Authoring Multiple Blogs

Ben Barden of CMFAds asked a very good question on the CMF forums.  He wanted to know what others thought of authoring multiple blogs.  I gave a brief reply since I am the author of 6 public and 2 private blogs.  However, I thought the whole question deserved a bit more of an in depth feeling.  There's a few things that come into play with multiple blogs:

• pro bloggers encourage multiple blogs -  In fact the magic number pro bloggers encourage is 10.  I'm not sure where they came up with that number but am assuming when done properly that is the number of blogs needed to make a living off of blogging.  Since I'm not trying to make a living off of blogging this is rather a moot point but for those that are that is the number to strive for and be prepared to write your butt off!
• filing - Much like a filing system, multiple blogs allow you to file your blogging into the appropriate file (aka blog).  For me, this type of filing helps me to organize my thoughts and determine where I want that blog post to appear.  If I'm blogging about canning tomatoes it is rather obvious to some it belongs on my cooking blog but if it is a generic I've been busy canning tomatoes then it might be more appropriate for my personal blog.
• controls the chit chat - In my opinion blogs are supposed to be chit chatty by nature.  That's what makes them interesting.  However, the chit chat needs to be somewhat controlled.  So the chit chat that may be a bit too much for one blog may fit nicely with another.
• rants - Oh gosh!  For the most part I tend to keep rants to a minimum across all my blogs but seriously if I get into a rant mode it automatically goes to my personal blog.  
• stimulates creativity - Multiple blogs stimulate creativity and keeps your thinking.  That is a great thing.  You do want some overlap because that becomes your mark, your style that defines you as a blogger.  What you don't want is massive duplication of content across your blogs.  Yes it is a bit more work but bringing in that whole creative element to express one more faucet of your being is well worth it.
• enhances learning - Blogging by nature will get a bit stagnet if you don't keep learning.  Multiple blogs just enhances the overall learning experience and encourages further learning.
• blog promotion - It is a bit more difficult to promote mutiple blog without paying a fair amount of money for advertising or wasting a lot of time dropping cards.  What I did was start promoting the heck out of the most popular blog then as it started making a little money diverting that money back into promoting the other blogs.

Garden Gnome
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