This simple question is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately and as it’s cropped up in numerous meetings with PRs over the past fortnight, I thought I’d blog about it as I’d love to open up the conversation and hear your thoughts.
As a general rule, it’s advisable to have a niche. If you ever go to a blogging 101 workshop or read the ten millionth article on “how to start a blog and be the next BLOGGER MILLIONAIRE” (because obviously there are sooooooo many blogger millionaires, right?), you’ll generally read something along the lines of…
“Figure out what you’re good at and stick to it. Find a niche, be it luxury skincare or budget travel or vegan baking…and make that YOUR THING.”
And I totally get it. One of the reasons my original WIWT blog worked so well and got the media attention (not to mention commercial opportunities) that it did was because it was simple: daily outfit posts. I suppose we could drill into it a bit further and say that my “thing” was taking photos in mirrors – it had low production values and the associated copy was always about having a bit of fun with fashion. Old tracky bottoms were as welcome as designer handbags and I tried to always be relatable, whether that was complaining about Spanx giving me mid-thigh tire problems under skinny jeans or just saying “yeah actually this top is six years old so you can’t buy it any more but it’s nice isn’t it?”.
But now? I don’t have a niche, I can’t succinctly tell you what I do.
I find it very strange when I am introduced to people as a fashion blogger because if you’ve read anything I’ve done in the last few years, you probably wouldn’t call me that. Of course I still upload the odd outfit to Instagram and I do indeed write fashion content for Late Night London, but you don’t see me posting regular outfits on here or telling you about dresses and shoes.
Now I blog about all sorts: food, travel, beauty, life, health, books, TV. You name it.
Then what about other platforms? A cursory glance of my Instagram feed and you might think I’m some sort of poached egg/skincare specialist. Head to Twitter and you’d conclude that the only things I care about are Ander Herrera and parrots (to be fair, this is a pretty accurate representation). Then on Snapchat it’s a different story again, where you’d probably pigeon hole me as a demented housewife above anything else.
Can I argue that my niche is “being me”? I’m not sure. And when you do this type of stuff for a living like I do, am I making it harder for brands and readers to understand what it is my blog/social platforms are trying to bring to the ever crowded table?
I think one thing I’m quite lucky about, is that this blog is named after me. I haven’t named it “Cashmere Sweaters With Bowls of Kittens” (which, certainly for me, conjures up a very specific blog ‘type’) and by using my own name I feel like I have more license to blog about whatever the hell I want. I don’t have ‘skincare’, ‘vegetarian’ or ‘shoes’ in my blog title, so in that sense I’m not confusing anyone.
But is it good enough to just say “I blog about whatever I want, basically”?
I hope that it is, because what I like about bloggers is their personalities. I generally follow blogs because I’ve fallen a bit in love with the blogger writing them, which means I don’t care if they’re talking about a restaurant on the other side of the world that I’ll never go to or a pack of breastfeeding pads that I don’t need: I read them because I like THEM. Them as a person. I like their writing style and I like following their lives.
I do worry sometimes that some blogs have become too much like magazines. I understand the commercial reasons for why it has happened, but isn’t it the blogger personalities that we all fell in love with back in the beginning?
I don’t want this to turn into a “blogging was better back in 2010” rant because I don’t necessarily think it was, but I do hope that bloggers feel able to explore what they want to write about as they get older and their tastes and interests change. And that brands will understand this and there will still be commercial opportunities for people who can’t necessarily be pegged as “FASHION BLOGGER”, “TRAVEL BLOGGER”, “FOOD BLOGGER” or what have you.
And I guess whilst my blog content covers lots of topics I still do have some things about me that stay the same – my writing style, my post lengths, my honesty, ME. *I* haven’t changed, I’ve just shared more of me I suppose as the years have gone by. My recent step into the world of vlogging has helped me bring some more of my personality across, but I still wonder with that if I should *just* make beauty videos. Or food videos. Or London-videos.
What do you think? Do you prefer blogs that cover one thing well? Or is it more about the blogger themselves and how they write? And if you are a blogger, do you worry about carving out a niche and easily being able to label yourself…or am I just being a bit ridiculous?! Would love to hear from any brands/PRs on their thoughts too!
x
I currently have a post sitting in my drafts folder with this EXACT title, I swear. Yours is better, though, so I think I’ll just leave it there 🙂
I’ve been thinking about this a lot, too, lately. I have niche blogs and I have a non-niche blog, where I just write about my life and whatever takes my fancy. I’d say the niche blogs were much easier to get off the ground and build an audience for but the non-niche one is the one that’s lasted the longest, because what I’ve discovered is that I just CAN’T stick to one topic forever. No matter how much I’m interested in it when I start the blog, having to keep coming up with something to say about the same thing, over and over again, is just impossible for me: even although I still enjoy whatever it is I’m writing about, it just starts to feel like a chore, and I think it shows.
So for me it has to be a “write about whatever you fancy” type of thing (and I like reading those kind of blogs, too), but I do wonder if not having a focus is preventing my blog from being as successful as it could be: food for thought, I guess!
Please publish yours Amber! All of your bloggy blog posts recently have been like reading my own thoughts but more well formulated!
I can see how your niche blogs were easier to build an audience for as having a niche just makes everything simpler for promoting (not to mention readers and brands who like to pigeon hole) but yes it will always show when we get to that stage where we’re going through the motions. There was a time this summer where a client wanted a festival fashion post and I was so tempted to file one I’d already written four years prior, because the guidance is the same, the trends are the same, the witty jokes I’d have made were the same – sure you might need some updated product links but generally IT ALL FELT THE SAME.
Writing what we want to is certainly easier and helps prevent blogger’s block (I like that I can write about food tomorrow if I don’t fancy writing about skincare, say) but there will probably always be that nagging feeling that sticking to one thing may be easier for readers and commercial opportunities.
LUCKILY though every comment here and on Twitter and on Instagram seems to have said stick to being varied though, which is a wonderful relief! x
You pose a very interesting question – especially as the landscape of online publishing has changed so much. To answer the headline question – yes, bloggers need a niche. Do YOU need a niche? I don’t think so. If I had to define your blog and online activities, I would simply say ‘lifestyle blogger’ which gives you leeway to be whatever you want, including just yourself.
I’ve always been an advocate of the niche. That’s what I did with my website. I covered a niche to the point where – and I don’t mean to toot my own horn here – I’m the leader in it. I have other interests however, but I’m now, shall we say, trapped within the niche. My audience is very well defined and they do not appreciate straying away from our core target content.
When I first started out my goal was to build a whole network of niche blogs around loving certain countries. But now that online advertising is a fool’s game, I find myself closing down my smaller sites that never took off. But also considering how I’m going to expand my own main blog – which incidentally means becoming less of a blog and potentially launching a print magazine.
I have no interests in fashion whatsoever, but I enjoy your blog and whatnot because you’re an interesting writer and online personality. You’re winning at that – if it works – keep doing it.
Probably a longer answer than you wanted but just my two cents.
I love this. And yes lifestyle blogger really is the best term, I guess I need to hurry up and get on board with it! I know I am in a pretty privileged position when asking these questions as I have an established audience, and the things I think of about my blog won’t always translate to other blogs and people who are just starting out.
Your story is fascinating and I really do think we’ll see more blogs becoming print properties. We have to know sometimes when to close sites down (always gut wrenchingly hard to do, yet feels like an immense relief once we’ve done it – in my experience) and focus on one core thing. You’re so right that if you do establish a niche and keep at it, you have the opportunity to really master it as you have done. I can’t really master being good at being me (hah!) although I do seem to do it for a living so can’t really complain!
x
This is a really good question. I had a fashion / shopping blog and have recently relaunched a new blog that doesn’t have a niche. One of the the reasons behind that was how much I have changed as a person and I was finding it all a wee bit shallow. I wanted to better represent myself and my interests.
My new blog hasn’t been going very long but I am wondering if not having a niche and an obvious topic in the title may be to it’s detriment possible in the world of SEO / traffic. I need to do some analysis in google analytics against both sites, and once I figure out some things maybe a site map to help but the jury is still out for me. I guess once I post more regularly I will tell better but even at the moment I don’t earn anything on my skimlinks on either site.
I like the freedom my new blog brings it means I’m not constantly writing something that doesn’t fit anywhere or seems a bit off topic and I do enjoy blogging again the way I used to. I felt a little vulnerable I must admit – like oh they maybe won’t be interested in this book review or in planners it’s not shoes or a bargain I’m writing about. It will be interesting to see if my audience and subscribers appear and what prompts them to do so!
One thing I would say if someone has an old “niche” blog and they are creating a new one figure out how to keep your existing readers and newsletter subscribers and how to do the transition. My old blog is live I haven’t done any redirects but it is something I wish I had chatted to people about to fully understand!
Yeah I think people massively evolve and so our content naturally does alongside, I created this blog because I wanted the exact freedom you’re describing which I couldn’t find within the blog section of WIWT. ‘What I Wore Today’ implies fashion (and beauty, at a push) but what about restaurants and books and holidays and all the other lovely stuff? I find it much easier to blog here but there are SEO downsides and people still think of me as Poppy from WIWT even though all my blogging is done here, it’s just one of those things I guess!
You’re right that people should really consider the transition if creating something new. I had it easier as this didn’t replace WIWT but was introduced alongside, but there are so many things to think about with google and so on – you just have to hope people will see your passion now that you have more creative freedom and will stick along for the ride….or join you no doubt as you’ll of course attract brand new readers simply by covering a wider variety of subjects 🙂
Like Amber above I too have been toying with a post on a similar subject and think if very much comes down to the blogger and what they want from their blog. If they’re looking to become the next ‘blogger millionaire’ maybe a niche is more fitting but if it’s a creative outlet maybe not so much.
My blog is something I do alongside a job in the ‘corporate world’ and allows me an opportunity to explore my creative side and everyday passions. As I’ve changed interests so too has the content of my blog. As Jonathan says ‘lifestyle blogging’ is now a genre of it’s own, so can we class that as a niche?
I prefer not to pigeon hole myself which may be why I’m not the blogger with thousands of subscribers but I like to think my niche is, as you said, ‘me’ and the following I have is those who are interested in me and what I have to say and perhaps in this current blogging world can be easily related to? When I talk about something whether it’s recommending a restaurant or beauty product my readers trust what I say and imagine it in their environment.
And more importantly if I post too many beauty reviews my mum complains my blog is boring!
Victoria
FlorenceandMary.com
I love this. You’re so right too that mums are the best barometers! I get constant feedback on my content from mine!!! I find it so hard to get my head around starting a blog for money/freebies as like you it’s always been something I’ve wanted to do for creative reasons and genuine passions, I can’t NOT write/blog. I need that outlet.
I find it easiest to write ‘for me’ and what I hope my audience will read rather than overthinking it, but if I spend too much time at blogger events and things like that I can find myself getting sucked into comparisons and starting to question if I should do more X or Y. At the end of the day, you have to hope we, as bloggers, know our blogs best! x
As Billy Joel says ‘Don’t go changin’
I think your blog and vlogs are ace – I agree with reading blogs that I like the writer and enjoy reading about what they are up to. I don’t live in London, am older, have kids etc but have had loads of inspiration reading your blog and bought a good few things you have recommended. They’re is also a wee bit of living vicariously through someone else when you off to somewhere nice and I’m in Asda cafe.
Thanks so much Eleanor and yes you’re so right, it is about living vicariously sometimes….and not even just in a wanderlust way! I feel very invested in some of the blogs I read even though they are in faraway places or have family set-ups very different to mine. I guess it’s like watching soaps in that way, nothing glam about Eastenders but it’s just nice to follow someone else’s life sometimes! x
I’m totally with you. I follow your blog because I like YOU – your writing style rocks, you’re honest and I think you’re a pretty cool gal. If you decided to just write about parrots, I’d most likely still read! When I think about the other blogs that are my favourites, it’s the same story…I like the person writing them. Personality wins every time for me.
I never know quite how to describe myself as a blogger. I blog about food, fashion, travel, beauty…anything that my brain likes at that point in time really. I hate saying I’m a “lifestyle” blogger. Do we need a new word for that? I think we do….just not sure what it is.
Ally x
My last comment was posted as ‘Digital Div’.
I’m am not winning at Friday.
This made me laugh more than it should 🙂
I am taking this as a green light to only blog about parrots, you have been warned! Seriously though, thank you….and yes we bloody do need a new word for ‘lifestyle’ blogger….it’s silly because it’s what we are, yet it feels very Notting Hill to say it (to me, anyway) xx