Authoring Multiple Blogs

I started blogging in late April of 2006.  Within a couple of days the second blog was born and now I'm up to 6 blogs, well technically 7 but one is private.  Anyway my blogs just sort of grew in number as the need arose.  I didn't start off saying I want to author X number of blogs or even have a definitive reason prior to the idea popping into my head that I wanted more than one blog.  To me the blogs are somewhat like having babies where you start of with ideals but over time those ideals are modified to suit the growing child and child/parent relationship.  As with any parent who has more that one child, each child is treated similarly while recognizing their uniqueness.  What works well for one child does not work well for another and that is the same way it is with multiple blogs.  I think too just like parenting while the basic values remain the same there is always little modifications that don't affect the basic values to suit the current situation.

What I did right from the start of blogging was to establish a brand much the same as a new parent says I'm the parent, you're the child.  I've used the same avatar for all my online activities so if someone is browsing buy and sees an avatar they recognize they are more likely to visit my younger blogs.  While each blog is different there are similarities and I think that it is only fitting that my personality as a blogger comes through on each blog.  In reality my personality is going to come through because it is me doing the writing.  I design each blog to what I like and present what interests me so of course there are going to be similarities.  I think that is one of the striking features of authoring multiple blogs.  Writing multiple blogs is very much like an author who writes multiple books.  Their personality does come through and there are certain similarities.  This is a type of branding that gains the author readership.  If a reader enjoyed one of the author's books there is a greater chance that they will read the next book out by that author.  So it is with blogging.  Readers end up reading your other blogs because they like what they saw on one of them.

A benefit to authoring multiple blogs aside of the creativity is each blog already has a niche so the topic is already decided.  In many ways it is easier to write multiple blogs than it is to write one blog.  There's already a focus so when I sit down to write this blog I know I will be talking about some aspect of blogging not gardening, cooking or the cute Mallard ducks sitting on my dock.  There can be a bit of overlap as in using the same image on a couple of your blogs.  For example my food blog readers get to see all the great foods we eat so occasionally I will share a food picture with my personal blog readers or I may share the same custom made graphic for a holiday greeting across all my blogs.  In general the overlap tends to quite minimal though reserved mainly for holidays.

I have read many great blog posts from several bloggers who write multiple blogs.  The general theme of similarity yet uniqueness especially with respect to content is always apparent.  I've also come across a few bloggers who were authoring multiple blogs then decided to consolidate them into one blog.  In my opinion consolidating multiple blogs into one blog does not work well especially if the blogs were in well defined niches.  As a reader is is annoying to go to a food blog expecting posts on food related topics to find the author has combined their religious and cat blogs in with the food blog yet their title gives the indication it is a food blog.  However, if the blog has a less defined title (eg. My Life Experiences) combining a religious and cat blog with it would be a bit more successful.  One thing I have noticed is those bloggers who combine multiple blogs into one blog quite often give up blogging entirely so it's almost like combining them is a last ditched effort.  This is not always the case but rather just an observation.

Garden Gnome
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