Huldra Forsvant (Theodor Kittelsen)

Huldra Forsvant (Theodor Kittelsen)
Huldra Forsvant (Theodor Kittelsen)

Monday, February 9, 2009

On Blogging

This post by onlinesoph made me think about what I like in a blog, and I realise it's variety. I have a bit of a short attention span, so I don't really want to be reading about one thing every day. I remember when I set up my blog, some advice I read was to choose one tight little niche, write about that subject regularly, and you will build a readership up from there.

I didn't really want to do that, as there is not one niche I wanted to write about every day. Sometimes I want to talk about the bible, sometimes I want to talk about heavy metal. Mostly I want to gabble on about some stupid thing that has nothing to do with anything.

Maybe this is shooting yourself in the foot, because no one's going to be interested in reading about all those things, and will not want to read regularly. But does it really matter that much? I would think it's more important to say what you want to say, rather than formulate some route that will get you more readers.

8 comments:

Pedro said...

Mate, regardless of the topic of the day, your writing is what has me clicking awat of a morning, looking for some interesting rant, a review of some sort or just a good laugh..

Don't go changing.

Conformity is not your suit brethra.

lu said...

I love your blog just the way it is. Ditto - don't go changin'

lu

Bonnie said...

I read that advice too, and took it. But my blog seemed to morph from being about one specific thing, to a broader range of things.

I do have one other blog that's just about 1 thing, but I think it's good to keep that one seperate as not everyone would want to read about that.

I like your blog just the way it is too.

Ben McLaughlin said...

Well, thanks guys. Now I feel like my post was fishing for compliments, and that wasn't the aim at all.

Bonnie, I like your decision to have two blogs. One thing that is a big part of you has a seperate space, but then you have somewhere else to cover everything else. I sometimes contemplate doing that as well. We'll see.

Simone R. said...

Ben, I love the way that you use your blog to cover the big issues. I found today's analysis of the breakfast cereal situation insightful and your action plan inspiring.

Keep it up and I will keep reading.

Stuart Heath said...

This is a fundamental difference between blogging and traditional publishing: in print, you need to pay for it, so you need to sell it to advertisers (oh, and readers, but they just give you a story to tell the advertisers). Ergo it needs to be targeted to please. Not so the blog.

One great thing about a 'mixed bag' blog is that it allows every aspect of your life to be on display. As Christians, we are rather prone to sealing off our worlds: we don't mix our Christian friends and non-Christian friends.

Ben McLaughlin said...

ouch Simone, your sarcasm cuts like a knife. A butterknife maybe, but a knife none the less. Still, a true journalist like myself is not so easily disuaded from the path of truth.

Stuart, you make a good point about the mixed bag being a bit more 'access all areas'. I am one to keep my worlds as far from colliding as possible, but this blog has countered that a bit, which is probably good.

onlinesoph said...

I like your blog the way it is! Perfect mix of humour and seriousness.