Niche, Or No Niche, That Is The Question…

22 Responses to “Niche, Or No Niche, That Is The Question…”

1. manga to read on September 28th, 2007 2:00 am

   I think sometimes ‘niche’ will make me sick to find new and update article.. even manga is huge but there’s a lot of manga blog worldwide..
   The unknown ‘niche’ http://boringblogz.blogspot.com
   also my blog but without niche…

2. Catherine Lawson on September 28th, 2007 11:05 am

   I suppose you could always start with a small niche and expand. But, it’s difficult to know what is going to work out best.

   What I’ve noticed quite a bit is that many of the gurus will encourage you to choose a small niche, but they don’t operate in a small niche themselves. I think that’s probably their way of deterring too many people from blogging about the same stuff as they do.

3. Nelson on September 28th, 2007 11:12 am

   You could probably make it to the top with a blog without a niche, but like those blogs that ramble on everything, you probably will need to create 20 to 25 posts per day to keep things interesting, or you will be one of millions of blogs, without an identity, on the web.

4. Barbara on September 28th, 2007 11:15 am

   Manga to read,

   Thank you for visiting and leaving a comment.

   Welcome to my blog.

   Catherine,

   What you’ve written holds true. You may be on to something…

   Nelson,

   I’m not sure a person could make it to the top, without some type of niche. The rambling blogs I’ve seen, appear to be more of a “personal, daily diary” type of blog. And unless someone has a very exciting life, those would get pretty boring after awhile.

5. Asako on September 28th, 2007 3:05 pm

   Catherine is definitely onto something.

   Whatever people say, I am for my niche. I would like to build a blog that lasts for the next 10 years, because of the niche. I would not want a blog that lasts just a few years, then runs out of the topics.

   I think many of the rambling blogs Nelson points out, would not be read 10 years later.

   At some point, I would not mind abandoning the chronological aspects as well.

   What do you think?

6. Barbara on September 28th, 2007 4:27 pm

   Thank you for your input, Asako,

   You’re thinking like a true blogger-build a timeless blog-one with a future. I don’t think too many bloggers start a blog, and think of where that blog will be 5 or 10 years from now.

   Ironic that you mentioned the chronological issue. I’m touching on that subject, in another post!

   Stayed tuned!

7. Ian Denny on September 28th, 2007 10:29 pm

   It’s a really interesting question. I actually started a blog as a kind of personal diary. But I suppose it could be a niche?

   I was frustrated also because my business had failed. And I couldn’t really find anything where someone was talking about how they turned things and got through it.

   I do empathise though with the limitations of a niche. I pretty quickly got through lots of material about liquidation, bankruptcy and some of the technical stuff.

   And for a period, I was chronicling the negotiations on personal guarantees from the banks and other creditors.

   I would say though that is has naturally evolved. I’m finding myself, I suppose, sharing good practice now - but aimed at people who are struggling in business, failing or even who have failed and not too depressed to try again.

   I still don’t know whether it is still niche (or was it?) or is it becoming mainstream.

   It has been a great experience! From being inexperienced (I hesitate to use “newbie” after your article!) I now really enjoy playing with blogs, but am about to create one for the resurrected business.

   Is that “niche” or is a company blog something else altogether?

8. Barbara on September 29th, 2007 12:41 am

   Ian,

   Thank you for visiting, and leaving such a meaningful comment.

   I just visited your blog, and was moved by what you have written. Such honesty, during a time of what I know had to be, extremely stressful, (and still are, undoubtedly).

   Although your blog is a personal journey, it reminds me of a well written story…..and a page turner, at that.

   I would venture to say it does fit into a niche, but one that’s under, what I call, an “umbrella”, i.e. the topics fit together.

   In hard economic times, you and your blog, have the potential to help many. You have empathy and compassion for others facing similar situations. That is priceless.

   Keep blogging. I’ll be back to read each “chapter”. And…I will be looking for that happy ending.

   Welcome to my blog!

9. Ian Denny on September 29th, 2007 1:21 am

   Barbara,

   Thanks for that. And also for visiting and sharing your experiences.

   Will niche blogs grow? Has blogging really finished taking off? In the UK, I don’t think it’s really fully got going yet. Has it peaked yet?

   Who knows. Sure there’s plenty of blogs talking equally about blogging’s continued rise - and just as many declaring the death knell for them as social networking continues its meteoric rise.

   Ian

10. Barbara on September 29th, 2007 1:46 am

    Ian,

    The growth of blogs is on the rise if you check with Technorati. In April of this year, they were tracking 70 million blogs. That figure is now up to 107.4 mil.

    Granted some blogs never see their first post, and others only make it a short time, but it seems like blogs are becoming even more popular.

    Will niche blogs grow? I think so. In one sense, a good niche blog could be compared to “one stop shopping”. Proper placement of ads, and great content, could make for one big money maker, as well.

11. Kekoa on October 1st, 2007 10:07 pm

    Some very good points have been made so far. I especially like Catherine’s thought that most popular bloggers do NOT fall within a narrow niche yet CONSISTENTLY recommend that their readers find a niche if they would like to blog. Two faced maybe?

    As for me, I’ve been struggling with this. In the beginning, the byteful blog was an experiment, and I didn’t hold myself to a certain niche, but now as my site grows and matures, I feel more and more pressure to specialize, specialize. Then someone pointed out to me that my whole site is basically centered around creativity.

    Can I really do justice to such a huge topic? I’ll do my best. For now I’ve been discussing photography, and I don’t know what I’ll do when I begin combining that with my other passion: travel.

    In the end, it may be a look at world travel through my eyes, and I suppose that is creative…

12. Barbara on October 1st, 2007 11:29 pm

    Kekoa,

    Your blog is filled with beautiful photos. Combining photos and travel would be a natural transition. There are many travel blogs out that do quite nicely.

    I wouldn’t worry about fitting into a niche. Sometimes I think that’s a lot of hype.

    Use your creativity, and put a new spin on it. Be original.

13. Kekoa on October 6th, 2007 7:55 pm

    Thanks Barbara! You’re the best!

14. Barbara on October 7th, 2007 12:41 am

    Your welcome, Kekoa

15. Meta Tags May Increase Your SEO : Blogging Without A Blog on November 12th, 2007 1:16 pm

    [...] my experience, niche blogs make for easier meta tagging, as your subject matter remains fairly [...]

16. Unique Visitors - An Analysis : Blogging Without A Blog on November 26th, 2007 1:27 am

    [...] Without getting too technical as to how “unique” or “new visits” are counted (different statistical programs use different methodology), I attribute that, to the fact that I blog about random subjects. My ObservationMountain.com blog is totally non-niche. [...]

17. Nez on January 31st, 2008 12:49 pm

    Hi Barbara,

    Is it “kosher” to comment on old topics? One of those gurus should blog about that question?

    From the limited amount of blogs I’ve seen, there ARE the superblogs that are aimed at a niche, but there are also a good number of the popular ones that seem to cover overlapping niches:
    *family
    *productivity
    *finance
    etc. — sounds like the niche is called “Life”.

    I don’t know how long my own “critical thinking” theme will last in terms of generating content — but maybe it’s more of a hook. At least, it was that idea that got me thinking of starting my own blog!

    I’ll continue checking out your older posts.

    Nez’s last blog post..The Bitter History Teacher

18. Barbara on January 31st, 2008 2:13 pm

    Hi Nez,

    It’s more than alright to comment on old posts. Often an old post becomes a very popular one.

    I read many posts about “you must have a niche”. I don’t always follow what the masses are doing. Anyway, to prove a point, my other blog http://www.observationmountain.com, is totally non niche (more about daily life issues, product reviews, etc.- and I post on that less) Ironically, that blog gets more traffic, makes me my piddly Google AdSense earnings, and get tons more search engine traffic.

    Granted, most bloggers are not ad clickers, but bloggers are better at commenting. The way I see it, I have the best of both worlds.

    I also use the differences of the two blogs as topics for blog posts on this one.

    And….my OM blog is what inspired me to write this one. Funny how that works, but as you blog, you will probably see that your blog will slowly take on a different personality than it started with. Often your regular visitors/commenters will be the ones who guide you in a new direction, based on their comments/questions.

    It’s usually a natural transition, and before you know it, you find a personal “niche” in cyberspace.

    Barbara’s last blog post..Test Proves Fatal In Internet Explorer (IE)

19. Natural Woman on February 8th, 2008 4:39 am

    If it’s not a personal blog, then I say niche. I like going blogs when I’m looking to learn something in particular. On my money blogs, all I want to read about is money related issues. Don’t tell me about your personal day unless you lost, stole or made some money.

    Natural Woman’s last blog post..Meet the Bloggers

20. Barbara on February 8th, 2008 2:25 pm

    Hi Natural Woman

    I, too, like niche blogs if I am researching a specific subject, but I also like informational blogs if they deal with a variety of subject that apply to life issues. However, combining a personal blog with a niche/non niche blog, gets me confused too,.

    Barbara’s last blog post..Are Spammers Saying “Gotcha”

21. Chris on May 14th, 2008 1:40 pm

    At first I defined myself as a Daddy blog but recently I am beginning to think that I should expand it to life in general, this way I’m not restricted. This will also allow me to market to all kinds of readers.

    Aaaaaarrrggggggggggghhhhhhh…I just don’t know. I guess I am going through growing pains.

    Chriss last blog post..I’m Tired

22. Barbara Swafford on May 14th, 2008 2:22 pm

    Hi Chris,

    At times it’s tough to stay within a niche. With me, it helps having a second blog as I can write about most anything on that.

    Often you’ll find your readers/commenters take you into a different direction. They’re telling us what they like to read and subconsciously we start catering to their wishes.

    But one good thing about blogs is that they are ours and reflect our lives, so if we choose to expand on our niche, it’s o.k.

    By using categories, you could easily “file” the daddy posts accordingly, while adding posts that are about life, in general.

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