Where Do I Fit In?
Yesterday, I watched a live web event of Chris Brogan speaking here in Nashville and I submitted the following question during the Q&A session: What methods could I use as a personal content blogger to extend my audience? His answer was “be helpful”, which was in itself pretty helpful but now I’m trying to apply that to my specific purpose. He went on to suggest, for instance, that I could blog about my diet strategy and progress. As a result I’d be helping someone else out who is looking to achieve the same goals. I get that and it makes sense, but now I’m curious as to what my niche is.
I have many interests that are very diverse and dissimilar. I’m worried that by using all of these interests to provide helpful suggestions I would cause incongruity in the subject matter of my blog and therefore will have no defined target audience. Should I narrow down my subject matter to include only a small number of interconnected interests?
The reason for blogging is to hone my writing skills and get feedback from readers. I’d like an enriching community experience where other writers and readers can come together and discuss various topics of interest. How do I best achieve that and who do I define as my target audience?
I want to be helpful and I’m going to follow Chris’s advice. Why wouldn’t I? He’s been successful in it and he’s right. I also came away from yesterday’s event with an armload of new connections who were all following the #cbnash trend on Twitter and were attending or watching the webcast. I took away a lot of great information and ideas so a big THANK YOU to Chris for just being himself. If you’re interested in seeing some of the event go here (thanks to @gavoweb for the post and vid).
If you have any suggestions for this aspiring writer and blogger I’d love to hear from you. What tips do you have for reaching an audience and being a successful blogger?
I’m wondering how to find my place in the blogging/social networking community.
Yesterday I watched a live webcast of Chris Brogan speaking here in Nashville and I submitted the following question during the Q&A session: What methods could I use as a personal content blogger to extend my audience? His answer was “be helpful”, which was in itself pretty helpful but now I’m trying to apply that to my specific purpose. He went on to suggest, for instance, that I could blog about my diet strategy and progress. As a result I’d be helping someone else out who is looking to achieve the same goals. I get that and it makes sense, but now I’m curious as to what my niche is.
I have many interests that are very diverse and dissimilar. I’m worried that using the interests to provide helpful suggestions that I would not have congruent subject matter throughout my blog and therefore no defined target audience. Should I narrow down my subject matter to include only a small number of interconnected interests?
My purpose in blogging is to hone my writing skills and get feedback from the readers. I’d like an enriching community experience where other writers and readers come together and discuss various subjects. How do I best achieve that and who do I define as my target audience?
I want to be helpful and I’m going to follow Chris’s advice. Why wouldn’t I? He’s been successful in it and he’s right.
If you have any suggestions for this aspiring writer and blogger I’d love to hear from you. What tips do you have for reaching an audience and being a successful blogger?
most welcome for sharing of the video. i will be putting out what video i have of his live presentation next week.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jenni Leeds. Jenni Leeds said: I have been wondering exactly the same thing.
RT@willsloan:New Blog Post: Where Do I Fit In? http://bit.ly/TX1a0 #cbnash [...]
Awesome, looking fwd to it. Thanks again!
See, this is what it's all about. Because I connected with you through the Brogan Event I am reading your blog, relating to your struggle. Relating… you did it!
And I'm thinking some of the strategy also aligns with what Gary Vaynerchuck talks a lot about which is personal brand. As you speak truths in your blog entries and do it often enough I think patterns emerge and a personal brand can reveal itself. Because you are a unique individual
I think a focused blog will always be the most successful. I used to have a personal blog years ago that I updated quite often and started getting a lot of traffic on. My friends and family read it and were interested in the personal posts about my life, but I got a lot more traffic and a lot more interest in more general topics like movie reviews or tips on web design stuff, etc.
When I read blogs of people I don't know, I'm really not that interested in their personal lives. If it's the blog of a talented web designer, I really just want to read their posts on web design, not on what they did last weekend. There are very few exceptions to this, one being http://www.dooce.com which is great because of her writing, not what she writes about.
If I had made separate blogs about web design or about reviews, etc then they probably would have each been more successful with their respective audiences.
I wrote for a geek/gadget blog called forevergeek.com that was very successful. I was making $300 a month in ads just from the ads posted on the articles I wrote. It had a clear focus and audience.
Look at all the blog networks out there, they don't have one blog that covers everything from video games to gadgets to cooking to stock investing, etc. They have a blog for each of those topics and then link amongst the blogs to generate traffic between them, but still keep their unique focus and audience for each topic.
You're welcome and a really big thank you for the kind comment. I'm uber excited about these kind of connections and how they will impact my direction. Great advice from Gary and I'm looking forward to seeing my personal brand bleed through and become obvious. At this point i feel like the power went out and I can't find a flashlight so I'm clumsily feeling my way around. I definitely need to be patient let the magic happen. Nothing happens overnight.
Stay in touch! I'm glad we made a connection!
I agree. I really like Lyn's comment above and play to allow my personal brand to render itself as I continue to pin down my direction. Great advice. I remember when I first started blogging on Blogger and you were my only follower and commenter. I can always count on you for the personal touch and sound insight. Thanks a ton!