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Bloggers often struggle to weigh out a single topic vs multi topic blog.
Specializing in one blogging niche makes sense logically but emotions cloud good judgment in most cases. Human beings trust specialists who do one thing well. People tend to distrust generalists who do many things poorly.
However, exceptions to this rule exist. A few bloggers experience worldly success blogging about multiple topics but this rare lot gets clear in mind and usually hires a team of skilled writers to cover each topic thoroughly.
Before you decide whether to blog on one or multiple topics keep these ideas in mind.
Single Topic
Pros
Become a Trusted Specialist
Single topic blogs focus your attention and energy on one end.
Readers benefit from your singular focus through the concept of specialization.
Observe the offline world. Lawyers give all professional attention and energy to studying and practicing law. Specializing in law influences people to hire these individuals as trusted specialists who know the law inside-out.
Single niche bloggers instill a similar level of credibility. Imagine a blogging tips blogger. He or she gives 100% of their professional attention and energy to sharing blogging tips with you. Since where your attention and energy goes, grows, a blogging tips blogger offers the best blogging tips advice.
Credible blogging authorities almost always develop a skill tackling a single blogging niche. Readers know them as the go-to guy or gal in the niche based on the concept of specialization. While multi-topic bloggers spread out their vital attention and energy to various niches the single niche blogger concentrates their attention and energy on one niche to rise to the top of that sector.
Greater Income Potential Based on Personal Experience and Knowledge
Blogging about a single niche influences you to:
- become highly knowledgeable about the niche
- gain great experience in the niche
- become confident in helping readers through a wide range of products and services related to the niche
Every leading single niche blogger becomes a niche expert. Niche experts can seamlessly become:
- coaches
- consultants
- eBook authors
- course creators
because making money through various channels gets easier if you have 5,000 to 10,000 hours or more of experience in one niche. Monetizing effectively simply becomes packaging your extensive knowledge into different packaging. Create 5 blogging courses. Self-publish 10 blogging eBooks. Coach aspiring bloggers. Be a consultant aiding bloggers. Opening each of these income streams positions you to profit freely.
In essence, single niche bloggers become “forced specialists” with unlimited earning potential through a wide range of income channels. Knowing your single niche inside-out maximizes your income potential.
Cons
The chief con of running a single niche blog is completely mental. Facing, feeling and release ego-fears in mind makes for an uncomfortable experience.
Fears concerning:
- leaving money on the table
- missing out on a bigger audience
- not sharing what your ego desires to share
feel unpleasant to embrace. But hugging each fear is critical to becoming a credible specialist in your niche.
Less Potential for Quick Scaling
Going global with greater speed seems hampered by specializing in one niche.
Throwing out a multi-niche net gives your blog greater exposure. Specialists usually do not gain such global visibility quite as swiftly because single niche bloggers limit their audience.
Quick scaling potential lessens as you focus solely on one niche.
Time Element
Building a single niche blog into a full time venture yields great income potential but takes a great deal of your time.
Even highly skilled single niche bloggers who become leading professionals spent years:
- learning
- practicing
- mastering
to become blogging leaders in their niche.
Single niche blogging is not for impatient individuals.
Multi Topic
Pros
Multi niche bloggers potentially reach a far wider audience swiftly based on mass appeal.
Hiring a team of skilled contributors who credibly cover a wide range of topics increases blog and brand exposure exponentially within a relatively short time frame. If you intend to be seen by as many people as possible quite fast it makes sense to run a multi-niche blog by hiring to small army of trusted writers to flesh out those niches thoroughly.
Observe news or news-related blogs covering multiple topics to see this mass appeal concept in action.
Success potential exists for multi-topic blogs but only for scaling bloggers who hire teams of writers to mass produce valuable content. Be prepared to open your pocketbook and to scale marketing in order to spread the word far and wide because specializing as a leveraging agent becomes non-existent when being more of a generalist, common with major media outlets.
Before you begin to cover multiple topics consider the downsides of taking this approach.
Cons
Credibility Difficulties
All of you are familiar with the phrase “Jack of all trades and master of none.”
Whether an individual blogger or team of writers publishes content spanning multiple niches a general credibility issue plagues most multi niche blogs. People maintain a healthy dose of skepticism in judging whether or not a single blog adequately, thoroughly and credibility covers multiple topics when most blogs specialize specialize solely in each topic.
For example, imagine finding a multi niche blog covering:
- internet marketing
- blogging tips
- making money online
Do you honestly believe that the blogging tips published on a multi niche blog are more:
- credible?
- trustworthy?
- reliable?
then the blogging tips published on Pro Blogger? Darren and his stable of skilled writers have spent tens of thousands of hours collectively spanning over a decade to become trusted, credible blogging tips specialists. This is why 300,000 people follow Pro Blogger as a blogging tips leader and maybe a few people lazily scan a blogging tips article on most multi niche blogs.
Multi niche bloggers have a steep, uphill climb in the credibility department because human beings trust specialists before generalists.
No Sharp Targeting
Imagine blogging for people who may or may not be interested in 5-10 topics.
Attempting to monetize a largely untargeted following becomes highly challenging.
Segmenting offers multi niche bloggers one potential monetizing option but the work, time and energy required to segment effectively may become overwhelming.
How do you gauge reader feedback if readers express interests in ten different niches? Do you run ten separate email lists? How do you monetize your blog for readers who enjoy five or ten different niches? Do you write 10 different eBooks?
Financial Investment in a Team of Contributors
Hiring 5, 10 or 20 skilled, highly credible writers requires a significant financial investment.
Most bloggers cannot afford to invest thousands of dollars monthly to hire skilled freelance writers.
Unless you have a sizeable blogging budget it will be difficult to run a credible multi-author blog.
Maintaining Brand Voice Among Contributors
Attempting to maintain a consistent brand voice among your writing team makes for a difficult task.
Every writer has their own personal voice. Training writers to blog according to your brand voice challenges multi-topic bloggers.
Imagine one writer creating a positive, uplifting blog post covering one topic. But another writer employs a negative, pessimistic approach covering another topic. Confused readers often stop following multi-topic blogs for this brand voice issue. Scaling effectively becomes impossible as more confused readers head for the hills.
Hiring an editor could help in this regard but increases your blogging budget. Reading posts to ensure brand voice continuity may consume a decent chunk of your time if you fly solo with this task.
Mental Clarity
Rare indeed is the multi-niche blogger who covers multiple topics from an intent of:
- abundance
- detachment
- full clarity
These few clear souls run successful multi-topic blogs as individual bloggers but establishing that level of mental clarity seems incredibly rare.
Let’s face it; most bloggers choose to blog about multiple topics from energies of fear.
Multi-niche bloggers often fear:
- missing out on readers
- not blogging for a big enough audience
- missing out on profit potential
Bloggers who desire to cover multiple niches usually pick topics according to ego wants versus reader needs.
Unfortunately, your ego does not:
- buy your products
- hiring you for your services
- follow your blog diligently to increase your email subscriber count
Other human beings allow you to become a professional blogger based on *their*:
- needs
- problems
- dreams
being addressed by you through your blog content.
Perhaps your ego wants to blog about personal interests but readers quickly verify that wide-ranging ego wants do not match with their specific needs related to one niche.
Demanding Individual Workload
The amount of time, energy and focus to become:
- credible
- trustworthy
- skilled
through multiple niches as a single-niche blogger becomes virtually impossible as you intend to genuinely scale.
Bloggers inaccurately assess multi-niche individual bloggers as being successful based on the prism of their dwarfed vision and low expectations. Unless this single human being maintains pristine mental clarity the individual will not have the time, energy and focus to drive 20 million trusting readers to their multi-niche blog monthly.
Once again, these rare individuals are one of the few who blog from sheer clarity and trust. At the end of the day, most individual bloggers choose multiple niches based on fear. Blogging from fear leads to struggles, failing and quitting.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Type of Blog Nets Greater Income?
Both single and multi-topic bloggers net substantial income but based solely upon their strategy.
Multi-topic bloggers tend to earn greater income in some cases but only by heavily investing money in a contributor base that churns out content on multiple topics around the clock.
Individual bloggers who cover a single topic usually earn significant income through a slow, patient approach of gradually becoming a trusted leader in one niche. Being one of a few go-to guys or gals nets a generous blogging income but only after a full blogging commitment for years.
Ultimately, your blogging strategy determines your income. Either invest money in a team of contributors for a multi-niche blog or patiently build your expertise in a single niche.
Which Strategy Builds Greater Credibility?
Unfortunately, some bloggers who run multi-niche blogs turn their sites into content mills consisting of low quality posts published at a dizzying rate. I contributed to a few of these sites over the years. Post quality suffers and credibility dwindles but this “volume approach” to publishing generally boosts traffic and income through a blunt force strategy.
As a rule of thumb, single niche bloggers gain greater credibility by specializing in one niche to understand the topic inside-out.
Where your attention and energy goes, grows. Focusing on a single niche allows the niche to grow quite nicely for you but only after you’ve blogged generously, patiently and persistently.
Conclusion
Consider running a single niche blog unless you establish razor-sharp mental clarity or hire a team of skilled writers.
Ultimately, make your choice based on your mindset, budget and blogging goals.
