything you wanted without taking away from the niche blog. Then start one niche blog and direct people who are interested in that direction. I have thought about doing this as I would like to have a personal blog.

      On your niche blogs maybe you could have a blog page where you talk about anything. Call it Off Topic or This -N- That or something
      So what you mean is start a blog based on my interests and then start a niche blog and direct people to the interests blog.

      The idea of a page for off topic is good, although I would like to categorize the topics I have a passion for, to give me good standing with search engines.


      Originally Posted by a2hosting View Post

      I would start with the Diabetes blog. Build this one out and try to keep it targeted. If you find yourself going on rants or talking about off topics, try to group those together and consider starting another blog with a centralized theme. Often times when I start a new site I think "I have so many things I want to write about, maybe I should start a few blogs at once." It turns out that really isn't the case because I just don't have time to update multiple blogs and prefer to stick on topic.
      It's a hard decision. It is strange to me that its so hard to choose what I should go forward with. I mean who isn't going to appreciate good quality content as long as they have an interest in that subject. I have so many ways I can market the blog, by going to the readers, finding where they hang out and use social media to drive traffic.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jassen
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    • Profile picture of the author aaronjunited
      Originally Posted by Jassen View Post

      Write for the reader: What does your target market want to read about?

      You're on an Internet marketing forum, so it's a safe assumption that you desire to eventually monetize the blog. With monetization and a target market in mind, the content you create should become obvious to yourself.

      Know ahead of time that if you doing everything "white hat", and your goal is truly to build a long-term, sustainable source of income, then you're going to be about 6 months from profitability, maybe even longer. View this as a long-term part time job, and just accept the fact that you won't collect a paycheck for a while. In the long run, doing it right really does pay off.

      From the get go, set up an email capture system and offer a lead magnet in exchange for email addresses. At the very least, do an RSS to email broadcast of every new blog post, which should be at least weekly.

      Do these things, and as long as you're providing really good original content, you'll do well. Patience is key.
      Completely agree with this. I'm totally in it for the long term. I want to build authority, and the only way I know how to do that is with superb content, offering value and help, which in turn builds trust, and eventually a following.

      I know who my target audience is, but its a mixture of targets through each of the topics I want to write about.
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  • Profile picture of the author WVMike
    You can have as many different issues on a blog as you like. That's not an issue. How you promote the blog as a whole AND those individual posts will ultimately determine how much traffic you get (unless you get lucky and go viral with some post).

    For YOUR SAKE though and to keep things smoother for your visitors, if you want to do a health/diabetes type blog and yet want to ALSO talk about everything else under the sun, you may want to just start two different blogs. If you're doing your own hosting, you can put one blog on the main domain and the other on a subdomain (or two diff domains of course). It's a piece of cake.

    If you're just setting up with blogger.com or something than obviously just go with two different blogs. One can be your "ramblings" blog and the other can focus on diabetes (or whatever).

    Just a suggestion...Good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author wolfe655
    That is what I meant Start a general blog where you can talk about anything and all of your interests. Then start other blogs on one interest such as the diabetes blog, a blog about motorcycles or whatever. These blogs are the ones that you monetize. You will be talking about your interests on the general blog and people who show interest in the topics direct them to that specific blog and get them on a list. You could probably even get them on a list for one of your niches before you even have a site up.

    I think if you want to just go off and talk about multiple subjects that should just be a general topic blog talk about anything. You probably will not make any or much money with that. Your niche blogs should be your interests and you should only talk about that stuff on them.

    So if for example you have 3 major interests Radio controlled airplanes, guitars and motorcycles do one blog on each and only talk about the specific niche. Don't go off into other stuff. That is what your general or personal blog is for. If you get people on your general topic blog showing an interest in something you have a niche blog about well you know where to send them for more info.
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    I would go with the one that makes you the most profitable. Internet marketing is fine, but i prefer chillin with my wife everyday as opposed to writing about things that i like to do on the internet for hours per day. Shoot.... i got a happy life to live. Feel me?
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    • Profile picture of the author discrat
      Originally Posted by Randall Magwood View Post

      I would go with the one that makes you the most profitable. Internet marketing is fine, but i prefer chillin with my wife everyday as opposed to writing about things that i like to do on the internet for hours per day. Shoot.... i got a happy life to live. Feel me?
      I definitely feel you and know where you are coming from. I guess there are two stories to this. A lot of people simply love to write and write about passionate things on the Internet that could also be profitable too.

      I know a lot of people who are passionate about being Online all day including young guns who just do not have a family yet.( And even older ones too) . So they find fulfillment doing things for hours on end on the Internet. I say more power to them. If I was 25 again I would do the same thing.

      But I lean towards what you are saying though. With my wife and two kids I try to keep a good healthy balance.
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  • Profile picture of the author clever7
    Writing about unrelated topics is not a good idea. Write only about diabetes and everything related to this matter.
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  • Profile picture of the author elmo033057
    There are several processes you could take in building a profitable niche, but I believe in the world of creating info products, determining marketability to be the most important one. You absolutely, 100% need to determine a niche ahead of creating your product.

    One of the best ways to do that would be to write a chapter or a report first and then create a landing page for people to go to and see if there is any interest in your subject matter. If you have a favorable response, you can finish the course.

    The place that most people get stuck at is which niche to even start in. Here is a real effective method for determining profitable niches and you can read about it by clicking on the link provided.

    God Bless,

    ELMO
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  • Profile picture of the author templar
    First, research which passion is saturated in the market.
    Then decide on what is your heart's passion.

    It is best to focus on your best, most passionate one after that.
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  • Profile picture of the author aaronjunited
    Thank you all again all advice is much appreciated.

    I will be making my final decision over the rest of this week. I'm still ticking things of the pre-launch list making sure everything is going to be stress free.

    Thanks again.
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  • Profile picture of the author alamest
    In my opinion you should stick with one topic I mean one niche if you are totally starting from zero and want to focus on your blog then absolutely focus one topic

    Go for 30 - 40 contents in your blog, optimize it properly with SEO, give some back linking to your site and then you can judge yourself what to do in future..

    I hope this helps you..
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  • Profile picture of the author Agamemnon
    The way I was taught, is to stick with one way at a time so that you can show to your audience, that you are indeed knowledgeable in that area. In this manner you will be seen more as an expert as long as what you are trying to convey does indeed add value and imparts good information to the reader. Going this route will leave your readers with the feeling that you are helping them get the answers to their questions which is the best thing they could hope to find.

    Once you have established yourself in one area, then you can rinse and repeat in another area and so on ... Of course this is my humble opinion and you can always go your own course. Good luck with that.
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