FC has a thought provoking post asking if you should have more than one topic per blog post. If you haven't read it or posted to it take a minute and read it.

Along the same lines---how do you feel about a niche blog going off topic and posting something that isn't related to the usual topic of the blog? If I follow a blog I usually do so because the subject interests me. When bloggers go off topic I find myself unable to ever return again to read the blog.

Recently there was a blog I had been following for a while because it has to do with hacks for Blogger. One day the blogger posted one of those virual e-mails that ask you to send it to 10 people if you are concerned about how republicans/democrats/gays/straights/kids/old folks/illegals/vegetarians/martian are destroying America. Once I learned about the blogger's personal political beliefs I felt like I lost respect for him and his blog.

If a blog is a niche blog should the blogger go off topic whenever he feels like it or should he stick to the "theme" of the blog?

Depends on the blog. Sometimes going off-topic can introduce others to new ideas and concepts. Sometimes it stings the blogger in the ***.

It's actually the reason I never defined a niche for my blog in the first place. I can cover a lot more ground that way and take people in directions they might not otherwise have gone.

It's only the "SEO" and marketing types who pushed the idea that blogs had to have a "theme".

Prior to that blogs posts were simply about whatever the author decided they were about.

Exactly, some days I'm reading, drinking whiskey. And then sometimes I'm driving to a destination, admiring the view. Sometimes I'm lonely, sometimes I'm happy. Thats why I have a blog.

Yes, never saw any "hard and fast rules" about staying on theme for your blog. Especially a personal blog, although I've already been so offended by a post on a blog I won't go back, too. All about personal choice, I guess.

However, if someone has a business blog, or takes a strong pro-this-or-that stand, I don't think its entirely unreasonable to have expectations that the blog will stay along those lines, either.

If I were you I would express your disgust to the author.

To Mr Brown Thumb, I would ask whether you were offended by the blogger's political views, or the deviation from the normal subject matter? If he had wrote instead of about politics, to describe the new laptop he just bought, or a movie he didn't think would be as good as it turned out to be, would you have come back?

Originally Posted by chrishirst

It's only the "SEO" and marketing types who pushed the idea that blogs had to have a "theme".

Digital Pointless is funny. Someone was asking how much a link from an unrelated ( er, "non-relevant" ) site would hurt him.

It really depends on the blog and how often they go off topic. I think it is important to have some kind of focus on your blog though if you have any plans on monetizing it directly or indirectly.

It's one thing to write about anything you want for yourself, but if you're looking to attract an audience it helps to stay on some topic for the most part. If I'm looking for a blog about sports I want the topics to be sports related. I'm fine with an occasional post on another topic, but if half the time there's no sports talk I'm going to look for another blog.

A rule of thumb I've heard is to use an 80/20 rule. Never make more than 20% of your posts on a topic unrelated to your main theme. It's not a hard and fast rule of course.

In the end it's really up to you and your audience and the goals you have for the blog.

@ Adam- Those of you who never defined a topic for a blog are lucky.

@ Chrishirst-Really? I never knew that. I guess I always figured people started a blog with a particular subject in mind and just mostly wrote about it. Like in a book, you pick up a cook book and it is a cook book and doesn't turn into a romance novel somewhere in the middle.

I sometimes get a kick out of the referrals to my blog. Once I saw that a life coach had linked to my blog from her life coaching blog. I wonder how the readers react when they're scrolling and reading "Ten Steps To Financial Security," "Find The Right Husband/Wife For You In One Week." "Look at the plants on this dork's blog." And recently I noticed a new referral that went from being a politically conservative blog to a blog about plants. I wonder how many readers are retained when a blog does drastic change like that.

@fitnfree and Learning Newbie

I don't think I was personally offended. Maybe being part of so many forums that seem to keep law and order to making topics like sex, religion and politics out of bounds has softened me. I was going to respond to the post but decided against it. I think in my mind since the blog owner could do something I couldn't do I had a very high opinion of him. When he turned out to be one of those people that passes on e-mails that are really just partisan conjecture presented as fact I was disappointed because I figured he was smarter than that.

@vangogh

I've never heard of the 80/20 rule but it does make some sense. The latest post under my SN is stuck on an older post that is sort of off topic. It was about this old lady who was threatened with a fine for planting plants in a public area of her town without the proper permits. One of my friends reads my blog and often tells me that I'm getting on a soap box and should stick to "pretty pictures" and talking about plants and bugs.

@ Adam- Those of you who never defined a topic for a blog are lucky.

Or prophetic. I prefer to think of myself as the latter.

Well, thanks for making it sound as if I had anything important to say.

My blog is most assuredly not about romance novels, ways to get rid of belly button lint, reviewing coffee shops. Even if [digital] photography is a big enough topic, I've painted myself into a corner of it. You won't find me talking about the latest camera models, infrared, or any number of things that could conceivably fit in my niche.

But then I'm going to be posting about Subaru cars before very long, on my photography blog. I don't generally talk about my life on the site, but I just bought a Legacy, and things like all wheel drive can be pretty important to landscape photographers who find themselves camping off remote dirt roads.

That's arguably on topic, but it's not like my readers have never heard of Consumer Reports. I'm planning to include some photos I haven't published before from dirt roads going up the sides of various mountains, and tell a few stories of ones I have and haven't been able to climb in a Honda or Toyota. In central Oregon, I broke down right after passing a hand painted sign announcing that it was 21 and 1/2 miles to the paved road.

So my advice is to take things you're interested in, and bring them on topic. If that takes a stretch of the imagination ... there are a lot of bloggers who don't have any imagination. Let's both hope showing unusual connections is something people will appreciate.

Originally Posted by ForrestCroce

So my advice is to take things you're interested in, and bring them on topic. If that takes a stretch of the imagination ... there are a lot of bloggers who don't have any imagination. Let's both hope showing unusual connections is something people will appreciate.

That's an interesting take that I hadn't thought of. For some reason the subscriber numbers reported by FeedBurner dip off and on. Some days it shows I have 91 subscribers and somedays it shows 106. Whenever I see that it is down to 90-91 I wonder if it is because, as a friend put it, "I'm spending too much time on my soapbox." But then the number goes back up and all is right with the world.

The FeedBurner stats do vary, but it doesn't mean your subscribers have actually changed. Let's say I subscribe to your blog with an application that sits on my desktop. If I don't open it that day FeedBurner can't see me and so I don't get counted on that day.

Here's an explanation from FeedBurner about how they calculate subscribers

Originally Posted by vangogh

The FeedBurner stats do vary, but it doesn't mean your subscribers have actually changed. Let's say I subscribe to your blog with an application that sits on my desktop. If I don't open it that day FeedBurner can't see me and so I don't get counted on that day.

Here's an explanation from FeedBurner about how they calculate subscribers

Heh,

I know that FB has some limitations in how it counts readers and which ones it recognizes. I was just being goofy by sharing a bit of the paranoia that I suffer from when I check the stats.

Funny. I completely missed that.

That's ok.

Apparently I'm not the only loser who worries when the subscriber stats. From the comments to the post on FB it looks like there are other bloggers who, like me, worry too much about the subscribers stats when they go down.



blogs.feedburner.com/feedburner/archives/2007/11/sunday_subscriber_count_drop.php

Maybe I should start a support group for us blogging dorks who see that chicklet as some sign of acceptance.

You're not alone. Did you see over the weekend (Saturday?) FeedBurner wasn't showing any subscribers from Google Reader? Most everyone was showing about half their usual subscribers for the day.

Originally Posted by vangogh

You're not alone. Did you see over the weekend (Saturday?) FeedBurner wasn't showing any subscribers from Google Reader? Most everyone was showing about half their usual subscribers for the day.

Yeah I did see that. I logged on and saw I had 60 something subscribers and wondered what I'd done to offend people. Then I logged onto technorati and saw Darren (problogger guy) blogging about them being down everywhere. Mine are back to their regular number and I even picked up a few new ones too.

That's pretty much what happened to me. My first instinct was to think what did I do, but then I noticed that my Google Reader count wasn't there and I figured it must be a FeedBurner error. I think I might have checked ProBlogger to see what Darren's count was to confirm since I knew he had the FeedBurner widget and I knew roughly how many subscribers he has.

Then I saw his post confirming what I had figured out.