When the opportunity came up for us to do a series on niche blogging here on ProBlogger, I jumped at the chance.
Blogging isn’t what it was. I mentioned recently how blogging has changed so much that these days we may not even realise we’re looking at a blog as we use the web.
Image courtesy stock.xchng user Rbut
This weekend’s little series of posts are a testament to that kind of variety. But niche blogging is also a topic that’s important to me. My main blog, dPS, is a niche blog that started as a personal passion of mine. There are a few things I love about niche blogging, and that’s at the top of the list.
1. Niche blogging lets you indulge a passion
It’s true that if you blog about something that you have a passion for, you’ll probably find it easier to write posts and establish your authority within that space.
But for me, the greatest advantage of niche blogging is that it’s allowed me to really indulge myself in an interest that captivates me: photography. Talking, reading, and posting about something I love—and which really intrigues me—is a great way to spend my work day.
2. It’s easier to create emotional engagement with a niche blog
I honestly believe this is true—and I’ve got a long list of now-defunct blogs to back me up!
If you blog on a topic you genuinely care about, that will come through in your posts. Your readers will be able to see instantly that you know where they’re at, and that’s the fastest way I know to lay the foundations of a strong emotional connection. Over time, you can build upon that connection to create loyalty, and hopefully give readers good reasons to subscribe or buy what you offer.
3. Niche blogging “feels” more creative
This is just my opinion, but I find it easier to be more creative when I think about personal-interest or “hobby” topics than when I’m blogging about business topics.
I think this might have something to do with our natural affinity for the hobby topics we choose to blog about. That passion is innate for most of us—I know my interest for photography is—and so a lot of the creative spark comes from an unconscious place. Often, it feels like it just happens—and I think they’re the moments of true blogging inspiration.
4. Niche blogging can seem more manageable
Cutting down your blog to concentrate on your chosen niche can help you focus your attention and efforts. It can make the often daunting task of blogging seem more manageable, because that focus can help you make decisions and prioritise the things you need to do.
Niche blogging can also help you to home right in on an audience, which, again, can reduce the burden bloggers often feel. If you run a niche blog serving a tightly defined audience, you know you don’t need to meet everyone’s needs. The tighter your audience definition, the more clearly you may be able to picture your readership—which can only help you to create content, as well as products and services, that those readers want.
5. Niche blogging is fun
This is true for all the reasons I’ve already mentioned, but also because your niche blog will allow you to connect deeply with readers who can relate to your passion, who understand your interest in the topic, and who can expand your knowledge, networks, and experience within the niche.
Niche blogging lets you dedicate yourself, your time, and your energies to something that really matters to you—and to help others while you’re doing it. What could be more fun than that?
Carving out three niches
If you think that this all sounds very fun and altruistic, don’t forget that many niche blogs are strong money-makers.
This weekend, we’ll take a tour of three specific blogging niches in which you can make money. And none of them is the “make money blogging” niche. We won’t cover online marketing or business blogs either.
What we’re looking at in these posts are genuine, personal-interest niches that attract strong audiences who have a deep passion for their topics and are willing to spend money on them. Those three niches are:
While our intention with these posts is to profile each of the niches, and provide a bit of market-specific information for those who might be thinking of targeting them, the posts also shed light on key blogging tactics that any blogger can use—no matter which niche you’ve chosen for yourself.
This series is a little different from our multi-topic blog weekend project. You could say that it sits at the other end of the spectrum, since this weekend’s posts focus on picking a specific niche, rather than combining many topics into a single blog. While the latter approach might be more complex, I think that both single-topic and multi-topic blogs can be used to target a given audience niche.
One of the great things about blogging is that it allows us to connect with people who share our interests from all over the world. And as this weekend’s project shows, no matter how particular you feel your interests are, through blogging, you’re sure to find others who share those interests. Moreover, you might be able to make some money at the same time.
I hope you’ll enjoy this weekend’s series. First up, though, I’d love to hear in the comments which niche you blog in (or if you’re a multi-topic blogger)—I’m hopeful that we’ll see an interesting cross-section of topics. To get us started, I blog in the amateur photography niche. What about you?
