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Today I received the question in my email:

Dear Owlbert,

How many articles do you need as a basis for your blog when you start it, are these in categories?

Signed,

Eager Blogger

Here’s the short answer: 

a number between 1 and 3,243.

Here’s the longer answer: 

Nothing ever sprang into being in the multitudes.

In other words,unless you take advantage of delayed posting, you HAVE to start with one.  You kinda sorta can’t start with, say, 3 insightfully magnificent postings unless your split personalities can actually manifest themselves into living, breathing entities and type at the same time as do you.

The second part of the question is quite thought-provoking, however.  "Are these in categories" I take to mean:

• Is each blog posting in one category, or can you have multiple categories even when your blog is newer than tomorrow’s morning sunset?

 You know, the more I think about it…the more I realize that Simple Is Best.  Sure, you can set up a bazillion categories for all sorts of blogging topics. I should know; when I started this blog 2 weeks ago, I included about twice as many as you currently see today.

In other words, I yielded to the Evil Temptation of Overkill!

Well, hey, these things happen - you get so enthralled with all the brilliant goodness you plan on sharing online, you try to make it easier than stuffing an Elmo plushie into a CD-DRIVE reader to direct visitors to your posting topics.

But ahah she said, as she grandly swept back her arm for added inspiration and knocked her 25th coffeecup to the floor:

"Do you realize, the more choices you offer, the more complicated the selection process becomes?"

Indeed it does.  So I chose to return to Utter Common Sense, and look at what other blog categories are used by pro bloggers online.

Here’s Darren’s Photography School:

• Photography Tips for Beginners
• Composition Tips
• Digital Cameras and Gear
• How to Photograph….
• Portrait Photography
• Post Production Tips and Techniques
• Popular Cameras
• Digital Camera Store

Not a whole lot, right?

Here’s CopyBlogger:

• Copywriting 101
• SEO Copywriting 2.0
• Keyword Research
• Make Money Online
• Creating Ebooks
• Build Membership Sites
• SEO Training

But wait a sec!  Those are the categories at the top of the page…scroll down, you’ll see quite a lot more, and

DANGER WILL ROBINSON!!  DANGER!!

Good lord, what an idjut I am!!  I cannot BELIEVE I didn’t realize the following brilliant layout structure!

My apologies, gentle readers - yours truly was, well, less clueful than a NY Governor who thought the number "9" was a lucky number indeed.  I was 100% incorrect in my assessment of the top being categories.

They’re not.

They’re what is said on the page - resources and (in this case) Pages done in Wordpress.

You’ll see the true wordpress categories below the fold (ie, you have to scroll down), under Archives.  And as you can tell, there’s a whole heap of ‘em.

What does this tell me?

It tells me:

You CAN yield to the temptation of overkill….BUT….make that visible only AFTER you’ve offered a small selection of choices above the fold.

So to answer the original question, I would recommend:

If you’re a beginner blogger, first rename "Uncategorized" to perhaps "General", and then stick to 3 or 4 categories.  As your skills and knowledge grow, chunk up your niche to gain broad topics about which you can write…but always make certain to offer your readers a mini-menu on top to simplify their original browsing experience.

Here are some excellent primers on category name choosing as well:

• Putting Some Thought Into Blog Categories and Tags
• On Tag Clouds and Category Lists

I’m in the process of redesigning my category list as well; when it’s complete, I’ll share what I learned.  I can foresee more 18 hour days….. 

ThankYouVeryMuch!

Owlbert

#BEGIN highlights of this blog writing post:

Beginners blogging tips: Rename "Uncategorized" to "General" and go from there

Intermediate and/or Advanced blogging tips: Analyze high-level chunks of what you want to share and see how unique categories would fit in

#END highlights of this blog writing post

ps - here’s a tutorial on using categories in Wordpress:

pps - of course, Wordpress isn’t the only thing that uses categories:

NEW Startech Category 5e Cable M45PATCH7GR

U pick 3 Adorable 3D Hair Bows Clips -Category D

NEW Locally Presentable and Accessible Categories

Bible Helps - 500 Bible Study Books in 16 Categories

NEW Emerge Technologies Retractable RJ-45 Category-5…

Omega Negative Carrier Category # 423 950 NEW! NR

NEW Reports of the Midwest Category Seminar II

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(By the way, if you have any questions about the topics in this posting "Simplifying Wordpress category hell - Utilize The Evil Temptation of Overkill", do comment below - I'll try to clarify any issues).

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