Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The only reason I am even mentioning “topic selection” now is because you are going to
be buying your domain name soon, and you might want to make it related to the topic you
intend to be writing about (although it is certainly not necessary).
I would suggest going for a brandable domain that is somewhat generic in nature, and only
putting the topic in your domain if you are absolutely certain that that is what you want
your blog to be about.
You can also simply buy a domain like
www.YourName.com
, without a specific topic in
mind, and let your blog surprise you with the direction it takes. If (for example) at some
point over the course of your blogging you realize that you love to write about photography
and that is what your readers are most responsive to, you can always title your blog “Your
Name: My Musings on Photography” and eventually brand your blog as an authority on
photography topics.
Other blogs simply write about a variety of topics and the readership is loyal because they
like the writer's style and voice - that's perfectly ok too.
A couple of examples that come to mind are Tim Ferriss's
ht-
tp://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/
and Maddox's
http://maddox.xmission.com/
(al-
though there are countless examples of successful blogs that don't have a specific topic).
Tim Ferris has a blog that spans a very wide range of topics, yet his following is huge and
every single one of this blog posts has a tremendous amount of comments and shares. He
has stated (contrary to popular belief) that his blog has helped his book sales much more
than his book sales have helped his blog growth. And his topics have been on the top of the
New York Times best seller list for years. How is that for the power of blogging?
Maddox has a blog that is a collection of critical rants about things he doesn't like. The
website didn't make any money for years, except for an online store selling t-shirts related
to his website, and that only made him enough to “stay above water.” However, his massive
readership ended up leading to a book deal, and his first book became a New York Times
best seller. He now has two published topics!
This is what I mean when I say that topic selection is not critical to success and that blog-
ging can lead to unexpected opportunities.
