I have been an educational blogger since 2013. In September I started a 2nd blog because I cannot keep on bombarding my (edu)readers with girlie/lifestyle posts. That’s how this blog was born. But as 3 months have gone by, I can tell you that it is not as easy as it seems. Today, I am going to share with you some of the things that have worked for me and some that I am still trying to figure out.

Things you need to ask yourself

• Why am I blogging?

This is probably the most important question. What do you want to achieve through blogging? For me, at the moment, blogging is a source of fun and pleasure. I enjoy it. I like sharing my thoughts, interacting with you guys, and learning (because you do need to do a bit of research for some posts). I also think that blogging is an outlet for my writer/author aspirations. When I was a kid, I wanted to become a writer. I actually wrote little books (yeap).

• Niche vs. no niche?

Next thing you need to think about is whether your blogs are going to be focused on something or more general blogs. I have one blog that focuses on teaching English as a second language. That’s my niche. I mostly actually write about English for Specific Purposes which is teaching Business and Academic English. So, I have somewhat of a niche within a niche.

Regarding this blog though, I am still trying to find my voice. I do know that a lot of my posts have to do with planning, beauty, being colourblind, and shopping/reviews. I guess this all goes under the lifestyle umbrella (?).

Finding a voice and deciding on what you will be focusing on takes time. You also see what your readers like and if you like the same things, this may help you.

• Do I have the time?

This goes back to the first bullet point. Why are you blogging and do you have enough time to blog? Intertwined these two folks.

Since one blog is not enough, are there any benefits of having two? Can one help the other?

For me, yes. I have been edublogging, but cause I am a wacky edublogger, I did write various loose-r edu blog posts. Posts about planning, books, being colourblind, even how I spent my summer in the UK. So, I was able to reblog/adapt the posts here.

You can get readers from one blog, read your other blog. I do have lovely teachers who read my edu blog,they pop over here as well, and follow this blog too (thanks dears xxx), but I do not bombard my teacher friends with the blog posts on this blog. “So, what should I do?” you may ask. To share (with your existing readers) or to not share?That’s the question! I guess this is up to you. I do not like being pushy.

How I am going about….’doubleblogging’

Social media: Because I didn’t want to bombard the people who were reading my educational posts with my ‘lifestyle’ ones, I decided to make different social media accounts. So, this blog has its own Twitter/Facebook page/email account. My Instagram is mostly for here and my Pinterest board is for anything.

Making it work: I plan. A lot.  I write down my ideas for both blogs and then try to squeeze in posts. Getting ideas is easy. Finding the time to write is difficult. This is probably the biggest challenge. It is very hard to keep two blogs going because I am a full-time teacher.

Sharing and promoting is also very time-consuming. I do schedule posts and I am using Buffer, but it is still hard to promote what I write. So this is something you need to think about as well (referring you back to bullet point numero uno).

So, that’s all folks. These are my thoughts on having two blogs. A few suggestions on how to make it work. I am still learning though. I will be back with a follow-up post. No worries.

Now, this is the part where I beg for subscribers and followers etc. etc. But anyhow, here goes. Do follow my blog if you want to read more from me. Connect with me on Pinterest/ Twitter/ Instagram.Maybe even give my Facebook page some TLC?  The comments section is all yours. Check out my writing/blogging page for more posts about blogging/writing.

Thanks for reading.

Joanna