Happy Saturday! I hope you’re all well and are having a fab day. For today’s post, I wanted to do talk a bit about whether you need a niche to ‘make it’ as a blogger and the reasons why I sometimes consider myself a ‘bad’ blogger … and how I can improve that. This post has been in my drafts for god knows how long because I just haven’t been able to get my words out in the way I wanted them to come across. But either way you could say that this post is just gonna be me unleashing my thoughts onto the page, hoping … just hoping that it makes any sense at all.
I hear / see so many ‘influencers’ / bloggers talking about their ‘tips on how to make it as a blogger’ or posts along those lines and they all include the point about having a niche. Admittedly, I’m guilty of this to as I’ve stated this in a tips for bloggers post way back when I first started my blog, and i guess that’s what I was lead to believe; until later on down the line.
Nearly three years on from starting my blog and my thoughts and opinions on it all together have changed. Some of those include realising just how difficult it can be coming up with new and original ideas when there’s millions of people out there doing the same thing as you (and trust me it gets harder the longer you’ve been doing it). How hard it can be to juggle every day life with a blog and keeping up with social media in order to share your blog and keep traffic coming in. And finally just how bloody rewarding and happy the littlest things can make you i.e a brand interacting with you on social media, a collab opportunity coming up in your emails or even just a random person on the other side of the world commenting on a post about how much they enjoyed reading it.
Don’t get me wrong, I think having a niche is definitely a positive and could possibly help when growing a ‘following’ or readers but I think if it’s just a hobby for you and views aren’t the be all and end all for you, then blogging about what you love is the main thing. Whether that be a beauty related post one day and a travel post the next, as long as you put your heart and soul into what you’re uploading and you’re proud of each and every post, then you’re already half way there and a good, successful blogger.
I think that’s one of the reasons that I love blogging so much, because it’s one of the very few things in live that I am completely in control of and can do exactly what I want with. If you have ever wanted to started a blog/ YouTube channel etc. then I really do urge you to bite the bullet and go for it because it’s the most rewarding thing I have ever done. I have been wanting to start daily blogging, or at least every other day, but I’ve noticed throughout Blogtober so far just how hard that is with working full-time as well. However, although it has been difficult and stressful, I’m still doing it so maybe with enough planning and using my time wisely I could work towards doing it in the future.
There are definitely positives and negatives when it comes to having a niche, but I think the main negative is that it could lead you to getting bored (This is from personal experience). If you’re constantly writing about the same subject or type of post then as time goes on it could seem repetitive and you could run out of ideas. My blog was pretty much, solely Beauty related for a good 2 years, which I loved at first but after that time it did become difficult to come up with new ideas and I did feel like a lot of my posts were just updated versions or like I’d done certain posts before but worded them slightly differently (not intentionally by the way haha).
On the other hand, the main positive that I have been able to see when asking other bloggers how they feel about this, it that your brand is a lot more obvious. Especially when working the brands, or displaying ads on your blog as everything would tie together a lot easier. Although I do kind of get this one, I still don’t think it matters too much as you could turn this round and say that you have much more opportunities to work with ANY type of brand not just one that’s related to your niche.
Having a niche:
- Positives
– Easier to grow a following/ loyal readers
– Blog may feel more put together - Negatives
– Could get bored easily
– May run out of ideas quickly, leading to feeling unmotivated
Not having a niche:
- Positives
– You have a wide range of possible content
– Can attract more people / traffic that have other interests
– Can include a number of different things they love to write about - (Possible) Negatives
– ‘Your brand isn’t obvious and might not make sense’
– Sharing it may be more difficult because you’re trying to advertise to everyone … not just people interested in travel content for example.
If you would like to see a post of how I have been balancing daily blogging with a full-time job then please do let me know, because it has become easier the longer I’ve been doing it.
So, do you think it’s important to have a niche when running a blog? Because my short answer would be No. Not at all, especially if you’re doing it as a hobby above all else.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this post, I’m so glad I finally managed to word it the way I wanted to and get it posted.
