As noted at PoliBlog, Professor Stephen Bainbridge has begun a concept that he calls “a blog magazine in three parts,” whereby he has segmented his blogs on three distinct topics.*
It is an interesting idea, and something I have pondered for Fruits and Votes, given the evident segmentation of the readership on my “core” topics (and my various peripheral ones).** I’d be curious to know what readers think. (Not that I would know how to implement the idea at the moment; in fact, Professor Bainbridge himself is asking his readers for advice on how to fine-tune the concept. I wish he was seeking that advice in public comments, rather than via private e-mail.)
* Congratulations also to Prof. Bainbridge on his appointment to an endowed chair at UCLA, as announced at his Business Associations blog. His other blogs are on wine and a general journal.
** On the other hand, Althouse suggests that mixed-topic blogs are better, though concedes that the concept may appeal to those “who want to write about their professional subject in a style that they worry is not entertaining enough for lay readers.” Maybe that applies to F&V? On the other hand, this segmentation concept is what I have already tried to accomplish with the categories (“orchard blocks” listed down the left sidebar), most of which also have their own sudomains, for example:
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http://fruits.laderafrutal.com
http://canada.fruitsandvotes.com
http://israel.fruitsandvotes.com
http://baseball.laderafrutal.com
(etc.; “LaderaFrutal” & “FruitsandVotes” are generally aliases.)
I am not sure the extent to which visitors use the categories or are even aware of the subdomains, though the latter are a very useful way for me to direct someone (especially my students) to a set of posts/plantings that are on a specific topic, and in a way that is easy to remember. I have created a “mshugart.net” domain, which should be even easier (e.g. japan.mshugart.net), but I have not made it functional yet. Maybe during winter-solstice break.
[This may, or then again may not, be my first article with more text in footnotes than in main text!]
Mixed-topic blogs are much better. I hope you don’t segment.
Seed planted by L-girl — 26 November 2006 @ 13:57
I know this is pretty late, but I also would favor keeping this mixed-topic. If there’s a demand for it, maybe you could offer a variety of RSS feeds that exclude some of the less popular side topics.
Seed planted by fling93 — 08 December 2006 @ 18:41
Resistance is Futile
There was a point at which I shared Ann Althouse’s view on a unified blog versus a multi-page approach. And I still think that starting out a site with multiple pages would probably be problematic. However, with an established presence, there is a certain logic to compartmentalizing elements of one’s blog. As such, these changes answer a question that Matthew Shugart asked a while back.
Scion grafted by PoliBlog ™: A Rough Draft of my Thoughts » — 14 December 2006 @ 11:56