Niche-less

I've been thinking about this for some time now.  I'm still not sure what I'm going to do.

I was thinking of splitting this blog in two - one for JUST food-related content, and the other for JUST family/kids/my own silly thoughts.

But.

It's not so easy to peel them apart. 

My kids help with a lot of the cooking and baking (as you've no doubt noticed if you've been reading me for oh, more than a week)...my husband and I both love food, love cooking...it's hard for me to separate the two.  Because then...if my kids are decorating cookies...is that a food post or a family post?  If my husband and I go out to eat at a new restaurant and I want to talk about the food here...well, it was a "date night" so it's about family, but there was good food involved, so should that be on the food site?

I don't know what to do yet.

Why does it matter?

Oh, because I'm trying to fit into a few different niches.  I'm going for targeted advertising and sometimes there are stipulations - like your blog needs to be a certain percentage of food-themed posts in order to be considered a food blog (in some places)...or a certain percentage of family/parenting posts...or whatever.

The problem is, food is a big part of my family.  We grow it, we catch it, we cook it, we eat it.  (I do most of the dishes, but that's a different issue.)  The point is, we are not separate from the food.  We are intertwined.  Food and family.  Family and food.

I'm still thinking about what I'm going to do.

If anyone wants to put in their two cents...feel free. 

Right now I'm going to help my son create a book of sea creatures.

(See, now, you'd think that would be a family/parenting kind of a situation, however, the story of these sea creatures is that, in turn, each one gets eaten by another sea creature bigger than itself.  So...does that make it a food post?  And WE eat a lot of seafood, too.  Again, food post.)

That's what I'm talkin' 'bout.

Comments

[ELL]

I don't know anything about marketing except the most popular blogs are usually the ones I don't get interested in at all! I adore the combination of family and food. The photos of the little ones cooking mean so much more as I get to know them through the stories! But for you I would click twice to get both sides of the story, so if business dictates I'll adjust.

[Tracie]

To me, I think that you should look at it from the other side. Pick your advertisers first. Then, look at their stipulations. Or, only go with advertisers that meet your current stipulations. I like the way that you include everything in your writings. If you separate things, I think that you are following in the steps of other bloggers. Just my opinion.

[Jayne]

Thanks - to both of you. You've confirmed what my gut was telling me anyway. I guess I just needed to hear it from voices other than my internal one.

Thanks!

[Jen - The Alien Spouse]

I'll join ELL and Tracie in saying I really like B.K.W. exactly as it is.

I read this post a couple of days ago now, and I've been wondering if it would be possible to have a front page. Maybe it could have three pictures, one of a recipe book, one of a photo album and one of something that indicates a mix of both things.

I have no idea if it's possible, but maybe it could be set up so that clicking on the recipe books takes you to all the posts marked cooking, clicking on the photo album takes you to the family related posts and clicking on the third option takes you to both. So the third option would be closest to what you have now.

I don't know how viable that idea is, but it would essentially just be using icons to navigate the categories. Maybe you could even have three different sets of advertisers!

[Jayne]

Jen, that's kind of what I'm leaning toward now. Some way people can pick and choose what they want, but still come to the same launching pad to do it. Thanks for your input - a slight revamping of the site is definitely something I'm considering.