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Should You Start With A Personal Blog, Niche Blog or Composite Blog?

PassionThis post gets its inspiration from the comments made at my previous post about readership count and how many do you really need (thanks for the great comments, folks!). The comment thread contained suggestions that it is easiest (and probably best) to start with a personal blog as you can basically talk about anything and everything in such a blog. That is true. But is it really the best option there is if you are to start blogging? Or is it the right kind of blog you should try out with before you venture into other kinds of blog?

 

As an author of multiple blogs ranging from personal blogging to niche blogging and also delving into composite blogging over the past 2 years, I will share with you my experience on all three of them so that you can make an informed decision on how to start off your blogging hobby (or venture).

 

Personal Blogs

Personal blogs are generally described as blogs which reveal the life of the blogger. It can be their daily raving and ranting or it can be a sharing of their beliefs and thoughts. It is intimate at times as it could be their one and only source of revealing their inner feelings, something which they don’t do in public. It is usually impromptu and does not take much effort in thought or composition of the post. The earliest form of blogs are known to be online journals which are personal in nature.

 

With personal blogs, it takes time to build regular readership as visitors will have to firstly, get acquainted to the blogger and the latter’s interests and way of writing before they will stick around to be a regular reader. Many people indulge in blog surfing and it takes quite a lot to make an impact on a visitor to want to make them stay longer or repeat their visit. You only have that one chance to convince them. In this connection, the expression of words and feelings play a crucial important part. Consider the following example of how a blogger might want to blog about a road accident which he encountered:-

 

This morning, I left my house with my family as usual. Little did I know that it would be an eventful morning which left me running all over the place. We were involved in a road accident as a careless driver bumped into the rear of our brand new car as we stopped our car at the traffic lights. Luckily no one was hurt. Our car has a couple of nicks as you can see (inserts photo).

 

(inserts picture first) Bummer! I can’t believe that my brand new love, the Nissan Grand Livina, which we took delivery last week and was polished to a gleam is now battled scarred even before I removed the plastic covers off the seats. No thanks to that sleepy head driver who slammed his car into our baby as we pulled up at the traffic lights. It was quite a jolt and I could have swore that I had a whiplash but thankfully, my family and I are fine. Nicks and scratches aside, I had the unfortunate task of having to run all over the place - police station, workshop and insurers to get the red tape done. Now I am thinking of how I can sue that bugger and get him off the roads! Any suggestions?

 

The same thing but with more drama as far as the second example is concerned. And it closes with a question, which may elicit a response from a reader or visitor. Hence, if you are starting with a personal blog, know why you want to start with one and set realistic goals on how this blog will fare as far as readership or even monetising is concerned.

 

Niche Blogs

Do you have an interesting hobby - perhaps gardening, origami, cooking, sewing, collection of model toys, travelling, etc? Or perhaps you are passionate about your work - financial planning, tour guide, diving instructor? You can blog about your passion! Niche blogs usually focus on a specific topic or area. From that topic, you can branch out to sub-topics within that area. For instance, let’s just say that you are working as a financial planner. Your blog can be a Financial Planning Blog with topics covering investments in unit trusts, insurance, investment in properties, tips for savings, etc.

 

The advantage of niche blogging is that it becomes quite second nature to those who are already passionate or involved in the subject matter. It is difficult to run out of things to blog about if you are already into the very thing you are blogging about. You can even start a niche blog right from the start! The other advantage of niche blogging is that you might make friends who are in the same hobby or interests and this allows the sharing of ideas and thoughts to generate further interests in the thing you do. Who says blogging is to benefit others only? ;)

 

The downside of niche blogging, if at all, is that certain niche may not get large numbers of readers - especially if it is about a topic or area which few people get involved in or take an interest into. You might get depressed with your readership count but if you work things right, you might get a lot of visitors through the search engines. Now, that is another topic altogether which I shall not dwell here.

 

Composite Blogs

This is what I would call a personal blog which has niche topics. An example would be one where the blogger’s life journal is interspersed with posts about orchids (how to grow them, types of orchids, etc) or making money or sewing tips. The blogger will write a couple of posts about his daily routine and what happened that day or what irritated him and the like and then will follow with a post about how to make money blogging. After that he swings to rock climbing tutorials and tips before writing about his neighbour’s love for loud music which is irritating him to the core.

 

There is nothing wrong with this type of blog. It’s just that it might not harness the reader’s full interests in the blog. Worse still, the reader might not stay loyal to the blog in the long run. Not all readers might take interest in your gardening hobby or stamp collection. It takes a special and gifted blogger to be able to write a composite blog which can attract and retain a high number of readers. My personal view is that if you want to start or maintain this type of blog, you will have to be able to write exceptionally well and connect with your readers through your writing to command high readership.

 

So, which should you start with? To be honest, there are pros and cons with each of the above types of blogs. My advice would be to ask yourself where your passion lies and whether you have certain goals to achieve as far as blogging is concerned. Start with passion, keep realistic goals and don’t bring unnecessary pressure (self or peer). Blogging is not a competition. If at all, you are competing against yourself.

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. 09 Jan 08 | About Beginners

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Intelligent Replies

  1. ParisB | January 9th, 2008 at 4:30 pm

    Thought-provoking. When I first started a blog, it was a niche blog. I just never realised it till now! I went from niche to personal instead of vice versa. My readership however is quite diverse with few common denominators. It might be a good thing - spread the attention a little heh…

  2. Edrei | January 9th, 2008 at 4:48 pm

    Actually, as a main advocate for personal blogging and as someone who’s written a lot of posts on how to write good personal posts (some of the best ones was when I was a guest blogger for Lorelle on WordPress), the main thing about personal blogs is the way you tell your story. Blog for yourself and write for others. That’s always been the kep not just for personal blogging but for all blogs.

    Every blog needs a reason, so it isn’t as much as what should you start off with, but rather WHY you want to start in the first place. You can’t tell a story when you don’t have the inspiration for it. Same as niche based blogs not being able to go somewhere without being in on the loop to begin with.

  3. Costa | January 9th, 2008 at 5:20 pm

    I started off with a blog that I don’t know what to call. If you say it is a personal blog, I don’t talk much about personal stuffs. If you say it is a niche blog, there is no niche. So I don’t know what kind of blog I started off with. LOL.

    But I am into niche blogging now. Well sort of anyway, for I fully focus on one topic. Lost interest in the “Don’t Know What Kind Of Blog” blog already. :-)

  4. pablopabla | January 12th, 2008 at 12:27 pm

    ParisB : Really? I always thought your PB site was a personal site and later, you created niche sites in the foodie and beauty sectors. No wait! Now I remember those gaudy looking bags you featured back in Blogspot. Yeah! It was a niche to personal site transformation :D

    Edrei : You are right. It takes a good story teller to make the story worth reading. Even a mundane event can be made interesting with the correct choice of words and pictures.

    Costa : Yes, I noticed a big change in your personal “don’t know what kind of blog” blog yesterday. Good to refocus, isn’t it?

  5. Michael Cruz | February 8th, 2008 at 10:27 am

    good discussion on planning your blogs content. Niche blogging spells money, but its a lot easier to do a composite blog. I know that mine is hard to define…but the variety allows me to have various channels to discuss. As a result, I never feel like I need to find something to write about!

  6. Matt Ellsworth | February 8th, 2008 at 1:39 pm

    I’ve done all 3. I can say that my niche blogs don’t get updated as often as my composite blogs. And my personal blogs rarely ever get updated other than from utterz…

  7. pablopabla | February 17th, 2008 at 9:13 pm

    Michael Cruz : You seem to enjoy blogging that way and that’s what’s most important :D

    Matt Ellsworth : Any reason why the updating is not balanced throughout the 3 types of blogs?

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