Okay, people, I’m looking for opinions. I need to update the website, but I have small problem. I actually have multiple websites – the Cynical Woman blog at www.cynicalwoman.blogspot.com, my erotica website at www.helenehmadden.com, and the blog for The Adventures of Cynical Woman web comic at www.theadventuresofcynicalwoman.blogspot.com (and yes, I know I need to post a new cartoon! I’m working on it). That’s too many websites in my opinion. I can easily fold the web comic into the Cynical Woman blog, but I’m wondering if I should also combine the erotica blog as well, so that I’d only have to worry about one website and not two or three. The erotica blog and the Cynical Woman blog are sort of two different creatures. I don’t know if they’d work well together or not, so I need help deciding. Here are the reasons for and against combining ALL the websites/blogs.
Pros:
- Only one blog to deal with. I can easily write 3-4 blog posts a week… for one blog. Maintaining two blogs takes a lot more time and effort.
- The combined blog would more accurately reflect who I am. I’ve always billed myself as the “stay-at-home mom AND erotica writer,” and people remember that. It’s an accurate, and successful, branding of me as a writer.
- It’ll be easier to find me on the web. Rather than go to a couple of different sites to see what’s going on with me, you’ve got one stop shopping. I can post all my info on free reads, the cartoons, and the usual day-to-day lunacies in one place.
- More content. I’ve been holding back posting certain things here because I need something to post on the erotica blog. However, I don’t usually have a ton of stuff to post on the erotica blog. I do a lot more posting here than there, so the erotica blog looks pretty sparse. I wouldn’t have to worry about a sparse blog if I combined the erotica blog with this one.
- I already own www.cynicalwoman.com (and I would really like to replace the website that’s there with the CW blog, plus other stuff). I can easily redirect www.helenehmadden.com to that URL so that typing in either URL takes you to one spot.
Now the cons:
- Sexually explicit material. I’d like to post some free erotica reads and excerpts. Is this blog really suitable for that? Or do I need to keep it on a separate blog?
- Male nudes. One of the things I’d like to start doing is pin-up art. Male pin-up art (I’m a rabid feminist, remember). That would mean images of full frontal male nudity. Does it belong here, or again does it need it’s own forum in a separate blog?
Hmmm. Looking at my pros vs. my cons, I’m thinking maybe I should just combine the two blogs. When it comes to the explicit stuff, rather than put it right there in the blog, I can post a link to the stories or images in question. Then people can choose to follow the link or not.
Yeah, I think this will work. BUT I’m still interested in other people’s opinions. So give me some feedback! I’m hoping to get started on this in a couple weeks 😉 Thanks!
It's easier for you to keep up with ONE blog/site, and I bet it'll be easier for all your fans and friends to just have one site to go to as well ^_~
As you say, your cons are easily solved by linking to the explicit content instead of posting it directly on the main page.
Looking at it, your pros outweigh your cons, and it doesn't sound like taking care of the cons will create more work for you than having multiple seperate blogs.
I was going to say I thought three to two would be good, but reading your final paragraph, I'd have to say that three to one should be the easiest for you, and quite possibly us.
One blog with links to comics and art sounds good.
Mich, Gar, and Dwight,
Thank you! I think I will be going with the one website. Tags and categories should allow visitors to easily get all the comics or art or free reads in just one click, and I can keep a more concise list of tags than I currently have.
Now I just need to download WordPress and futz around with it a bit.
Thank you!