To theme or not to theme?

You see the word ‘blog’ a lot these days. It seems like everyone has a blog, from grandmothers to garden supply stores. What started out as a few bored geeks posting online diaries has rapidly grown into a phenomenon that’s difficult to describe.

Just what constitutes a blog? Can a series of posts about a company’s product, peppered with links and keywords and SEO terms, really be considered in the same category as a thirteen year old’s MySpace journal written entirely in bad haiku? With such a range of options out there, it can be tough to decide what kind of a blog you’re going to have. Of course your blog can just be a chronicle of what you have for breakfast each day, but unless you’re a very good writer (or eat really weird stuff), you’re going to have to provide more than that if you want to build a readership.

Themes are good: cat blog, car blog, photo blog. Working within a framework can help keep your ideas flowing, and it gives a consistent feel to your site. Plus, once you write about a subject enough, people start to consider you an expert. After a year of reading other knitting sites, posting links to new knitting stitches and interviewing knitting celebrities, your blog will be the go-to site for knitters.

If you’re worried about driving readers away by becoming specialized, consider how many people like reading about baseball, or books, or food, versus how many people know enough about your life to want to read about it. Also, a theme helps readers remember you. Readers who care about baseball will bookmark your baseball blog and make a mental note to check back regularly.

Of course, you might be fascinating. Sometimes your location alone makes your life worth reading, such as the popular Where Is Raed blog Salam Pax posted from Baghdad a few years ago. But most of us need an extra edge to make us stand out.

Some examples of bloggers who write on a theme. (Not all of these are still posting.)

Zembla: a baseball blog (mostly). After a few years of posting sports entries, this author got a gig writing for ESPN Magazine.

Irony Central’s parenting blog. After writing this, the author got a book deal.