You need to stay within people’s comfort zone. If your content is all over the map then they never know what to expect when the visit you, which may be a selling point. Sites such as Fark have made their bread and butter off unpredictably, so has Digg. But if your end goal is to become a market leader in discussing widgets and better ways of crafting them, talking politics will get you nowhere.Staying on point
For the most part, you need to stick to your message and your genre. People identify certain sites as a brand of information. Slashdot for tech news, Salon for political commentary, The Onion for parody. The exceptions come when the brand gains enough strength to branch off as an authoritative source on other topics. You can even venture off into other areas from time to time to keep the content fresh. But listen to your audience. Do you notice a dip in downloads of your show when you stray too often? Do you see the visits to the site slowing? Its often times not about the visits but the interaction.
Do people comment more on your regular content or your special editions?
If the CaffiNation Podcast had 4 millions visits a day, First off I would be very lucky , and secondly it wouldn’t do much for the Podcast if not a single one fo the visitors downloaded an episode. That wouldn’t be bad, but it would definitely be enough to shift me to a blogger as opposed to a podcaster real quick. Listen to your audience, shift with the trends and stay as true to your message as you can as often as possible. Simple little tips that can go a long way. Stick to what you know, people come here for the Caffeinated Tech Fix, I like to give the people what they want.
What do your visitors want?