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Writing outside the box

Posted by Bullgrit • 9/08/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: writing

How big is the danger of turning off/loosing readers when you write something to your blog that is outside your normal topic or style?

Say you write a baby blog, and then you post a rant about financial politics.

Say you write a fiction series, and then you post a non-fiction article about your sister having her baby.

Say you write in a G-rated life essay style, and then you post a very R-rated story.

Is writing outside your box a big no-no for a blog?

Can a blog be successful that's sort of "all over the place" with regard to subject and style? Is it imperative that the writer of a blog stay within his or her established subject and style?

Bullgrit

User Comments

9/08/09

AquilusDomini

a blog can be successful if it's all over the place from the beginning, but when you stray into a strange new topic from what your readers are used to, you may lose a few of them, but the ones that truly like your blog will stick with ya.
an established subject and style are important when you start out, but i believe that later on down the road after you've acquired a good audience, you can start to branch out slowly to see what happens. if you lose readers, you may want to stick with what brought them in. if not, by all means, branch out as far as you can. or if you've got another topic you want to discuss, you could always start a new blog.

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9/08/09

ThriftShopRomantic

If it were me, and I felt really compelled to go off-topic from what I normally write, I would indicate jokingly I was pre-empting the blog with a post I felt compelled to share, and indicate the regularly-scheduled blog will return shortly.

Depending on the topic, and how controversial (and how controversial your normal audience EXPECTS you to be) you might lose a few. Or anger a few. But you'd probably minimize it if you assured them it was one post.

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9/08/09

MidwestMom

It's good question, Bullgrit. When I first started my blog, I wrote about whatever was on my mind or in my life at the time. What I found was that I had distinct audiences for a couple of my types of writing. But my traffic when up significantly when I split the blog into separate blogs by theme. That way, I didn't alienate or bore the half of my audience that was drawn by a particular genre of writing.

I know others on BC have written about straying off-theme and having a significant drop in traffic as a result. (I think AcousticGuitarist is one.) But I've only made the switch from a scattered blog to a focused one. And for me, consistently increased traffic was a direct result of a more focused approach.

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9/08/09

lotusb

Personally it fits my blog quite nicely. I tend to be pretty random. I generally post stuff about my day to day life. But sometimes I write poetry, short stories, political pieces and I even occasionally write for some of the causes I support (Fresh Air Fund, Planned Parenthood..etc) I say go for it, if you write a short "this is why I'm writing this" sentence before hand, your readers will surely forgive, if not be glad you took a detour from your usual routine.

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