What makes certain history popular? Why do people wax lyrical about their love of the Tudors but completely ignore the Stuarts? And why is UK history prized above all else? Although you might love an area of history, your readers might have no interest in it at all. And more and more it seems these days that if you aren’t posting on select topics, you are getting left behind. So, why are certain topics more popular and what can history bloggers do to promote areas that aren’t?
History Blogging- IT Topics
Like any kind of blogging, history blogging has it’s “sure fire topics”. Mention the Tudors and people flock to your post. Any sort of travel post in the United Kingdom, and it is a guaranteed hit on Instagram and Pinterest. And mention military history for more traffic than you know what to do with. Now, that isn’t to say that you don’t have to have skill and talent to create a worthwhile blog post, but I think it is unrealistic to think that the topic doesn’t play a role. After working in a bookstore, a lot of these topics are also broadly popular, as well. (Military and WWI/WWII history is a guaranteed best-seller, for some reason.) However, I’m noticing that there are micro-trends in history blogging that are all on their own. And, I have to say, it doesn’t seem like there is a way to break against them
Case in point: I loved the post that I wrote about royal history in my home province of Manitoba and Government House here. Although I’m really proud of it, it currently has 29 views total. Twenty-nine. No, Canadian history isn’t my area of study in academics, but I do enjoy writing it for the blog. But, I have to say, it is not worth the time I put into those posts- a blog post typically takes me 4-6 hours to research, write, edit, and set everything up behind the scenes. That particular post took just over five hours to finish, and almost all of my regular readers- who seem to enjoy royal history- ignored it. And yes, you can say that I should blog for myself and ignore stats, but as someone who does take this seriously, traffic/engagement is a consideration. And after my Louis Riel and HBC posts, I can firmly say, Canadian history doesn’t seem to have any place in history blogging, sadly.
Why Bother “Off-Topic” Sharing?
In my four years of blogging, I’ve gone back and forth on community and sharing. Having a supportive community is wonderful. However, when you don’t see that support returned, it really makes you question it. I’ve gone out of my way to share American history, ancient history, military history, and all sorts of other blog posts that I personally am not overly interested in. It seems a small thing to do to support other bloggers, and who knows? Maybe one of my readers will enjoy it. But then that same blogger will only share your posts when it happens to be about Lancastrian royal wives, or whatever particular topic they have chosen. At a point, you just ask yourself- should I just take the time that I was sharing their stuff and put it into my blog that definitely needs the attention? And this is a blogging phenomenon everywhere: most people will only share your posts if they are required to. I put hours and hours into reading and sharing older posts from blogs I discover in groups, to *maybe* have them share my one post in a share thread. Why I am so dedicated to community if 98% of other bloggers aren’t?
Note: This does not apply to all bloggers, and is not unique to history bloggers. There are some absolutely wonderful history bloggers, like Hisdoryan who go above and beyond- be like Hisdoryan 🙂
How Am I Moving Forward?
I think it would have been fairly crappy of me to ask this question without actually having a plan myself. I will keep sharing posts that aren’t of interest to me, but I am not going to make it a priority over my own posts. And I will continue to let bloggers know when I love their posts. Unless there is a bizarre swell of interest, other than my Doors Open Winnipeg posts (which are passion posts of mine), Canadian history sadly won’t be appearing here. The blog is doing really well, and I’m unfortunately going to have to go with the posts that continue that momentum. **That isn’t to say that I haven’t been loving the posts that I’ve been writing- I am the happiest with the blog that I have ever been!** I’m hoping that by promoting and sharing posts from smaller niches, bloggers will feel more comfortable pursuing these topics.
I have many posts ready to go, but I’m still waffling on the schedule- please let me know with this poll what types of history posts you would like to see! (Culture and style posts are staying the same.)
Why do you think certain areas of history are more popular than others?
Cheers,
The Historian
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I’m curious to see what the results of your survey will be!
I know, my readership has grown in the last year, so I don’t 100% know what people will want! 🤔🤔