Two blogs, one domain - how to guide visitors?
February 17, 2010 1:26 PM   Subscribe

I have two radically different blogs on the same domain. How can I design my root page to let visitors decide which one to go to?

The two blogs are 1) a business blog about HR, 2) a photo blog about urban exploration and Chernobyl. They both show very different sides of me, but I have no problem with people seeing both.

Both blogs run on Wordpress instances on my [firstnamelastname].com domain, and I want to keep them there.

My first instinct is to have just blank page with two graphics, showing the blog titles and a tag line. But although I like the simplicity of that, it feels cheap. Any other ideas?
posted by lord_yo to Computers & Internet (12 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
I think the simplicity is good here, because they're pretty different topics and the average user will likely be interested in one or the other.

Maybe also a preview of each? Two columns, one intro picture at the top of each, and the first three entries from each blog under them.
posted by spinn at 1:35 PM on February 17, 2010


Sounds good to me. If you wanted to get fancy, you could add excerpts of your most recent entries for both, but I don't see anything cheap about it.
posted by adamrice at 1:36 PM on February 17, 2010


How about two fairly large preview-type panels, side-by-side, with each blog live (not just a static image that's only changed when you get around to it)? Then headlines, pictures, etc would be readable and the user could decide which looked more interesting.
posted by 6550 at 1:37 PM on February 17, 2010


I say treat them as two separate blogs and have URLs to each other in their respective link sharing sections. Users are more likely to hit each blog separately from google than some sort of landing page that gives them a choice. That said, there should definitely be a choice on the main domain just in case, but it'll only get used if someone googles your name specifically.
posted by nomad at 1:48 PM on February 17, 2010


How about a front page with two graphics each showing the blog titles. Then create a sub-domain for each blog so that every time someone wants to read your blogs they don't have to click through.
posted by gregr at 1:50 PM on February 17, 2010


Best answer: I'd say do a simple landing page at the root of the domain, and if you have the inclination, code in a brief feed for each blog under its respective graphic. Have a direct link set up and accessible so visitors can go directly to their content later. On each blog, maybe down in the footer, also have a "Looking for [my other blog]? It's here" link.

The landing page lets you add or change functionality later without confusing people, say if you choose to run a third blog, or add personal details like a bio or CV, or even put one of your existing blogs on hold— in that case, you could just grey out its graphic and put up a note.
posted by a halcyon day at 2:02 PM on February 17, 2010


http://byrneunit.com/
One couple, two blogs, one server.
posted by Brittanie at 2:34 PM on February 17, 2010


FYI, those blogs have now been consolidated here: http://www.byrneunit.com/blogs/
posted by Brittanie at 2:35 PM on February 17, 2010


And, it's VERY easy to do this with Wordpress.

http://codex.wordpress.org/Creating_a_Static_Front_Page
posted by Brittanie at 2:36 PM on February 17, 2010


Best answer: Nthing the two big graphics idea. However, I'd suggest this is also a great opportunity to make a page with a small amount of information about yourself. Look at a page like (MeFi's Own) merlinmann.com - probably a lot more content then you have, but a simple clean introduction to himself not only as guy-who-works-on-Internet-stuff but guy-you-can-hire-to-work-on-stuff-for-you. It's the kind of page you'd want to put on your resume or the like.
posted by l33tpolicywonk at 3:06 PM on February 17, 2010


Get two domains. Landing pages suck and domains are cheap. Have links between.
posted by tmcw at 3:10 PM on February 17, 2010


Response by poster: Thanks, hivemind, that was very helpful!
posted by lord_yo at 8:47 AM on February 18, 2010


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