Culling the Blog Herd

Image: Local goat herd

Would it surprise you that, in January of this year, I ran 5 very unique and diverse blogs?

1) an island living blog:
- primarily used to showcase my hula school, I continued it after I closed the school in 2006 because I enjoyed writing the island life articles more than teaching.
2) personal family blog:
- this is the blog I use to update out-of-town family and friends with pictures and news of the kids and other family projects.
3) my "affiliate experiment" blog:
- this was my first foray into the world of affiliates... started in '06... a fitness blog... I soon lost interest but just couldn't let go of the domain, so tried to make something of it, somehow.
4) a green blog:
- because I love finding environmentally-friendly stuff. I've had the domain since 2006, but wasn't sure what to do with it, until this year.
5) a CRON blog:
- I (try to) practice a calorie reduced way of eating, and this blog was my way of sharing this with the world... it's expanded since and eventually became lifecandy.

Confession time. I was killing myself trying to keep up with all of these blogs. Seriously, those of you who can maintain more than 2 blogs and take care of your kids' daily needs and sleep... please tell me, when do you go to the bathroom, shower, maintain your sanity?!!!

Of course, being my regular bullheaded self, I wouldn't back down at first, thinking that all I needed was better scheduling, getting into a "blogging rhythm", and just plain getting accustomed to being so busy. Roomie, a one-blog blogger, tried to advise me at first, but in time, I'm sure he became afraid that his increasingly crazed and sleep-deprived wife would greet his next helpful tip by pushing marbles up his nose. Meh, he knew I'd learn my lesson on my own...

Well, I did and thus began the Great Blog Hack & Slash of 2008. I asked myself the following questions...

Where's my passion? The first one to go was the affiliate fitness blog. That was easy!

Is it worth the time? The next on the chopping blog was the island living blog... very little ROI... few readers, and with my days of living on the Islands in the distant past, my memories - and writing material - were finite.

Can I cut back posting on any? I decided to keep the personal family blog for obvious reasons. But I decided to post family updates only on special occasions like Christmas, the kids' birthdays, the first day of school, etc.

Can I put any on hold for now? The more established of the remaining two blogs is lifecandy, but it still needs more work to reach the goals I've set for it. The green blog can wait... for now... maybe until both kids are in school. :)

So now, it's just lifecandy and me. I'm working toward posting everyday, a goal more realistic today... and I don't have to sacrifice sleep, the bathroom, or my sanity!

How about you? How many blogs do you have?