Blogs have come a long way since the early days when bloggers first recorded their most private thoughts, feelings and impressions and, sometimes, kept a real-time log of everything they did.  These first “web-logs”  ( =…’blogs) were a new medium of expression and the real potential of this medium was as yet unexplored.  As time went on and more and more users ‘morphed into bloggers; there were new refinements and developments.  Blogs became more sophisticated and evolved into the versatile medium we enjoy today.

Writing a blog that is focused on, primarily, one particular field of interest or topic gives the blogger the advantage of greatly limiting the field of possible topics to a very specific and narrow range of subject matter, making it easier to choose what to blog about.  The blogger never has to struggle to come up with a whole new area of interest because his or her posts will always relate to the basic topic or theme of the blog.  A candy blog will always have something to do with candy; a sports blog will always have something to do with some aspect of sports, a pet blog will concern itself with pets; and money making blogs will focus on how to make money with your blog and so on.

There are as many choices for a specialized blog as there are interests.  If you have a hobby you have a ready made interest that is a perfect blog theme.  Let’s say you have a collection of something; anything.  It can be baseball cards or comics, bottle caps or beer cans, keys, model cars, tools, dolls, books, fossils—whatever it is, you can write individual posts to discuss every item in your collection in terms of history, value, how you acquired it, why it’s valuable and so on.    Information about each item in your collection can be a post.  You can enhance each post with photos of the item, too. 

If you collect natural objects including, for example, wood samples, butterflies, marine shells and other similar items, you would write posts describing each individual species including the life history of each specimen, range, habitat and anything else which is pertinent to the specimen.  Again, photographs of the items in your collection will greatly enhance your presentations and stimulate interest.

A specialized blog is primarily informational.  It may be straightforward and didactic with a purely technical tone, or, taking a cue from the original weblogs, it can be in an informal, casual, conversational format stylized with your feelings and impressions about the topic.  I have noticed that many blogs today, though highly specialized, are written in an informal and very personal style.  bloggers are finding that their readers seem to prefer a more warmly personal tone so what is actually happening, in my view, is that the lines demarcating the traditional, informal “web-log” style blog from the more sophsticated and sometimes more technical, “specialized” blog are being blurred.  Perhaps this is a good thing because it permits more freedom of expression.  You can choose to write your blog anyway you want; whatever is comfortable for you.  You can experiment and see what works for you and what doesn’t.

The specialized blog is the perfect format to showcase your knowledge  and expertise about your hobby or interests.  You will always have an abundance of material readily available to write about and, moreover, you will really enjoy yourself because you are discussing your favorite thing and sharing it with the world.  That is what makes writing blog posts so enjoyable and so easy.  You are writing about your favorite subject.

Little children, in elementary school, often have a day set aside when the teacher allows them to bring in a favorite toy or object to show their classmates.  This so-called “Show and Tell” time is usually very popular with children.  I mention this because, in its simplest form, the Specialized Blog is “Show and Tell” for bloggers. 

So, there is no need to wait any longer.  Choose your favorite topic and tell the world about it.  Good luck with whatever sort of blog you choose.  I hope I will see you here in the blogosphere very soon.

Take Care and Happy Blogging,

–Wil