It’s easy to fall into the trap of wanting to please everyone with your blog. The reason you started it in the first place was to entertain and inform as many people as possible, right? The problem with that is that with millions of people writing general materials for billions of readers, there’s a whole lot of noise competing for attention. And, the more general you get, the noisier the realm becomes. If you’ve found that you aren’t getting the numbers as far as readership goes, try the alternative of focusing down laser sharp to an area that has less general appeal, but many more people will be specifically looking for. Take, for instance, the categories of the New, the Old, and the Specific.
Focusing on the New
What if you choose to focus on the new? And not the last year’s worth of new, but just the last week’s? Or just focusing on the newest mindset, or the newest processor, or the newest architectural techniques? By focusing on the hyper-present, you’ll be narrowing down your potential audience by a lot, but you’ll also be differentiating yourself from bloggers that talk about new in passing, but also pay a lot of attention to all other aspects of time. If you can get your social media presence to convey the image that your updates will occur within hours of an event, now that’s something people will appreciate.
Focusing on the Old
But what about people who want to feel connected to history and nostalgia? If that’s your target market, then set your focus on old. Check out various history blogs out there for ideas about how they have succeeded in making a niche for themselves, and you’ll quickly see that it hasn’t had to do the writing – it’s hard to find out the right things to write about! That is the secret to success in the noisy world. Genuine focus about specific topics.
Focusing on the Specific
What are you interested in? Now what’s the most interesting part of that topic? Now focus further. What detail needs to be blogged about on that level? The further down you go into details that you both appreciate and know about it, the more of a captive audience you’re going to get in terms of readership. With that knowledge in hand, you can advertise to a specific community without having to worry that your time and energy are being wasted, as well. Find resources about determining specifics, and they’ll lead you down a path to find out what’s truly essential about the idea you’re trying to convey, and you’ll soon be hooked up with people who can’t wait for your next post!
