email question

Should I start a blog that addresses multiple topics or have a different blog for each topic?

This is a question I get emailed about all the time and as such I thought it would be a good way to kick off a new segment here on Blog Tyrant where I publicly answer your blogging and online marketing emails (with permission!) so that everyone can read them.

If you’d like to ask me a question just send me an email or leave a comment on this post.

So let’s dive into this first one.

Today’s question on multiple blog topics

Here’s the latest email I got on the topic of running one blog or many blogs:

multiple_blogs_single_blogs

I did a quick search in my inbox and noticed that I literally get asked this question at least once a week. When you do start a new blog it can be a really confusing process, especially if you aren’t entirely sure what your blog’s topic should be.

Here are a few thoughts on this issue based on my own experiences.

Single topic vs multiple topic blogs

Generally speaking it is quite difficult to find small to medium-sized blogs that successfully cover many topics.

For example, if you look at a blogger like Heather Armstrong who writes about lots of different things, you’ll notice that even then all of those topics fall under the brand of “Heather” in that it is all from her own experience and that’s why people read the site.

mamamia

Similarly, the popular Australian site Mamamia covers many topics all under the brand of “what everyone’s talking about” which allows for quite a diverse range of subjects.

But the thing you usually notice about successful multi-topic blogs or websites is that they are usually run by a large team of writers and staff the focus quite heavily on a vast quantity of articles.

This type of setup can be extremely difficult for a new blogger to work with.

Why?

  • It’s a lot of work
    Firstly it’s important to note that running a multi-topic blog is a lot of work if you want to do it correctly. It’s a lot of information to be across.
  • It can be boring
    If you’re thinking of a “personal” style blog it often comes across as being quite boring. People don’t often want to read about your thoughts on everything unless there is some point of difference involved.
  • It has a highly-varied audience
    If you are writing about gluten intolerance and politics all on the same blog, it’s going to be very hard to find your target audience which can make it hard to monetise and find ways to grow traffic.

So what is the alternative?

Well, to me it seems like the most successful bloggers are ones that focus in on a very specific niche and approach that niche in a way that is really distinctive.

nerd fitness

One example that I often refer to is Nerd Fitness – its broad niche is fitness but then it goes even further and just focuses on being about fitness for nerds.

This might seem like cutting out a large audience but it actually does the opposite – it becomes hyper relevant for a large group of nerdy people.

What if I have many topics to write about?

The next problem in this process is if you really want to write about multiple topics.

Then what?

Well, if you are just starting out I think it’s a good idea to really focus in on only one blog with one topic and make it as successful as possible.

The reason is that if you start many new blogs all at once you’ll often find that you do all of them in a half-baked way. By focusing on one big blog you can learn about what makes it successful, and then you can actually invest money from that first blog to get help with the second and then the third.

One of my favorite examples of someone who does this well is Darren Rowse who runs multiple successful blogs.

There’s Digital Photography School, ProBlogger, Feel Gooder and TwiTip. If he were to put all of these on to one blog it would be a branding nightmare.

darren and his team

But it’s also good to remember that he doesn’t run all of these himself. He has a large team that he’s gradually grown over the past decade. You can see them in the photo above.

What do you think?

I’d really like to know if you have experience running multiple blogs, or whether you added multiple topics to one blog. Did it work? Was it a mistake? I know everyone has different opinions about this one so please leave a comment below and let me know.

Top photo © Hermin Utomo | Dreamstime.com

90 Comments

Join in. The comments are closed after 30 days.

Add a Comment Cancel reply

We're glad you have chosen to leave a comment. Please keep in mind that all comments are moderated according to our privacy policy, and all links are nofollow. Do NOT use keywords in the name field. Let's have a personal and meaningful conversation.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  1. Lisa Frideborg Eddy on July 7, 2015

    Hi Ramsay, brilliant blog and great question as usual! I have just consolidated my three niche blogs (all within the bigger topic of metaphysics/spirituality) into one blog that has distinctive areas for people to enjoy, as well as more of a community feel (yes I’m using FB for this). It has only been live since last Thursday so it is probably a bit early to say if it was a ‘mistake.’ What I am noticing is that while I have slightly less blog traffic than on my biggest Tarot blog (which was about Love and Relationship readings), I now get just as many enquiries and I have also started selling some of the information I gave away for free on Love Dove in eBook format. This means I am FINALLY starting to earn while I sleep. Most importantly, I don’t have the stress of juggling three blogs and can put all my heart into make this into the dream blog I hope it will be for visitors and loyal readers. So far the feedback has been mainly positive but I have had one person say they miss Love Dove… then again, one out of 2,000 daily visitors isn’t bad and for that one person I have had ten people say they LOVE the new site. I should probably add that this was more a spiritually guided move than a strategic business move but I trust my inner guidance will see me right. Blessings, Lisa

    1. I think just keep testing and observing. If you’ve made the leap, keep going.

      1. Lisa Frideborg Eddy on July 8, 2015

        Thanks Ramsay. Yep, too late for anythinge else now! 😀

  2. Bryan Haines on July 7, 2015

    This is something I’m working through right now. We are starting a new photography blog – and I’m unsure how tight to make the niche. If it’s too broad, it will be like a multi-topic blog.

    Our previous blogs have had a very narrow focus and were successful. What I’m unsure of, is how broad to make this niche.

    1. Why do you want to make this one broader?

  3. This is something I’ve pondered for a while.

    I’ve used the example before about Mark Manson, and how he transitioned his blog across multiple topics as he grew his audience through the years. Starting off as a dating website for men, branching into general male self development – adding in lifestyle stuff like Entrepreneurial topics, travel and Ferris-esque hacking before settling into personal development based on psychology and science (still with the other stuff now and then).

    It worked for him, but he has said in the past he’s often stuck on branding and the amount of website re-designs and name changes he’s gone though is ridiculous. Yet it’s now one of the biggest websites in the world for personal development.

    Personally, I’ve gone through tons of mini niches within my own website – but all linked to personal development, so there is method to my madness, even though I want to narrow it down.

    Question. I know you’ve stated you get a lot of traffic from certain articles you don’t feel are relevant to your overall branding moving forward – is it a good idea to slowly cut these branches off (potentially harming traffic) or to leave them be, and just bury these bits and pieces under the stuff you want to write about in the future?

    I reckon 10% of my traffic comes from an article that I wrote in my first couple of months blogging which has no relevance to me now..

    Cut it or bury it?

    Thanks for the article.. it’s got me thinking again..

    1. Yeah I have one article on here that gets about 1500 uniques a day and does nothing for the brand itself. That being said, because it has so much traffic it’s more likely to get backlinks from people who see it and I do feel that has a beneficial effect for the site as a whole. Thoughts?

      1. I see your point. It’s giving your site added authority and strength – and if only a few visitors return, that’s at least a few hundred extra a year… potential spenders too.

        Out of interest what article is that again please? I would like to compare it to your current articles.

  4. Coming from the point of a reader of web sites – aren’t we all – I find two things;
    1. An un-focused web site is not helpful. When I search for a topic and check out a google entry, I’ll want the most relevant page but I’ll also want a site that’s related to the topic. This way, I can learn more via that site instead of bouncing around web sites.

    2. READERS LOOK HERE! I’ve never seen a “multi-topic” blog post on the first page of google results.

    A site focused on photography could have articles on macro-photography, selling photos online, and edit photos via photoshop. Those are all related.

    However, a site that jumps from one topic to another needs a team of great writers cranking out daily content.

    For a new blogger or even “small” site owner, pick a niche topic and focus focus focus. That’s how you sell ebooks and videos and niche-related products by developing TRUST.

    Be a huge big-box store or a small niche store.

    1. Shawn Washburn on July 7, 2015

      Chris, I really love your first point and I guess that’s true of me as well when I’m looking for something myself. I just have a personal blog that I started six months ago and I’ve known that I need to pare it down and decide on one thing to focus on. Your point helped make that clearer from a reader side of things. Thanks.

      I love your site and the focus. I can tell right away that it’s the site I’m looking for for info if I’m running sound at my church and would be a place I would keep reading through if I landed there from a shared post. Nice work!

      1. Chris’s niche is so niche most people don’t know it exist! 😉

        1. It was either that niche or people under 20 who love sweater vests. I thought the latter would be too competitive.

  5. Kirsten Oliphant on July 7, 2015

    I started blogging back in the day when most blogs were just online diaries of sorts and then transitioned into blogging more intentionally and (somewhat) for profit. It was so hard to figure out how to narrow my scope and has made branding and audience sometimes a challenge. I poll my readers at least once a year and have found my committed readers like reading anything I write about- except things like blogging and writing and social media. So I made the choice to create a new blog just for those specific things and then I have kept my main blog as a lifestyle blog. At times I wish for more narrow focus, but most of the time I’m glad to be able to write about what I’m into that week and have my audience happy to be along for the (random) ride. 🙂

    I think this is a great and helpful post for people looking to rebrand or start a blog and I think your point about having a team for multi-focused blogs makes so much sense!

    1. Kirsten Oliphant on July 7, 2015

      This is part two of my comment rather than really a reply to myself (because that would be weird). In thinking about this more, I had the sort of realization that sometimes blogs are organized around a THEME or idea rather than a niche. My theme is a celebration of the chaos that is being a parent…and having your own life, too. So my topics are wider, but they all fit under that theme, which ties them together and runs through all the posts. I do still think niche blogs tend to be more successful because of the clear pinpointing of audience, but for those who are talking about a variety of subjects, considering a main theme might really help with cohesiveness.

      1. You know exactly what you’re doing. I’ve seen it.

        1. WOW. Thanks. 🙂

  6. Mike Scanlin on July 7, 2015

    We wanted to create a site that focused on one breed of dog, shih tzu. We considered a blog that was about dogs in general (all dogs) in order to appeal to more people but it would really dilute the message and the audience.
    Now, a couple years later, our Facebook fan page has 86,000 fans, all of whom are shih tzu lovers. Most of them own shih tzus and wanted a place to post photos and talk about shih tzu issues and cuteness. I don’t think we would have had that kind of growth if we had tried to be all things dog to all breeds of dog. So, for us, focusing really helped attract an audience.

    1. Perfect!

  7. It’s hard to know how any topics to include in a kind of ‘umbrella’ niche. Or which topics will become most popular…I’m playing it by ear at the moment with my blog. I agree one writer can be boring, so I’m scouting for guest bloggers to promote. Another great post, btw, Ramsay!

    1. Thanks Mary.

  8. Love your Articles/ blogs They are so helpful and I signed up to blog through your recommendation to blue host Have had a few problems getting started but getting there I had planned to do a multiple subject blog with guest bloggers but now I’m even more unsure than before!!

    1. I’m glad you’ve found it helpful. What problems did you have?

  9. I am trying to cover multiple topics – like a Goodhousekeeping or O’Magazine without processed foods. I’m finding it is incredibly difficult to brand and grow! This is my site: http://www.mindovermessy.com. Your post is so timely!

    1. Do you feel like it’s too broad?

      1. I have the vision and no shortage of ideas, but no way to execute it all. I’m really contemplating your post and how to scale back and have it be more focused. You gave me alot to think about:)

  10. Jim Woods on July 7, 2015

    Until you are established in a specific niche, it is almost impossible to branch out. You essentially commit brand sabotage. This is a problem that is very widespread with bloggers and leads to blogging burnout. I have made this mistake before personally and it really is discouraging.

    Think about it; if you are all over with topics, a first-time guest is overwhelmed.

    You may think it all falls under the umbrella of “you and your interests” but to the casual viewer/reader who is wanting a problem to be solved, your website looks more like a junk drawer than a resource.

    1. Yeah I think that is often the case. It needs to be very focused.

  11. William Mize on July 7, 2015

    I have the best of both worlds, because my main blogging concern is for my Life Coaching practice, but I get to write about many different things such as dating, finances, diet, fitness, relationships, career and work, recreation and spirituality, because everyone who comes to my site has something they are working on, and it may not be the same as the next person who visits.

    Thanks!

    – Bill

    1. Yeah I think that niche is one that allows for it. Steven Pavlina did very well from it.

  12. Vishal Ostwal on July 7, 2015

    Having multiple blogs, scatters the amount of hard work which we invest.

    Either you become jack of all or master of none.

    ‘Master of all’ is a rare case.

    The day I had decided to start a blog, I told myself to focus on just one thing at a time, since it is not much hard to imagine that how much messy things can get!

    A blog with one specific topic – great!

    A single blog covering many topics – fine!

    Many blogs having many topics – make sure that you know what you are doing…

    (These are just my views, but I appreciate the ones who do things pretty well)

    Trying to do everything at once, can make your efforts seem worthless, and would not give the expected output.

    If Ramsay would start writing about blogging and cooking at the same time… then I don’t think it would make me a fan of BlogTyrant (Do you get my point?)

    “What I wrote above is just the advice of a novice”

    Great as usual! Bless you Ramsay.

    1. You’d love a cooking post! 🙂

      1. Vishal Ostwal on July 12, 2015

        Well, I think that you might even start a new blog called “Food Tyrant.”

        You’ll be great at whatever you decide to do (just the way you do it now).

  13. Santanu on July 7, 2015

    I know many bloggers recommend to continue with a niche based blog only, but unfortunately whatever niche blog I have started are not clicked yet.
    Although I am not a full time blogger, but one of my multi-niche blog http://www.mydailylifetips.com has been clicked and giving me little return.
    From my experience so far, I am highly impressed with lifehacker, mashable etc. I also know that they are unique.
    But whatever I have realized, is it correct? Are there other multi niche blogs who are making money?

    1. There are many, but it’s usually harder and involves a team. Good luck!

  14. Awesome article, I’ve definitely taken these points on board! Thank you Ramsay again for taking the time to reply to my email, I was obviously not the only one to message on this topic that week! :p

    1. It’s a popular one!

  15. Cathy Goodwin on July 7, 2015

    It’s a tough one for me, too. I started online with career consulting and still sell products through that site, so I’m reluctant to give it up. It’s a very specific niche – midlife career strategy. However, that audience likes shorter posts and videos, so I try to post 2-4x a month, with content I’ve already created.

    My current blog was more generally about copywriting and then marketing but I realized the focus should be even narrower, so now it’s on websites specifically. I wish I’d been *really* specific from the get-go.

    And I agree that people with strong personalities and styles can have very successful combo blogs. I’ve seen people say their blog is about “marketing, success and life.” If you can pull it off…

    1. Has it been better since you narrowed the focus?

  16. Leila Sheikh on July 7, 2015

    One blog Ramsay, is how I see a person could cope.

    Leila Sheikh
    Dar es Salaam,
    Tanzania

    1. Ha. That’s true sometimes.

  17. Matt Bass on July 7, 2015

    Great, thought provoking article! You just reminded me of what has made my larger blogs successful.
    I have several blogs, and in my experience, I’ve only had success with multiple topic blogs when I’ve had an overall theme for the blog and split it up into categories within that theme. For example, a blog on hunting dogs (which is a sub-niche of the larger dog theme) would be broken down into categories. The categories could be beagles, labrador, etc.
    Of course the exception to this would be, as you suggested, a news blog that has a huge staff of writers that can crank out the content and build a huge brand (Huffington Post comes to mind here…)

    1. As a beagle owner I think it’s unethical that you are promoting this mischievous and difficult breed. 😉

  18. Forticus on July 7, 2015

    What a timing!
    That very question was the reason for me surfing all day yesterday which also led me to blogtyrant. I reckon you know your target group. Thanks to all of you sharing your ideas.

    15 years ago I had an online diary on a specific hobby for two years. Today, I sometimes feel I have to give 2 cents to everything, not a master, rather an “apprentice of all”.
    My guess is that a blog about (one’s) life would be a multi-topic blog on a single topic.

    1. Yeah I think the “journal” style blogs are a bit hard to make work these days. People need something more focussed now.

  19. Elise Xavier on July 7, 2015

    Unless you’re starting a personal/lifestyle blog, I wouldn’t try to blog about anything & everything that interests you. Narrow things down – preferably to the topics you’re most passionate about/the ones you feel you can write the most about.

    If you want to write about a topic that has lots of subcategories in it, or has a lot of related topics that all can fit under the same umbrella or interest group – that’s no problem at all. We run a survival blog but it concentrates *very* heavily on gear and gear reviews, something no one else in my industry is doing. Our blog also covers topics on prepping, personal finance, security, etc. This is all well and good, and works, because it’s under the same “interest umbrella” to an extent.

    Those who aren’t into everything we write stick around for the types of posts that they are into and just ignore the rest. Which is fine. Not every article will appeal to everyone. Make things easy to browse based on topic if this is what you’re planning on doing. And I’d also recommend trying to strike a balance between topics if you’re taking this route – so as not to bore the readers who are only really there for one type of post.

    When it comes to Google, I feel that they increase ranking quite a bit based on how many articles on a certain topic you have. So if you’re doing a personal blog and, say, have 80 articles on personal finance and only 8 on self development, your articles on personal finance will almost definitely be ranking higher in the SERPS.

    Chris said earlier that he’s never seen a multi-topic blog post on the first page of Google results. Part of this I think is because of what I’ve just said – Google likes it when you have more articles on a single topic posted on your blog. Another part, I feel, is because multi-topic blogs are just typically less likely to go in-depth on a specific topic. I do feel strongly that that probably has something to do with it.

    1. Also those rankings are about the links you get. Relevance is hugely important there.

  20. Chinonso Anyaehie on July 7, 2015

    Ramsey, Have missed you site for sometime now, good to be home!!

    1. Glad you’re back!

  21. Hailley on July 7, 2015

    Thank you!

    This absolutely solves the dilemma I’ve had going on for a few months now.

    Usually on my website I write about social media and young professionals, because the purpose of the website is to add value to potential clients.

    Recently, I’ve been doing less freelancing and writing less about social media. So I came up with a new writing project about my other passion, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Totally different topic. I didn’t want to create a whole new website but I’m 9 posts in and this is definitely something I want to keep doing – so it’s own blog it shall be!

    1. I think that’s the right decision. Let me know how it goes.

  22. Maria Geronico on July 7, 2015

    I started blogging with other 2 friends in a blog called My Trendy Nine, which was about recipes, cool restaurants, beauty and fashion… at the end it was like a magazine…. and I have to say that it used to go pretty well for the little effort that we had put behind it.

    If you are alone… write about what you really know, or love… to chose one topic will be easier for your mind and traffic 😉

    Check out everything you need to know from the new social media, Periscope, and how Fashion Brands are using it.

    http://www.mgluxurynews.com/posts
    https://www.facebook.com/MGLuxuryNews

    Bests!

    1. Thanks for sharing.

  23. Leila Sheikh on July 7, 2015

    Nice

  24. Chitranjan on July 7, 2015

    I am currently running three blogs one is one business and the other is on lifehacks the last one is one keto diet which is specific to a niche.

    After reading this post I have decided to test something new.

    I will write on my lifehackbuddy.com a series of posts, let’s say office productivity so there will be 10-15 article on that topic all connected, sort of mini course.

    Do you think that will make the multi topic blog much better?

    1. That’s not a bad idea. I think it’s always good to test things out and see what results you get.

  25. dandellion Kimban on July 7, 2015

    From a point of no authority and lots of experience I’d like to share a few thoughts.

    I have run several blogs with single topic and it’s true that they grow faster and monetize easier. I also have one that is multi-topic, personal blog. (It’s kind of dead for more than a year now life got in a way but you can click on my name and check it out anyway.) Now, while it was harder to promote and keep the audience around, it was a lot of fun and it does get traction (well, used to while I was active). It still does get hits and views. But it is really hard to monetize that kind of blog. Unless you are a writer, that is. Then it goes as a nice personal platform.

    Word of advice (fwiw)… if you do have, or plan to have, multi-topic blog spend some time and find out what unifies all the topics. It might be some broad, umbrella, topic or an attitude or at least, your personality and approach to life and world and different topics. As is case with Heather Armstrong’s blog. She writes about everything and anything, but the selling point of her blog is herself and her attitude. We read her posts on family/corporate culture/whatever not because we explicitly googled those topics but because we like her take on anything. The thing is different with MammaMia, but I’d argue that is not a blog at all but a magazine so it is quite different story.

    1. Really well summarised. Thank you.

  26. Dave Starr on July 7, 2015

    Great topic, and one we’ve almost all been faced with. My suggestion in Mathias’s case is, pick thee subject you like best, and form, nurture, build out and make a blog on the subject the best it can be (Hey, and all three of those topics could make a good blog and even make money, there’s not a loser in the bunch).

    But when the spirit moves you to write a good article about one of the other subjects, then write it .. but don’t publish it, stick it in a folder under that subject.

    After a while look in your “other topic) folders and refresh yourself on what you wrote. If you have, say, 50 “dran good” articles in that folder and you’re still interested, THEN launch a second blog with the materials you have already produced. Hope this helps a little.

    1. That is a really good and efficient idea. Thank you.

  27. John Eustace on July 7, 2015

    Like every form of communication a blog must be considered from the reader’s perspective (always and only). If they read you, they must be interested in the topic you aspire to cover. If you wander off topic than you have lost them, simple as that!

    If you want to share material on various unrelated topics (or generalities) do it elsewhere, or face the reality of boring your audience.

    1. Ha ha. Harsh but probably fair.

  28. Katrina V on July 7, 2015

    This is something I have been thinking on as I’ve started blogging. My blog is a “lifestyle/ personal” blog really but it is focused on moving and raising our family in a foreign culture. Which could entail a wide range of topics… from cultural differences, to the food in the new culture, to children in a new culture, to our own family structure, and dealing with moving…. Yet while there are multiple “topics” per say, this post helps me to remember to keep it centred around moving our family overseas and asking before I post, what does this have to do with moving a family overseas.
    It’s a strange niche, I know, but it’s my life. haha
    Thanks for the thoughts!

    1. Hope it helps!

  29. Rajendra Reddy on July 8, 2015

    Focing on one blog and writing on a single niche is always best way to start, if we have multiple niches on single topic you cannot focus completely on any topic also you wount get more subscribers to your blog

    1. True.

  30. Mohinder Verma on July 8, 2015

    Hi Ramsay, this is a good post and I guess that most of the bloggers have several different ideas of writing but they stick to only one niche or topic.

    I am also blogging on different topics but on one of my blog I am writing on more than 10 topics and getting a huge response from my readers.

    I think, this is the best ever idea of collecting multiple topics on a single place to attract diverse taste audience. But it requires a well planned design and placement of topics so that your audience easily differentiate or find the topic they are looking for.

    I am right on this? Over to you.

    Mohinder Paul Verma
    BloggingFunda – A Community of Bloggers

    1. Hi Mohinder. Unfortunately I’ve never been able to make a blog like that work well. I prefer them to be single niche topics or brands. I’m glad it’s working for you though!

  31. Clinton on July 8, 2015

    Thanks Ramsay for yet another awesome post, I own buildingthelife.com, well as the name implies I tlk about things that’d be profitable to a persons life in general, would u call dis a multiple topic blog or a niche blog…I pretty love what am doing, and though the traffic isn’t dat good, I am positive it will come alive.
    And from few searches I’ve done, I tink niche blogs are the best compared to any other, unless of course it’s owned by a very popular firm, but for a newbie, it usually isn’t funny.

    1. Keep testing and trying new ideas and you’ll see results.

  32. Christianne on July 8, 2015

    Your blogs are very helpful for a newbie blogger like me. I am still in the process of learning. It is really good that I subscribed on your website.

    Thank you so much.

    http://simplychristianne.com

    1. Thank you.

  33. i am new to blogging, though i have many things to know as a beginner but ramsay i read your posts daily. i need a favor from you can you please help me to guide me step by step like i am the beginner and i need to know the terms to know about blogging.

    1. Hi Sidra. I got all of your messages. There are lots of step by step guides here on the blog to get you started.

      1. Can you please online mention the links to go through on those steps. I am really confused, believe I couldn’t sleep. My curiosity do not allows me to sleep. I read your articles with so much curiosity and passion… Some days ago I started a guide but it was for builders not for beginners… Secondly i am overly thinking about niche Ro develop my mind accordingly… Extremely confused and depress due to this curiosity. I believe you will understand… Infact sir I want to start building contacts with such brilliant bloggers like you. Your each word motivates me…

  34. Hey Ramsay,

    Excellent topic for discussion. I think it depends on the person and how much time they have to invest in the sites they have. You need at least 20 hours to invest in a site, minimum with all the social media, blog posts, etc. So if you can find that time to invest for however many sites you operate, all the best.

    I’m going through something similar now. I have another site, but I haven’t launched it. I’m just writing content and putting it away for now until I’m ready to launch because I know I’ll need to put in an adequate amount of time when it’s up and running

    – Andrew

  35. Sherita Rankins on July 10, 2015

    I run http://www.busywifebusylife.com, the busy woman’s guide to Food, Fashion and Finance. This definitely falls into a multi-topic blog.
    My site focuses on the three things that I love. I find that my readership varies from post to post but I have core readers that go to my blog for everything. I find that guest post add some welcomed variety to my my point of view.

  36. Horace Williams Jr on July 13, 2015

    Thank you for the thought provoking post! As a new blogger, this advice helps in keeping me on the rails and moving forward believing in my niche. I’d much rather master the one topic than spreading myself to thin. Thank you for sharing.

  37. Yep. Agreed. It’s best to start a blog with a very clear niche and target demographics in mind.. and bring our own way of writing into the blog.

    What I also find great for growing a blog is to be slightly controversial as well – not by knowingly agitating others, but to state our viewpoints and bring it to the extreme to rile people’s emotions up and to attract more blog readers.

  38. Cathy Mayhue on July 15, 2015

    Hi Ramsay,

    I also was stuck with this question, as I am passionate about politics and culture, apart from my regular job. So I guess, I should start a blog dedicated to politics only, for the rest later.

  39. 23 Marketing Blogs to Make You a Kick-Ass Marketer on July 16, 2015

    […] source […]

  40. Tonmoy Parves on July 16, 2015

    Hello Ramsay,

    Thanks for sharing this article and asking the question here with us.. I’ve read most of the comments people already done here.

    Here I’m sharing my personal views: Multi Niches Vs Specific niche

    When Someone (newbie) come to the Blogging world, He/She should go with the Specific niche, A very specific niche. Suppose, Health Is a big niche. Now come down with few sub niches
    Men Health, Women Health, Now come to the sub-sub niches
    Weight Lose, Body Building for men – Men Health
    Weight Lose for Women, or only Hair tips products- Women health

    So, We have to be very specific when we’re newbie and we don’t have a Good amount of money. So, What we can do with specific niche? We can easily rank with very specific niche and earn from Adsense and Amazon Affiliate platform easily. And It takes (From experience) 3-4 months to build up and Rank with good targeting keywords on Google and with all setup and that specific niche blog able to generate 300-500$/monthly 🙂 So, Isn’t a Good Idea?

    Now, Come to Multi niches. Health niche should be a one blog But it should be also a multi niche blog where we can write everything related with Health. But for that, We’ll need a lot’s of Articles. And To write a great content It takes 1-2 days for every content. But for Multi blog We have to publish a lot’s of contents. Monthly 60-100 Posts. And that’s not possible to a person. So, we need a big team with 20-30 writes or more or less. So, it’s really too much costly. for for build up and all setup and ranking a multi blog it takes 2-3 years and a lot’s of invest there and then It’s able to generate 50K-60K/monthly.

    Where we can build and generate Specific niche blog within 3-4 months and for a specific blog it needs only 10-11 Contents on the blog. So, We can setup yearly 3-4 Specific niche blogs and that will able to generate 500*3=1500$ to 500*4=2000$/monthly? Hey, Isn’t a good idea? And only Specific niche blog we’ll work alone, We don’t need a big team 🙂

    So, within 2-3 years you will have 6,8 to 8,12 blogs
    Here is the income of these:

    500*6= 3000 to 500*8=4000$/monthly – 2 years
    500*8=4000$/monthly to 500*12=6000$/monthly- 3 years

    And Hey, Don’t you think that income of the blog will increase day by day?

    So, Here you can earn 6000$/monthly within alone work within 3 years and on Multi blog you are able to generate 50K$/monthly with 30 Writers and also you need few developer to manage you blog etc.
    30 Writes cost monthly, Around 30K$ and 2-3 developer cost will be 2000$-3000$ all most over all 35K$

    But hey when you’ll start You’ve to invest 35$/monthly to generate the come as well 50K$-35K$= 15K$ after 3 months

    And within alone working without any invest just buying domains 12 blogs will cost 120$/yearly and hosting cost will be 100$/yearly. Total cost will be 200*3=600$ in 3 years..

    So, Here is the profit margin:

    6K$ -600$= 5K.400$/monthly -Specific niche

    35K$/monthly and 3 years= 36 months
    So, Total invest will be 1260$ within 3 years. and you will able to generate 50K$- highest 100K$ not more than 100$K !

    So, I hope, now you already got my point.

    By the way, I’m going to build 20 Specific niche blogs with my team (5 members) and our target is generate 10K$/monthly within 1 year 🙂 (We can target more but as well We are School guy students (16-17 years) So, It’s enough for us 😀

    I’ve already write 600+ words in this Comment. Hey, Lol, I’m writing any guest post for your blog 😛 But I hope your readers who will check the comment they will get benefit !

    And I’m thinking to do write contents about Niche Blogging deeply 🙂 I invite to you visit my blog ! BTW, It’s now new but I’ll start posting very soon !

  41. Farooq Marwat on July 18, 2015

    Totally agree with Ramsay
    Look at my blog, I started a multi-niche blog 2 years ago and after publishing 100s articles I didn’t ranked for any of the keyword
    So start a single topic blog if you want to be successful

  42. Ramsay, I agree with you on dedicating the blog a specific niche. From my experience a niche blog is ranked higher on Google(not sure about Bing) than a general blog that covers the similar topics but isn’t niched down.
    On my niche blogs I have often seen a rabid readership that’s ready to buy stuff because I am solving the problems.
    The question to figure out is which problems are the most expensive to solve.

  43. Barbara McKinney on July 22, 2015

    I’m with the blog having a single topic. It is easier to maintain, to monetize and grows faster. Having a multi-topic blog takes all the guts. But I’m not saying I’m against with that. If you can, then go for it. There’s nothing wrong if you can manage it well. All I want to say is be practical.

  44. Dewald Swart on July 23, 2015

    As per usual great stuff from the Blog Tyrant. I agree totally with this post. If you are a single blogger, then try to focus on a single topic or at least variations of that topic. Also try to focus on things that you are passionate about.

  45. solanki kajal on August 2, 2015

    Thanks Ramsay for yet another awesome post, Your blogs are very helpful for a newbie blogger. I am still in the process of learning. It is really good that I subscribed on your website.

    Thank you so much.

  46. When choosing a package through WordPress I see there is a package that offers unlimited websites. Does this mean I can create completely different websites with different topics under this package if I were to purchase it? I hope this makes sense. any input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so very much.

  47. I am beginning to blog and this is one of my top questions. You gave the perfect answer. Thank you!!

  48. I am so glad that I came across this blog post. I just started blogging with a blog covering multiple topics. I am getting virtually no traffic and am getting quite discouraged.

    A few of my blog posts are in one specific niche.

    After reading this blog post, I think I will just focus on that specific niche.

    I actually already have purchased the domain name specific to that niche. So it would be easy to move those posts over to that domain.

    Thanks again and I look forward to reading more of your posts.

  49. Hello. What if it’s just two topics. I’m not a blogger and the idea of starting a blog is still fresh; I’ve had it for some months. So what I was thinking was a blog about travel/adventure and Christianity which i don’t see as two things very far off from each other. Traveling and building a relationships with God are both adventures which you get to discover new things, possibly things that you never even imagined, things that blow your mind. What about that? I’d appreciate answers from anyone who sees this 🙂

BlogTyrant on Tablet and Mobile
Free Ebook Guide
Ultimate Blogging Toolkit + Bonuses

Join our 30,000+ email subscribers for blog updates and get instant access to a 10,000-word guide on how to start a blog and build a sustainable business using keyword research, Google traffic, and a lot of tested strategies. Let us help you build a blog to support your family's income and help the community while you're at it!