... or so bleats Jakob Nielsen, who is a prime example if ever there was one of a person with an ossified world view.
While categorizing the things bloggers do wrong — a couple of which he gets more or less right — Nielsen says the following:
8. Mixing Topics
If you publish on many different topics, you’re less likely to attract a loyal audience of high-value users. Busy people might visit a blog to read an entry about a topic that interests them. They’re unlikely to return, however, if their target topic appears only sporadically among a massive range of postings on other topics. The only people who read everything are those with too much time on their hands (a low-value demographic).
The more focused your content, the more focused your readers. That, again, makes you more influential within your niche. Specialized sites rule the Web, so aim tightly.
If you have the urge to speak out on, say, both American foreign policy and the business strategy of Internet telephony, establish two blogs. You can always interlink them when appropriate.
This is my favorite part:
The only people who read everything are those with too much time on their hands (a low-value demographic).
This, of course, is why the New York Review of Books is uniformly criticized as a worthless publication. Nielsen’s saying that people who read for pleasure are of little value as readers.
Via PZ, who has a special talent for finding sites that irritate thinking, low-value types like myself.
