Single Topic vs. Multi-Topic Blog: Which is Better and Why?

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Single Topic vs. Multi-Topic Blog
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This post is part of our question & answer series.

Here are a couple common questions asked by many beginning bloggers:

  • Should I blog on one topic or should I blog on multiple topics?
  • Should I create one blog for multiple topics or different blogs for each topic?

In blogging, we often refer to a blog’s topic as its “niche”.

Single Topic
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Here are some examples:

  • Blog: MOZ
    • Niche: Search engine optimization
  • Blog: Dailyblogtips
    • Niche: Blogging
  • Blog: Labnol
    • Niche: Technology
  • Blog: ShoutMeLoud
    • Niche: Internet marketing, blogging, and entrepreneurship

Yes, there is some overlap between certain niches, but what’s important is that you stay consistent. Don’t talk about finance one day, and then talk about pet care the next.

The most important questions you should ask yourself before starting a blog is:

  • What will be the topic of my blog? (i.e. What will I be writing about?)

Often when I talk to a new blogger about their niche, I hear something like this:

“I have an interest in lifestyle, fashion, photography, travel, and health –  and I want to write about all of these topics on my blog. I think that’s going to be the USP (unique selling point) for my blog, as I will be covering all of these topics in one place, and this will attract more readers.”

Prior to answering this in detail, let me make this clear:

  • This is the wrong approach when you are planning to monetize (make money from) your blog.
Multi-topic
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If you are planning to create a personal blog in which you write about many different topics, then this is fine, as money is not the primary reason you are blogging. If you’re blogging because you love to write and want to write about multiple topics, and any consideration of earning money from the blog is secondary to that, then by all means, write about anything and everything you wish.

However, if you are creating a blog from which you wish to earn an income, a multi-topic/multi-niche blog is a bad idea.

Let me explain…

Why a multi-topic blog is bad for readership, SEO, and making money:

We’ve established that if you’re blogging for fun and not for money, you can write about anything. This is because you do not need to be concerned about traffic when working on a personal blog.

However, in a strict business sense:

  • Traffic = Money

If you are blogging because you want to make money, you have to take a proper business approach.

Note: Making money from blogging is not as easy as it looks, but it’s also not that hard. If you do it properly, you can make good money, or at least enough to cover your cost of living. I earn my entire living from blogging.

When trying to monetize, there are several downsides to a multi-niche blog:

1. It will be difficult to cater to your readers need

Ask yourself a few questions:

  • What compels you to subscribe to a blog?
  • If you have an interest in a topic like “relationships”, what kind of blog will you subscribe to and ready daily – a blog which is dedicated to relationships, or a blog in which the author posts about relationships, blogging, the forex exchange, and smartphones?
  • If you subscribe to a blog which has “blogging” as its topic, and suddenly you start seeing posts about dog care, will you remain subscribed to that blog, or will you unsubscribe?

Surely after answering these questions you can see why multi-niche blogs will not hold a reader’s interest for very long.

When searching for a blog on any given topic, we have thousands (sometimes millions) of options.

As a blog reader myself, I like to subscribe to blogs dedicated to topics that are specifically interesting to me. I don’t want to be bombarded with information about a wide variety of topics when I set out to read about a particular topic. I prefer to keep my focus on those topics which I enjoy reading and learning about.

If I subscribe to a blog related to SEO, and later I start finding posts about the author’s dogs, or their new house – subjects with no connection to the main topic of the blog – I will click the unsubscribe option straight away, and some other blog related to SEO will get a new subscriber.

2. The SEO of your multi-niche blog will be tough.

Search Engine Optimization of Multi-topic blog
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Search engine optimization, particularly for a blog that is created and maintained as a source of income, is very important. To maintain good SEO, your blog should have a single focus.

Here’s why:

Let’s say you operate a search engine like Google, and you have to rank a blog for a topic like “how to take the best photo in daylight”.  You have a choice between the following blogs:

  • A blog which is dedicated to photography tips.
  • A blog which contains posts about religion, photography, and dog care.

You would probably select the first blog, as it is likely to offer more quality content (because it is a blog dedicated specifically to the topic of photography), and there’s a higher chance that it will offer a better user experience.

The face of search engine optimization is changing, and search engines like Google are ranking blogs based on brand and authority. A single-topic blog has a better chance of creating a position of authority on a topic compared to a blog containing posts on multiple and varied topics.

As a matter of fact, I recently created a blog on a niche-specific topic, and with 12 blog posts and almost negligible SEO, that blog is getting 7,000 pag- views per day.

Takeaway: A niche blog always performs better.

3. Making money from multi-niche will be challenging

Money from your multi-niche blog
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Now let’s consider the final and most important question:

  • Which will make more money for you — a single-niche or a multi-niche blog?

Remember this important point:

  • Income from your blog is directly proportional to the quality of targeted traffic your blog is getting.

You may have previously assumed that with multiple topics, a blogger can drive more traffic. But you now know that is not the case.

But even if that is the case, targeted traffic matters more.

Here’s an example…

Let’s assume you are a company that has developed a camera, and you have a limited advertising budget. You are creating an advertising plan and you have two blogs you’re considering placing advertising on:

  • Blog #1: This blog gets 10,000 page views per month, and all of the traffic coming to the blog is for topics related to photography and cameras.
  • Blog #2: This blog gets 50,000 page views per month, and the traffic coming is for various topics including photography, dog care, baby care, blogging tips, fitness, makeup, and many other things.

Which of these two blogs would be ideal for the advertisement of your product- a camera? Probably #1, as you will be getting a better ROI (return on investment) for your advertising budget. Why? Because you will be getting targeted traffic from blog#1, whereas blog#2 will be sending traffic which might not be relevant to my product.

Now that you understand what kind of blog you need in order to drive more traffic and thus create more income, let me quickly address how to choose a topic.

How to find a topic for your blog

If you wish to write posts on multiple topics, you can take one of two approaches:

1. Create different blogs on different domains:

2. Create different blogs with a sub-domain of the original blog:

  • Tech.ShoutMeLoud.com
  • Hosting.ShoutMeLoud.com
  • Bitcoin.ShoutMeLoud.com

Although, I wouldn’t recommend starting a new blog on a sub-domain. It’s better to start a separate blog.

Tip: If you are just starting out, don’t start multiple blogs. First, create a blog on a particular topic/niche, and once that blog is well established and is driving lots of traffic for you, only then should you start a second blog.

If you are confused about how to choose topics which you can write about regularly and consistently, here is a very simple approach:

  • Take a notepad and paper and create columns for topics that you wish to write about. For example, Dog Care, Baby Care, Facebook Tips, Photography, etc.
  • Once you have created your columns, write down 20 post ideas for each topic. When you are writing down the post ideas, think about what you are going to write in those posts.

This process alone will help you remove 2-3 topics from the list.

  • Now, start blogging for two weeks on the topics that remain on your list. In two weeks, you will be able to determine which is your strongest topic, and thus the one you should use.

If you don’t have a blog yet, read my guide on how to start a blog and launch your blog today.

The Hard Side Of Creating A Niche Blog

Just to be fair, there are a few things that are difficult. For one thing, you have to become an expert so that you can write in the niche. This may take some research and study at the beginning of your online venture. It’s also time-consuming to come up with lots of different subtopics for just one niche.

One more challenge is that you have to choose the niche carefully, and this takes some time to do marketing research to make sure it’s profitable. Since you are doing this for money and hobby (I assume) your keywords have to be money-related.

There must be key phrases, which prospective clients type in Google to find what they want to buy. Remember that it’s not the number of visitors, but the quality which counts.

That is, having hundreds of daily visitors who will likely increase the bounce rate or give you some cents from ads cannot compare with 40 or 50 targeted visitors who will land in your pages with their credit card on hand.

Not only is it easier to make money with a niche blog, but it’s even better if you target a long-tail keyword. There is less competition for these, so you’d be able to completely dominate it and rule the niche. This will put you higher in the search engines and convert to more cash more quickly.

If you have any remaining questions about niches, feel free to ask them via the comments section below.

If you find this article useful, do share it with your friends!

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Authored By
A Blogger, Author and a speaker! Harsh Agrawal is recognized as a leader in digital marketing and FinTech space. Fountainhead of ShoutMeLoud, and a Speaker at ASW, Hero Mindmine, Inorbit, IBM, India blockchain summit. Also, an award-winning blogger.

111 thoughts on “Single Topic vs. Multi-Topic Blog: Which is Better and Why?”

  1. Hi there,

    Thanks for an informative post! I live in Cornwall , UK and would like to write travel posts targeting tourists visiting the county – best beaches, restaurants, etc. I would also like to start another blog about bucket list travel experiences in many different countries I travel to. My question is this: Should I include my Cornwall posts as part of my travel blog, or is it better to have a separate blog that’s more specific to Cornwall? I have seen it done both ways (one blog covering multiple travel destinations vs. multiple niche travel blogs) and wonder which is actually more effective? Is the con that it would take longer to fully build two lucrative blogs, but that a niche blog on Cornwall is likely to have more authority in search? Thank you for your time!

  2. Active+Mama

    Thank you for sharing this post. I am struggling to choose a niche and you have helped me understand why focusing on one particular area is important. I keep going back to the area I studied at university, Education and Early years, but there are so many blogs and websites already focused on that. Perhaps writing it from a mum perspective may help. I will try out your suggestion on making the lists and writing for each topic I enjoy and see where it takes me.

    Thanks again!

  3. Thank you so much for your insight—this was indeed a useful and well written article!

    I write about writing, writing fiction, how to market yourself as an author, entrepreneurship, business, linguistics, cognitive science, and rarely, science and technology. I consider this blog to be interdisciplinary because of the correlation of all topics with business, writing, entrepreneurship and even personal development, including the fact that I write hard science fiction, satire and speculative fiction, but I’m not sure if this throws its readership off the scent. I do know that this isn’t as broad as your examples such as uniting child care and SEO on a single blog, and so please advise. Is this too broad? I’m not too concerned about monetizing the blog as I enjoy writing in general, but always knowing that you can do so . . . and for something that you love doing? Man. Thank you so much for your wise counsel. 🙂

  4. Yoganand Gade

    While i find your logic correct in this post but can you explain the success of “Buzzfeed” and other listicle sites with many topics under one blog? how are they successful, they have articles that have topics ranging from how studying in Australia is awesome to how world war II changed Germany to top 10 sweets in canada. Just want to know is it really a bad idea to cover many topics.

  5. Confused as Hell

    Thanks for the insight Harsh. I totally get it from the “business” and editorial perspective, coming from the publishing and digital marketing.

    Anyway, I have a predicament that I want to hear your thoughts on:

    I’ve been obsessing recently about starting a new project, a beauty blog, because makeup and all that crap is seriously one of my passions. But I am afraid people who will discover it won’t take me seriously when they find out–especially potential clients (I run a small web design studio)–that they’re dealing with an entrepreneur who publishes reviews pertaining to lipsticks and eyeliners, if you get what I mean. It’s confusing as hell.

    I already run two niche sites (travel and career), one personal “business” site, and one focused on the small digital agency I run with my husband (all content written by yours truly), which means my content is already out there. I am fine with these niche sites being found by potential clients and readers. I mean, I won’t be embarrassed if they found out about them and I think they are aligned with my company’s products and services. As for the beauty blog, I think I am equipped enough with the skills needed to run it, but fear it will mess up with my personal and company brand. What’s your two cents on this? 🙂

    1. Harsh Agrawal

      @Confused as hell (S****)
      Well, I understand your dilemma and if you are not ready to put your name out there as a beauty/fashion blogger, you don’t have to. You can simply start blog under the pseudo name or complete anonymous blog. Just use who.is guard to further ensure you don’t reveal your identity with the domain name. Once your blog becomes popular and you feel comfortable, then you can put your name/image to your blog. For now, being Pesudo/Pen name is the best way to get started.

  6. Anthony Smits

    Hi Harsh

    That’s a great intro to blogging. Thank you . While I’ve done many of those steps already, it was good to know I’d done at least some things right – and you illustrated a couple more I could usefully do.

    I did spend a bit of time reflecting on all the topics I COULD focus on. And I found that ideas which hit me in the gut – brought an emotional reaction when I thought about the opinions I wanted to impart – were easier to write about. I think emotional reasons form the core of our ‘why’ for any action – and blogging is no exception.

    I look forward to the next piece of your course.

    Anthony

  7. Haadi

    Dear Harsh,
    Your articles are really amazing, and I am following all your tips for my blog. I am also working on a blog and I want you to look at it. Please suggest me, how can I improve my blog? Please give one visit to my blog.

  8. Anuj Shenoy

    hello sir,

    I wanted to ask that if we are group of friends trying to start a blog, with different topics, one person handling one topic each, will it evade all the possible negations of single niche blog vs multi niche blog? Just being curious because we are a bunch of good writers wanting to monetize starting a new blog. Hope you could guide us!
    Revert asap!

  9. Gautam Sharma

    Hello Harsh, I have subscribed you couple of days back, I had almost decided to head for multiple niche but your topic came bang on time and I am lucky to come across. I congratulate you for such a nice and informative topic. As per my opinion one has to stick with single niche if he/she is new to blogging or any other domain because it requires a lot of knowledge and research to tame any topic.

    Thanks a lot!!

  10. Sudesh bansal

    Write on single blog is important for us. Because we can concentrate on single blog. But if we write on multiple blogs we interact with multiple thinker.

  11. Aman Agarwal

    Hello Harsh,
    Thanks for the article bro!!!!
    I have a question to ask.
    Would creating a blog for UPSC aspirants be a single topic or a multiple topic blog?

    I am asking this because as far as I understand, my blog-niche would be UPSC but it’ll entail multiple topics like news related to economics, science and tech, ecology and environment, polity etc.

    Revert asap bro.

    1. Harsh Agrawal

      @Aman
      Since your target audience is defined, you can have it under one blog.

  12. Aakash Waghmare

    Also, a multi-topic blog never helps to concentrate. It’s alway’s say “this is remaining” “that is remaining.” This is not pretty well, But if you have a one topic blog then you can search, concentrate, modify, and can make a great blog.

  13. Valia

    Thanks! I was thinking of starting a multi-topic blog, but after reading this, I think it’s best that I keep my blog limited to one topic. Very informative article.

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