Although it is much easier not to constrain yourself to a specific theme every single week, when it comes to blogging, creating a niche is essential. Blogs that do not have themes just don’t have a chance at success since readers come back for a reason – to read something they are interested in.
It might be argued that personal blogs do not require a niche but if you really think about it, it actually still revolves around a specific topic – your personal life. So it isn’t surprising that celebrities have popular personal blogs and the rest, except for a few, have their personal blogs relegated to obscurity.
When it comes to themed (non-personal) blogs though, the fact that the blog has a theme is not always a guarantee that the niche audience will indeed respond favorably – if at all. To make things a little easier when carving out a niche for your blog, you should keep the following advice in mind:
1. Stick to what you know best – People will definitely see through fakes. Even if you do write well writing about what you do not know will lead to (sometimes glaring) mistakes. This will ensure that your credibility will be shot and that readers won’t come back. Aside from that you’ll only make things harder for yourself as you struggle to find something post regularly.
2. Go for the less competitive topics – Unless you’re already known in a particular field with really intense competition (i.e. SEO) then it’s almost certain that you won’t be among the top bloggers in that field for a really long time. Find a more obscure field with maybe less audience but an audience that has less blogs to choose from.
To be continued…
Originally posted on March 27, 2010 @ 1:40 pm
