With many well known bloggers, you might notice them going off on a tangent from time to time. John Chow writes about his meals at restaurants, and over on Shoemoney you might run into posts about fighting.

These off topic posts have created a decent amount of flack for both bloggers, but at the same time, they have touched on something very smart for them. These posts do many things for their blog, and most of them are positive.

I have recently started writing about my technology concerns when it comes to backing up my data. This isn’t really entirely on topic, but at the same time, it isn’t totally off-base from the audience I attract.

These posts allow me to bring in traffic for search engine searches that I otherwise wouldn’t have received. I am bringing in traffic for network attached storage searches, and even more interesting, they are going beyond that single post to see my blogging related articles.

While seeing posts about food or fighting might not be up your alley. Blogs were created to express oneself, and that is what we should all be doing. You never know when it will have secondary benefits.

Originally posted on April 19, 2010 @ 6:45 pm