Comments on: Does Your Blog Focus Upon a Niche Topic or a Niche Demographic? – a Mini Case Study with Gala Darling

By: Julie M

Julie M — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:34:21 +0000

I guess my blog is generally about my freelance writing experiences (the niche), but every now and again I like to write about off-topic subjects, especially when I feel I am in the writing zone.

My blog is my central hub to promote my other writing. However, I like to think of it as my creative home and outlet for writing. By doing that, I sometimes get off subject. I don’t use SEO here and I would like to keep it that way.

Is it still possible to get readers even if the blog can sometimes, while still introspective writing, be slightly off focus?? The Mental Floss site comes to mind.

By: Peter McCartney

Peter McCartney — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 14:36:21 +0000

Hi! Darren. Very interesting post on niche blogs. I would fit into that category and having fun doing it. Not for money but to target a specific group for a specific purpose. I try to stay focused on that idea, but it is becoming increasing harder to stay on that line. It is not a problem, as the more I go on with it, the more I find that it is more of a personal journey. Inviting others to read and express themselves and visa versa. I imagine that would be how most bloggers start off.

By: political forum

political forum — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 04:13:25 +0000

Well blogs are just like most other websites in that there are a few major components that help them to become successful. The first one being SEO. You got to do your homework on how to successfully target keywords and get a good SERP in them. You have to know what keywords are important for you. Also important is content. You need to get good content on your site daily. I think it would be a good idea to enter into a team with some of your friends to put content on the site. Otherwise, there’s a lot of pressure on you to put content on your site every single day and most of us do have other things to do besides putting content on our site everyday.

-roger

By: Rachel

Rachel — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 16:36:24 +0000

FYI:
“Niche demographic” is not some invented term. “Niche” and “demographic” are both real terms, and “niche” describes “demographic” here. I study marketing, and we refer to demographics all the time when describing to whom things are marketed, and “niche” is a good way to describe whether a target group is broad or narrow. He’s saying that there is a niche market, delineated by a demographic. It’s a good pairing of terms, Darren (but certainly not one to trademark, Jason!).

By: Sara

Sara — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 19:42:07 +0000

Excellent post. In my opinion a broad niche blog rather than a tighter niche topic makes it much harder to grow in the beginning as you test different types of content and build an identity. I would think it is appealing and tempting in the short term to have a specific topic especially if the topic is trendy or can generate buzz. In the long run a general niche blog, once established, offers a lot more flexibility and freedom – easier to produce consistently varied and enjoyable content, welcome guest bloggers, etc. But it’s definitely harder to develop an identity initially. If you can grow and transition organically as Gala has, that is terrific. (Or try both approaches at once!)

By: Online Tips at Slyvisions.com

Online Tips at Slyvisions.com — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 15:16:44 +0000

Nice points. I think my site is focused more on a Niche Demographic since I share tips and tricks on just about anything related to technology.

By: Miracle

Miracle — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 15:00:20 +0000

This was a pretty eye-opening post for me.

My blog that I have linked to in my name has always been subversively more tied to demographic than topic. I actually am relieved about the success of someone realizing the truth in marketing towards a demographic rather than a topic. It has been itching me for awhile now, but I couldn’t find the spot to scratch so thank you.

I think the marketing and income streams from niche demographics will be much different than topics and needs to be addressed. One can talk about music, hobbies, beliefs, responsibilities and other topical influences of the demographic, but I don’t think everyone is capable of writing to a group of people. Some individuals just write better topic blogs.

The last thing I have to say is we need to be weary how we define demographics. It shouldn’t be the static way that the government collect statistics, but a more dynamic route developed through the posts on the blog.

By: Francesco

Francesco — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 13:08:00 +0000

I just started my italian blog and tried to narrow it, I found it is really hard and needs a lot work!

I will do my best!

Francesco,
Guadagnare on line Nuovibusiness

By: Johnbjr

Johnbjr — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 11:17:53 +0000

I just started my creativie / art / life blog but I’m not to sure I have narrowd down the niche enough. I think it may do ok but I can see how targeting a smaller niche would be better.

By: Arne Midtlund

Arne Midtlund — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 10:49:21 +0000

My blog focuses on both a niche topic and a niche group of people. I write about judo in norwegian. If all judopeople in Norway were online and reading my blog I’d have aprox. 3000 readers. I have about 200 daily visits and that makes my judosite the most read judosite i Norway:-)

By: Humpty the weight loss guy

Humpty the weight loss guy — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 08:17:34 +0000

I like the way Gala promotes herself with that nice picture of herself with that GALA bling bling

It’s fantastic!

By: Kelvin

Kelvin — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 08:10:49 +0000

This is probably one of the quirkier responses here, but I can’t help but wonder…

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if your name is Bob Fisherman, your niche is fishing, and you got bobfisherman.com as your domain? Then it’s a description for your niche and/or just your name! It can go both ways!

That’d be awesome, but I don’t think it happens often.

Any Fishers, Millers, Bakers out there? ;-)

By: Thejesh GN

Thejesh GN — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 07:51:07 +0000

My niche is geographic. More on a city events. Mostly about events at home city.

By: Darren Rowse

Darren Rowse — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 06:28:23 +0000

Dave – you’re right about the picture. Gala uses images very well on her blog – as you’ll see in tomorrow’s post!

By: Rvi

Rvi — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 05:59:46 +0000

You misspelled focusing twice in the post. Near the beginning, its in bold. Should only be one ‘s.’

By: Heraldo

Heraldo — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 05:59:12 +0000

My niche is geographic. Because the local population is small, there's a ceiling to my audience. But I'm curious about other geographical blogs. Readers clearly prefer news and views regarding our home location.

By: Dave Starr

Dave Starr — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 05:55:44 +0000

Fantastic thought-provoker, Darren (and Gala). And, as you yourself mentioned just a couple days ago, a blogger would find it well worth his/her time to get a decent picture or two, rather than the usual “cropped from a family photo” image that is on most blogs … those who bother with a picture.

The picture of Gala is a whole mini-exercise in marketing … hard to tell if the eyes or the rings are more memorable, (those rings look like a good product to sell, to me), but memorable they are. What was that old saw about a picture being worth 10,000 words?

By: Deepak

Deepak — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 05:10:40 +0000

Would a total targetable audience of a 100,000 science geeks be a niche demographic :)?

By: 40Hourstogo

40Hourstogo — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 04:00:17 +0000

Interesting topic. In the scheme of things, I guess you should be giving your readers what they want. And if they want to direct your blog in a certain direction, but still under the same general topic, then go for it. Give your readers what they want and what is interesting to them. With my blog, my “niche demographic” is quite large…..those that want to vent about their job or boss. And I feel that my domain name fits well with the topic.

Thanks for the interesting post. Looking forward to hearing from Gala tomorrow.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 03:21:07 +0000

It’s an interesting point about having your name as a domain name instead of something specific. In the niche I am in (and forced to largely remain in thanks to domain name selection) websites with names that have nothing to do with the topic of the blog tend to do better.

Pure chance? Probably not…