You had nothing to be nervous about. It’s a great post. It’s too late for me. I’ve already made those mistake…and others. But I’m trying to learn from my mistakes and hopefully others will learn from yours.
Awesome post! What were you worried about??!! You’ve made excellent points and I love how you just “spilled the beans”. Excellent!!
I do have more than one blog and it is crazy. I also write for even more blogs and I write for websites and sometimes for print publications, too. It is crazy, but I don’t think I’d have it any other way! LOL*smiles*Michele
Good luck with your new blog then, it sounds professional .. I believe if you take any change as a lesson it usually should be beneficial.. By the way, I’ve been wondering about the name Twenty Set what if you turn your thirties..:) Thanks for advice..
Monica – no reason to be nervous here, and I think you highlight something that a lot of bloggers go through as they evolve and develop from their original state of mind, it’s something I’m going through right now – not so sure ‘where’ to go from here. So here are my questions/thoughts – making them public so maybe a few other folks can take something from our conversation:
Domain Name: Life Without Pants, the name alone does not make a lot of sense, at least in the grand scheme of things – when I signed up with that domain, it encompassed the random-ness that I expected from the blog, because I talk about, as I say ‘everything and nothing’. In one way, I think it works because it’s catchy and easy to remember, but – you mention that you ‘should be blogging at yourname.com’ – do you think that applies to everyone? mattcheuvront.com isn’t as ‘memorable’ and it’s not the easiest last name to spell – I thought about this before I started this blog, you mention it again here, so I’m interested in your thoughts.
Managing two blogs: This is tricky for me – as you know, and as we have discussed previously, I am in the process of launching a ‘business’ website – and with that, plan to have a ‘business’ blog – similar to what you’re doing with monicaobrien.com – do you think this is a bad idea? I don’t want to see a death to Life Without Pants, but I don’t think all of the topics on LWP would be suitable on my business blog, and vice versa, so it almost feels that either I HAVE to keep things seperate, OR choose which one is more important. But at this point, I haven’t developed NEAR the following you have here at TwentySet, I’m still growing LWP each day, and would hate to shoot that in the foot and change my focus.
You really have me thinking here – and I think a lot of your other readers can relate (on some levels) to your points and the ‘dilemma’ that I’m facing. Really looking forward to your insight here. Thanks Monica!
Monica, this is a really great and honest post. I am glad you put yourself out there and wrote it, because I think a lot of us (bloggers) have experienced the same mistakes and wish they figured it out earlier! I think all your points are spot on. It’s impossible and a huge time commitment to maintain 2 blogs. And it’s important to recognize from day 1 what exactly you want out of your blog: if you want to improve your career, write about that field from day 1, not about twenty somethings or Gen Y. I personally experienced some of these issues, and have just moved to a new domain to prepare for the “future.” Now, I’m not a very popular blogger but I want to make sure I am writing about the topics that interest me, and not about what’s most popular. I think this is important to mention too. Don’t write just to gain popularity. That’s a mistake — write about something you genuinely care about, and the internet fame will come…write what you love, not what you think you should write or what everyone else is writing about.
I’m really glad you wrote this and happier that I actually read it. I’ve also made a rule to not talk about Gen-Y. Good advice is good advice and can cross generational gaps. There’s also no point in being something your not but it is so difficult as a blogger to NOT immitate the styles of PT, Gary Vaynerchuk, Darren Rowse etc. I think it might be tough to build up your new blog but if you’ve done it once you can do it again.goodluck!
I’ll add that Lance Haun and Richard Millington are two people who often appear on lists of the best blogs in their respective industries just to give some examples that aren’t as unattainable as Mashable. Another would be Ramit Sethi though he falls closer to unattainable on the spectrum.
Haha, I have made lots of these mistakes. But I tend to think that I am better for it to some extent because I learned the hard way (not for everyone, but for me it rocks). My goals for blogging were simple at the beginning of 2009. Write a post every business day (Check after starting February 1st), custom Thesis CSS on my blog, guest post on cool high profile blogs, get consistent traffic and get in the Ad Age 150. I’ve accomplished all of these. Now I just want to step my game up that much more. It’s addictive…but in an awesome way.
Monica, Definitely have to second many of these exact same lessons learned. from my experience. When I started blogging at littleredsuit.com I pigenholed myself into many of these same areas – plus, the name itself was a woman-oriented niche, and I didn’t want to write to that narrow an audience. It was not long before I realized that I needed to make a change to blog on my own, more flexible domain and in a way that had the potential to grow and evolve with me. It was a tough decision, because really, there are mixed successes regarding the personal brand vs. topical masthead approach, but I’m glad I made it.The hardest part in all of this is the two blogs thing. At the time, I had lots of very insightful , experienced people telling me, write just one place! I should have listened and saved myself the stress, worry, and time trying to maintain two. But the readership I had built was something I didn’t take lightly – I had grown about 400 readers at the time, on that blog, and a pretty significant Technorati ranking – In fact, it’s such a well-optimized site content-wise that I haven’t updated it in a year and it continues to get very respectable traffic I really should monetize in some way. Anyway, as my career has grown, it’s complicated my blogging, too. With a full-time job that includes managing people, an editorial calendar, and my own writing projects in the corporate world, it’s definitely enough work keeping up (with my own expectations) for one blog, not to mention two!It was a difficult decision to make – I agonized over it every day for the longest time. But, over time, I learned to stop letting that guilt rob me of my focus so I could pour that instead into my new effort. And I was amazed how quickly things took off. In a matter of about two months, my readership at my new blog matched the old, and it’s kept rising since that time. So I guess what I’m saying is, it’s typical, based on my experience, to go through these learning stages as a blogger. And really, I still deal with a lot of them. I question my decision to move, every once in a while. I rethink the personal domain decision. I qusetion my desired “niche.” Even though I’ve seen the results posting 3 times a week has on a blog, I can really only invest a “hobby” amount of time into my blog right now, which kills me… But you know what? I’m still here, and so are you. And beyond that, we’re evolving. I take that as a great sign. Congrats on the new blog, by the way! Looking forward to your thoughts as your journey evolves…
Loved it….
Great for amateurish people like me who have just taken to blogging,
Everytime i decide to give up blogging, I come across such lovely
posts that keeps me going…
I really like this post and sometimes I feel the same way in that, I didn't quite plan out my blog like I would have if I was starting one now. More experienced and understanding it all. I mean, there are things like personal branding, domain names, topics and what niche you draw yourself into.
I think this will help those starting out with blogs and it even shed some insight to me, with my current blog and what I'm doing. I can only imagine, two blogs is a lot to maintain. I sometimes write for our company blog and my own…that seems to be enough for now Thanks for sharing!
I really like this post and sometimes I feel the same way in that, I didn't quite plan out my blog like I would have if I was starting one now. More experienced and understanding it all. I mean, there are things like personal branding, domain names, topics and what niche you draw yourself into.
I think this will help those starting out with blogs and it even shed some insight to me, with my current blog and what I'm doing. I can only imagine, two blogs is a lot to maintain. I sometimes write for our company blog and my own…that seems to be enough for now Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the comment. An update is that right now I am not keeping up with the two blogs, and I'm trying to just focus on Twenty Set since I've built so much equity into it. But I decided that if the content changes, it's fine.
In regards to personal branding, I think it works for some people, but not everyone. Especially in your twenties. The looser you can keep your personal brand, the more flexible your blog can be.
Thanks for the comment. An update is that right now I am not keeping up with the two blogs, and I'm trying to just focus on Twenty Set since I've built so much equity into it. But I decided that if the content changes, it's fine.
In regards to personal branding, I think it works for some people, but not everyone. Especially in your twenties. The looser you can keep your personal brand, the more flexible your blog can be.
Great post. I find that I learn the most when I make mistakes. It is only through the mistakes that you learn to value the attributes you are gaining. Blogging is a wild ride so keep on it.
Great post. I find that I learn the most when I make mistakes. It is only through the mistakes that you learn to value the attributes you are gaining. Blogging is a wild ride so keep on it.
Akhila – I guess I’m torn by the idea of managing two blogs. What do you think about someone who has a personal blog, like I do with Life Without Pants – but then starting a business and wanting to coordinate a blog to go along with the business and what-not? For example, if I’m starting a marketing consulting firm, and want to have a more structured blog on Wordpress advice, social media tools, business philosophy, and so on – a more ‘objective’ blog – should I not do that, should I find a way to integrate what I already have going with what I want to do? And if so, what’s the best way to go about doing that?
I truly love your website with your resume and portfolio. Smart girl. I think it’s important to write about topics that interest you, definitely. I do think it’s true that “internet fame” comes if you are writing about stuff you like and are good at promoting it. But depending on your goals, just be sure that what you become popular for is something you can sustain.
You know, I think if a person has the time and energy to devote to building up 2 blogs, it could work. But the truth is, to make both blogs popular, you need a HUGE amount of energy. And I just don’t think putting in *that* much time is worth it to the person. Perhaps if the person is at home or working full/part-time on blogging, it would work and become popular. But if you are going to do this, you would pretty much have blogging as your only activity outside of work/whatever your main pursuit it. Growing one blog to become popular is hard enough.
Definitely do the second blog. Whether you do it at the domain we discussed or your own name is probably not that important. Do grab mattcheuvront.com just in case you change your mind though!
I’m not disagreeing with you – not at all – it is a huge investment, and no, blogging would not be and is not a full-time gig for me. But aren’t there a lot of people out there who run a personal blog and business blog, and do so succesfully? Or am I just that naive? I guess, I don’t want to kill off what I’ve established with Life WIthout Pants – BUT, I don’t think a lot of the topics I discuss (faith, philosophy, music) would really be relevant on a business blog. So I’m sort of in a catch 22. Is it a situation where budgeting time just becomes more important? I think it’s do-able, especially since the business blog would be less frequent, more spuratic posting overall. Something to think about, not only for us, but for everyone reading this.
Ah ha! There is my problem right there. I’m not trying to make my blog popular. Maybe I’m missing the point of blogging, but I just want to write and if one person reads it and gets something out of it, bravo! If more people read and follow, icing on the cake!
I agree with you here. I think the keywords are “make both blogs popular.” You can have a personal blog and a business blog but one has to come before the other, because you want to promote one message when you meet people. You need to know what you’re promoting at all times and if your goal is to build a popular blog then you shouldn’t be splitting your promotion between two blogs because you will just end up with two somewhat trafficked blogs. Creating a popular blog is all or nothing.
Of course, a popular blog is NOT everyone’s goal. So it completely depends on what you truly want.
I’m mostly worried that I can’t keep up with two blogs. It sounds like you’re a full-time writer! I’m going to have to do some guest posting to jump start this new blog too.
Something to think about is the difference between having a blog and growing a blog. Writing in a personal blog is not nearly as time consuming and writing and then promoting it.
In terms of the domain name, your last name is hard to spell . Sorry. Of course, so is “Monhollon” or “Schawbel” or “Sethi” or “Kawasaki” – I could probably keep going – I guess my point is that your name is your name and if you get popular then people will make an effort to remember your name. It’s really a personal preference. I think Life Without Pants is a cute name. Can you picture yourself at 30 and married with kids and talking about your mid-level career on that domain name? It’s up to you. And it depends on whether you know you’ll always be blogging or you’re just trying it out for now too. Personally, I’ll probably always be blogging, even if it goes out of style, because I’ve always been blogging through every phase that blogging has ever seen. That’s just me though, so monicaobrien.com makes a lot of sense.
And not that I should keep talking about this, but I want to point out that most A-list bloggers have their name somewhere in their domains. Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin, Scoblelizer, Chris Brogan, etc. These are the people who sell themselves as the brand. There are people who have built their brands around topics, like Leo Babouta and Darren Rowse and Brian Clark too. I think it’s one or the other if you want a huge personal blog. Like I said, if you know what topic you want for the rest of your career, build a brand around the topic (better SEO). If your interests keep changing, build it around your name.
Concerning the two blogs – I mean, yes, I think everyone should avoid having a business blog and a personal blog if they can, because I think it’s completely unlikely that both blogs will survive unless you’re a full-time blogger. But it depends on your interests and your audience and your time commitment. And of course, I’m going to try to do it, so I guess I’ll let you know how it goes
I understand your point about not dropping LWP because you’ve already put a lot of time into it. I’m definitely not telling you to drop LWP, or anyone else to drop their current blog and start a business one. This decision is personal. All I’m saying is if you think you’re going to have to cut your losses in the future, it might be better to cut your losses now before they get any bigger.
Hope that helps – but to everyone – please don’t do anything drastic to your current blog based on what I’ve said here. It’s just my opinion, and I’m working through these ideas as much as the next person.
Thanks! it’s very hard not to imitate. I admit that I tried to imitate P when I first started blogging, until someone told me my posts read like hers and I realized that I could not build a blog based on being a mini-P. I hope you’re right that if you’ve done it once you can do it again. The bad part is it takes a long time to build up a blog! I’m hoping my broader topic makes it easier.
Yep, those are two great examples of bloggers who aren’t hugely “popular” but who are well-respected within their industries. Definitely something to strive for as a twentysomething blogger, like you said. And thank you for the inspiration for parts of this post!
Wow Monica, thanks for making me REALLY think about what the heck I want to do with my blog. I’ve contemplated changing it to Matt Cheuvront’s ‘Life Without Pants’ on mattcheuvront.com – but not sure how I feel about that, but it would give me freedom to change it up in the future. Thoughts? I still don’t really know how to integrate both a business and personal blog – I don’t want to have a marketing firm blog where I talk about my feelings on faith and reincarnation, lol – just an example, but I think you get what I mean, a lot of the ‘personal’ stuff I talk about just wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense. But I think I have the right idea- LWP is still my main focus, but I do want to SUPPLEMENT my business plan with a blog – it would be much less frequent in posting, but would offer more objecive takeaways. I guess, as you said, I’ll take the plunge and we can be living examples of how it works…
I think you made the right choice. I used to read Little Red Suit and of course loved it. But professionally, it’s probably easier for you to use your full name. And boy is it hard to give up those subscribers and the pagerank and technorati rating .
I was very nervous about posting this because I honestly don’t know that I can keep up both blogs. You bring up a good point – let go of the guilt! I’m going to remember that whenever I can’t post.
I guess my thoughts are the same: you should do the business blog for sure (I don’t think Life Without Pants is going to evolve well as a business blog, especially in B2B) and you should keep blogging at Life Without Pants if you want. In terms of which is more important to grow, probably the business blog since you have a clear path to monetizing your work. Maybe I’m just thinking too logically though and there is something else to consider here.
About the name domain – it probably doesn’t matter that much at this point. I would just reserve yourname.com so you can use it in the future. It’s a smart thing to do anyway. I’m glad I grabbed my name when I did (since it’s a fairly common name) and I don’t plan to ever let it go.
And like I said earlier, don’t just take my advice blindly! Work through it yourself, taking into consideration your own goals and needs and time commitments.
Monica O'Brien is the Director of Digital at Fizz and author of the book Social Pollination, which helps businesses leverage social media for crazy growth!
"Must read for business owners, marketing professionals, or students looking to understand the next monumental shift in marketing and advertising." Patrick Ambron, CMO of Brand Yourself software
Monica O'Brien is the Director of Digital at Fizz and author of the book Social Pollination, which helps businesses leverage social media for crazy growth!
{ 45 comments… read them below or add one }
You had nothing to be nervous about. It’s a great post. It’s too late for me. I’ve already made those mistake…and others. But I’m trying to learn from my mistakes and hopefully others will learn from yours.
Awesome post! What were you worried about??!!
You’ve made excellent points and I love how you just “spilled the beans”. Excellent!!
I do have more than one blog and it is crazy. I also write for even more blogs and I write for websites and sometimes for print publications, too. It is crazy, but I don’t think I’d have it any other way! LOL*smiles*Michele
Good luck with your new blog then, it sounds professional .. I believe if you take any change as a lesson it usually should be beneficial.. By the way, I’ve been wondering about the name Twenty Set what if you turn your thirties..:) Thanks for advice..
Monica – no reason to be nervous here, and I think you highlight something that a lot of bloggers go through as they evolve and develop from their original state of mind, it’s something I’m going through right now – not so sure ‘where’ to go from here. So here are my questions/thoughts – making them public so maybe a few other folks can take something from our conversation:
Domain Name: Life Without Pants, the name alone does not make a lot of sense, at least in the grand scheme of things – when I signed up with that domain, it encompassed the random-ness that I expected from the blog, because I talk about, as I say ‘everything and nothing’. In one way, I think it works because it’s catchy and easy to remember, but – you mention that you ‘should be blogging at yourname.com’ – do you think that applies to everyone? mattcheuvront.com isn’t as ‘memorable’ and it’s not the easiest last name to spell – I thought about this before I started this blog, you mention it again here, so I’m interested in your thoughts.
Managing two blogs: This is tricky for me – as you know, and as we have discussed previously, I am in the process of launching a ‘business’ website – and with that, plan to have a ‘business’ blog – similar to what you’re doing with monicaobrien.com – do you think this is a bad idea? I don’t want to see a death to Life Without Pants, but I don’t think all of the topics on LWP would be suitable on my business blog, and vice versa, so it almost feels that either I HAVE to keep things seperate, OR choose which one is more important. But at this point, I haven’t developed NEAR the following you have here at TwentySet, I’m still growing LWP each day, and would hate to shoot that in the foot and change my focus.
You really have me thinking here – and I think a lot of your other readers can relate (on some levels) to your points and the ‘dilemma’ that I’m facing. Really looking forward to your insight here. Thanks Monica!
Monica, this is a really great and honest post. I am glad you put yourself out there and wrote it, because I think a lot of us (bloggers) have experienced the same mistakes and wish they figured it out earlier! I think all your points are spot on. It’s impossible and a huge time commitment to maintain 2 blogs. And it’s important to recognize from day 1 what exactly you want out of your blog: if you want to improve your career, write about that field from day 1, not about twenty somethings or Gen Y. I personally experienced some of these issues, and have just moved to a new domain to prepare for the “future.” Now, I’m not a very popular blogger but I want to make sure I am writing about the topics that interest me, and not about what’s most popular. I think this is important to mention too. Don’t write just to gain popularity. That’s a mistake — write about something you genuinely care about, and the internet fame will come…write what you love, not what you think you should write or what everyone else is writing about.
I’m really glad you wrote this and happier that I actually read it. I’ve also made a rule to not talk about Gen-Y. Good advice is good advice and can cross generational gaps. There’s also no point in being something your not but it is so difficult as a blogger to NOT immitate the styles of PT, Gary Vaynerchuk, Darren Rowse etc. I think it might be tough to build up your new blog but if you’ve done it once you can do it again.goodluck!
I’ll add that Lance Haun and Richard Millington are two people who often appear on lists of the best blogs in their respective industries just to give some examples that aren’t as unattainable as Mashable. Another would be Ramit Sethi though he falls closer to unattainable on the spectrum.
Haha, I have made lots of these mistakes. But I tend to think that I am better for it to some extent because I learned the hard way (not for everyone, but for me it rocks). My goals for blogging were simple at the beginning of 2009. Write a post every business day (Check after starting February 1st), custom Thesis CSS on my blog, guest post on cool high profile blogs, get consistent traffic and get in the Ad Age 150. I’ve accomplished all of these. Now I just want to step my game up that much more. It’s addictive…but in an awesome way.
Monica, Definitely have to second many of these exact same lessons learned. from my experience. When I started blogging at littleredsuit.com I pigenholed myself into many of these same areas – plus, the name itself was a woman-oriented niche, and I didn’t want to write to that narrow an audience. It was not long before I realized that I needed to make a change to blog on my own, more flexible domain and in a way that had the potential to grow and evolve with me. It was a tough decision, because really, there are mixed successes regarding the personal brand vs. topical masthead approach, but I’m glad I made it.The hardest part in all of this is the two blogs thing. At the time, I had lots of very insightful , experienced people telling me, write just one place! I should have listened and saved myself the stress, worry, and time trying to maintain two. But the readership I had built was something I didn’t take lightly – I had grown about 400 readers at the time, on that blog, and a pretty significant Technorati ranking – In fact, it’s such a well-optimized site content-wise that I haven’t updated it in a year and it continues to get very respectable traffic I really should monetize in some way. Anyway, as my career has grown, it’s complicated my blogging, too. With a full-time job that includes managing people, an editorial calendar, and my own writing projects in the corporate world, it’s definitely enough work keeping up (with my own expectations) for one blog, not to mention two!It was a difficult decision to make – I agonized over it every day for the longest time. But, over time, I learned to stop letting that guilt rob me of my focus so I could pour that instead into my new effort. And I was amazed how quickly things took off. In a matter of about two months, my readership at my new blog matched the old, and it’s kept rising since that time. So I guess what I’m saying is, it’s typical, based on my experience, to go through these learning stages as a blogger. And really, I still deal with a lot of them. I question my decision to move, every once in a while. I rethink the personal domain decision. I qusetion my desired “niche.” Even though I’ve seen the results posting 3 times a week has on a blog, I can really only invest a “hobby” amount of time into my blog right now, which kills me… But you know what? I’m still here, and so are you. And beyond that, we’re evolving. I take that as a great sign. Congrats on the new blog, by the way! Looking forward to your thoughts as your journey evolves…
Loved the post!
Awesome post…….
Loved it….
Great for amateurish people like me who have just taken to blogging,
Everytime i decide to give up blogging, I come across such lovely
posts that keeps me going…
Thanks Monica
Waiting for more from you.
Great tips. I am making good on some of them as I write this! Thanks!
Great tips. I am making good on some of them as I write this! Thanks!
Monica,
Wow, congrats. No worries, I enjoy and respect your work. I'll pay ya a visit and subscribe to your new blog as well.
Cheers!
-Mig
Monica,
Wow, congrats. No worries, I enjoy and respect your work. I'll pay ya a visit and subscribe to your new blog as well.
Cheers!
-Mig
I really like this post and sometimes I feel the same way in that, I didn't quite plan out my blog like I would have if I was starting one now. More experienced and understanding it all. I mean, there are things like personal branding, domain names, topics and what niche you draw yourself into.
I think this will help those starting out with blogs and it even shed some insight to me, with my current blog and what I'm doing. I can only imagine, two blogs is a lot to maintain. I sometimes write for our company blog and my own…that seems to be enough for now
Thanks for sharing!
I really like this post and sometimes I feel the same way in that, I didn't quite plan out my blog like I would have if I was starting one now. More experienced and understanding it all. I mean, there are things like personal branding, domain names, topics and what niche you draw yourself into.
I think this will help those starting out with blogs and it even shed some insight to me, with my current blog and what I'm doing. I can only imagine, two blogs is a lot to maintain. I sometimes write for our company blog and my own…that seems to be enough for now
Thanks for sharing!
Grace,
Thanks for the comment. An update is that right now I am not keeping up with the two blogs, and I'm trying to just focus on Twenty Set since I've built so much equity into it. But I decided that if the content changes, it's fine.
In regards to personal branding, I think it works for some people, but not everyone. Especially in your twenties. The looser you can keep your personal brand, the more flexible your blog can be.
Grace,
Thanks for the comment. An update is that right now I am not keeping up with the two blogs, and I'm trying to just focus on Twenty Set since I've built so much equity into it. But I decided that if the content changes, it's fine.
In regards to personal branding, I think it works for some people, but not everyone. Especially in your twenties. The looser you can keep your personal brand, the more flexible your blog can be.
Great post. I find that I learn the most when I make mistakes. It is only through the mistakes that you learn to value the attributes you are gaining. Blogging is a wild ride so keep on it.
Great post. I find that I learn the most when I make mistakes. It is only through the mistakes that you learn to value the attributes you are gaining. Blogging is a wild ride so keep on it.
Akhila – I guess I’m torn by the idea of managing two blogs. What do you think about someone who has a personal blog, like I do with Life Without Pants – but then starting a business and wanting to coordinate a blog to go along with the business and what-not? For example, if I’m starting a marketing consulting firm, and want to have a more structured blog on Wordpress advice, social media tools, business philosophy, and so on – a more ‘objective’ blog – should I not do that, should I find a way to integrate what I already have going with what I want to do? And if so, what’s the best way to go about doing that?
Akhila,
I truly love your website with your resume and portfolio. Smart girl. I think it’s important to write about topics that interest you, definitely. I do think it’s true that “internet fame” comes if you are writing about stuff you like and are good at promoting it. But depending on your goals, just be sure that what you become popular for is something you can sustain.
You know, I think if a person has the time and energy to devote to building up 2 blogs, it could work. But the truth is, to make both blogs popular, you need a HUGE amount of energy. And I just don’t think putting in *that* much time is worth it to the person. Perhaps if the person is at home or working full/part-time on blogging, it would work and become popular. But if you are going to do this, you would pretty much have blogging as your only activity outside of work/whatever your main pursuit it. Growing one blog to become popular is hard enough.
Matt,
Definitely do the second blog. Whether you do it at the domain we discussed or your own name is probably not that important. Do grab mattcheuvront.com just in case you change your mind though!
I’m not disagreeing with you – not at all – it is a huge investment, and no, blogging would not be and is not a full-time gig for me. But aren’t there a lot of people out there who run a personal blog and business blog, and do so succesfully? Or am I just that naive? I guess, I don’t want to kill off what I’ve established with Life WIthout Pants – BUT, I don’t think a lot of the topics I discuss (faith, philosophy, music) would really be relevant on a business blog. So I’m sort of in a catch 22. Is it a situation where budgeting time just becomes more important? I think it’s do-able, especially since the business blog would be less frequent, more spuratic posting overall. Something to think about, not only for us, but for everyone reading this.
Ah ha! There is my problem right there. I’m not trying to make my blog popular. Maybe I’m missing the point of blogging, but I just want to write and if one person reads it and gets something out of it, bravo! If more people read and follow, icing on the cake!
Akhila,
I agree with you here. I think the keywords are “make both blogs popular.” You can have a personal blog and a business blog but one has to come before the other, because you want to promote one message when you meet people. You need to know what you’re promoting at all times and if your goal is to build a popular blog then you shouldn’t be splitting your promotion between two blogs because you will just end up with two somewhat trafficked blogs. Creating a popular blog is all or nothing.
Of course, a popular blog is NOT everyone’s goal. So it completely depends on what you truly want.
Kristina,
It’s never too late to start anew
Michele,
I’m mostly worried that I can’t keep up with two blogs. It sounds like you’re a full-time writer! I’m going to have to do some guest posting to jump start this new blog too.
Kasia,
Thanks! I have 4 more years till I reach 30, but that’s a good point
. Best start the new blog now then at 29.
Monica, I am a full-time writer/blogger. My life is full of craziness but I love every minute! LOL
Oh, and you might like this new blog I found: Countdown to 30 http://countdowntojune2011.wordpress.com/. It’s new but it’s cool and I think it’ll do well!:-)
Matt,
Something to think about is the difference between having a blog and growing a blog. Writing in a personal blog is not nearly as time consuming and writing and then promoting it.
In terms of the domain name, your last name is hard to spell
. Sorry. Of course, so is “Monhollon” or “Schawbel” or “Sethi” or “Kawasaki” – I could probably keep going – I guess my point is that your name is your name and if you get popular then people will make an effort to remember your name. It’s really a personal preference. I think Life Without Pants is a cute name. Can you picture yourself at 30 and married with kids and talking about your mid-level career on that domain name? It’s up to you. And it depends on whether you know you’ll always be blogging or you’re just trying it out for now too. Personally, I’ll probably always be blogging, even if it goes out of style, because I’ve always been blogging through every phase that blogging has ever seen. That’s just me though, so monicaobrien.com makes a lot of sense.
And not that I should keep talking about this, but I want to point out that most A-list bloggers have their name somewhere in their domains. Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin, Scoblelizer, Chris Brogan, etc. These are the people who sell themselves as the brand. There are people who have built their brands around topics, like Leo Babouta and Darren Rowse and Brian Clark too. I think it’s one or the other if you want a huge personal blog. Like I said, if you know what topic you want for the rest of your career, build a brand around the topic (better SEO). If your interests keep changing, build it around your name.
Concerning the two blogs – I mean, yes, I think everyone should avoid having a business blog and a personal blog if they can, because I think it’s completely unlikely that both blogs will survive unless you’re a full-time blogger. But it depends on your interests and your audience and your time commitment. And of course, I’m going to try to do it, so I guess I’ll let you know how it goes
I understand your point about not dropping LWP because you’ve already put a lot of time into it. I’m definitely not telling you to drop LWP, or anyone else to drop their current blog and start a business one. This decision is personal. All I’m saying is if you think you’re going to have to cut your losses in the future, it might be better to cut your losses now before they get any bigger.
Hope that helps – but to everyone – please don’t do anything drastic to your current blog based on what I’ve said here. It’s just my opinion, and I’m working through these ideas as much as the next person.
Rikin,
Thanks! it’s very hard not to imitate. I admit that I tried to imitate P when I first started blogging, until someone told me my posts read like hers and I realized that I could not build a blog based on being a mini-P. I hope you’re right that if you’ve done it once you can do it again. The bad part is it takes a long time to build up a blog! I’m hoping my broader topic makes it easier.
Chuck,
Yep, those are two great examples of bloggers who aren’t hugely “popular” but who are well-respected within their industries. Definitely something to strive for as a twentysomething blogger, like you said. And thank you for the inspiration for parts of this post!
Wow Monica, thanks for making me REALLY think about what the heck I want to do with my blog. I’ve contemplated changing it to Matt Cheuvront’s ‘Life Without Pants’ on mattcheuvront.com – but not sure how I feel about that, but it would give me freedom to change it up in the future. Thoughts? I still don’t really know how to integrate both a business and personal blog – I don’t want to have a marketing firm blog where I talk about my feelings on faith and reincarnation, lol – just an example, but I think you get what I mean, a lot of the ‘personal’ stuff I talk about just wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense. But I think I have the right idea- LWP is still my main focus, but I do want to SUPPLEMENT my business plan with a blog – it would be much less frequent in posting, but would offer more objecive takeaways. I guess, as you said, I’ll take the plunge and we can be living examples of how it works…
Stuart,
Congrats on your success! I’m glad you could relate to this post.
Tiffany,
I think you made the right choice. I used to read Little Red Suit and of course loved it. But professionally, it’s probably easier for you to use your full name. And boy is it hard to give up those subscribers and the pagerank and technorati rating
.
I was very nervous about posting this because I honestly don’t know that I can keep up both blogs. You bring up a good point – let go of the guilt! I’m going to remember that whenever I can’t post.
Matt,
I guess my thoughts are the same: you should do the business blog for sure (I don’t think Life Without Pants is going to evolve well as a business blog, especially in B2B) and you should keep blogging at Life Without Pants if you want. In terms of which is more important to grow, probably the business blog since you have a clear path to monetizing your work. Maybe I’m just thinking too logically though and there is something else to consider here.
About the name domain – it probably doesn’t matter that much at this point. I would just reserve yourname.com so you can use it in the future. It’s a smart thing to do anyway. I’m glad I grabbed my name when I did (since it’s a fairly common name) and I don’t plan to ever let it go.
And like I said earlier, don’t just take my advice blindly! Work through it yourself, taking into consideration your own goals and needs and time commitments.
Paul, Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.
Nadhiya,
Thank you. I hope you will continue blogging!
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