I don’t know if it’s the areas of the Internet that I hang out in but I realised that I don’t really see many generalist blogs. Most of the blogs I follow tend to fall into a certain niche: book blogs and tea blogs being the main ones.
So I’m wondering, what is the best size “niche” for a blog? Which is a confusing question so I guess rewording it would be: how much of your blog content should pertain to your niche and how much shouldn’t be?
On the plus side, I do enjoy non-niche content because I like variety, we all encompass multitudes, etc etc. For example, when Kimberly from Tea is a Wish Blog wrote about migraines, I found it really refreshing because I used to have really bad migraines as well. Or when Em at The Geeky Jock talked about exercise and developing a training routine (plus, her latest series on exercise). I love all this! It’s like a peek into another side of you and learning something new.
On the minus side, I can see why you wouldn’t want to be too generalised. I follow a lot of blogs because they are in a certain niche, such as talking about books (or specific genres I like) or tea. If they were to cut down on the non-book or non-tea posts too much, I’d probably unfollow.
Or would I?
(Perhaps I would have developed enough of a blog friendship with someone that I’d read anything by them – but this only deals with the question of having less readers instead of gaining new readers)
I’m curious about your thoughts. Do you long to blog out of your niche? Are you the kind of reader that doesn’t bother opening non-niche posts if you see them in your reader? Or will a good post title make you click?
I love a good non-niche post, and I always look forward to them when I see them in my reader. Most of the blogs I follow are tea blogs, but it’s always enjoyable to see what other interests they may have! And I as a blogger/vlogger enjoy creating non-niche content. I love tea, but I have other interests too! Those posts may not get as many clicks, but sometimes writing about something other than tea is a much needed reset for me, and that’s important (for me).
Yes, me too! There’s a lot to write about tea, but there’s also a lot to write that’s not about tea and sometimes, you just want to follow your interest (:
I stick to books and occasionally movies or TV. I admit I don’t read many posts on book blogs that are not about books (or at least broadly entertainment), and I have unfollowed blogs that started posting a lot of non-book content.
Fair enough! I think for books, at least, there’s a small overlap with TV series and movies because of adaptations, so what you mentioned makes a lot of sense to me.
Interesting question. Based on my own experience as a reader, I like posts to be about 80/20 niche to more personal or niche to just wacky. I do like to see pictures of the blogger, their house, travel, or family, though I don’t post pics of my kids for privacy reasons despite that they are the cutest!
My own “niche” is pretty wide, since it includes everything from book reviews, to writing process, linguistics, archaeology, Bible, and cognitive science. Readers seem to like the linguistics posts.
I agree with what you say about the kid pics – I’ve got the cutest nieces and nephews but I won’t post them :p
But yes, I also like to know more about the blogger behind the posts!
Hehe…I’ve got a post parked up in “production hell” for exactly this reason. It started off as one of those “how I blog” kind of posts, but because on the technical side of things I tend to be a bit, how can I put it, non-standard/off the beaten track, it quickly morphed into something that would in all probability make the vast majority of my readers tap out after about a paragraph and a half. I reckon my chances of re-jigging that one to make it both informative and yet not brain meltingly dull are slim to none.
The nearest I come to “crossover” posts are the ones where I talk about al fresco tea sessions using camping stoves and the like – I’ve actually wondered if including the model numbers of the gear I use is a step too far… 😀
I would totally read that post, although I’m not sure if I would understand all of it :p
Your tea outside posts are so fun! I don’t see myself doing that because Singapore is too hot (plus restrictions), but if I ever moved to a cooler country, I could see your posts being super useful (model numbers are a great reference imo!)
I might just have another go at reanimating that post then… 🙂
If things go according to plan there might be more al fresco tea posts coming in the new year – I’m looking into the possibility of building some sort of rustic tea hut in the woodland behind the extended family’s house in the country…
That sounds really amazing! I look forward to reading about outdoor tea/the tea hut!
And the exercise posts continue this week 😉
Thanks for the link! — I had almost forgotten about (or rather, successfully repressed!) that airport adventure ha ha! — After, I wound up working a trainer for almost eight months. Ryan was amazing … I threatened to pack him in my suitcase when I moved for postdoc.
Yass! Love the exercise posts – they are so inspirational, even though I’m following a different challenge right now :p
There was a time where I thought I had to fit in a certain niche so that it would always be relevant to a specific community, but now I think it’d be nice to have a non-niche post every now and then. It’s refreshing and, in my opinion, creates a connection between the author and the audience.
I agree! You hit on a good point – the non-niche posts can help you connect with the blogger more if it’s about another part of them
My blog is niche in that it’s limited to books, but then within that I talk a little (very little) bit about writing, I talk about a variety of genres and age ranges. So within books themselves it’s not niche. But I think it would be very difficult to run a non niche blog. It would be very few people who would be interested in all the different interests that a person could have!
Thati s true! I like blogs that talk about a range of genres too – if it’s all fantasy or all mystery, that is fun for a bit but I read more than just that genre :p
Very interesting questions there. I started my blog to talk about and share things that interest me, mostly books. Every now and then I might talk about art or something along those interests. So far, I’m enjoying this niche. I mostly follow book blogs and some art ones. I don’t mind encountering something different, but I realize I follow/pay attention to different things on different platforms. For example, I’m interested in fashion and beauty as well, but I don’t follow those blogs. I’m much more likely to follow such content on IG or YouTube. I guess it depend for me.
That’s an interesting point about following different interests on different platforms! Come to think of it, I follow a much broader range of creatives on Instagram vs blogs (which are more tea and book focused)
Yep, I wonder if that’s true for most folks since platforms like IG and YouTube allows folks to quickly consume the media so you don’t mind following a variety of many things there, whereas reading a blog can sometimes take more time so you’re more selective of what you follow there… I dunno.