If you have decided that one blog doesn’t suit your goals: perhaps you want to write about more than what is included on your niche-specific blog or don’t want to include information that may impact the long-time readers on your most popular, or first site, it may be time to think about beginning another blog(s).

For many, the transition to blogging on multiple blogs from a single blog can be a difficult one, however it doesn’t have to become stressful.  The key aspect to remember is that both quantity and quality should be evenly distributed between the sites, so that if you decide to link to the new site form your old blog, there won’t be a huge transition for readers who may want to subscribe to the new blog.

First off, be sure that you will have the time needed to post on both blogs on a regular schedule.  Don’t neglect a blog unless you know that it is heading down the path of failure.  You can adopt a strategy of posting every other day on one blog and switch to full-time posting on the other, if it suits your schedule/needs.

Secondly, keep everything organized.  This may not necessarily mean plugins or themes integrated on the front end or back end, but how you style posts.  If you are able to maintain a similar style on all your sites, it will be easier to replicate the results or tweak them to improve performance on these sites.  Along the same lines, if you have related concepts, you can include them as sub domains of your main blog, which reduces the cost and time needed to completely start a new blog up from scratch.

Set up different email accounts for each blog, typically beginning with a “contact” and “advertising” email for each domain added.

Stick with your main marketing and growth goals.  If you stray from them, you’ll find yourself less determined to continue working on your dream goals.

Finally, a line to remember: don’t let anything get in your way of your personal goals.

Other key factors involved when managing multiple blogs:

• There may be a point that you realize that one blog will not last and isn’t worth continuing.  From this experience, you’ll learn how to cope with failure and (hopefully) grow from that mistake.
• Don’t drop a blog simply because you want to start another one.  You should have a well-developed and established site before you even think about starting another blog.
• Having more than one blog increases the amount of time that you need to spend working on them - either creating content or promoting - on a daily basis.  There are no “free rides” in the blogging industry.
• Spreading content across more than one blog can help you become more productive and determined to accomplish more, plus it helps increase revenue if you are looking to do so.
• Multiple blogs will allow you to express yourself in more ways, since your hobbies/likes aren’t confined to one blog.

Blogging is a type of profession that no matter how much experience you had (writing, marketing, web design, etc.), you learn more and are able to reproduce your results month after month.  New bloggers are constantly looking up to you, seeing what you bring to the table that they do not, and from there, they adapt their blog with the tactics that you have used.

When you think about the leaders in the blogosphere, they have effectively captivated their reader group and have allowed other bloggers to take in the skills and “secrets” they have already learned, in hopes that they grow their own experience (and profits) from doing so.  Even if you don’t agree with their systems, the platform that they are creating has a huge influence on the way others and yourself blog.  

The platform, or combination of services, features, posts, or inspiration that the bloggers convey to readers are the leading characteristics of creating a “power” blog.  When readers visit your blog, can they see that you offer services beyond blog posts - forums, directories, e-books, consulting/reviewing, a job board, and so on?  Or, are they greeted with a cut-and-dried blog?  

Each day you blog, prepare a method for tackling the problem of keeping visitors on your site and maintaining your readership.  If at all possible, invest some money into “premium” plugins, site additions, or other types of services available which will allow your readers to take more away from your blog.

Create a sidebar area that showcases the services you offer or add a few to the header navigation bar.  The main purpose of this is to place your services (whether paid or free) in front of new and demanding visitors.  

Getting back to the idea of a platform, essentially what you are trying to achieve is building a community within your site that will allow others to adapt your ideas and methods on their own blog.  Although this notion may appear like copying or reproducing someone else’s thoughts and work, it is done everyday, or there wouldn’t be any successful people left in the world.

Your “Platform” Will:

• Show others that you are devoted and willing to spend time creating content that was primarily designed to help readers (and not solely benefit you).
• Allow others to partake in these services and adapt them to fit their own needs/incorporate them on their own blog.
• Help connect your blog and services as an internal network of services.

Competition is the driving force that everyone faces. It is a natural, positive force as long as you don’t take actions that adversely affect a particular party. How do you deal with and compete with your rivals when blogging?

Healthy competition and analyzing who your competition is will greatly impact the success of your blog. Beginning with the ability to see what others in your niche are blogging about to the ways they are successfully building their blog will enable you to develop a strategy if you have no idea where to begin.

First, figure out what you’re blogging about. If you blog about random life events, your competition will be less defined than someone blogging about a specific topic, like web design. Place your blog first into a large category then into a few subcategories, which will help you later when it comes time to define your competition.

Secondly, determine your target audience. Indulge in your subscriber and traffic information, from the referred sites to how long visitors stay. You’ll find that the amount of time visitors say and their traffic patterns also helps to define what your blog habits and patterns are.

Once you have gathered a little background information on your blog, begin by using some keyword searches for the niche categories you have defined your blog as, and include “blog” if you find results are primarily traditional websites. Next, use blog directories such as Technorati to effectively analyze where you stand amongst your competition. Directories like these have been set up to help, not hinder your growth. Make the most of any category or organization system the service may provide to compare your blog to the others.

Finally, track the bloggers who are being talked about the most. What type of content and services are they providing to their readers that you aren’t?

While these three tips to discovering your competition are general, you can use your own method for deploying a new marketing strategy that fits your blog.

When thinking about the reasons why your blog can’t compete with the “big guys”, try innovating, re-strategizing, and providing more. Simple changes to your blog such as posting frequency will permit much faster growth. It’s easy for others to detect when you are following a strategy that is directly similar to another blog.

Think about all the ways you can benefit simply by developing a strategy that will allow you to compete with blogs much larger than yours.