I’ve been reading more articles about blogging lately and it seems that many of them talk about the benefits of finding a niche. According to this theory, if you corner the market on a specific topic, you can grow your blog’s audience more effectively. But is this necessary?
I’ve always considered myself a generalist. I have a wide variety of interests, and I don’t like to pigeonhole myself into one specific area. In today’s world and economy, everything is very specialized, though.
For close to seven years, I worked for a publishing company and wrote about occupational safety and health almost exclusively. I’ll admit: it was neat to become a so-called expert in that area and learn the nitty-gritty details about safety and health in America.
But as far as blogging goes, I wouldn’t want to focus on one thing and one thing alone. Sure, doing so would probably mean I could grow more traffic and become an authority on a certain topic. But for me it begs the question: Why do I want to blog in the first place?
Finding a niche seems like business advice to me and not necessarily blogging advice. Maybe that’s why I shy away from it.
I started this blog in 2016 because I wanted to write about stuff and share things that I usually don’t talk about with people in my life. That includes things about my spirituality, mental health, and creative writing.
I look at this blogging stuff as a creative outlet. I want to share my poems, my stories, my struggles and joys. I basically just want to share the part of myself that I so often hide from public view.
If I stick to a niche, it would make me feel like a robot. Finding a niche may be good for selling books and wares, but I’m looking for something beyond that. I’m not a business-minded person by nature, so maybe that’s my problem. I don’t necessarily have a starving-artist mentality, but I like to think I take art and writing seriously.
Finding a niche seems like business advice to me and not necessarily blogging advice. Maybe that’s why I shy away from it. I just wouldn’t want to be restricted to writing about one topic and only one topic.
Why not let the niche find me? Why not share myself on my blog and let the cards fall where they may? Perhaps I’m too much of a purist. But I guess we all need to have our own philosophies.
I have the same outlook as you! I started blogging to share my thoughts and opinions and restricting myself to a niche doesn’t make sense. As you said, sticking to a niche is more of a business advice. Whether to take it or not depends on what we’d like for our blogs.
Thanks for the comment! I totally agree.