November 9th, 2007THE PROBLEM WITH MY BLOG
I spend a lot of time working on my Blog & Podcast and it’s working pretty well. I get between 1000 and 2000 unique visitors everyday but most of them come from images which are very well indexed in Google. Those visitors don’t really care about topics which do not relate to Photos and Images and I have many many topics that have nothing to do with the reason they found my Blog in the first place. That is my Blog’s problem. Too many topics, categories and unrelated posts.
Here is a list of topics covered on my Blog :
What is a Niche?
Specialized market: an area of the market specializing in one type of product or service
I don’t know which percentage of Blogs are dedicated to specific niches but I would think the majority is. Every marketing expert will tell you to choose a specific niche for your blog and they are right. But what if you are interested in many different topics and you want to talk about all of those? Should you start five or ten different blogs each on a specific niche? It’s probably the best solution but it’s a lot more work to manage many blogs!
The advantages of choosing a small amount of niches :
- Your visitors are more loyal. They will come back to read about the topic that interests them.
- You become a specialist in that area and your blog could become a reference.
- Your blog will be well situated in the Search Engine SERPS because of high keyword density and possibly backlinks
On my Blog, I’ve added four different RSS feeds to try and help the readers get the content they are interested in. It’s one solution which is possible thanks to wordpress. All the categories can have their own RSS Feed simply by adding /feed/ at the end of the URL.
Interesting articles about Niches :
- How to Choose the Right Blog Niche: A Simple Three-Step Method
- The World’s Largest Blog Niche and Topic Idea List
- Choosing Your Blog’s Niche – What will you write about?
- Blog Niche Directories
I’d like to know how you are managing niches on your blog. Have you chosen to write about a particular topic? Does your niche work for you? Do you have the same problem as me? Are there any “easy” solutions for managing many different subjects on one blog? Any advice?
November 11th, 2007 at 8:12 pm
I started my blog four months ago with absolutely no niche. The topics were broken down into three main categories: original humor stories, tech tips for the non-technical user and literary/language related themes. I gave up the 2nd and 3rd topics when it became clear to me that my readers, few as they are, preferred reading my humor pieces. So I let my audience determine my niche and I’m really happy to have settled on just one. It’s great to have a focus now!
November 11th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
Hey Kathy,
So your primary topic is humor stories but don’t you sometimes feel like writing off topic? Do you always have related posts to add on your blog? No writers block?
November 11th, 2007 at 9:21 pm
Yes, I do sometimes want to write off-topic. It’s so funny you asked. I was just thinking today how much easier it’d be to write something un-funny. But what I’ve come to realize is that my readers expect me to write humor. It’s what they come for. I’m afraid if I shift too far from humor, suddenly, it might turn off a reader or two (and I don’t have so many to begin with. I average only 75 uniques per day). Since I think I’ve unwittingly branded myself as a humor writer, I need to stick with that. And, yes, I have writer’s block sometimes. But somehow I manage to pull something out of a hat when I need to. Weird how it happens.
November 12th, 2007 at 12:33 am
You must be a naturally funny person to keep writing humorous posts on your blog!
If you have 75 loyal readers and if they comment (participate) to your posts once in a while; that’s real nice! I started my blog purely for myself, not really the readers. My original topic was “my music”. I would post the songs i created but people never commented. I could see people were coming to my site but i didn’t know what they thought and what were their intentions… A little annoying. So just for fun i added new categories and posted a few articles. After some time the traffic started coming in but not from my original categories. And when money enters the picture, your motivation changes. I started adding more posts for the extra categories to get more traffic. Some topics on the internet just attract massive amounts of people, it’s ridiculous. I sold my blog’s soul ! ;-(
I wouldn’t have the time or motivation to run more than one blog! Too many various topics interest me so i cannot focus on just one! Search Engines penalize you for writing off topic. I would find it boring to write about just one specific “niche”, but so many people do it! It’s incredible the amount of people who run a blog on ; photoshop tricks, green living, seo for wordpress, celebrity news, fashion, or more specificly ; jeans, socks, sun glasses, gloves etc… So many blogs about any specific interest. I’m impressed. The number of human hours spent running blogs, writing articles and researching to offer real great and original content. Some are motivated by the grow of knownledge, some just like to share and others are in for the money. I must say i’m a bit of each.
Well i hope i can continue my blog forever. I wonder what it’ll look like in 5 years, 10 years, 30 years!
In 30 years I’ll be 56 !
November 12th, 2007 at 1:35 am
I don’t know, some people tell me I’m funny (at least that I write funny, I’m not the most entertaining person at a party). I get about 6-8 comments per post, and I’m truly happy for that. Of the 75 unique visitors per day, I estimate that about half are regular readers. So my fan base is extremely small. But, like you, I’m in this for myself. I would write even if nobody came. But I have to tell you, once you get loyal readers, you start to want more to come! I never thought to make money from my blog, I don’t even know how to do it, except via AdSense. But I suppose if my blog takes off, I might consider it.
I have no idea how anyone runs more than one blog (and runs them all well — that’s the key.) It’s hard for me to keep just one going, but again, everything in it is originally written, so it’s a chore some days. Like today, I barely have a creative thought in my head. Hopefully tomorrow, something fun comes out of it.
I sometimes wonder what my blog will be like in just a year, much less a decade. And in 30 years, I’ll probably be dead or at least in a nursing home.
Good chatting with you, and all the best with your blog!
November 12th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
I think it is much more rewarding to have people participate (comment) one each post. I just wasn’t able to achieve this with my blog, the main reason, my Blog’s Niche.
I get 2000-3000 visitors everyday and practically no comments. But i make 10-20 dollars a day. It pays for an occasional trip (see my post on Nov 12th). Sometimes you can’t have the best of both worlds.
A blog should not be started with money as principal motivation. If you are very successful and things naturally happen, then ok. But i see so many people start blogs to “make money”. 99 out of 100 won’t reach their objective. You can’t be disappointed if you do something for yourself. Just feels good to do it.
Nice chatting with you too!
November 13th, 2007 at 2:30 am
superbe site
November 30th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
XarJ,
I started my blogs with the intentions of selling my soul to the Devil, but he said that Hell was overbooked! Try Limbo.
I’m stretching myself thin, I know, and as a result, I think my content is suffering. I’ve been writing to earn and maybe I should go back to writing to write. I made more people happier that way.
Good luck in your endeavours and keep on trippin’. I hope to get back to bella italia soon. I miss getting lost in Venezia.
December 17th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
No problemo wid da site dude … it be kewel.
Really though, it’s a fun read. I have been here for a while now … I didn’t just click away.
I’ve been blogging for a while. I like to just visit them, read and move on. Once in a while I’ll post something back … I felt compelled to today, so I guess something you are doing is working!
You get a lot of traffic if you have as many visitors as you mentioned above. Visiting from photos though probably doesn’t help you too much. It’s a hassle, but it’s traffic.
I suppose the whole idea of blogging boils down to whether you, as you and Kathy elude to, it’s for yourself, not really for anyone else. That is the way you need to look at it. Take it or leave it, I’m writing here because I want to.
Da Way 2 Go!
sit back … chill … enjoy
December 17th, 2007 at 8:26 pm
Kathy has made some good comments. Getting traffic can be quite a scenario for each blog.
December 18th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
Thank you all for your point of views!
I’m happy to say i started my blog for myself, that was exactly 2 years ago. But things happened on the way and now I also write to make money! I’d say 40% of my motivation comes from income, the other 60% still is me wanting to write for my own pleasure. But in my case, money naturally came into the equation.
When you have less than 200-500 visitors per day, it is not worth polluting your blog with ads. Making 50 cents a day isn’t worth it! Keep working on your blog and only when you have an relatively important number of visits should you add the advertisements. That’s what i did.
July 23rd, 2008 at 11:32 am
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