Brooklyn NYC USA
Multi-niche bloggers intend to become a jack of all trades.
But multi-niche bloggers master none.
Who succeeds in this world?
Specialists win.
Does your doctor wash dishes, deliver mail and run a daycare center part time?
Nope.
Doctors devote professional attention and energy to being doctors. How else would a doctor become highly skilled? Why would a doctor become credible? Any trustworthy individual in the medical profession knows that where your attention and energy goes, grows. From their education to training, a doctor devotes thousands of their hours to becoming highly skilled and credible.
Bloggers are not immune from this truth. Do one thing. Do it well.
Top pro bloggers tend to specialize in one niche. Pros become the go-to guy or gal in that singular niche.
You and I see the benefit of picking one blogging subject.
Yet most fear paring down to one niche.
Why?
Bloggers fear losing readers. Most fear losing income. In their mind, people believe that less readers means less money.
Of course this idea is not true. But fear is utterly irrational.
Fear of Loss
Multi-niche bloggers fear losing a chunk of their blogging community.
Imagine if you currently cover five niches:
- blogging tips
- affiliate marketing
- making money online
- personal development
- efficiency
Covering only the blogging tips niche going forward sends readers intrigued by affiliate marketing, making money online, personal development and efficiency to the cyber hills. Bloggers usually fear losing these readers, dig in their heels and stubbornly attempt to cover 5 niches to keep a large number of readers around.
So you flesh out five niches to keep your readership in place.
Where does that leave you?
Confusing and losing readers is where it leaves you.
A sliver of these people stick around to read all blog posts for personal reasons. Some enjoy your writing style. Rare birds express a genuine interest in multiple niches.
Most readers get confused and get lost. Affiliate marketing fans get confused because your posts from four different niches waste their time, emit a lack of clarity and dissolve trust. Doing five different things guarantees that you do nothing well. The world trusts specialists not generalists.
Who do you really lose?
Confused readers who you would lose sooner than later anyway.
Never be fooled by big traffic numbers spawned by a multi-niche blog. How many rabidly loyal readers, customers and clients follow your blog closely for 5 months, 1 year or 5 years? This number is so small to rarely grow a full-time blogging career.
What really happens by whittling your blog down to a single niche?
Credibility, reader loyalty, organic traffic and blogging income increase because:
- the world trusts specialists
- where your attention and energy goes, grows
- doing one thing allows you to do it well
- covering one topic lets you cover it inside-out
Losing confused readers to make way for clear readers, customers and clients who bolster your blogging business is no loss at all.
You cannot lose by doing this from a traffic and income perspective.
Pick one niche to earn credibility. Choose one subject to give readers a clear idea of how your blog benefits them.
See gain.
Train your mind to think like an entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurs specialize.
Especially as a blogging solopreneur doing things as an individual, first you do one thing exceedingly well before even considering diversifying. High level pros with big bucks can start multiple businesses but none of these icons are reading this post.
Big money diversifies.
Struggling multi-niche bloggers need to become trusted specialists to eventually go pro down the road.
I learned this lesson the hard way after running a multi-niche blog for 6 years.
Blogging did not spare me the rod.
I suffered from the fear of letting go.
My Experience with Paring Down
I ran a blog before Blogging From Paradise Dot Com.
I did OK with it but never broke through to the top.
Covering multiple niches became one chief culprit contributing to lackluster results. I felt terrified to pare down niches. I erroneously believed that less traffic meant less income. But covering one topic would eventually increase my blogging income.
I considered the quality of my traffic to perceive my blog in the light of truth.
Did my multi-niche readers stick around to lower my bounce rate? Not really; most bounced like a frog on a hot tin roof during a July heat wave in the Deep South. Notice the illusion. A heavy volume of readers who arrive and leave quickly like going through a revolving door do not generate high quality traffic and blogging income. If they do not stick around you will never go pro.
I struggled like hell to drive organic traffic. Blogging income seemed decent at times but I slaved like a pack mule to make ends meet.
I knew that there had to be a better way.
I chose only the blogging tips niche for Blogging From Paradise Dot Com after trashing my old blog. Growth occurred fairly quickly in part because I covered one niche thoroughly. My readers clearly knew how I could help them. I shared blogging tips for bloggers. Bloggers made a beeline to my blogging tips resource.
Google eventually came around too based on my topical authority.
I dissected the blogging tips niche thoroughly for years. The algorithm eventually ranked a few of my posts on page 1 for a competitive blogging tips search including an opinion piece outranking the classic page 1 listicle articles.
Imagine that?
I published a personal opinion post about one piece of advice I’d offer new bloggers.
Google ranked it on page 1 position 1 for a bit.
My opinion carried more weight than the seeming foolproof page 1 listicle post format.
Developing topical authority as a specialist is the main reason why I achieved that feat.
I did not worry about losing an unclear, confused readership that came and went swiftly.
I focused on developing authority in one niche to drive quality traffic, to gain blogging income and to boost my credibility consistently.
Perceive Gain Not Loss
See gain not loss.
Gain credibility. Increase topical authority. Drive traffic. Boost blogging income.
Do one thing to succeed.
Let go of doing multiple things to flounder inefficiently.
Never be terrified to release inefficient, ineffective strategies for gaining successful, profitable strategies. Perceive this process in the proper light.
Let go what does not work well.
Do what works well.
Be a trusted specialist.
Conclusion
Conquer your fear of losing readers.
Pick one blogging niche.
Pare down to become a trusted specialist.
Drive high quality traffic and blogging income by giving all blogging energy to doing one thing well.
