The Danger of Niche Blogging: I Niched Too Hard
I took the line, “Jack of all trades, master of none” very seriously. They say you need to hone in on your niche to really make your blog successful.
Whoever “they” might be, I would like to give them a piece of my mind because “they” obviously never tried to run a crafty/DIY exclusive blog single-handedly.
I think you can see where this post is going. Being the perfectionist and information-hungry person that I am, I’m always seeking out opportunities to learn more about how to be a better blogger. After all, this blog is more than just a creative outlet, I have somehow turned it into a stream of income. Who knew!
A lot of the information I was finding talked about the importance of nicheing in order to take your blog to the next level. I thought it was worth a shot, I’ve been blogging for 6 years so why not try it and see?
After about 2 months of focusing on my “niche”, I’m so over it.
Niche blogging made me burn out
Thinking I needed to write about a certain topic and ONLY a certain topic started to get real boring real fast. Don’t get me wrong, I love being creative and crafty. But only sharing my projects and only talking about being creative and crafty made me want to poke my own eyes out with a fork.
I alienated my audience
Over the last 6 years of Bre Pea (previously Peacoats & Plaid) I’ve shared my family life, creative projects, blogging experiences, you name it. To suddenly focus in on one subject alone (no matter how broad that could be) in turn alienated parts of my audience that came to read for the other things I liked to talk about.
My content got stale
When you get kind of sick of what you’re talking about, making your posts engaging and interesting is almost impossible. No one wants to read tutorial after tutorial, or hear about the newest yarn on the market (unless you have a giant audience of Grandmas, then props to you). For goodness sake, I’m 30. I’ll save it for when I’m in my 60’s. Can you imagine me still blogging in my 60’s? That’s a crazy thought.
I lost my voice
When I go back and read old posts, the thing that makes me the most proud is how distinctive my voice was. I say “was” because I feel like I’ve lost that. It’s pretty tough to insert personality into tutorial after tutorial, although goodness knows I tried.
Since I decided to DITCH THE NICHE, I’m feeling a renewed vigor for my blog. After all, the reason why I started it was to document all of life’s adventures. Hence, a LIFESTYLE blog.
Don’t get me wrong, there will still be PLENTY of creativity. After all, creativity is in my blood. Just expect to read about a wider variety of family adventures, maybe a few beauty tips, and more sarcasm. Lots more.
I agree; this is spot on! We are multi-faceted people. If I enjoy reading a blog, it’s because I enjoy the voice behind the blog. I can find similar content anywhere. It’s about relationships. Great post!
Exactly! It’s hard to connect with the content when it sounds like a robot wrote it.
Oh my gosh! I am so glad you posted this! I have been trying to brainstorm posts for my blog and had this overwhelming feeling that I should just quit blogging completely because I haven’t been able to come up with anything. I have been totally unmotivated. I too, tried to stick to a niche and got bored VERY quickly. I think it’s time to adjust my focus a little bit. 🙂
That’s exactly how I was feeling. And then I thought, “why am I doing this? I was doing so good before, if it’s not broken don’t fix it!”
I totally agree! I had burnout too with my previous site. Exactly the reason I decided to rebrand and renew. Great post!
Thanks Yolanda! Glad you were able to find a renewed vigor for blogging 🙂
This is so me. I couldn’t just settle on one thing – plus I want “me” to shine through on the blog and my family. I don’t want it to be all about one thing. I get so tired of visiting blogs that are centered on the single thing and over and over it just gets tiring.
I get so tired of them too! I kind of had an “a-ha” moment when I realized I had stopped reading blogs that got too niche-y.
I love that you wrote about this! As a newbie blogger I’ve read how you have to narrow down your niche, but that limits a lot of new ideas. I’m happy you discovered it wasn’t working for you before getting too burnt out or quitting. I love your blog and am excited for all the lifestyle posts you plan on writing this year!
From one Bre to another Bree (haha!) this comment made my day! You’re too sweet!
Yes, yes, yes, ALL of this! I just can’t be a niche blogger. I tried, it didn’t work. I don’t think there is anything wrong with ditching the niche!
I feel like niches only work if you have a TON of help or if it’s your full time gig. I’m just basically blogging for fun and maybe a little bit of extra dough, so a niche just didn’t make sense.
Yes to all! I don’t want to be a niche blogger. I want to be an everything blogger. i want to write about things that matter to me no matter what topic whether its make up or video games. I want to talk about all those because that’s me, that is my personality.
I so agree Nicole! I think it would be hard to stay genuine and interesting writing about the same thing ALL THE TIME. I think that’s the difference between a blog and bloggers trying to create a “platform”. People generally read blogs because they’re interested in the people writing them, right?