It’s no secret. I have a LOT of blogs. From Roni’s Weigh to GreenLiteBites, FitBloggin’ to BlogToLose and even here at SkinnyMinnyMedia, I have spread myself all over cyberspace. Sometimes I look at other bloggers and envy their one stop shop approach to blogging. They have one domain name, one home base and one blog to manage. Me, on the other hand, have 5 and it’s getting quit ridiculous but my reasoning has some logic behind it. Let me give a short as possible history.

It all started with Roni’s Weigh (which actually used to be called WeightWatchen.) When I started blogging I had no intention of starting a business, monetizing, going to conferences or even learning blogging software. I simply coded a few HTML pages to track my progress while attempting to lose weight, again.

Soon I become preoccupied with the site. Archiving my journey. Posting progression pictures. Interacting with the few people who stumbled across my humble site. I started posting more frequently. Sharing ideas, recipes, tips. I decided my small static site needed to be more dynamic so I took the leap and installed WordPress on my server. At first I hated it but then I started to see the advantages. I added categories, and pages. My site was organized and easy to navigate. It was fun to blog and I was getting more and more readers.

I started to post recipes on Roni’s Weigh and then something hit me. What if there were people out there interested in my recipes but could care less about my weight lose and vice versa. I should create a new site just for recipes. That way people could decide which of the two they wanted to read and I could diversify. One would be all recipes and the other all my weight loss thoughts.

So that’s what I did and GreenLiteBites was born.

Around the same time I was playing around with WordPress MU and hosting a few blog for others that were interested in blogging but didn’t want the overhead of hosting, or domain name registration or even finding readers. Why not start a community of bloggers to make it easy for them to find one another? So that’s what I did and after a few hiccups, BlogToLose was born.

Meanwhile as I was actually earning some money with the blogs I decided it was time to get official and create a business entity to house all of these projects. I registered SkinnyMinnyMedia as an LLC and soon started this blog. Mostly to answer some of the more technical questions I was getting about blogging and to give me a blogging outlet for my geek side without having to post tech cartoons (which I love) or posts about blogging on my weight loss blog.

More recently I took the leap to run the first ever FitBloggin’ conference and it needed it’s own blog for conference news and information. Now I’m in the process and turning that into an informative blog specifically for those interested in blogging in the health and wellness space.

So if you ever wondered how a simple static weight loss journal turned into a 5 blog company, now you know. It was a very organic reactive type of progression. Do I wish I had only one blog to manage and maintain? sometimes. However I think there are so advantages and disadvantages to diversifying your blogging efforts. Especially if you are into a few different niches (weight loss, food, blogging) as I am.

Pros of Blog Diversification

Stronger niche based blogs.

GreenLiteBites is a good example of this as it only contains posts about food. That’s it. My readers and subscribers aren’t all of a sudden going to get a surprise post about a movie I saw last night. It’s all food all of the time.

Multiple Monetizing channels.

If you decide to go with ad networks you now have multiple blogs allowing you to choose the ad network that’s right for each one. For example I use BlogHer Publishing Network here on SkinnyMinnyMedia, RGN on Roni’s Weigh and I’m currently negotiating with Foodbuzz for GreenLiteBites.

Increased pageviews.

When marketing your blogs one of the first things potential advertisers or clients want to know is you monthly pageview figures. With multiple blogs that number is going to be greater. I track the pageveiws of each blog separately but also use the combined number to show potential clients my reach.

Cross pollination.

Using one blog to drive traffic to the other and vice versa. I do this between Roni’s Weigh and GreenLiteBites all the time. I’ll post a recipe on GreenLiteBites as it is my food blog and then when I talk about what I ate on Roni’s Weigh I simply link over. Having one successful blog allows you to market your other projects. Only when it makes sense, of course.

Cons of Blog Diversification

More work.

It’s a simple matter of multiplication. Now instead of one blog where you are managing SPAM, moderating comments, writing posts, taking pictures, upgrading, etc, etc, etc, you are doing it for two. Or in my case, 5. There is no way around it more blogs equals more work.

Niche overlap.

This may not be a problem for everyone but I find since some of my niches are close, for example weight loss and lite cooking, sometimes I find that I want to post about the same things on both blogs. Choosing where to post what and what makes the most sense can sometimes get overwhelming.

No home base.

Sometimes I feel having more then one blog I’m diluting my personal brand. It’s like I’m in the middle of an identity crisis. Am I Roni of GreenLiteBites or Roni of Roni’s Weigh? Where do I direct people when they ask if I have a blog. With multiple blogs you can easily spread yourself too thin. It’s why I created RoniNoone.com and didn’t make it a blog. Just simply a place I can direct people so they can see all projects I’m involved in.

The choice to create and manage multiple blogs has a lot to do with your intentions. If you are interested in starting another blog or are currently managing more then one, here are a few links that may come in handy…

• Tips for Managing Multiple Blogs
• Starting Multiple Blogs
• 6 Step Guide to Manage Multiple Blogs Efficiently
• How I Manage Multiple Blogs – Part 1
• How I Manage Multiple Blogs – Part 2

I know I’m not the only multiple blog owner out there so I’m curious what others think. And those of you who are blogging under one roof, have you considered expanding? What’s your take on Blog Diversification?