The Problem With Niche Blogging

Niche blogging makes me feel a bit crazed which is probably why I write about it:

• You Don’t Need A Niche To Be A Successful Blogger
• You Still Don’t Need A Niche To Be A Successful Blogger

Blame it on my being someone who hates being fenced in. Lock me up in a prison and I will be the guy who never stops searching for a way to escape because limits and and I are often at odds.

The Problem With Niche Blogging

Ask me to don to my professional hat and I’ll tell you the problem with niche blogging starts with the echo chamber, content shock and the willingness to view blogging as a marathon.

If the blogosphere were real it would be like a huge swap meet or street carnival. There are endless rows of vendors and most of them look the same because they are selling the same thing.

So to get your attention everyone screams at you but that doesn’t work because you either tune them out or go running for shelter. In that real-world description if you were smart you’d find a way to steer the runners to your shop and then give them a reason to hang out.

But we are not talking about a physical world, we are talking about a virtual which means it is even easier for people to escape by clicking elsewhere.

About this time is when people start offering all sorts of suggestions for how to keep people around, improve bounce rates and or convince them to stay.

Hell, it reminds me of the time you begged someone not to break up with you because if they gave you one more chance…

The Marathon Approach

The Marathon Approach means you are the tortoise and not the hare. You recognize that you are more likely to last in blogging by adopting a slow and steady approach.

Most of us don’t have the resources to go full bore, day in and day out.

The challenge with the Marathon Approach is that we don’t all have the resources to last. It takes a commitment and there is no guarantee that you beat the people in front, behind and on the sides.

Newcomers will shoot through the blogosphere and light up the sky. Sometimes you’ll look at them and wonder why people like/love them and you’ll not be able to figure it out.

Disclosure: I like the Marathon Approach because it resembles mine. Ten years of blogging has provided me with some hard-earned benefits and advantages.

It is the sort of approach I try to apply in multiple aspects of life. I may not have as much or more talent than some but I am resourceful, tenacious and willing to do the work.

Sometimes that is all it takes to beat the “more talented.”

Labels and Niche Blogging

I confess I sometimes agonize over this. I am not a huge fan of labels and being pigeonholed.

I am a dad blogger and I was among “the first” whatever the hell that means. But because I haven’t always marketed myself that way I have missed out on a variety of opportunities that I might have otherwise had.

However, because I am more than just a dad blogger I have had other opportunities/benefits that I wouldn’t have otherwise gotten.

So how do you decide which is best?

Hell, I don’t have any hard metrics to use. I can’t tell you which one led to more money or better opportunity.

The only thing I can tell you is that I chose the one that made blogging fun for me and that is what helped me last because if you aren’t having fun then you probably won’t be around for the long haul.

What about you? What do you think?