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DOES MY BLOG NEED MORE FOCUS?

LMU’s M-School has an amazing class called Personal Branding that I was fortunate to get a peek of today. First of all it’s never too late to reinvent ourselves and secondly, because I’m currently rebranding and rearranging my blog so this class will ask me all the right questions to get a wide perspective of what I want the blog to focus on.

Photo from brandincambodia.com on her self-reflective post. Inspired me to reflect!

 

WHY’D I START THE BLOG ANYWAY?
This blog (my third) started in 2012 as a daily writing exercise. Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers preached that 10,000 hours honing my skill would make me a pro so my goal was 365 days of 365 words. Whether or not one agrees with Gladwell, one can’t argue that practice helps as does dedicating regular time to your skill. For a few months I spent 2-3 hours a night pounding out 1,500 words about anything I thought twice about, to later reduce to 365. Things stalled while I gathered application materials for/got into grad school.

Once I got my masters in Communication Management (and realized I am not changing my day job for now) I focused the energy towards rebranding and growing my blog.

DOES MY BLOG NEED MORE FOCUS?
Every time I think I have my glittery new focus (MINDFUL MIDLIFE for those still chasing older kids, while chasing down their center so they can remember who they were before kids) then I wanna do a pokemon post or something that demographic doesn’t relate to.

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Mayim Bialik had such a refreshing perspective on blogging and branding!

MAYIM BIALIK’S ADVICE
(from Blossom and The Big Bang Theory):
At the Blogher conference she revealed that her team and marketers are constantly asking her to focus, “What is the theme of your groknation.com blog”? She said, “How about that I’m human and I like to think about a lot of different things?!” Amen, Sistah!

So now, thanks to growing confidence in my “Why” (whole personal branding exercise to be explained later), I need to go through my content and organize it in general categories that will be easy to navigate. The other thing is being regular. With regular content, people will get to know you and your voice, and the kinds of things that you do. Some will eat up every post, some will only love the cooking or whatever, don’t get caught up on the overthinking part. Truly, if you’re producing posts then that is the most important!

Over-thinking leads to writers’ block which leads to crickets and tumbleweeds.

Hey, that’s a cute name for a blog!  #4?!

 

 

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15 Comments

  1. I love everything about this blog! I’ve been struggling with the same questions and you just inspired me to post something I’ve been taking too much time to over-think.

  2. “How about I’m human and I like to think a lot.” I feel your pain, Wander. ‘Cuz I’m a wanderer, too.

    My Once a Little Girl” blog is quite focused. My memories and those of guest women bloggers. Still, I had more to say, so I started “The Black Tortoise.” Like you, I attended BlogHer conference and constantly tried to answer, what is my focus, why am I writing, and what is my brand.

    I’m not a food blogger, I’m not really a midlife blogger, I’m not a fashion blogger, I’m not a political blogger, I’m not a lifestyle blogger. All these categories seemed to confining and limiting.

    So what do I write about? People. Places, other Things, and once a year I take the poetry challenge. OMGosh! I’m a Noun Blogger. I can organize what I write about into those categories. Almost with ease.

    Now, I’m reconsidering. My first novel, second book is published and ready for my first launch party. Should I reorganize as an author page? Should I keep my noun organization? Should I start another site? (Yikes!) I’m quite comfortable with Noun Blog, and it fits a writers disposition. But does it brand me? I don’t know.

    1. I really love the idea of being a Noun blogger! I checked out both of your sites (quickly, I’ll return later to dive in) and I’m amazed at you keeping them BOTH going and writing a book but that gives me hope because that’s on my bucket list as well! We’ll have to meet up next BlogHer! I think Mayim’s point was that if I know why I started blogging (the surface and underlying reasons) and I’m true to that side of me, it’ll speak to others. Thank you for wandering by!
      Sarah

  3. Crickets and Tumbleweeds is a good name for a blog.

    I get where you’re coming from. There’s so much I want to talk about that my core audience may not be into. I still try to find a way to weave in more of me even if it’s in small ways.

  4. Too funny… I totally feel this strain as well. I love writing about my family travels but when we are at home I want to write about things happening that are important there too. It’s tough to stay in a niche and I think it is okay to wander. Hopefully, my audience agrees.

    1. I’m sure that your audience agrees – at least I would. The more real, the better when dealing with families! If nothing else, it proves that these fun, crazy or less fun moments happen to us all! Thanks for taking time from your travels to wander by!

  5. Having a focus is ALWAYS a good idea for blogging – that way you feel as though you have a purpose and you have more of an idea about what you want to talk about each week on your blog! Niche blogging is VERY important if you want to maintain your blogging life!

  6. Crickets and Tumbleweeds – I like it! LOL! Great post. I suffered through the same and narrowed my focus too during my own rebranding. Some days though, I just write what I feel like writing…and those are the posts that make me the most proud.

    Keep doing you. Your blog is great!

  7. It can be so frustrating to narrow your focus when you have 25936748935678934 things running through your brain that you want to write about, regardless of the fact that they’re not related. I will say however, that I would tend to agree that a niche is pretty important at least in the sense of monetizing your blog. But you do you!

    -Clarissa @ The View From Here

    1. Thanks Clarissa! I have a very broad niche that I lean towards – Mindful Midlife (and my page will eventually show this). I think part of my problem is that I can think of ways to work with almost anyone/thing – A skill left over from having to pursue corporate partners for a non-profit job.
      OK, and I have to ask – with 25936748935678934 things to do, what kind of planner do you use? Another constant dilemma for me. Thanks for wandering by!

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