Starting a personal blog can have a lot of benefits. It can be a way to organize your thoughts. It can be a way to explore what’s important to you. It can improve your communication skills. It can expand your network of personal and professional connections.
I started my first personal blog in late 2008. I had been reading blogs for a few years. Most about the things I was interested in, but there was so much information that I went down a several rabbit holes. When I decided to start my own blog I thought about topics to write about.
On one hand you don’t want to limit yourself on what to write about. But on the other hand I find that setting limitations can provide some clarity and focus for what you’re doing. And categories can do that for a personal blog.
I would aim for about 3-5 categories for your personal blog. Start there. If you go beyond 5, start looking for what you can remove as you add new ones. If it gets too long you start making it difficult for readers to understand what you’re all about and it starts to hinder your focus.
Here are a few tips for narrowing down the categories…
1. What Do You Do In Your Free Time?
When you’re not getting paid to do something it’s a good indication that you have an interest in the activity. People typically have a lot of dreams. They dream of writing a novel. They dream of starting a business. They dream about exercising. But we rarely put action behind the dreams. We might put in a few hours, but after that the luster wears off and the work begins.
Look at what you’ve been doing for some time. This is a good indication that it could lead to one or two categories for your personal blog. Maybe it’s a sport or hobby. Maybe it’s a cultural topic. Maybe it’s something in the medical field or something with your family.
Pay attention to what you spend your time on.
2. What Brings Fulfillment To Your Life?
Fulfillment is more than joy. There are probably things that bring you joy that won’t necessarily bring you fulfillment. And many times the things that bring you fulfillment won’t always bring you joy. I find that to be true with one of my areas of fulfillment: golf. It certainly brings me joy at times, but there are many times where the challenge is great and the frustration is high.
But that makes the fulfillment level higher when I’m able to push through a time of challenge and frustration. The joys and the accomplishment mean more when it’s not just enjoyable all the time.
3. What Are You Good At?
One of my favorite TV shows of all time was Dirty Jobs. The host, Mike Rowe, often talks about all the life lessons he learned while meeting all of the successful people that he had on the show. These were folks that were doing things that many others wouldn’t think of doing. But they were good at it. Many were making very good livings in these dirty jobs.
Mike found that people were very prideful when they were good at something.
Think about what you’re good at. This could lead to a discovery of something you can blog about. If you’re confident in what you do then you are likely confident in writing about the topic. You’ll likely feel that you have something to offer in the area.
It can lead to some really successful blogging.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully these questions and their answers can lead to about 3-5 categories for your new personal blog. This doesn’t mean that you can’t change categories in the future. But it is a good limit to have on yourself when you’re starting out. It gives you focus. It gives you a starting point so that you can build the habit of writing regular blog posts.