Synchronous (adj)
1. occurring at the same time; coinciding in time; contemporaneous; simultaneous.
2. going on at the same rate and exactly together; recurring together.
I get a lot of ideas. Some of them are good ideas, some of them are bad ideas, and some of them I’ve yet to put to the test. In fact I’ve probably got as many as 20 ideas for different websites and blogs just sitting in my idea bank at the moment.
Having a lot of ideas can be a blessing and a curse. Obviously the good part is that you’re constantly being inspired and energised by new ideas, but one of the bad parts is that it can be very frustrating knowing that you’ve got so many potentially good ideas waiting for you to action.
When that frustration, or simply the excitement of a new idea, takes a person over then sometimes these pent up ideas get put into action all at once. I call this “synchronous blogging”, when a blogger has multiple blog projects all progressing at the same rate.
So why is synchronous blogging bad? Well lets lay out a hypothetical situation to illustrate the perils of synchronous blogging.
Imagine there are 10 things that need to be done before a blog will earn its first dollar. (Yes I know in reality it is more than 10, this is a simplified example).
Some of those 10 things are big tasks, some are small tasks, but each takes roughly a set amount of time – for example installing WordPress, designing a theme, configuring plugins, writing the first content, etc etc.
Synchronous blogging is when you launch multiple blog projects and progress each one at the same rate. If you launch 3 different blogs you will install WordPress 3 times, then design 3 themes, and so on.
Overall your progress towards that first dollar is taking longer – 3 times as long in this case, and longer if you happen to launch even more blogs together.
Building a successful blog is hard enough without making it even harder by launching multiple blogs at once. One of the biggest killers of a new blog is when the owner gets over the initial wave of enthusiasm and realises that its going to take time and effort to be successful. They get discouraged by the apparent lack of progress and quit.
Some blog ideas are time sensitive – for example a couple of years ago some blogs dedicated to Twitter were launched and they managed to establish themselves as authorities during the time that Twitter was becoming popular. Launching a Twitter blog today would be a lot harder.
On the other hand, launching a blog about gardening or photography is less time sensitive. These are mature, well-established topic areas that you can enter at nearly any stage and build a successful site without having to worry about missing a big wave of hype.
For these types of topics you’re better off launching one project at a time and concentrating all of your efforts until it is properly established and becoming successful. You will get there sooner if it is the only blog that you need to configure, write content for, promote, and so on.
Once you build one successful blog and it moves into more of an ongoing management phase requiring less time and effort you can take that experience and leverage any income that the site is earning to launch your next blog.
Lets call that asynchronous blogging.
Since most bloggers are time poor and running their blogs in their free time it makes sense to use your limited time to build up one successful blog first rather than struggle with several sites at once. Give your first blog the opportunity to be great before you start your next idea.
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Thanks, I needed to hear this today! I’ve been toying with the idea of starting another blog, and even though I want it to be more of a personal type blog, after reading this I think I need to put some more of my very limited time into growing my current blog. I still don’t have all the kinks ironed out.
I have done this, and it definitely is a lot of work. Usually what happens is one starts to do ok, so the other one just get put on the backburner – never to see the light of day again!
Wow..That’s really are wonderful tips..I was finding the same content because I am trying to open a new blog site on relations and positive thoughts other than my recent site. Thanks for sharing these tips..Hope to open my new blog soon :)
Man, how did you know me?? Is this just a blogger thing because I think we all have a tendency to do the idea diarrhea thing!
Hi Paul, I learned this lesson the hard way.
When I first started blogging I started with 2 blogs. One was a personal blog and the other was a blog for my business. And I blogged daily on both for the first year.
In some ways I’m very happy I did this, because it helped me define my niche much faster than with a single blog. And I also saw first hand how 2 related blogs can add lots of synergy to your online presence.
At the end of the first year I encountered a problem: I had too many opportunities and I decided to stop blogging on one of the blogs temporarily and to focus on crafting a stronger presence with one of the blogs.
Now that I have clarity with the blog I continued to develop, I’m now ready to go back and re-start the blog I had put aside. And I know exactly what I want to do with this second blog.
Guilty as charged. Boy do I wish I could follow your advice. But I’m too far in now. I got at least one too many blogs and not enough spunk to give any of them up. After reading this at least I know that I’m not alone.
Thank you.
I am guilty of this. I have 4 blogs. I spend most of the time Evolutionary designs, but I also have a gardening blog. It is not as successful, then again I do not spend as much time on it. I basically only write on it once or twice a month. Its mostly for my use so I do not really care if it gets traffic on it. Eventually I will start writing more on it and get guest writers to post. I also started another gardening project for a friend, but she and her writer friend backed out. So the site is sitting there. I plan to find some volunteer writers to start writing for me. Once I get some regular writers I will spend more time on that site.
Great insight! I’ve been tempted to start another blog but my main one is gaining steam so I need to focus now more than ever. Thanks for the reminder!