The word niche is so hot right now when it comes to blogging.
But why? If my interests involve pizza, bocce ball, and aerial yoga, why can’t I start a blog that covers all 3? Why am I forced into the mental hell of having to choose 1 of my interests per blog when I’m so multi-faceted?
In this post, let’s get into the reasons why everybody everywhere is saying that you need to choose a niche.
Niches Are More Profitable
I’ll get right to the point; the reason to choose a niche is MONEY.
You’ll make more of it if you focus in on one topic. But why is that exactly? Why does expanding the number of subjects you write about cost you a considerable amount of money?
Traffic With Similar Interests Is Easier To Sell To
Regardless of how you choose to monetize your blog, a niche will make it easier to convert your audience into sales.
The reason why becomes obvious if you stop and think about it. If I had a business that sells ping pong equipment. Would I be more interested in a website dedicated to ping pong, or one where the content is split between ping pong, Chinese food and running 5k’s?
The above is true regardless as to whether you monetize your website with ads, affiliate deals, or your own product.
You may be thinking, “Well, I’ll simply create more products to fill every niche then. That way I don’t have to be tied down to 1 subject.”
A Niche Site Will Save You Time
How long do you think it will take you to get 100,000 page views to your blog or develop a product for your niche? The answer to that question is at least a year if you’re working fast and perhaps much longer.
By having multiple niches, all you’re doing is multiplying how long it will take to have a successful site by the number of niches you want to write about.
Some people spread themselves so thin by trying to do everything that they fail to do anything well. They will never see success before they burn out. I know picking a single subject is hard when you’re still figuring this out. But a niche isn’t as confining as you think.
A Niche Can Be a Very Broad Subject
I know that writing 100 posts about a single subject sounds BORING and that you’re confining yourself mentally. But your niche doesn’t need to be THAT specific. All you need to do is produce content about subjects that match your end product.
If you sell Aerial Yoga equipment, you don’t have to produce content about Aerial Yoga exclusively. Because do you know who might want Aerial Yoga equipment? People who do regular yoga.
Your niche will end up being so broad that you have a rather large sandbox to play in. For instance, my blog is about creating a digital content business, go check out the vast array of subjects I’m writing about. From starting a blog, to being better on camera, to which web safe fonts work best on the web.
Niche Sites Create Topical Authority For Higher Google Rankings
Google appears to give you a rankings boost on a subject if your website focuses on that subject. This is commonly referred to as topical authority.
When you don’t have a niche, you never build up this level of topical authority on any individual subject. Or it takes much longer to do so if you’re splitting your time between 3 subjects.
Sticking to a niche will get you faster traffic growth from the largest source of traffic on the web. By not having a niche, you’re once again costing yourself time.
A Niche Site Encourages Repeat Traffic
When a visitor knows your site is about Game of Thrones theories they’ll check back the next time they’re searching for something Game of Thrones related. Or maybe they’ll just come back because they love the topic that much and want to see what you say next.
However, If your site is about Game of Thrones, succulents, and horse racing then maybe not. The more broad your topic gets the less likely you are to have these type of super-fans that come to your website just because.
Remarketing Becomes Cheaper with a Niche
In the event you go through with developing a product for your niche, you’re going to be delighted when you learn just how much money your retargeting ad campaign is generating for your business. Since every visitor to your blog was into a certain niche and familiar with how awesome you are, they become incredibly likely to convert.
Sure, you could try to segment your traffic through all these mediums and create niches that way, but you’re creating a lot more work for yourself. You’ll be a lot happier if everything it bunched into one subject.
If I Choose a Niche Will I Run out of Topic Ideas?
Unless your niche is incredibly specific, I don’t know how you could EVER run out of topic ideas for a subject you’re passionate about.
For ShaunPoore.com, I try to keep the topics to “Things that might help 1st-time digital business owners who want to quit their jobs”. I honestly can’t write my ideas at anywhere close to the rate at which they pop into my head.
Will I get bored if I Choose a Niche?
You might. Our interests change all the time. I used to think Kanye West was so freaking cool back in 2004 when “College Dropout” got released. Now… Not so much.
However, blogging is not a life sentence. You should be able to see success within a year or two if you can write (and/or outsource) two posts a week. And two posts a week only needs to happen because you’re starting with nothing. After a couple year you can slow it down dramatically and coast off of your past success for a while.
How Do I Choose a Profitable Niche?
If you can build a product related to a niche, then your niche will be profitable. The real question here is how do you create a product for that niche?
If you’re trying to make money through affiliate marketing, then you’d build content around an affiliate offer. However, I strongly advise against this strategy. Affiliate offers tend to disappear. When they inevitably do, all the content you created around that affiliate offer will become worthless overnight.
If you’re trying to monetize with ads, then stop.
But if you’re ignoring that advice then focus on generating as much volume as possible when choosing a niche. A niche will help increase RPM’s, but RPM’s are so low with ads that volume will be the better play. Don’t go into a niche that’s overly specific if ads are your gameplan.
How Do I Tell If My Niche is Oversaturated?
A common worry people have when choosing a niche is that there will be too much competition. For example, if you want to get into the weight loss niche. Good luck getting onto the 1st page of Google for the term “weight loss.” There’s so much competition that that’s extremely unlikely no matter who you are.
But, does that mean weight loss is oversaturated? For a lot of terms and phrases on Google, it absolutely is. But, if you can find more specific topics within weight loss to blog about you can probably still gain some type of following. An example would be blogging about some very specific new diet trend or exercise that few people are talking about yet.
Can I Be Authentic Within a Niche?
I get it. I love fantasy football, but I haven’t mentioned rookie sleeper picks once on this blog. Does that mean I’m being inauthentic with you or holding back?
No, absolutely not. I have other interests. I also love the topic of starting digital businesses and quitting your 9-5 job. I genuinely want to help as many people as possible accomplish that.
As long as you’re writing about a topic you truly enjoy it’ll show up in what you write. You don’t have to write about EVERYTHING that interests you to be yourself. Pick a topic you’re into and put your own unique spin on it.