Jun 19, 2012 / Beginner

A Blog is Born

Sometimes, one blog just isn’t enough. Since it pretty much takes the “click of a button” to start a new blog at WordPress.com, the freedom can be equal parts inspiring, equal parts overwhelming. How do you know when it’s time to branch out and start a new writing endeavor?

Before taking the plunge, define your expectations. How will your new blog differ from your current site? How often are you planning to update it? If you find that you’re having trouble finding the time to write posts for your current site, be realistic about how frequently you’ll be able to spend time on your second (or third) blog. Alternatively, consider joining up with a blogging buddy to split the writing tasks. As for when to start a new site, my personal rule of thumb is this: if subscribers to my primary blog are getting inundated with posts about a particular topic, it’s time to take the plunge.

The easiest way to manage multiple blogs is to connect them to a single username, which means you only need to login once to update your blogs. (To do this, just make sure you’re logged into your account before visiting this page.) One of the main reasons someone may choose to have a separate account is for anonymity. When multiple blogs are on the same account, they all display the same username for the post author. So if you’re looking to develop a secret pen name, do create a new account.

Crafting a casual editorial calendar for when and how often you want to update each blog will help to keep everything on track. If more structured schedules help you to post more often, consider picking specific days out of the week that you update each blog. That said, some blogs may not need to be updated as often as others. Determine the best posting frequency for yourself as you develop the mission for each of your sites. If you’re a blogger on the go, don’t forget that you can add each of your blogs to your WordPress mobile app.

To help build your readership across the board, link to yourself. Adding your other sites to your blogroll or site menu will let your readers know where else they can find you on the internet. With sites like Gravatar or about.me, you can create a personalized profile with links to each of your sites in one central place.

If you’re considering starting a new blog, but feel like you won’t have enough time or enough to write about, remember that you can always export your posts later. The best way to do this is to categorize each of your posts and then use the export tool to filter them when and if you decide to become the proud owner of a shiny new blog site.

Are you a single-site blogger? Or do you enjoy managing multiple blogs?

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  1. I started a new blog a few weeks ago, as more of a creative writing space than my primary blog, which is more general life and my interests. However having done so it’s making me rethink my first blig and wonder if it would be better to incorporate the two!

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    2. Right! With categories, you can export a specific category from your site if you want to create a new blog in the future. The tags you use on your post are what include you in the Topics pages on the WordPress.com homepage.

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    4. I’d say yes, it is important to categorize your posts. When visitors come to your blog, one of the first things many of hem look for is the type of content you blog about. If you have categories listed in your sidebar, they will know what your blog is about and whether they want to stick around.

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  4. Perhaps you could answer a question for me. I have three blogs under the same user name but only one ( the same one) ever gets published on the topics pages, even though I’ve tried changing the primary blog on the blog manager. I’ve been told that it has to do with having too many categories but I don’t think that can be the case since I tried paring them down to one or two and it made no difference. Is it just that only one blog per user name can ever be published on the topics pages? I’ve heard other people say they have the same problem.

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    1. Thanks for commenting about this. I’m actually going to shoot you an email privately so we can take a look into what’s going on here.

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  6. I wonder if ‘categorising’ will allow me to repost some of the older poems that I’ve re-written and want to repost rather than update’?

    Don’t worry, it’s an obscure thought for myself so if I’ve lost you, that’s ok.

    Great post by the way!

    http://kolembo.wordpress.com/

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  7. I’m definitely a multi-site blogger, although I do sometimes struggle to update all of them since I stopped my challenge to blog daily. I’m hoping to get back into a routine soon.
    Sandra

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  8. I have one blog and am considering writing on more than one, as my categories are so varied and I’ve got more categories to slip in to my blog. Thank you for the fine guidance, this clarifies things for me.
    I suspect some readers look at my nature category, some at my childhood memories, and most, at my humorous posts or others. I’m all over the place. I thought I’d wait for three months, but I can see the light already. Thanks again.

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  9. Good suggestions. I started Around the World in Eighty Years just for fun for myself. Now, two years on, I’m seeing some big potential coming from that little blog.

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  10. I currently write three blogs, and they are all very different! My main blog gets most of my love and attention, but the other two are a lot of fun and are (perhaps) a more creative outlet for me.

    I think keeping my blogs separate and focused is better for my audience – they know what to expect. Plus, one of my blogs is for the students I teach – I need to keep that separate from my wine blog! I use the calendar on my MacBook to set up a schedule for each one. Nothing fancy, just to keep me on track.

    I think it’s great that WordPress makes it so easy to have multiple blogs. I’ve even used a private blog to track weight loss. It’s just easier for me to log on and keep my food journal, daily thoughts, and weight update all in one place.

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  13. I have a number of subject specific blogs, and I find it works very well. I get visitors to all. My main blog is my ‘chatty’ blog – about this and that, and I occasionally link to the others, but I don’t mention them all the time. I have a schedule for posting, and apart from when I was in hospital a couple of months ago, have mostly stuck to it. I find scheduling posts really useful, and on some blogs can schedule a whole week in less than half an hour. I type quickly, and that helps too 🙂

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  14. I have multiple blogs. But I only have two bilingual blogs here in WordPress.com. Others are self-hosted since they are more like business blogs.

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  16. Very useful post that’s come at a timely moment for me, thank you ~ I was worried I was being ‘greedy’ by having more than one blog, but as I’m interested in more than one thing and want to keep my focus with each blog, it made sense to separate them out a bit as I appreciate that not everyone who wants to read about creative writing wants to read about dog walking too!
    I love the idea of blog buddies though – reciprocal blog commenting is all good, but finding others to buddy up with would be lovely … is there a buddy site for finding blog buddies or is it a case of trawling blogs and asking “will you be my friend”? Any recommendations on this course of action gratefully received! 🙂

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    1. Great question 🙂 I don’t personally know of a site dedicated to finding a blogging buddy, but I would recommend either asking one of your favorite bloggers or even getting in touch with some of the other Daily Post commenters you see here.

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  17. I am a huge fan of editorial calendars and suggest that people use them all the time, so I am glad they were mentioned in this post. They really keep things organized and keep you focused on blogging.

    I don’t think I could manage more than one blog at a time. Kudos to anyone who can!

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  18. I’m now in the process of creating a second blog and it’s taking a while, because I’m doubting all the time. I’m sure I have good reasons to create a second one: my current blog is in two languages (Dutch, English) and Dutch readers have no problems with it, but the English don’t come, because they can’t understand Dutch. That’s why I decided to start an extra blog with only the English articles. But I’m a bit worried that I won’t publish enough articles to keep it going.
    What would you say? I’m planning to do the final thing next week and then switch the buton on public!

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  19. I have a blog that I love. I teach creative writing classes, and now a group of my (adult) students want us to create a blog of our stories we create in class. This post is inspiring me to listen to them, and maybe create a second blog just for this. It’s still all daunting to me though. I still can’t even figure out how to change the font in my blog!

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  20. It makes a lot of sense to me, to create blogs for specific themes. I love that you can export posts if you want to populate a new blog quickly. I created my first blog at paleink.wordpress.com and it’s morphed into being able writing, journalism, technology and the media. I’m a journo, so I’ve just ended up writing a lot about this. Then I created a second blog spokesandthecity.wordpress.com as I’m a keen cyclist and wanted a dedicated cycling blog. I’m actually considering a third as I’m also a mum and I really want to write and share with other mum bloggers so I’m on the brink of starting another one – just got to think of a good name. I am a bit freaked out about how I’ll find the time to write for them all, but an iPad with a keyboard means I can write easily when I’m not at work and the kids are watching tv. I’d also say the PressThis browser plugin is useful because you can grab something from the web as a basis for a blog post and then with a single user name you can choose which blog to save it to, making it easier to run several blogs without double or triple the work. I also have found that the learning curve with the first blog is big but it’s so much easier and quicker to set up another one, or two! I’ve just found I really love blogging and so want to share more. Should I do it and set up another one? Tell me fellow bloggers.

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    1. You’ve only got two blogs?? 😀 Do it!

      I do think the differentiation is important. Journalism, cycling and motherhood don’t sit well together (I do the first two and not the third)

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  21. I was thrilled when I found the “schedule” button for my posts. Some days I’m more inspired than others, so I write an extra post or two and schedule them for later (or save them as drafts).

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  22. I have a couple of blogs from the same account, but when I was working on the secondary one I noticed that my checking and reviewing were showing up on my stats page as views. I thought my own views of my blogs were supposed to not show up and they don’t on my primary blog from that username. Just a minor issue, keep up the good work 🙂 and thanks for making such a user friendly system.

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    1. One thing to keep in mind is that if your blog is set to private, your own site visits will be counted in the stats. It sounds like that’s what may be happening with the sites you noticed that on. Hope that helps!

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  24. I have only one blog at the moment and it keeps me quite busy! I’ve occasionally thought about doing another blog on a different subject or topic. Maybe sometime in the future, but for now I’ve got my hands happily full.

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