Most of what I've read about good blogging practices relates to staying on topic and keeping content relevant to a particular theme. To grow reader subscriptions and increase repeat traffic, these "good blogging practices" say that to help readers feel the blog is an interesting resource, the blog should have new content that stays "on topic". If readers feel the blog is an interesting resource, they are more inclined to return or to subscribe to the blog. A good portion of my posts (maybe 70%) are technology related and for someone interested in only my technology related content, I imagine the personal or "off-topic" posts must be quite a nuisance.
When I started this blog, I did it because I needed a place to write. I had lots of stuff I wanted to document; lots of solutions to problems that I wanted to share and make available to whomever may be searching (even if that person was myself, as has been the case many times). While I feel I write a lot of reference-worthy material, this is also my personal blog. It's the place I write about activities, travels, thoughts, experiences, and ideas. As I begin think more carefully about what I'm writing, I feel myself being torn between mixing personal and not-so-personal content.
I feel that splitting my blog into two separate blogs (this one remaining my personal blog and the second being only for my techy reference-material-like posts) would allow me to be more creative and expressive on both topics. I won't feel as though my techy posts are too long and technical (for a personal blog) and at the same time I'll feel free to post as often as I like about more personal topics.
What do you think? Does segmenting my blog into to separate blogs make sense?
That depends entirely on your preference, not that of your readers.
For this reader’s opinion, however, I prefer a hodgepodge of information when I’m reading an individual’s blog. How else can I expect to learn about an individual, y’know?
If you were a corporation, I’d expect to see nothing but strings of random buzzwords. You, Raam, are a person, and I thusly expect to see the meat and grit.
I wasn’t really thinking of removing all talk about technology from this blog, but rather moving all howto-type articles to a separate blog. A large portion of my life (actually, that’s an understatement) revolves around technology, so I would definitely continue to write about it here — it would just be on a more informal level.
But I do see your point. It has made me realize how easily I could destroy the whole point to this being a personal blog. If I do decide to start another blog, I’ll be sure to make sure this one maintains a “hodgepodge of information” and its “meat and grit”. 🙂