Incheon, Korea
The world loves specialists.
Generalists?
Not so much.
For example, imagine if you cover the blogging tips niche. The world sees you as a blogging tips specialist. All you do is share blogging tips on your blog.
Other blogging tips bloggers sometimes – or more often than not – cover topics related to but outside of the blogging tips niche. Of course there is nothing wrong with covering topics related to your blogging niche. But each post not 100% about blogging tips lessens topical authority through:
- your readership in general
The world seeks specialists who do one thing incredibly well. Clarity wins in this game.
Attempting to do something similar but outside of your specialist talent diminishes your expertise one deviation at a time.
Feel free to cover related topics if you so choose.
But understand that the blogger who covers blogging tips virtually 100% of the time sends the loudest, clearest signal to Google, social media, niche forums and anyone who reads your blog: you are tops in your niche because you specialize only in that niche; nobody covers the topic inside-out like you.
Specialize for a While to Be THE Authority in Your Niche
Be THE authority in your niche.
Do only one thing to do it exceedingly well. Do that one thing for a while. Stick around; success requires some time to come into form.
For example, publishing posts only about blogging tips inspires you to cover that single niche from seeming every possible angle. Blogging tips hungry bloggers who perceive your singular authority see you as the blogging tips guy or blogging tips gal based on your tight focus.
Bloggers who cover blogging tips sometimes but also trend toward affiliate marketing, internet marketing and social media miss the mark a little bit with each niche change. Affiliate marketing is not blogging. Internet marketing is not blogging. Social media ain’t blogging.
Perhaps you publish helpful, detailed content for each topic related to but outside of the blogging tips niche. But Google and most readers judge your full body of blogging work. Stepping away from blogging tips creates divergence. Divergence dissolves clarity. Being seen as the topical authority in the blogging tips niche becomes difficult if you also blog about affiliate marketing, internet marketing and social media. Each of those singular niches already boasts high level, trusted, specialists at the top.
Covering only the blogging tips niche with virtually all posts lets you slowly, surely and patiently step toward the front of the blogging tips line because the world follows strict specialists more than less strict generalists.
Be Patient
Building topical authority requires:
- practice
- publishing long-form, targeted content on a single topic
- being patient
Be patient to avoid panicking, bailing on this sound strategy and changing topics even if each relates to the blogging tips niche.
I appreciate the temptation to quit a proven system because other bloggers in your niche appear to be well ahead in the game. High level bloggers exhibit patience, clarity and focus early during their blogging careers. Appearing to be behind their pace seems frustrating.
But when many of these bloggers publish off topic posts a bit too frequently you holster the secret weapon of sticking to a single niche to establish topical authority. Covering one topic inside-out, upside-down and every direction in between slowly puts you ahead of virtually all bloggers in your niche from an authority perspective.
Being a 15 year blogging veteran reminds me how few bloggers stick to a single niche for any appreciable length of time. The few who do gain expertise in that niche. Everyone else trends off topic a bit too much to land one of the top few spots as experts.
Rarely or never blogging off of your single topic can:
- increase Google traffic
- draw interview requests from niche authorities
- attract guest post opportunities from top bloggers in your niche
- drive higher quality traffic and greater business than popular bloggers from your niche who cover multiple topics
Zero in on that last bullet point.
Few bloggers cover a single topic to drive highly-cherished, laser-pinpointed, high quality blog traffic fueling a successful blogging business.
Even fewer understand that you can draw higher quality traffic and make more money than highly popular bloggers from your niche because most if not all of your traffic deeply desires your blog posts; a healthy percentage of these readers become customers, clients and referral business builders.
High quality, business-building traffic shows up if you resist the urge to broaden your niche to become popular and stick to tightening your niche to establish authority, to drive pinpointed blog traffic and to increase blogging income slowly and steadily.
Do Not Panic
Resist the urge to panic when things do not come together quickly.
Targeting traffic by sticking to one niche to build topical authority takes time, practice and strong posture.
Basically, you build it intelligently and they come.
Publish targeted content related to a single niche across a range of channels. Pinpoint each update to connect with your targeted reader.
Each piece of targeted content posted to the right spots slowly but surely draws high quality blog traffic.
This high quality blog traffic perceives you as an authority who does one thing well.
These loyal fans amplify your reach as they move you to the top of your blogging niche.
Of course, your firm decision to specialize in one niche set the tone for the process.
Conclusion
Leveraging potential multiplies exponentially for strict blogging specialists.
Doing only one thing requires ample discipline. Every blogger feels the urge to niche hop for becoming more popular.
But the payoff of being a blogging specialist is immense.
Being the go to blogger in your niche builds topical authority and increasing business over the long haul.
