Today on episode 46 we’ll be talking all about how to manage multiple blogs.
I own quite a few blogs, and will give you a breakdown on how it works on my end.
We’ll then talk about how we manage them here at TOTS.
Table of Contents
Managing Multiple Blogs – Sandbox To Success Episode 046
Our corporation is TOTS network. Thinking Outside the Sandbox is about business behind blogging and includes this podcast. We then have TOTS family, which is “real parents real advice”. It’s our number one traffic source at this time. I then have Fat Fitness Girl which is my passion project and also has it’s on.
We have City Family Farm, which is my partner’s personal blog and is currently under development. It’s all about her transition of going from a farm to the city.
We then have two new sites; Wise Grandma and Off Grid 101 which are affiliate sites. Update: We have added My Toy Plant and it’s corresponding Youtube channel as well.
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That’s a lot to manage on a day to day basis! How do we manage it? You can’t do it alone! It’s just not going to work.
If you’re a solo blogger and want to branch out and open additional blogs to include more topics or a different niche… you just can’t manage it alone. I’ve seen it happen time and time again. One of the blogs will suffer.
We only have so much time in a day, and so many resources. While you may start off strong, traffic and attention to one blog will soon suffer.
This isn’t to discourage you, but to give you fair expectations and tips on how to succeed.
Cat and I have been in business together for almost 4 years. We started TOTS and realized we wanted to talk about family and keep it separate.
We then started TOTS Family. Working with someone else can be difficult at times. You need to split the income, and approve ideas with each other.
How many hours a week will be put in, or will you divide it by task? How will you share income? You can also hire out!
Hire Out
There are lots of VA groups where you can get high-quality writers for a good price. We have several writers, but we also use people for specific task and one off things.
Time is something that’s very valuable when blogging, and must be well managed.
I suggest making a schedule and identifying what you will work on which day. That’s something I’m not the best at, but will be striving to improve this summer.
Get Organized
We also only have one email address to manage all blogs, and then use filters and tags to organize it.
We use Google Drive and Spreadsheets and we literally have a doc for everything. Contributors pay, when things are do, affiliate codes, passwords, etc.
Have A Goal for Each Blog
For TOTS family, we share family oriented information that’s always teaching someone something.
When a contributor starts, I can set clear expectations on what kind of content we like. We also have a post profile sheet I give to writers which specifics how we want our blogs to look.
It includes info on images, text fonts, use of headers, etc.
If you think of these once and write them down, you reap all the benefits and rewards of having them organized.
This is good for people that only have one blog two! A specific routine saves time and makes you more efficient overall. Work smarter, not harder.
If you’re adding another blog and treating it as an experiment, know when to cut the cord. Some things just don’t work out and that’s okay.
Set a timeframe to accomplish specific goals and if you are unable to, cut the cord. Many of us get so emotionally invested that we treat blogging as a hobby rather than a business.
The time investment away from your family gets very expensive, even if you aren’t spending a lot of money.
There’s something about building your own business and thinking it’ll get better in the future. Sometimes, it doesn’t… and it won’t all be worth it in the end.
Once you start two blogs, you can go to three, etc.
I hope that gave you a good glimpse of how we do things here, and some things to think about if you’re thinking of starting an additional blog.
This is not to discourage you from starting a new one, but to give you realistic expectations and help you succeed.
Keep in mind that if you are wanting to just change niches, rebranding your primary blog may also be an option!
Until next time, thanks for listening to the Sandbox to Success podcast, with your host: Katrina M. Thom.
If you like what you just heard, leave us a message at ITunes or Stitcher.
We would also love to hear what you have to say. Use the hashtag #totspodcast to connect with us on twitter. Don’t forget to check out the show notes, which can be found at www.totsbusiness.com.
Join us next time for another edition of the Sandbox to Success podcast. Have an AWESOME day!
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