In today’s episode of the ProBlogger podcast I wanted to talk about the nitty gritty of defining what your blog is about. Not just to pigeonhole anybody, or to put any constraints on your creativity, but to help you hone in on what you want to provide and how you want to come across online.
This is a question that’s particularly important to think on when you’re first starting out (although experimentation is also encouraged!), but still useful when you’re already established to ensure you’re working within your goals. It’s also ok to change your mind as you go!
Most successful blogs do have a niche or a topic, and in many cases it’s the reader demographic and not so much the topic niche that drives the content. You can cover a large amount of topics if your readers are parents, or retirees – topics can really depend more on the audience than the niche itself.
If you’re struggling with defining your niche, then I’ve got 15 questions for you to ponder – grab a pen and a notebook and jot down your answers as they come to you, and hopefully by then end you will see some themes emerging… and some focus for your site.
You can hear the podcast and questions below, and find the show notes over at episode 59 of the ProBlogger podcast here.
My belief is that you should write about whatever you want to write about, whether that is about your life, a specific food you like, cars you like or whatever. Never in my opinion write about the going topic because if you are not interested in it then you are less likely to get any readers attention. Besides its your blog, start jotting down whatever comes to mind and save it. Once you have a bunch of jumble written down, take some time away from the computer and come back to it later to edit it.
Hi Darren,
I’ve learned that picking a niche you feel passionate about helps you to stay on topic. When I tried to pick a niche or focus based on demand or paint points I found myself doing stuff based on what my readers wanted me to do. Many times their desires went in the opposite direction of my passion, and I quickly lost the fire and energy that I needed to drive my blogging efforts. This loss of energy was detrimental to my blog; I changed topics like most folks change pants because I lost my steam, and just blogged about the topics or ideas that folks brought to me.
Things changed big time when I blogged my passion. I stayed on point because I wanted to blog about the topic, and I had no many ideas and so much clarity around my blogging tips niche that I never felt the urge to stray. Even better, when readers offered me ideas that didn’t fit my blogging tips niche I turned down or didn’t act on those topics. I stayed on point because even though the ideas were solid, they fell outside of my passion zone and my niche of course. Mine that passion and you’ll stay the course. Thanks much Darren.
Ryan
Great piece. Money follows passion, but you can’t let passion blind you to the realities of the world.
Niche blogging and evergreen content marketing work hand in hand like Batman + Robin!
There are a few different camps regarding niches (to niche or not to niche) but I think a lot of it comes down to a) writing what you know and b) if you don’t know it, research it until you do. Unfortunately, most people don’t have the drive for latter. Next topic: How to stay motivated ;)
Thanks for sharing this great post. Obviously, your niche is the soul of your blog which will have some severe effects on your blog future.
Thanks as always for the tips and advice. Does anyone feel that although this is “great” advice, sometimes your niche just doesn’t rely on blogging during the path to purchase? If so, how does content fit into the mix for this target buyer, if at all?
Nothing is greater than traffic its just a way to succsess nothing is so important as traffic!!
I have been blogging on my current blog (My Antimatter Life) for a few years now. I am a poet and writer and enjoy science fiction, fantasy and zombie fiction and that’s normally what I blog about. But the number one most visited blog post is a religious one called ‘The Lutheran Rosary.’ Every single day it seems to attract readers. I’m trying to write more faith based posts and yesterday I wrote one and my page got 3 times the visitors than normal.
I think the answer is to include topics you are passionate about even if you fear they will annoy some people. The people that love the topics will come.