This guest post is by Brandon Yawa of Brandonyawa.com.
It goes without saying that every writer who has excelled has his or her niche.
A “niche” gives writers a focal point, a demographic, a particular place in the world where his or her voice resonates. But niches without proper attention kill great writers.
The problem with specifications
You are walking down a busy street and fall. Unfortunately, you break your leg and the ambulance rushes you to the nearest Orthopedist. You meet Dr. Niche in his blue scrubs with his head held slightly higher than everyone else’s, suggesting overwhelming confidence in the subject at hand.
He looks at your leg, and in what seems like a millisecond, your leg is in place and the cast is fully set. Baffled by the expertise of Dr. Niche, you ask, “Is there anything I can do nutritionally to speed up the healing process?” Dr. Niche’s skyscraper deposition lowers as he almost incoherently mumbles, “That’s outside of my niche . . .”
Dr. Niche is absurd.
Great writers do not become so specific that they lose sight of the body in writing. Whether your niche is creative writing, blogging, non-fiction, or poetry, it is equally important you understand the mechanics of all the above. Great writers use the knowledge of writing to excel in their niche. Okay writers use the knowledge of their niche to excel in their niche.
How to be well-rounded
- If your specialty is blogging, expose yourself to other areas—poetry, literature, creative writing—and familiarize yourself with the mechanics of all of them. You’re not exiting your specialty; instead, you are arming yourself with more tools to excel in your niche.
- Don’t limit yourself to only writing about your niche. Live a little outside of your comfort zone. If you’re a poet, write what you know about blogging. If you’re a blogger, write a poem. Don’t just familiarize yourself with the mechanics; actually contribute your voice in other realms.
- Look at your voice like you would Dr. Niche. Dr. Niche is a genius if the world and the human body were limited to just bones, but it’s not. If you want to be a real world genius, don’t limit your voice to one particular thing.
- Separate the content your readers want from what you have to do as a professional to evolve. Continue to produce the content your readers look forward to, but practice new ways of delivering your content in privacy.
- Start today, not tomorrow. Don’t get into the habit of putting off what will make your voice special today. It’s a really bad habit that needs an entirely different blog.
The blogging world has shown that one person’s success can be countless people’s success when we share our experiences. Go out, try these new methods, then comeback here and share your insights. We look forward to hearing from you in the comments.
Brandon Yawa is a retired pro athlete turned blogger. His motivational blogs combine lessons learned from surpassing the limits in his life, with a deep-seated passion to help people transcend the limits in their lives.
Hi there – this is great advice.
If you stick narrowly to your own niche, there’s a danger that your content will soon become very boring. There are a lot of bloggers blogging about blogging – the ones that stand out are those who bring new insights from outside the blogosphere into their posts.
It’s like teachers who go into teaching straight from college without gaining any other work experience – they’ll often have much less to give their pupils than those who’ve had more varied careers.
Branching out into other areas broadens your mind, develops your skills and should help you create more interesting content.
Good idea, too, to practice new methods in privacy – I think it’s important to have a ‘sand-pit’ where you can play and make a bit of a mess without showing yourself up in public!
Sue
To have a “sand-pit” to play is crucial for artist. Speaking of sand-pits. I am actually writing this comment from Chiang Mai Thailand . I decided to spend a month at a Buddhist Temple. I had to actually sneak out to be here to comment. Beyond just exposing yourself to different niches, how important do you think it is for artist to expose themselves to different perspectives on life?
Hey, Brandon – sounds like you’re in a beautiful place!
Speaking personally, I think it’s very important for an artist to be open to different world views – even if you have your own firmly held principles and beliefs, I’d think gaining insight into the way other people see things can only enhance your work and potentially give it a wider reach.
Apart from anything else, it should enable you to relate more meaningfully to people from a wide range of different backgrounds, including those whose religious, philosophical or political perspectives may be very different from your own. You’ll be able to communicate more effectively with them if you have at least some understanding of where they’re coming from and what matters to them.
The world and its people are endlessly complex – and I think artists need to expose themselves to that diversity.
Other people may disagree – those are just my thoughts on the subject.
I hope your month at the Temple is enjoyable – and enlightening,
Sue
Finally finished my 26 day course. It was one of the hardest things I’ve done in my life. I didn’t find enlightenment (even though I tried). I did learn how to delete thoughts in my mind, which is pretty “Batman” if you ask me. Once again, I totally agree with your perspective. Commenting can be such a dull thing, but when you come across the ones that actually evolve from a “comment” to an exchange, it’s a beautiful thing. Thank you, Sue.
You’re welcome, Brandon – congratulations on completing your course. You must have great staying power – 26 days is a long time.
Deleting thoughts – now there’s an interesting concept. I have a few that probably belong in the trash can – wouldn’t it be great if you could install a plugin to divert the harmful ones before they sink into your consciousness. I reckon that would be a best seller.
I’ve enjoyed our conversation, too – thank you,
Sue
Very good advice.
It keeps your mind in learning mode that requires you to be on top of your writing all of the time.
Plus, you can be able to write with a much wider field of knowledge and entertain your readers more!
My sentiments exactly.
Excellent advice. Sometimes blogs are far too narrow.
Great… i found your advice is valuable.
Thank you Alex.
Blogging its an interesting chapter on Internet which the person should love to enjoy it not for the sake of earning money.The one who love to express him on blogging sure he will get reached the top of the table but unless he realize the importance of the blogging life.The creatives are most reached one with others thanks for the tips Darren
I agree. As a human i have a desire to know about many things and the niche still as a main focus.
Enjoyed reading this awesome article and really liked the third point that says, “Don’t limit yourself to only writing about your niche.”
I think writing about the niche is great, but we all have some areas of interests outside of our niche and blogging about them definitely makes our lives and the blogs much more interesting and fun.
Thanks you for an awesome article.
Regards,
Kumar
Thank you, Kumar.
it is helpful in finding out what other things we are good at…..
Hi Brandon,
Some good tips here. I do note however that there are tons of limiting beliefs popping up in the comments section.
Nope, if you stick to a hyper strict niche will not become boring, you will actually grow more creative because you are forced to attack your topic from a different point of view.
This actually becomes easier and easier. I struggled in the past to write 1 to 2 posts daily. Now I write 8 by habit. Why? I released limiting beliefs.
I also saw greater cash gifting success by simply sticking to my niche with each post. You run the risk of confusing your audience and diluting your message by straying off topic frequently.
Maybe a few posts off topic, but beyond that, stick to your niche and fine tune your creativity, and you will rock it out.
Thanks Brandon!
Ryan
I really liked your comment. I think bloggers should stick to their niche, however I disagree with the notion that a blogger’s voice has to become the niche. I prefer to read blogs from bloggers that maintain their unique perspective within a niche.
The one who love to express him on blogging sure he will get reached the top of the table but unless he realize the importance of the blogging life
I like the idea that you mentioned about experiencing things outside of your niche and comfort zone. That would definitely bring added perspective to whatever you are writing as a blogger.
As a blogger who is starting out myself, I actually found it difficult to stick to my niche and write about only one thing because I was interested in so many things! After reading up in ProBlogger, I realised that that might not be so good if I was trying to get a larger following since people go to certain blogs for specific reasons.
With that said, whatever experiences I have outside of what I write about still feeds into my posts. Great post!
I love opportunities to write about something other than dogs. I think it’s a great way to reach a new audience (dog lovers have other interests too) and it allows me to stretch my writing wings.
Great post. Thanks so much!!!
I have only just started blogging so its great to read articles that point me in the right direction on how to blog, its something i shall be having a go at in the future.
I wish you the best my friend.
I wish you the best my friend.
Awesome post! I have been blogging for a few years but definitely would like to step up my game. My current blog is about hair and makeup. However, I have just extended it to other beauty aspects including nails and fragrance.
I think you gave an awesome idea to look outside of your normal writing. Poetry will definitely give me a better wordage. Thanks again for the post.
Thank you. I took the liberty of looking at your blog. You bring your voice into your niche nicely. I don’t know much about hair, but it was it like I was reading an article from a “friend”. Glad my post could help.