Blog about what you want

I have had Rubenerd's "What is the worst advice you have received?" blog post in the list of tabs on my phone for a few days, about which I have been meaning to write. (Side note: If you have enough tabs open, Firefox on mobile shows an infinity icon instead of the tab count. Did I break physics by having too many tabs open?)

Toward the end of the post, Ruben warns against limiting your blog to one topic. Pondering why this may be the case, Ruben says:

This is one I never took seriously, but I see other people struggle with. Self-anointed blogging experts used to say your blog should focus on a primary topic, because something something metrics. They also said people blogging about multiple things was boring or a waste of time, especially if you subscribe to their RSS feeds.

Back when this blog started, I wrote a lot about the web. When I wrote about coffee, I thought more than I should have about having both technical and coffee posts on my site. Should my homepage only show my coffee posts since my blog was called "James' Coffee Blog"? Should I keep my writing to coffee? Maybe I had internalized the advice around writing about one thing and that was causing me to think a lot about this. Maybe I was inspired by seeing other blogs that were subject-specific.

I decided to start writing more about technology. Then I ran into a similar wall. Could I write about something other than technology and coffee on my blog? Intuitively, the answer is "yes." But my mind told me that maybe I shouldn't. Would it be strange to have longer-form technical writing interspersed with random musings?

Slowly, and over time, I started venturing into new topics. Words. Moments of joy. Travel notes. I am so glad I did. For every new type of content I cover, I get out of my comfort zone and learn more about myself. I feel more confident in my writing.

Ruben went on to write:

The blogs I enjoy reading the most are the ones where people have disparate interests. They pull me in with their discussion of open-source software or the Indie Web, then BAM, Star Trek, coffee, and bread!

I feel the same way.

Blog about what you want on your personal website. Your personal website is a place to express yourself on the web.

Also posted on IndieNews.