Focus before you expand
Today we’ll be talking about a subject many people fail to follow through with. When it comes to anything really, but especially blogging, you need to focus and achieve goals before you expand.
For example, many, and I stress the many, forget to have an established, and strong blog before adding another blog on your network if you will, and running dual blogs. In this regard, I don’t mean related blogs, but I mean separate ones. If you start a second blog before your first one has stable traffic and RSS readers, then your first blog has a better chance of not succeeding because you will be focusing on your new blog, which by the way will also have a bad chance of succeeding because, again, you’ll move on before it’s anything special. See how the vicious cycle runs on like that?
Let’s talk about a few ways to focus on your blog to stipulate growth, and also a few ideas for when and how to go about starting another blog.
Write content ahead of time
A lot of bloggers these days are catching onto this trend, and rightly so. It’s a smart idea to keep a small to medium sized stockpile of posts written up so that when the day comes that you can’t post for one reason or another, you have some content to fall back on to keep your blog flowing, with updated content. The last thing visitors wanna see is a blog update 9 days in a row, and then be un-touched for 5 weeks. 
Now, I completely understand sometimes you cannot post, but just make sure you keep your blog updated with fresh content, to keep your readers around. This is something that will cause growth and stability in your blog, which is something you need to make sure you have down before you start on a new project. Just keep in mind that if you write to far in advance, your stockpile of posts may become out dated. 
Take time out for Your Blog
Running a blog is hard work. A lot of hard work, it takes someone with a lot of dedication and skill to keep one running for very long. You need to take out a lot of time for your blog if you expect it to grow, and running a second, even sometimes a third blog, can create a situation where you don’t have sufficient time for any of your blogs, which can contribute to their fiery downfalls. Just kidding. 
But you still ask, ‘ When is it smart to start a second blog, and how can I keep the first and the second running smooth when this time comes?”
When should I start a second blog?
Some people will say immediately, some say never, and still others have a different viewpoint. I’m in the others among these three.
I feel that when it’s appropriate, starting a second blog can be a smart investment that can double, even triple your income and joy in blogging. But you need to make sure it’s time, as this can be a daunting task, running two blogs, and you need to make that you and your blog are ready.
As a rule of thumb for me, I feel that a blog needs to be firmly established with constant traffic before you start a second blog. When you feel you are ready, run a case study. See for one month if your traffic for any days goes down by more than 50 visitors. See how much you fluctuate. If it’s more than that, than hold off. If you think your ready, than go ahead.
But how to I keep them both running smooth?
There are a few ways to keep multiple blogs you run smooth, which is a tough task when just one blog can be tiring. We’ll list those ways here. 
- Hire a writer - Hire someone to take care of some of the writing, or even all of it!
- Create an alternating posting schedule - Post every other day on each blog, alternating so you never have to write more than one post.
- Get a friend to help manage things - This can include the advertising, upkeep, etc.
- Automate as much as you can - Get OIOPublisher, set up autoposting schedules, anything you can to automate things to keep the work flow manageable.
Well, there you go! That’s it for today, and I think these tips will really help you out a ton when it comes to running multiple blogs.
Tags: Blogging, blogging guides, establish, focus, make money online, wordpress, workflow
Yes this is very very true! And it is where I failed with LonelyDesigns.com.
Shanes last blog post..Interview with Samit Madan (mwzd)
I don’t feel LD is a failure!
Just put some more hard work into it, it’ll reap benefits. 
If I was going to set up another blog, I would wait till I got used to managing my current one and then take the step of starting another.
Rajaie AlKoranis last blog post..Search Engine Friendly Titles In Less Than 60 Seconds
Yes, if your not used to what your current blog does and needs, it will likely die at the start of a new blog.
Thanks for the comments guys!
This is one of your stronger posts Mark, I like the tips! I have to blogs, but it may be a little easier because they are different niches. It is hard to think of content for the MMO blog now.
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I recently ran out my stockpile at benjaminpatton.com its a good thing I had 30 posts lined up. While most will not build up to this level untill much later than 3 months I suggest you aim for that for your own posteriety in case of emergency such as myself or Mark here. While my reasons for running my blog on auto pilot are much less painful than Mark’s. It shows that being prepared is always important.
Save some of your best posts is the best advice I could possibly give you. Its great to have backup content but to have a few winners in the wind is great for keeping things interesting while on your hiatus…
Im glad to see your back to writing some and look forward to some more posts~!
Big Ben Pattons last blog post..Just An Update
It really depends on what your goal is with the blog.
If it is entirely focused on making sales to search visitors then you can create the blog and build links to it and your traffic will remain stable even if you don’t update it for a year. I have one such blog that regularly gets between 800-1000 visitors a day that hasn’t had a new post since November ‘07. I have others that pull in smaller amounts of Google traffic that have about 10 posts on them and haven’t been updated recently. All of these make money because they’re in a profitable niche.
However, if you want to build a blog with a social component to it, it is best to focus on a single flagship blog. It really helps if you have a general topic or personal blog where you can talk about anything you want.