Blogging | Forum « Multiple Blogs « Social Media Examiner

Multiple Blogs (19 posts)

Topic tags: blogging strategy, business blogging

Jay Rombach said
1 year, 5 months ago:
Hello all,
If have one main blog based on my professional expertise and brand myself accordingly, what are some thoughts about having a second blog based on a personal hobby or interest? Would that dilute my personal brand? Should I blog under another name for the hobby/interest to keep them separate? I’m asking under the assumption, from what I’ve learned, that it is not best to have one blog with different topics that don’t naturally relate to one another.
Thank you.
@jay_rombach | # | Top
Katie Cavanaugh said
1 year, 5 months ago:
@jay_rombach Have you considered a page for your hobby/interest on your wordpress site so that traffic would be driven to one site? This is such a great question Jay, and I am looking forward to the Clubs input!
@katiecavanaugh | # | Top
Kristi Hines said
1 year, 5 months ago:
@jay_rombach I don’t think it dilutes your brand. I have three blogs – my main one for my professional brand, my photography blog, and my personal blog. If you have more than one under your name, the best way to go is:
- Make sure each blog is clearly defined. So if someone typed your name into search results, you would want the SEO title for your professional blog to say Jay Rombach - Talent Management, Leadership Development, Coaching, Performance and Social Media (but maybe a bit shorter) and your personal blog to say For Love of ___ by Jay Rombach. When someone sees those two titles in the search results (plus a great meta description of what each site is about), they will know which one they want to go to. Who knows, maybe your personal hobby / interest might lead to something that could turn professional! You can see the results of how I do this in this sampling of search results for my name.
- If you’re worried that someone might get to your hobby blog anyway when they really mean to get to your professional blog, you could do like I have on my personal blog (http://kristis.me/) and have an about you box that says what you do professionally so people would have that direct link to your professional site.
- You can also have an author bio at the end of your posts on your personal site that highlights your profession. Since I don’t have a sidebar on my photography site, that’s what I use to tell people who I am (http://photostry.com/overlooking-snowy-bright-angel-trail/).
You never know how your personal hobby could lead to a professional connection. I have people who like photography also have businesses, so then they contact me about freelance writing once they read my bio about what I do for a living. Sometimes having a personal interest in common opens the door to a professional trust. There’s nothing wrong with being multifaceted!
@kristi-hines | # | Top
Jay Rombach said
1 year, 5 months ago:
Great insight, Kristi! Definitely makes me think about it in a different way. I see why you are so successful, and I appreciate your help.
Jay
@jay_rombach | # | Top
Susan Wright-Boucher said
1 year, 5 months ago:
Jay, what about guest blogging your hobby or personal interests on others’ sites? I do this sometimes b/c I don’t want the responsibility of regular posting on too many blogs yet I know people really to see a steady diet of new content.
Let us know what you decide so we can check out your work!
Susan
@swrightboucher | # | Top
Jay Rombach said
1 year, 4 months ago:
Thank you Katie and Susan! I appreciate your suggestions.
Jay
@jay_rombach | # | Top
Tim Huntley said
1 year, 4 months ago:
My question is slightly different than Jay’s but related to multiple blogs.
The content for my site is targeted broadly at athletes; however I would like to create another stream of content that is specific for elite athletes. The content for elites would be of ZERO interest to the broader audience. And therefore, I definitely do not want it showing up on the RSS feed, main page, etc. for the general audience.
However to Katie’s point above, I would like to make sure that traffic gets aggregated to a single domain. Any thoughts on the best way to approach this?
…Tim
@myathleticlife | # | Top
Adi Gaskell said
1 year, 4 months ago:
I tend to keep all of my stuff on my personal blog. Not sure about the marketing benefits of doing so but my main reason for having the blog is to dump my thoughts on various things I’m currently reading/thinking about, and of course getting feedback from any readers that are stopping by. So it’s more of an intellectual exercise than a marketing one. I tend to use writing for other sites to promote my brand.
@adigaskell | # | Top
Dewane Mutunga said
1 year, 4 months ago:
@jay_rombach
I recently was having the same dilemma. I have so many interests that I sometimes find myself all over and wanting to blog about everything.
I blog about email marketing using my name as a domain, but because my name isn’t easy to remember I decided to create a new brand-like blog that I’m currently working on.
I do not blog about personal stuff on my current blog but I still make it personal if that makes sense.
Each blog should have one clear focus. So I would suggest creating a new blog for you personal interests as I am going to do.
Hope this helps!
@mutunga | # | Top
Jay Rombach said
1 year, 4 months ago:
Thank you Dewane. I appreciate you sharing your insight.
Regards,
Jay
@jay_rombach | # | Top
Widian Othman said
1 year, 4 months ago:
Hey Guys,Thanks for these posts.
Regarding Multiple Blogs, i am responsible for the social media efforts in the company i work for.when i first started, i created three blogs for the company on Blogger, WordPress and Tumblr.
i posted the same content on Blogger and WordPress while different shorter posts on Tumblr due to its different nature than regular blogs. i thought having three blogs will increase the company’s SEO ranking.
Now i feel this was a mistake to do…i am thinking to create a blog within the company’s official website and delete the other three blogs. is this the right thing to do?
or do you recommend that i create the new blog within the company’s website and keep the other three blogs and dedicate each one to a product line (we have three product lines)? it is worth mentioning that we are a B2B company.
please help me with the best recommended thing to do, i feel lost, thanks!
@widianothman | # | Top
Jon Behrens said
1 year, 4 months ago:
@widianothman I would personally start by installing a Wordpress blog on your company site in a directory called “blog” or “news” (ex. yourcompany.com/blog) as I’m not a big fan of subdomains (ex. blog.yourcomany.com).
As for your other properties, it would depend on how much is there and if they are getting rankings in the search engines already.
If so, I would do a post on each letting people know that they can continue reading at the new blog URL. In conjunction, I’d put a message up on the new blog letting people know that there is more information at your other properties.
With a little effort, as you update the new blog you could edit some of your old posts (from tumblr, blogger, wordpress.com) to direct them to the main site blog and get a few backlinks for optimization.
Although I’ve heard there’s a way to import the old blog posts, if you don’t do proper re-directs from those properties you could lose the optimization you’ve already gotten from Google.
Guess I’m one for overkill on sites though as, especially with my clients, I like to have multiple sites and once one ranks high on the first page of Google, start the next property so that I can dominate and not leave an opening for the competition.
Hope this helps.
@dakotalocal | # | Top
Widian Othman said
1 year, 4 months ago:
Thanks a lot that is great!
but can i install wordpress.com into the website or should it be wordpress.org?
@widianothman | # | Top
Jon Behrens said
1 year, 4 months ago:
@widianothman you will want to use the code from Wordpress.org
If your host has cPanel there’s a good chance that you have “Fantastico” which will install everything in just a few clicks. You choose the directory to install it in and it does most of the rest of the work.
When you install it, make sure you don’t use a common username (ie. admin or webmaster) as it can make it easier for others to get inside and make your life miserable.
If you need any help with this, feel free to let me know.
@dakotalocal | # | Top
Widian Othman said
1 year, 4 months ago:
Thanks a lot
@widianothman | # | Top
Robin Carlisle said
1 year, 3 months ago:
@jay_rombach @kristi-hines
Once again I’m blown away by the quality and multi-faceted usefulness of the input and advice we get here in the clubs. Ask one question and get perfect answers to those you’ve not yet anticipated.
Kristi, thanks for your explicit examples. I’ve got a rush job to do getting three sites online fast and was afraid the rush would later cause confusion. Your examples helped me get a focus on how to better plan and organize my sites’ structural work from the get-go. Thanks.
Jay, thanks for asking the question. This thread really helped advance my work load today, just in the nick of time. Welcome to the LeaderBoard for a job well done. Keep those great questions and posts coming. You surely helped me today. Thanky, thanky!
Robin Carlisle
@atlantarobin | # | Top
Kristi Hines said
1 year, 3 months ago:
@atlantarobin You’re welcome Robin! I find that, for my freelance writing business, I get leads from my personal sites as well as my main portfolio. You never know where you might rope someone in, and sometimes having a simple hobby in common might be the converting point for a potential client. :)
@kristi-hines | # | Top
Robin Carlisle said
1 year, 3 months ago:
@kristi-hines
In my career, I’ve found that to be so true, Kristi. And it’s that personal interest or common understanding that has tied me to former associates for a lifetime, long after either of us were working on a business project together.
After 30 years, I’m still getting referrals, work, and helpful info and updates from those I started out with or bumped into along the way, all because of a common interest in such far flung things as bartering, logic puzzles, test-taking, photography, videography, chronic pain syndromes, right-brain thinking, brain research, metacognition, musical theatre, baton twirling, British theatre, mail sorting, James Taylor, Shakespeare, science fiction, rennaissance fairs, choral music, German language, talking dogs, sororities, newcomers, and teaching English.
Woopsy, the dang girl’s gone list-happy again, lol. But the point’s clear. Connections and connecting on a personal level count.
Robin Carlisle
@atlantarobin | # | Top
Rebecca Cohen said
1 year, 3 months ago:
Thanks for input on multiple blogs. I have several that serve different purposes and have been taking a bit of time out to learn a bit more. Now back to fine tuning things to their purpose.
I tend to be personal as well as sharing my products, etc.
@rebeccacohen | # | Top