My Blogging Self-Evaluation: Why This Blog Should Only Focus on One Niche

This thought came up right after I read Darren Rowse's post about the benefits of building a more focused blog. By 'a more focused blog', I mean a blog that has more a specific niche (a position particularly well suited to the person who occupies it- Wordweb dictionary). Darren wrote that he at the first time and a lot of other newbies wrote their first blog with topics ranging from topic A to topic Z. This would be very easy to start with because we simply have endless supply of topics to talk about. We can write a post almost every day,  even  several posts a day, hoping to attract more readers, search engines and bucks!
That sounds like what we're doing now, doesn't it? I have been doing the same, too. For almost 4.5 months I've been publishing posts with various topics every day with no single focus. Like what you can see on my labels, I even wrote too many posts tagged as 'miscellaneous' compared to the supposedly main niche, i.e. English. Ironic? Yeah, pretty much.

GENERAL OR SPECIFIC?

So what should I do about it now? I sometimes get an itch to write interesting stuffs other than English learning and because what I have and take care of most is this blog, no wonder I spill everything here, from politics to personal complaints. This, to Darren Rowse, is normally happening to novice bloggers with of course little or no experience. But as time goes by, experience accumulates and knowledge piles up, I now realize how crucial it is for a blogger to focus on one thing, one major topic that simply mirrors all the contents of a blog. Suddenly, I feel so foolish. I used to think that focusing myself and my blog upon one niche would only result in fewer posting frequency, which may lead to a more remote chance to get indexed by search engine. But I was wrong! The solution to tackle this fear is simple: have various blogs covering various specific topics. Darren, who was asked if having a blog with lots of topics or running lots of blog with specific topic for each, said that a blog with lots of topics would not just serve you right especially in terms of business and money making. This might be a good point to ponder for those who are still blogging on various topics on one blog and think that such a way is OK for your blog in the long run. For our information, in the long term, a blog filled with diverse topics will only cause its readers to get disillusioned, a.k.a. confused, and what makes it worse is that the confusion would drive them away from our blog. So guys, stop digging your grave by posting bulk of articles having no relevant theme with each other.

As what Darren has pointed out, blogging with a specific niche will result in:

• Loyal Readers – Niche blogs develop a loyal readership who bookmark or follow the blog via RSS because they know what they will get there.
• Specialist Authors – Authors of these blogs have the freedom to really focus upon a topic and don’t feel guilty about doing so. This can lead to increased quality and depth of articles.
• Build Credibility and Profile – Blogging on one topic alone can build your profile and perceived expertise on a topic or in an industry.
• Good for contextual Advertising – Ad programs like Adsense seem to work better on sites that are tightly focused. You’ll get better targeted ads and many believe will attract higher click values.
• Good for Search Engine Optimization – Search Engines like sites that are focused on one topic, that have multiple pages on the one theme and that are integrated sites.
• More posts – I find that I post more if I have 10 blogs on 10 topics rather than 1 blog on 10 topics. There is only so much you can write on a blog each day without overwhelming your readership. On my old general blog I tended to post a maximum of 7 or 8 times per day – if I did any more than this readers couldn’t keep up even though I had plenty more to say. Now I have 20 blogs – I post less on each one (most get one or two posts per day) but overall am adding more content/pages than I used to. The more posts you are able to add the bigger your sites are and the more potential entry points you have for readers from Search Engines.
• Attract Advertisers – Niche blogs are usually more attractive to private advertisers or sponsors who are looking for content to place their ads on that is relevant to their product or service.

CHOOSING A NICHE TOPIC FOR MY DEAR BLOG

Darren Rowse asked himself several questions that later could lead him to picking the best niche for his blogs. The questions are as follows:

• Are you interested in the topic? Yes, of course. I love to learn English and almost everything related to it. It's my passion.
  
• Is the topic popular? As far as I'm concerned, yes. Everyone perhaps now know English and gets familar with it but there are always things to learn, errors to fix, misunderstanding to get straight. Thus I am optimistic about the future of this blog.
  
• Is the topic one that is growing or shrinking? This part is similar to forecasting the future; i.e. observing the trends and what content is going to gain more popularity months from today. What i can do is have a regular contact with mass media, social media and any thing that can tell me what things are people are into.
  
• What competition is there? Picking a less popular theme for a blog is even better than choosing a popular one.
  
• What is the competition neglecting? Well, I think should work harder on it. More research on this issue!
  
• Will you have enough content? With such a thick topic to have, producing fresh content is not really hard.
  
• Are there income streams on the topic? Not every topic is suitable for income stream.