Want to start a blog, but feel like the topic you want to blog about is already so overdone? You don't have to come up with the most innovative, unique, and groundbreaking idea in the world before you can have a successful blog. You just need to focus on a few key areas.
3 Key Areas To Create a Blog in a Noisy Space
1. Get niche: Choose a specific theme and audience.
When you start a blog, don't ask "what is this about," but rather,
"who is this blog for?"
The better you can define who you want to reach, the easier it will be to launch a brand-new blog on a topic that might feel like it's been done a million times before. Don't just think in terms of demographics (like age and gender). Think about psychographics too. Psychographics are things like:
- desires
- fears
- pain points
- beliefs
- values
- and world views
They're what makes up someone's mindset and operating system for life
If you understand these things about your audience,
you can create content
that strongly resonates with a specific group. When you combine writing for a specific audience with a unique twist on a familiar topic, you'll stand out even in a noisy space. Take shethrivesblog.com, which isn't just a fitness blog.
Taylor Gage's blog focuses on Crossfit workouts and Paleo diets specifically for younger women who believe in progress, not perfection, and who value self-care. Not only is Gage's blog homed in on a precise topic, but it's written for a particular audience who wants to create a certain lifestyle for themselves.
2. Get personal: Share your unique experience or perspective on your topic
Cait Flanders started her blog as a way to document her efforts to repay her debt. What began as the chronicles of a Canadian woman with maxed-out credit cards evolved into a focused, mindful exploration of minimalism. She switched from blogging as Blonde on a Budget to
CaitFlanders.com
and opened up about deeply personal stories, including struggles with binge eating and compulsive shopping. Flanders went from blogging under a pseudonym, LC, to become a very open, raw, and authentic
blogger
. She even landed a book deal that documents her year-long shopping ban in detail and doubled her email list in the last year. Don't just write about the facts. Write about your topic in context of your personal experience or through the lens of a different perspective.
People understand more through a personal frame of reference than they do from a bunch of information and facts. Tell people a story —
your
story, and you'll grow your audience even in a competitive field.
The smartest blogging strategy was to use marketing automation very early in the journey [Jeff Bullas]
3. Get connected: Don't compete, collaborate
If you launch a fashion blog that focuses on 30-something suburban moms, your site is going to look and sound very different from a fashion blog aimed at 20-something young professionals living in city centers.
That also means you and that other blogger can collaborate, because you're not competing! You can combine forces, sharing tips, tools, resources, ideas, and more to help each other succeed because you don't compete for the same readership – even in the same crowded space.
To be a successful blogger today, you need to build your brand, you need to build relationships [John Paul Aguiar - Must Have Ingredients of A Successful Blogger]
Check out the freshly launched
Fairer Cents Podcast
, featuring two women who both write personal finance blogs. Kara Perez, founder of
Bravely
, and Tanja Hester, creator of
Our Next Life
, teamed up and collaborated to create a brand-new entity in the personal finance podcast space. That's an increasingly crowded field, too, but Kara and Tanja targeted a specific audience, using a personal and personable perspective, and lots of collaboration, making them well-positioned to succeed.
Conclusion
Even in a packed marketplace, you can make your blog stand out. You just need to be smart about it.What about you? How can you use your personal perspective to reach a targeted niche to position yourself in a crowded space? Share your thoughts below in the comments!
