To be an effective business blog, should your blog cover only one general topic, or is it acceptable to mix a number of inter-related topics? 

I think you can always step out a bit, from time to time, but still need to keep a focus on one topic. Is there an example you could post, there may be some other options for different topics

…social media, SEO, and gardening… is what I had in mind when I said to focus on one, lol. Cause it will work if you have a “blog about blogging” to post a list of books you liked recently but not what you had for lunch yesterday. Totally with Kristi on this one

@joanmuschampfagnani I have three blogs – my main one on blog marketing (which covers WordPress, social media, SEO, business blogging, etc.), one on photography, and one personal that is for anything else.  I had about six blogs at one point and merged most into my main one or the personal one.  Sometimes you just have to play around to see what people like.  Having them all self-hosted on WordPress definitely made the exporting & importing of categories from one site to the next and redirects much simpler.  

There are some great comments here already. And I definitely feel you should think of connecting with your audience.  I’d like to add another dimension here though.

I’ve often heard the advice that it’s best to keep your focus narrow when you first start and you’re trying to find your audience.  You can widen your topics once people know you. 

And I’ve seen that this makes sense for many, many blogs.

• Keeping on topic gives people time to get to know you when you’re the newbie on the block.
• It also helps you to get to know what you want your message to be. If this is your first blog ever, you’ll probably change your focus some time down the road, as you learn to meet your online audience where it’s best for both of you.

It’s a great question though. For well-established businesses, it’s an important strategic decision. Sometimes it’s easier to connect with your social media audience with a wider topic range and for some brands it’s important to stay focused. The case studies on our site are interesting to look at with this in mind.

I believe your blog should have a focus because that is what really attracts regular readers. It doesn’t always mean you should only blog about 1 topic on ALL blogs.. because some blogs are about LOTS of things.. opinion blogs.. Personal blogs, current trends or events blogs..
But (for example) cooking blogs SHOULD be about cooking – not politics or Social Media or dogs.. and if you can’t create enough content for the variety of blog that you’ve selected.. then perhaps you made a bad choice of topics.
I’ve always told aspiring bloggers that their blog should be about something that they know and love and can write about until the sun comes up.. and STILL want to write more… and then to do that day after day after day.

The simple fact is that for most people.. blogging is a labor of love, and only a slim minority of blogs ever make it really big. 
You have to be dedicated, and willing to put in long hours of writing, and willing to do all the other things that give people a chance to find you.
That also means (unless you have deep pockets) you will have to learn at least a little about a LOT of things.. like maintaining your blog, updating it and the plugins you use, how many plugins is TOO many, how to write effectively, what is SEO, how to monetize your blog.. and how NOT to, are Google ads worth it on a low traffic blog, security for your blog, how to develop good content, maintaining your list of subscribers..  etc.. etc..

I could go on for a long time about all the stuff a person needs to know about blogging, mostly because there is THAT much to know.

So.. when a person gets into blogging they should do it with eyes wide open.. or they can likely expect to end up with a disappointing experience.

Picking the right blog topic therefore is the MOST important thing a blogger can do. If a person tries to fake interest or knowledge about a topic.. it won’t take long for others to sniff them out! 

@joanmuschampfagnani Definitely depends on your audience.  When my blog was quasi-personal and professional, I kept an eye on my subscriber stats and noticed that people who signed on after I did a string of social media posts would unsubscribe when I did a string of personal posts (and vice versa).  That’s when I realized I had to keep them separate and let people interested in both just subscribe to both.  :)

@maryjohnson I have noticed that through developing my own blog, but at the same time, when I was ready to change the focus of my content, I only wanted people who were interested in my new focus.  It’s sad to watch readers go, but it’s exciting to watch new ones that have the same interests come in.

I have only been blogging for a few months. Our blog is geared toward those who are affected by cancer, so our topics focus primarily on all aspects of cancer. That is the content our audience wants so that is what we give to them.

I think as long as you give your audience what they want, you’ll be in good shape.

Great forum topic.  This is something I’ve always struggled with. I tend to keep my blogs focused on one general topic so that my audience knows what to expect.  I have a student productivity blog a http://studenthacks.org that I focus on writing all about education, study skills, learning tips, research etc.  It’s focused on education, but that topic allows me to dive into other areas.  My new blog is very niche – and focused strictly on Google Plus (http://circled.us).  I also set up a fitness blog a while ago http://orangecountyfitness.org that was focused on health in Orange County.  Not really doing much with that these days.  I consider blogs like books — and I’ll write different articles for different books that serve different audiences.  There are some very successful bloggers out there that write about anything — and those tend to me more blogs about their personal lives.  

What blogs do you all like to read?

I started out with three separate blogs but two became stepchildren. I decided to combine them, but I make it clear that the blog has several themes — all under a common umbrella. I have a separate little Logo that I post after the headline that tells readers which topic is being addressed and I try to space the topics out so that the theme isn’t shifted long term. Readers can quickly scan for the logo that interests them. I also have separate pages for each theme as well as categories. It’s a bit of work, but I’m hoping duplicity will be helpful to readers.

When I add themes it gives me something to advertise. “Next month our focus will be ____.” I don’t abandon the current focus, but add new areas of interest.

Can’t say I knew what I was doing but my blog comes up in the search engines right where I want it to! And that’s true for each topic!

@cindy-king Thanks for the tips for beginners, that feels right to me.  I’m thinking my blog will be a dessert recipe blog… I’m a cupcake baker at heart.  LOL

@iannorman  What is your blog’s URL?

Good stuff: I think we all have dealt with this issue. Truth be told, I get so bored writing about one topic – maybe that’s my ADHD kicking in. You all are so great to have around

Answer: Stay Focused as an expert and join a Blogging Cooperative. 
We navigated this issue last year.  I had a bunch of awesomely talented friends and co-bloggers that all had great topics and content.  The problem is that the most focused and best content was only read if folks were looking for just that finely, narrowed down, search.Our first idea was to guest blog for each other and even go off topic a little to try and reach an audience that was not necessarily looking for what you were providing.  A forced ‘Stumble-Upon’ if you will.  This still did not get the numbers of readers we wanted….sowe decided to start a multi-topic blogging cooperative.  These seem to be the most popular and most visited of all the blogs.  Huff-Po, the Daily Blogma, Pop-Sugar, All-Top and so on….The idea is that if I have 12 readers and you have 12 readers and they have 12 readers then if we all brought our readers and Social Media Resources together then we would all have 3x, 4x, 5x, the readers with every new blogger. http://boldspicynews.com/ In a short time we have served up over 10,000 articles read and over 5,000 unique visitors. We have a great ranking and some of the coolest contributors whose primary blogs all get much more traffic with the addition of back-links in each article re-purposed or written.People looking for cocktail recipes may stop and read some fitness tips that they would have never looked for directly.Take a look and tell me what you think and of course if you would like to join our team we would love to have you.-Damon