It seems that whenever I make an off topic posts, I get a few people complaining. I’ve even received emails from readers saying that if I don’t keep the topic to making money online, they would stop reading my blog. I personally get a nice chuckle out of those emails because it’s clear the reader doesn’t understand this blog started as a personal blog to post about whatever was on my mind. If you check the blog categories, you’ll see that Make Money Online have 237 posts while Ramblings have 445 posts. The complaint does raise the question how often should you go off topic in your blog.
Are You Really Going Off Topic?
To me, none of my posts are off topic. Every posts I make fits one or more of the 12 categories I cover. However, many new readers discovered this blog because it’s known for helping people make money online and find it strange to see a restaurant review or a car post. I would like to think that these kinds of post add variety to the blog and help readers get to know me better. After all, this blog bears my name. When I first checked out Grace Cheng’s Forex blog, the first thing I did was find out more about Grace because the blog bears her name. If it was call ForexTrading.com, then I probably wouldn’t have done that.
The name of your blog will dictate a lot on how far and how often you can go off topic. The more specific the name is, the harder it is to go off topic.
Going Off Topic Gives Your More To Post
I always feel that a non-updated blog is a dead blog. If you cover a niche that is very narrow, it can be hard to post something new everyday. Given a choice between a reader seeing the same post or a new post when they visit, I take the new post every time. Writing a few off topic posts can not only give you more to write about, it will increase your traffic as well. Some of my highest commented posts have been ramblings posts.
Don’t Go Too Off Topic
While going off topic helps to create new content on your blog and keep your readers engaged, there is a limit on how far you can take it. Like I have stated, I keep all my posts within my 12 categories – mind you, one of the categories is call Ramblings, which pretty much allows me to talk about anything. 😈
While I am sure there are some readers who would prefer every posts to be about making money on the Internet, I feel that the majority of the readership read this blog for the total package. If that was not the case, then traffic and RSS count would be declining instead of setting new records.