A week or two (maybe three?) I wrote a Thursday 13 post in which I mentioned finding a niche as a good way to helping your blog find success. I received several comments in response claiming that having fun blogging makes it hard to stay in one particular niche and even just this week, Chica posted on her site that she felt like not having a niche was like not wearing undies, but that she found it hard to find ways to stay on topic with a set niche.

Well, guess what? A niche does not have to be as specialized as the type of car you drive or your favorite style of music. It can be something as obvious as “personal diary” where you talk about your day, your job (which in itself is a whole different post topic) or the funny LoL cat photo you saw yesterday. A niche can even be as detailed as marketing, real estate or boating. The idea is not to limit the topics you cover, but to give yourself some boundaries (providing you do not limit yourself to only talking about Hansgrohe faucets, you should be ok)

In my original post I equated a starting a blog to starting a business. Most businesses (the successful ones anyways) start with a business plan, a set of goals and a “mission statement”. They also have an area that they work in. You don’t find many aquarium cleaning services also offering tax help or a doctor’s office changing your minivan’s oil. They have a niche. You walk in to a store, you know what kind of store it is by the products they’re offering. Your blog should be the same way.

Cigar Jack for instance, is very obviously a blog about cigars and while the majority of the posts on the blog are about cigars (some really good reviews by the way), he also has posts about things that go along with cigars (liquor). He’s not limited in his topics, but guided. A post about smoking a don Peppin in a Tesla Roadster wouldn’t be too out of line, as long as there was some focus on the cigar as well as the car.

So I guess, in response to Chica’s post, don’t be afraid to pick a niche or topic for your blog, as Mr. Tibbs said in Pirates of the Caribbean, “its more a suggestion really”.

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