The old adage is “You are what you eat.” But I think you are what you blog, too.
My own blogging experience is an example, although not a particularly strong one. I am a personal blogger, so my blog by nature is an extension of me. But I can generally be counted on to talk about beauty, travel and food with a side of work thrown in. It fits exactly in with how I would describe myself: I am a young professional with a passion for travel and an interest in food and beauty.
Of course, my blog wasn’t always how it is now, nor am I the same as I was when I first started blogging. My blog has grown and changed with me, and I’ve even added a little disclaimer on some of my older posts to point out that while I would never disown any of the content on my blog, not all of it is an accurate reflection of who I am today. (Thanks Jem for the “old post” notice tweak!) I used to be really into movies and I have a lot of movie reviews in my archives. Now? I watch maybe two, three movies a year. I used to scour the internet for “internet finds” and would post about them; now I do link love posts that focus on content rather than finds that are gimmicky in nature.
Where I think this “you are what you blog” business comes into play the most is when it comes to niche blogging. With niche blogging, it’s often seen as though food bloggers can only blog about food, personal finance about personal finance, fashion about fashion, whatever. Perhaps that’s all the blogger wants to blog about, and that’s more than fine. But I’m willing to bet that the blogger behind the niche blog has more interests than just one, even if that one interest is far bigger than the rest. Coincidentally, Girl Meets Debt addressed this recently in her post titled “Getting to Know the ‘Person’ Behind the Personal Finance Blog.”
I follow a wide variety of blogs, both personal and niche, and sometimes I wish I could get to know the niche bloggers I follow better. Sometimes I feel out of place leaving a comment on a niche blog, even if it is totally relevant (not that I ever leave irrelevant comments, ahem!) and would add to the conversation. Other times I’ll come across really neat communities that host events and programs and am unsure of whether or not I should sign up/participate because the participating bloggers can relate to each other much more easily than I can due to the fact that they have a blog in the same niche.
I suppose labels are like that in real life. “Oh, she’s obsessed with the latest fashion trends” or “Yeah, he’s really into healthy eating.” But I feel like in real life, it’s easier to get to know the different dimensions and layers that make up a person and his or her interests. In the blogging world, it’s much more restrictive because each person can filter what they choose to share with the online world.
Hi, I’m Ellie. I found your blog via 20sb this morning. I like what I’m reading!
This is so on point and something I’ve been thinking about lately. I too am a personal blogger and I feel like I’m struggling to find my voice, as though I’m covering too much ground in writing about *all* the things that interest me. I understand the appeal of niche blogging, but you’re right, you don’t often get to know the blogger behind them. Good post!
I wish there were less niche blogs out there, to be honest. It is very frustrating to only hear about a person’s finances or diet. It’s interesting, don’t get me wrong, but I totally feel you on wanting to hear more.
“Wanting more” – yes. YES. This so much! Most of my favorite blogs are in the personal category, but my favorite niche blogs are the ones that also talk about other aspects of their life on at least a semi-regular basis. It can be done, and when done well it really makes such a difference for a non-niche reader to become interested in that blog.
I also feel like there are so many ways X topic can be covered in a niche blogosphere before it gets repetitive if you don’t put a personal spin on it.
I’m so new to blogging that I don’t even know if I could categorize myself into a “niche” yet but with a name like Girl Meets Debt, I guess I fall into personal finance by default lol. I do however like to emphasize the personal in personal finance.
I’m no money expert by any means, I’m just telling my story of a girl who made some poor financial decisions in her 20s and scrambling to fix them before I turn 30 soon. Yikes. Thanks for the link Manda
I don’t really enjoy the niche blogs. Some are nice, but I feel awkward and out of place when I comment on them. Now I don’t really comment on them as much, because so many that I used to follow have grown to be less personal and more about making money off of their niche.
There aren’t as many personal blogs anymore, and I wish that there were.
I guess some could say we have a “niche blog” as well since our site emphasizes beauty and fashion trends. Niche blogs like food and fitness blogs are great, I love those, or just personal ones too!
I know I’ve been defined as a PF blogger (sometimes even self-labelled) but I think that most people don’t know what I blog about. I certainly do not talk about finances above personal life choices. Nor do I talk about investments or how to save. I try to keep my blog personal and an extension of myself like you said although I do get OCD and obsessive about stuff… So I guess people may think I’m niced into personal finances. o___o?
Yes, yes, and yes! I agree with everything and all the comments made thus far and actually wrote about it earlier this week (although your post does a much better job at articulating it).
I was trying to break into the PF Blogger niche to the point where I started to hate my blog some days because of these self-imposed limits. I like blogging about PF things, but that’s a very new development, and only a small fraction of who I am.
Happy to know I’m not the only one out there that agrees
I don’t know how I feel about niche blogs, haha! I do agree with you, though.. sometimes I feel uncomfortable commenting on them because I’m not exactly sure what I should be saying. For example, should I be including personal comments on that or should I just comment on what they have? D:
I like personal blogs way better than niche ones. They’re a lot easier to relate to! I always find something I can agree with so my comments will be more than short phrases like “aw, that’s cute!”
I’ve noticed that there are a lot of blogs out there that talk about a certain subject.. I don’t really mind because I hardly ever visit those. I try finding more personal blogs because it’s more interesting for me and i can relate sometimes.
This was definitely a good read! I think “you are what you blog” is definitely true in most cases. For me, my blog is a huge mess now. It had an identity crisis where it (“it” as if it had a mind its own hehe) wanted to be a blog on just about food, or just about arts & crafts, then fashion, etc etc. Now, I decided to just put all of my interests (and I have a ton) all together in one blog, even though it may seem chaotic and unpredictable. I think that describes me well. Hell, when I was in college, I change my major over five times. ><
I try to keep my blog as honest and open as possible, but I inevitably leave out huge parts of my life by never blogging about work and by rarely blogging about my family. But I don’t think I’m any easier to get to know offline. I’m just as filtered and layered, which I suppose is my own fault. More often than I would like, I’m surprised by how those around perceive me and by how different that perception is from how I really am (how I perceive myself).
I like personal and niche blogs, but I like them separate. I’m not a fan of personal entries on niche blogs (ex. if people start writing about their family on a blog that’s supposed to be about typography – I don’t like those entries and ignore them).
That idea of “you are what you blog” sounds interesting. This easily works for those who are niche bloggers. I really don’t know what I am since I blog about personal stuff… Unless that means I am a person who likes to go out and “is a total nerd at school” or something like that.
It’s good to hear that your blog grew! The benefit of it is that you can look back to see how you were and what you were up to in the past. Niche blogs are useful if you’re trying to look up a particular subject.
I always prefer personal blogs since it’s easier to connect with the people behind them. The only nice niche blogs are the ones who don’t do it for the popularity.
Take care!
I keep morphing in and out of different niches. For a while a few years back, I spent a LOT of time talking about personal finance. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been talking a lot about travel. At times, I’ve talked a lot about professional development. JW has always been a personal blog – and whatever I blog about is a reflection of whatever the main theme of my life is at that particular point.
It may make the narrative somewhat haphazard at times, especially if I’ve gained an audience based on one particular theme, but I wouldn’t be true to myself if I wasn’t just talking about whatever was most important to me at a particular point in time.
I completely agree with you. I just secretly hope that people like my “voice” and that no matter what I talk about, they at least find semi-interesting. I think it’s more about personality for me. If someone has personality and it clearly shines through, I don’t care what they talk about; whatever it is, I’ll enjoy it.
That’s true. You really are what you blog… It’s more that I am interested in blogging about money, but I have since expanded that to life, which is so vague, it’s brilliant. I never run out of material.
I have to go back and look at my blog now and see what it says about me.. with more subtext than what I literally say about me.. lol.
Interesting post!
-V