Should I start a new Blog?

To my name I have at least 7 blogs. These blogs get updated, between every day and once a fortnight. I actually have more blogs, but I don’t count these because they get updated more infrequently. To be honest, I like starting new blogs, but starting a new blog is a bit more difficult than maintaining and growing it in the long term. Nevertheless there are many good reasons to start a new blog.

2 Things to Bear in Mind.

1. What is the Objective of the New Blog? Is it to make profit or is it for another niche interest of yours?
2. Would you be better off working on your existing blog?

Good Reasons to Start A New Blog

1. You have the time and enthusiasm for the blog.
You need to be clear how much time you can put into the new blog. Bear in mind, this is a long term commitment. You need more than just an initial wave of enthusiasm, which passes after a few weeks. If you are able to make a decent commitment to the blog, only then is it worth doing.

2. You are blogging about several distinct niches on your own blog.
If you post 7 times a day on topics from personal finance to digital cameras, it is definitely a good idea to start unique blogs, for each individual topic and niche. This enables you to get a good loyal readership, rather than alienating them with irrelevant stuff.

3. Your existing blog niche is difficult to monetize.
For example, a blog about blogging seems to get a low click through on google adsense. If you want to make more profit from blogging, it may be a good idea to start a new product related blog.

4. You have a real interest in the niche you are starting.
This is the best reason. If you enjoy writing and blogging on a certain topic, this enthusiasm will make it successful.

5. Experiment.
Before you start a blog, you never really know how they are going to take off. Some of my blogs have done better than expected; others have done worse. If you do have several blogs, you may find some become more profitable / successful than others. Over time, you will find yourself concentrating on these and let the others be less important. However, if you drop a blog after 6 months it is a long experiment and you’ve wasted a lot of effort.

Reasons not to start a New Blog.

1. Your main blog will suffer.
Remember it is better to have 1 really successful blog than 7 struggling blogs. When your blog reaches a certain level of readership and rank, the blog starts to promote itself. At this stage, you can really allow the blog to take off. You will also find it easier to find different income sources.

2. You have lost interest in your initial blog.

If you lose enthusiasm for your main blog, it is unlikely you will gain much more inspiration for a secondary topic. It may be better to try and work through the stumbling blocks on the initial blog.

3. You will feel stressed at the daily requirements to post.
If you have several blogs, you feel you have more responsibility to keep posting and looking after them.

4. You have not time to create individual skins and design.

It is important that you can, at least, design a blog logo. Avoid having 10 blogs with exactly the same common template, it makes you look a bit spammy.

What do you think? Do you have experiences with managing several blogs at once?

This post is part of 31 days for a better blog at Problogger.

A previous entry was about using better eyecatching titles