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Q&A Mixing topics in a blog

It depends on what your blog is trying to achieve. I agree with this much of your quote: readers come back most consistently to a blog that is focused, that offers one thing consistently. The reas...

posted 13y ago by Standback‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-12T20:05:56Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/3024
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T01:39:59Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/3024
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T01:39:59Z (almost 5 years ago)
It depends on what your blog is trying to achieve.

I agree with this much of your quote: readers come back most consistently to a blog that is focused, that offers one thing consistently. The reason is that, the more you switch around the key element of your blog posts, the less likely each individual post is to be enjoyed by a regular reader.

But two important provisos to that:

**The consistent element isn't necessarily a topic.** Some people have great voice or wit or style, and _that's_ what keeps readers interested - and coming back. Or they're just really great at continually finding new interesting things. Or, they've achieved celebrity status and have fans for whom the fact that _that person is writing it_ is the element that interests them. Scalzi's [_Whatever_](http://whatever.scalzi.com/) is a good example, with probably a mix of all the above.

And secondly, **_some_ mixture can be excellent - it gives you a specialty.** For example, writer blogs are a dime a dozen, but some writers stand out because they write about writing _and_ one or two other things. So [Jim Van Pelt](http://jimvanpelt.livejournal.com/) blogs about writing _and_ about teaching, and [Mette Harrison](http://metteharrison.livejournal.com/) blogs about writing _and_ running marathons. I'd probably never go looking for blogs on education or marathons - but reading about writing _and_ those things gives the blog character and uniqueness - and I follow those blogs devoutly.

So in summary, **the advice not to overscatter yourself is quite correct** - a key of publicizing anything is to choose your target audience, and then target 'em like heck. But that doesn't mean no variety at all - it just means to keep your target audience constantly in mind.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2011-06-05T21:05:15Z (over 13 years ago)
Original score: 13