Polyblogging: Advice on the juggling act from someone who has dropped the ball.
While some polybloggers begin with one niche blog and go on to create more, many people, including me, begin polyblogging when they find their first blog just doesn’t have room for everything they want to talk about. Its a way to compartmentalise our knowledge and interests to make them both manageable and coherent and there are some obvious benefits.
- Having the space to explore different subjects in depth.
- Having specific purposes and working toward more specific goals.
- Creating more targeted content and meeting the audience’s needs and expectations.
- Creating sites with more keyword density and gaining more traffic.
But maintaining more than one blog isn’t easy. It multiplies all of the regular blogging tasks and while our blogs might become more focussed, our own focus gets divided.
It’s a juggling act, and it requires a whole new set of skills.
Photo by jayniebell
Some people already have those skills but I imagine there are a few like me in the process of launching their second or third blog who are on a steep learning curve.
I managed my first blog single-mindedly; with dedication, not discipline. With multiple blogs, dedication is still fundamental, but discipline is crucial. These are few things I’ve learned about discipline so far. The hard way.
Be brutally honest with yourself about the choices you have to make.
We all have a limited amount of time. For most bloggers, blogging doesn’t pay the bills. When creating another blog, you need to know how much time it will require, how much time you have to invest in it and where you’re going to make the cut if those two numbers don’t match. Because these are your choices…
- Split your available time evenly between projects.
- Subtract time from project #1 and dedicate more time to project #2.
- Put the same amount of time into project #1, and allocate additional time for project #2.
Its very likely that something is going to have to give. You need to make sure that you’re happy with whatever is left holding the short straw.
Don’t just know how to prepare: Be prepared.
There is a strong temptation to just dive headlong into a new project. You have a lot of enthusiasm and energy driving you. Your mind is overflowing with ideas and you just want to get blogging. It’s all go, go, go. But the traffic light is red.
It takes a lot of discipline to slow down at this point, but it’s worth doing. Before your blog is live, make sure you’re prepared. Make sure everything is fully functional and that you have a number of reserve posts up your sleeve, not just a notebook full of ideas, because no matter how organised you are, there will be a teething period while you adjust to the demands of your new schedule. And, as always, life happens. It will be easier to get through if you’ve already taken that into account.
Give yourself a break.
This is probably the hardest part of discipline for me: Having reasonable expectations rather than wanting to get it all perfect immediately. With the inevitable faltering step, those high ideals make it harder to keep going. If you have standards that you fail to meet at first, remember that the world won’t collapse because of it. Take some of the pressure off and you will get to where you want to be. In fact, you’ll get there faster. Stress is counter-productive.
Like juggling, polyblogging requires practice. Like juggling, you need your feet planted firmly on the ground. Like juggling, you need to relax to find your rhythm.
And you have to let go in order to catch the ball.
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Hi Lani,
good article
I’ve dropped that many balls trying to polyblog that I am constantly tripping over them
Best regards, Andrew
Discipline is a real issue for me too – so many things to blog about because I spend so much time browsing and researching but not enough time left to write and post.
Hmmm…..right now I’m in the middle of writing my 3rd blog post for the day. Like you, I ended up starting a couple of other blogs on slightly different wavelengths to my main one. I have made a conscious decision though that my main blog comes first and the others slot in as I can get to them. It’s working so far…. fingers crossed. Some weeks I do better than others. I like the idea of having a few posts written in preparation for a busy time. Need to remember that….
I have toyed with the idea of another blog. A blog about Autism, about therapy, about allergies and recipes….. even a blog about housework *snort*, but for the time being I will concentrate on just one.
I don’t have the attention span for more that that!
Oooh something shiny!
Great post Lani. I know who to come to when the polyblogging bug bites HARD.
@ Andrew: But you do it with such grace! And thank you.
@ Sueblimely: That is a tough balance to find. Not reading enough you run dry, but trying to read too much… Yup. It’s that nasty D-word.
@ Lightening: I think that’s a good approach. Knowing what your main focus is makes it easier to make a cut somewhere if you have to. There will always been times when you have to make a choice, however temporarily, and I thinks it helps to know what your choice is, and why, in advance.
@ Kelley: I’ll be able to give you a list pages and pages long about all my mistakes!
I pollyblog on one blog, which has its up side and down side. Lack of focus makes it hit or miss for people and their interests. Humour covers a great deal of territory and I suppose that holds it together a bit.
I just cannot comprehend fitting in a range of serious blogs and my current life. I have set up a few short term issue blogs, which was good because I was motivated and the issues moved on, making the blogs less relevant.
I am full of admiration for people like you and Andrew and Meg who maintain high quality multiple blogs.
Junk blogs on the other hand……..
Good post. I began with one blog in September 2003 but found myself starting a new blog every time I had a different kind of writing project.
To keep myself sane I’ve prioritised. I have two that I post to twice a day if possible: Duncan’s TV and Duncan’s Print. I have a backlog of stories for both that makes that possible and needed. These two seem to be quickly archived by the search engines because of my regular posting. I post to the rest when I have something to write. Some I have left as dormant – ready to pick up if I feel like it or leave as an archive.