Niching Yourself Into a Corner

Milla Jovovich has the "slightly crazy woman who somehow supernaturally kicks ass" type down solid. However, what else has she done? I think she was in "Dazed and Confused"? Her IMDB is quickly becoming a middling mess of Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft knock-offs.

In Hollywood this kind of typecasting can be devastating to a career. If you are viewed as a one trick pony...you are no longer exciting (or marketable). Sometimes this is with cause (see Elizabeth Berkeley in Showgirls). However, most of the time a person gets famous for perfecting one type of role and can't escape the trappings that that brings with it.

The same typecasting exists within the blogging world. You can fall into a deep chasm of repetitive, middling and boring posts. Eventually, depending on your niche you will probably run out of ideas. You can stretch for posts, revisit old ideas, employ guest posts, and try and pretend that you've run out of ideas. This can't last forever. You've niched yourself into a corner.

How can you avoid this?

1. Don't choose to narrow a niche. Make damn sure when launching your blog you have a variety of directions that you can take it in. This blog covers: Social Media, PR, and Marketing. That's a pretty massive collection of niche material. Especially since it is changing and evolving every day.

2. Don't rely on a single platform. What if you decided to write about Second Life when it first came out? Your blog is dying if not already dead. Twitter bloggers: I'm looking in your direction.

3. Constantly search for new content, new ideas, and new communicators. I'm never satisfied with the present condition of this blog. I always think that it can be better. Therefore I look for a constant stream of new people, ideas and technology to infuse this blog with awesome.

4. Experiment. I do this all the time. I try and play with ideas on this blog to flesh them out. If it sucks, it sucks. You can't be a perfectionist about this process. Otherwise you are going to drive yourself insane.

5. Don't be afraid to change direction. Run out of content? Think your blog sucks? Change it. After all it's your property and your baby. Just be transparent and communicate with your readers about why you are making the change.

Hopefully, I've steered you clear from blogging about steampunk Belgian waffle makers. If I haven't...I look forward to your three posts and the subsequent abandonment of your blog.

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tagged as limiting niche, marketing blogging, narrow, niches, public relations blogging, social media blogging

Danny Brown

I think it's a bit of both. There's nothing wrong with being "expert" in a certain niche - after all, it's how many people might find you through a Google search, for instance. And having strong knowledge in one area is always worth having.

Yet I agree you don't want to get bogged down as "the marketing guy" or "the ice cream sales guy". This can also put potential suitors off.

So why not have solid expertise in one area and good expertise in several others to balance the boat? Keeps everyone happy then, non?

Edward Boches

Stuart:
All depends on how many people are interested in your niche and how much content you can generate. A great trainer could write about nothing but training and keep readers interested. Photography, cooking, and cats are all niches and likely to be both narrow yet rich. Hate to say it, but probably cat photography, narrower still, would be enough to build an audience.

ryanstephens

Here's the thing. This is a tough walk, one that you have to negotiate carefully - and the truth is most of us have a pretty good idea about what we want to write about when we start, but certainly our interests change, shift, expand, etc.

I started with 'online marketing + relationship marketing,' then became infatuated by social media, and now I've narrowed my focus back down a bit, but incorporating other aspects like how social media tools facilitate relationships marketing.

I think that's why I like your #5 - because it is okay to change, especially if you're not that well known yet, still finding yourself, etc. Chances are then you're not alienating 5,000 subscribers.

But you do have to keep your readers in mind.

Back on topic now, the balance is important because what if you blog about social media? Great, so do 100 other people - some of which (Brogan in mind) certainly do it better. Some do it better for certain people. It's important to keep pushing the envelope, developing your own unique community, and doing things different so that you can stand out in a crowded space.

And Seth Godin would say don't do anything you can't be the best at. With respect to business I agree (and maybe blogging as well.) Rich Millington is certainly blazing a trail with respect to community building, but how long can you talk about just ONE topic? He's been doing well - others I've encountered eventually start repeating themselves and becoming apart of their own echo chamber.

So I guess my point is, YES, I agree with your points of emphasis, but I also think it's important not to be so broad and just one of many in a big network because chances are there's already a go-to guy/gal there. What say you?

brandonchesnutt

(Milla Jovovich was also in Zoolander)

I think number four is where a lot of people struggle, including me. With a little experimentation and a willingness to step out of the comfort zone in the future, content becomes stale. You can only blog about "X" so many freaking times. So, spice is up a bit.

P.S. - please provide links to steampunk Belgian waffle maker blogs. Thanks.

Tyler Hayes

I'd definitely say you're doing pretty well when your # of comments outnumbers the RTs on your TweetMeme button ;) Not that it will last forever, but hey pretty damn cool!

Jackie Adkins

Hey Stuart,

I like #5 because I did this a couple months ago and shifted away from a sports marketing focus to a general marketing focus, so thanks for pointing that out. Also, I'd add that by getting yourself into too narrow of a niche, you limit the audience that you're able to reach. By focusing on too narrow of a subject, you may struggle to find too many others who have such a narrow interest as you.

Great post!

Kasey Skala

Very nice post. Don't become the guy who played Steve Urkel. He had success for awhile, but he'll always be Steve Urkel.

I like #2 - Don't rely on one platform. I find myself in this category every now and then and have to correct myself that "social media" is not one single tool. The beauty of the speed in which things are evolving, is the notion that you have to stay on top of things so not to be left behind.

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