Michelle from Texas asks, “I have not decided on a specific niche. I am interested in many things, do I need to have one specific niche or can I make a blog work that has multiple interests?”
Oh my goodness, I hear it all the time…ALL. THE. TIME….
New bloggers tell me they heard that they have to niche down. Pick one small niche and create a blog about that ONE thing.
Biggest load of crock I’ve ever heard! It’s definitely not the best blogging advice in my opinion and experience!
First of all, hello. 🙂 My name is Sarah Titus. I’ve been blogging since Dec 23, 2013, which makes me barely 3 years old now in the blogging world, a time when experts agree that your blog is just now stable, growing, and taking off.
But I’m over here proving all the experts wrong! Within my first year of blogging, I was making $10,000/month (no joke!). Within my second year blogging, I was making $23,000/month and had reached 1.7 million pageviews per month (at my highest point). I’ve been a six-figure, single mom blogger since year one. And one of the main attributes that I personally feel has LED to my success is by posting on WHATEVER I WANT!
See, I’m a person. I’m a human being. I’m not a one dimensional, fictitious character. I am interested in many things and that passion that I have about different things, comes through on my blog.
I’ve made a name for myself as that passionate blogger. I can’t sit here and write about one thing, day in, day out for years to come without getting bored out of my mind! And I’m here to stay. So…what’s a girl to do?
A girl is to write about whatever she wants to write about. ESPECIALLY blogging for beginners when you’re first starting out. I think the whole, “pick one niche” thing literally just MAKES new bloggers fail. What if what they write about isn’t what their audience wants to hear?!
Then what? Give up? NO!
So, how do you balance it?
Popular Blogging Advice You Should Completely Ignore
Starting a blog is a lot like throwing spaghetti against the wall. Have you heard that metaphor before? It’s a good one!
You start out, talking about tons of DIFFERENT things and eventually, as you build an audience, they tell you what they want to learn from you.
That’s the balance!
Writing about what YOU love to write about AND attracting the audience that wants to hear what YOU love to write about. Over time, your audience grows, they want more, you give them more. It’s really very simple.
We don’t have to complicate things.
Your audience (the one you build over time) wants something, you give it to them. It’s not rocket science. Every year or every 6 months, do a giveaway and poll your audience. Then, just decide what you love to write about that correlates with the poll results.
But you can’t know what your audience wants, unless you give them CHOICES!!!! So niching down, especially in your first two to three years of blogging is really dumb.
If you’re just writing about one thing, how is that a choice for anybody?
Listen, I rank on several different platforms for multiple things. On Pinterest, my #1 traffic-driver, I rank in organization. Pinterest tells me that organization is what my audience wants. On my blog, I rank on the topic of saving and making money. Nothing to do with organization. You guys want to learn how to make money from home legitimately, how to run a successful blog, and how to save money. On Twitter, I rank for daily Christian inspirational quotes.
Yes, absolutely niche down on social media. I totally agree with that. On Facebook, pick one niche. On Instagram, pick another niche. On Twitter, pick another niche.
Here’s a sample of how it might look:
- Twitter – Christian
- Newsletters – Christian Blogging and Printables
- Facebook – Saving Money
- Instagram – Recipes
- Pinterest – Organization
My main niches for my blog, the ones that I have huge authority in is: Christian, Saving Money, Blogging, Making Money From Home, Organization, and Printables. That’s 6 different niches on this one blog.
How can I do that and possibly get away with it?
It’s all about how you present it. I like using a name for a blog URL, unless it’s really uncommon and hard to spell. Why? Because I don’t remember anothermommyblog.com. I’m sorry. I really don’t.
Every blog is mommy this, mommy that, and that’s great. It’s totally fine, except that I can’t remember it personally. Even my own friends blog names! I can’t remember them. I’m like…that was frugalmommy dot com, frugal something mom? I never can remember. Ever!
It’s horrible. It’s embarrassing that I can’t remember my own friends’ URL, but it’s the truth.
But here’s what I DO remember…I remember a name. You have to give your audience what YOU like as a reader yourself. You have to put yourself in their shoes. You’re NOT JUST a mommy blogger, you have a name, a personality. You’re different. You’re unique. SHOW ME. Pick a URL name that is unique to YOU, not to what you do. Everybody’s a mom basically…how are YOU different? Lead with that.
Here’s the thing…
You don’t have to follow all the typical blogging tips for beginners or do everything like the experts say. Pinterest just added a new gallery slidebar thingybobber to promote boards. When I’m making a decision, I base it on what I want as a READER, not what I want as a business person. So…what do I do in this case, when everybody and their mother is utilizing the gallery slidebar? Well, as a reader, I loathe it!!!!!!!!!!!! LOATHE!! It’s so distracting and super annoying. I just get my eyes focused on one thing, something I like, then it slides and it’s gone. Grrrrr. And what, I can’t scroll down 1 mili-second to see their top boards anyway? Most people put their top boards at the top!
So, what do I do? Do I follow what everyone else is doing or do I do what I WANT to do?
I do what I want. I don’t have the gallery slider. I don’t want the slider. I HATE the slider! And you know what, I get a heck-of-a-lot-more followers than most of my colleagues. Now, let’s think about this for a minute…being different matters! Okay…it matters!
EVERY single decision you make in blogging should be well thought out. Does it makes sense to YOU?
WHO CARES what some expert says. Who cares what I SAY! Do what YOU want to do! What’s right for YOU, your brand, and your blog!
When you’re just starting blogging, it can be so overwhelming and you know what, I’m going to hurt your feelings, but it’s your own fault. 🙁 STOP listening to everybody! Stop searching around. Stop trying to get advice and think about what YOU WANT as a reader, then make decisions based on THAT. Pretty simple, right?! I totally just cleared 5,000 hours worth of research work for you! You’re welcome. 🙂
Listen, do what’s right for you. Don’t let anyone else tell you what that is. Because blogging is NOT a one-size-fits-all. You absolutely CAN make a go of it doing it YOUR WAY. It’s all about putting yourself in your audience’s shoes and doing what YOU’D want as a reader, rather than looking at everything as a business-person.
You may make less money doing that. True story: you may not get $5,000 in ads revenue every month, because you personally hate them, so you don’t have ads on your site (like me).
That’s okay…because over time, your audience will know you care about them. That you put THEM first over profits and that’s attractive. It attracts more people because you’re just blogging genuinely, whole-heartedly, purposefully.
Do whatever you want! Don’t let others tell you what you should be doing!
Do what’s right for you. Test things out. Put yourself in your readers shoes, and above all….have fun. Because if YOU’RE not having fun, I promise you, your readers won’t either!
Then, after you’ve been blogging 2-3 years, by all means, start niching down. You totally should, but in those first few years, nope…write whatever you want, whatever you are passionate about. Because THAT’S how you stand out from the crowd and get the audience numbers you want!
