Does Your Blog Need A Niche? (7-Must Know Reasons)
Last Updated on May 17, 2023 by Jordan Alexo
Do you need a niche? Quick answer “Yes!”
One of the reasons new bloggers struggle with this idea is that they often think that by casting a wider net, they will attract more readers.
Or, they would like to be the next Tim Ferriss or Ariana Huffington, who cover a wide range of topics on their blogs.
But the fact is, these people didn’t reach the level of success they have by being generalists.
They found a niche and worked on it meticulously; Until they became the go-to authority in that area and expanded from there.
In this guide, you’ll discover seven must-know reasons why having a niche for your blog is crucial.
This includes factors like standing out in a highly competitive market, establishing expertise among your readers, and monetizing effectively. So keep reading to learn more.
Key Takeaways
- A niche refers to the subject or topic a blog focuses on and is essential for new bloggers.
- A niche helps with Google’s E-A-T rating system and proves expertise in a particular area.
- Specializing in a niche makes creating content, developing ideas, and increasing audience engagement easier.
- Niche blogs are more attractive for sponsorships and easier to monetize through courses, eBooks, and coaching programs.
- Focusing on a niche separates you from the rest of the crowd and makes it easier to establish yourself as an expert and build a community.
- Strategies for choosing a niche include not micro-niching, choosing a profitable niche, and avoiding going too broad.
- A niche is vital for a new blogger to establish credibility and build a loyal audience.
What Is Niche?
Before anything, you probably might already know, but what’s a niche? In blogging, a niche refers to the subject or topic your blog is focused on.
If you’re new to blogging, you might think that niche may limit your content options. And well, you’re correct! However, having a niche to start is essential.
You’re probably thinking about a famous blogger like Tim Ferriss, who covers different topics on his blog. But he also started with a niche and then expanded.
Now, he can write about anything he wants because his name alone brings in the readership. But for most new bloggers, starting with a niche is crucial.
7 Reasons: Why You Must Have A Niche?
Let’s fly off with seven reasons you must have a niche:
1 – E-A-T
You want Google to E-A-T your blog content (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness). So what is this?
Well, E-A-T is a rating system that Google uses to evaluate the quality of a website’s content. If you want to rank high on the search engine, having a niche helps prove to Google that you have expertise in a particular area.
2 – Easier Time Creating Content
You Become More Efficient
The fact is you have an easier time writing content if you specialize in a niche. For instance, you don’t need to research and read up on new topics constantly. Often, you already have a good idea of what your audience wants and what to write about.
Of course, sometimes you may need to research, but it won’t be as time-consuming as if you didn’t know what to write about.
Ideas Come More Easily
When you spend your days soaking info in your niche, it’s like ideas pop up on their own. You don’t need to spend much time thinking about what to write since you eat and breathe your niche already.
3 – Increased Audience Engagement
Connect with Your Audience
When you write day and night about a specific topic until your eyes bleed and fingers hurt, you start to build expertise and become an authority in that field.
You know your audience’s pain points and what they’re interested in learning more about, and you can better answer their questions.
For this reason, you have an easier time establishing a connection with them.
Also, enticing them to take action, like subscribing, sharing your content, or purchasing a product/service that you recommend, becomes easier.
Increase Connections, Comments, and Shares
The more specific your niche is, the more people interested in that particular topic will likely follow and engage with your blog.
For instance, you can build an email newsletter and acquire new subs. In a way, you start building a community of people who find your content the best thing since sliced bread.
And as you can imagine, these people will more likely leave comments, share your stuff around, and tell their friends about it.
4 – It’s Easier To Monetize Your Site
Attract More Sponsorship and Ad Opportunities
If someone wants to promote a product or service related to your niche, they are likelier to choose your blog for advertising opportunities. Because you already have an audience that is potentially interested in their stuff.
You Can Create Online Courses, Coaching Programs, or eBooks
If your site is all over the place, producing learning material your audience would want to pay for is harder.
With a clear niche, you can more easily understand your audience’s needs and create content that solves their problems, leading to higher profits.
5 – Stand Out From The Crowd
Distinguish Yourself
After spending some time in a niche, you develop your perspectives and insights. This separates you from the rest of the crowd. In other words, you are not another Joe Schmoe blogger talking about the same old things everyone else is discussing.
Instead, you come out with unique advice people still haven’t heard about. All because you have experienced and learned more about your niche topic than others.
Bring Your Uniqueness
This uniqueness you bring to the table sets you apart from all the other bloggers. You may end up with a loyal following of readers who appreciate your fresh perspective and are interested in what you say.
Sometimes, these may be controversial ideas; others are afraid to talk about but resonate with your audience.
For example, some people rage about building backlinks in the SEO space, while others swear they’re a terrible idea.
However, this only happens after being in a niche for a while and learning and experiencing the ins and outs of that specific topic.
6 – Easier to Establish Yourself as an Expert
People See You As An Expert
When you focus only on writing about a subject, people gradually start seeing you as “the guy or girl” who knows everything about that topic.
So, you want to get to a point where whenever someone thinks about your name or brand, they associate it with that specific niche and expertise.
Google See You As An Authority
It’s not only people who see you as an expert; Google also recognizes niche blogs as authoritative sources of information. If a blog has hundreds or more articles replying to a specific topic, Google sees it as an expert.
As a result, it will rank your pages higher on search engine result pages for relevant keywords. This helps your blog gain more eyeballs and possibly make more money too.
7- Opportunity to Build a Community
Finally, having a niche for your blog also allows you to build a community. Why is that?
Build Community On Social Media Platforms
When you have hundreds or thousands of people lurking on your blog, subscribed to your email list, or following you on social media, you can connect and interact with them.
For this reason, you can easily invite them to join a private Facebook group or other social media communities based around your niche.
It’s easier because everyone in the group shares common interests, allowing you to build a stronger relationship with your audience. Besides, it’s a great way to build a tribe around your blog of hungry learners, supporters, and advocates who share your passion for the niche.
Collaborate with Other Experts in Your Niche
You can also more easily collaborate with other experts in your niche with a clear focus. If both share the same audience, you can work together to create high-quality content and make webinars or podcasts on the same subject.
This strategy is a great way to help your audience and grow your following.
However, this doesn’t always work for every niche. In some niches, bloggers don’t want to collaborate because they see others in their field as competition.
What Is The Best Niche Strategy?
I want to share some strategies, so you don’t mess up your new blog. Here are a few common problems beginners, including myself, have fallen prey to:
1 – Don’t Micro Niche Yourself
Although a niche like “Finance” is broad and hyper-competitive, you can always niche down. Instead, you can pick a less competitive niche like “Personal Finance for Millennials” or “Finance for Freelancers.”
However, don’t fall into the mistake of micro-niching yourself. Often people do this with their domain name.
They select a name such as “personal-finance-for-millennials.com.” And the problem is you can’t talk about anything else besides that topic.
You might want to start your blog with that topic, but later on, you may want to move to another finance segment. For this reason, be careful when choosing your domain name.
Always have that idea in mind that you might want to expand your topic later on.
2 – Choose A Profitable Niche
At the same time, you want to make sure your niche has people craving to buy products or services. It can either be your stuff or affiliate products.
So, carefully research and see if you can easily find affiliate programs or products related to your niche.
For example, entertainment niches like movies or TV shows may have high traffic, but people may not be willing to pay for products or services.
3 – Don’t Go Too Broad
At the same time, you want to go all over to the other side of the spectrum, either. Going too broad with your niche will make it hard to establish specific expertise and differentiate yourself from the competition.
Also, the worst part is broader niches are highly competitive. You have highly authoritative sites with thousands of pages of content, which can make it hard for a beginner to compete.
For this reason, you want to find a sub-niche with less competition and the potential to monetize effectively.
Note: If you’re wondering about the best low-competition niches to get started, read this post, “11 Best Low -Competition Niches for Blogging”.
Last Thoughts
So, choosing a niche is key to succeeding as a blogger!
It’s a great way to stand out in the crowd, establish your expertise and position yourself as an expert among your readers. In a way, it makes everything easier!
You can write more detailed content faster because you know what your audience wants.
Also, you have an easier time monetizing your blog, whether it’s through affiliate marketing, sponsored content, or your own products/services.
One last piece of advice is to choose your niche carefully. At the same time, you don’t want to go too broad or too narrow.
One of the ways people narrow themselves down is with their domain name. So, select a domain name that lets you later expand your topic.
Anyway, start with a sub-niche that is profitable and has less competition.
If you still have concerns about choosing a niche, please comment below, and I’ll help you!