Single subject weblog

December 7, 2001 2:58 PM

The Joy of Soup. Yum. With so many weblogs about, is focusing on a single subject the way to go?
posted by feelinglistless to General Weblog-Related at 2:58 PM (21 comments total)

I assume that when you write "the way to go" you are referring to a method that would make one's weblog "successful" or "popular" by cornering the market on a specific search engine phrase, even if it is something as dull as soup. I think that most webloggers would agree that they are already focusing on a single subject: themselves. The fun of a weblog is usually the personality behind it. As for cornering a specific subject to be noticed by the general blog reading public and be knighted an A-lister, who cares? I've kept a blog for a little over a year now and no one really reads it but me and some of my close friends. (But then I'm the kind of person who talks to myself while I'm alone in my car.)

"The way to go" with a blog is whichever way is you.
posted by eyeballkid at 3:19 PM on December 7, 2001

soup is not dull.
posted by modofo at 3:44 PM on December 7, 2001

Nice comment eyeballkid — the way* should be determined by the author. If the goal is to maintain a site that has lots of traffic, I suggest a something related to porn, Brittney Spears, professional sport, etc.

*As to building traffic, what better source is there than Lao Tzu?

The way begets one
The one begets two
The two begets three
And the three beget the myriad creatures

posted by sylloge at 4:20 PM on December 7, 2001

May your blog always be well-entaoed.
posted by Kafkaesque at 4:55 PM on December 7, 2001

And the three beget the myriad creatures

This is the best argument I've yet heard for not having a threesome.
posted by kindall at 5:42 PM on December 7, 2001

Oh, don't be such a killjoy. It only rules out mixed threesomes, anyway.
posted by Su at 6:18 PM on December 7, 2001

Bacon!
posted by perplexed at 6:35 PM on December 7, 2001

I've set myself up with several weblogs lately - originally because I was writing stuff about the novel I'm working on, and then couldn't find those notes later - then discovered I sort of like it.

the same way that I've kept separate paper journals for personal s*** and design/work stuff, really.

would it be like a tv show crossover to 'blog about bacon soup?
posted by epersonae at 8:05 PM on December 7, 2001

well-entaoed

heeheehee.
posted by ColdChef at 8:50 PM on December 7, 2001

Porn? Check. Written about ocassionally.
Britney Spears? I have a minimum of 1 Britney post a week.
Professional sport? Bitching and moaning about the Redskins should count.

Damn it, Sylloge - by your estimation my blog should be the most visited site on the web.

Needs more goat porn.
posted by owillis at 12:51 AM on December 8, 2001

Focusing on one topic has been done. A blogger should only focus on one topic if that is his/her only interest. ...Or if s/he just wants to. It's rather short-sighted. It could improve one's hitcount, but it could also minimize an audience's interests. If one becomes an authority on... soup for example, word of mouth could be a benefit. However, if you're blogging just for hitcount... well, to each his own.
posted by ZachsMind at 9:11 AM on December 8, 2001

I started the Joy of Soup as an annex to my main blog because I wanted to talk about soup and I didn't think my regular readers would be all that interested. My original idea was that I would just link to the site and if anyone cared to follow up, they could just click over.
But The Soup took on a life of it's own as people started searching for actual soup recipes. What they found was me goofing around and talking about vintage dinnerware and old cookbooks. So I threw in some real recipes and then it got linked by serious food sites.
It doesn't get all that many hits, but the ones it gets are content-driven, not search-engine baiting.

posted by PD Susan at 3:19 PM on December 8, 2001

I love single subject blogs, like Eurotrash, devoted to the launching of the Euro currency. You wouldn't believe that wacky stunts they're doing to promote it, the shenanigans involved with all that cash stuffed under mattresses, and the difficult position of non-Euro countries that unofficially use a foreign currency that will disappear next year.
posted by Mo Nickels at 3:34 PM on December 8, 2001

epersonae:

you might be interested in reading doris lessing's the golden notebook, if you haven't done so already. the heroine/main character/protagonist/whatever you-choose-to-call-her of the novel is an author who keeps four separate notebooks, each detailing a different aspect of her life: one contains fiction in development; one details the nitty-gritty of her writing life (particularly her struggles with writer's block); one explores her changing political beliefs (she's a disillusioned member of the communist party); and one is a straight-ahead personal diary.

lessing builds a story around this character, but the bulk of the novel consists of a 'reprinting' of the notebooks so that the story is told in the character's own words — but through several different voices and perspectives created by the fragmentation of her existence into the four notebooks.

your mention of compartmentalizing your journals reminded me of it.

oh, and thanks for the bacon blog link, perplexed. christine has long been one of my favorite a-listers, but i haven't looked at her stuff in ages and i've never seen the bacon blog. i can't wait to go check it out. i'm assuming that bacon (one of my favorite gross things that i love to eat) + christine (the best of the a-listers) = awesomeness.
posted by mlang at 7:54 AM on December 10, 2001

thanks, mlang - that sounds fascinating! I just placed a hold on it at my local library.

y'know, I don't know whatever happened to that MeFi/MeTa book club thing, but it would be interesting to read books about diaries, or that are written in diary form, given our (presumed) interest in weblogging....
posted by epersonae at 8:30 AM on December 10, 2001

I made a fish chowder over the weekend, it was fantastic - three kinds of fish plus clams, creamy and peppery, with big ol' tater chunks to boot.

I didn't write about it, though - I just ate it. With some crusty bread. And a nice bardolino.
posted by UncleFes at 2:05 PM on December 10, 2001

Newsflash! Fes likes fish!

I can see the headlines now:

Disbelief Sweeps Across Aqua-Nation
· Poll: Fish Fear Fes More Than Even Walrus
· But Wonderchicken Sightings at All-Time Low
posted by mattpfeff at 2:26 PM on December 10, 2001

matt, those sounded almost exactly like the faux-headlines in the Sim City 2000 News Updates. If you had mentioned llamas it would have been perfect!
posted by Kafkaesque at 2:35 PM on December 10, 2001

Someone say fish? Llamas are too crunchy ...
posted by walrus at 5:48 AM on December 11, 2001

Newsflash! Fes likes fish!

in other news....

-Fes: "I'm not mad, I'm just somewhat curmudgeonly."

-Fes returns ball that accidently went in yard.

-Fes takes momentary break from complaining about government; takes deep breath, eats pop-tart, resumes.

-Fes refrains from discussing with self-proclaimed vegans how science has shown definitively that vegans have the nastiest farts.

-Fes' pants briefly not quite hiked up to nipples; beltline located "somewhere around the third rib, definitely miles north of the equator, though" say witnesses

-Fes called "Mr. Fes" rather than "Sir" by attractive mall clerk; Fes rejoices silently, foolishly believes that he's still attractive to young women, preens

-Mrs. Fes: Fes smiles in sleep during Sunday afternoon nap; could be indicative of latent good-naturedness, say scientists

See, I have depth.
posted by UncleFes at 8:13 AM on December 11, 2001

See, I have depth.

Newsflash!

Fes Going Deep
· Fish Fleeing For Shallower Waters
· Llama Swimming Rates at All-Time Low
posted by mattpfeff at 8:23 AM on December 11, 2001