If someone were to ask me what the first step to creating a blog was, I'd say decide on a niche.
A friend came to me the other day with a very clear topic for the blog she was wanting to start. She knew what she wanted to write about and had a very obvious passion and excitement for it. There's no doubt that a niche gives a blog purpose and direction. When you're starting a blog from scratch, it's definitely dictates a lot of what you do. Everything from the header to the imagery to the colour palette of your page somewhat correlates to your blog's niche. There's a lot of pressure when choosing, knowing how much influence this one overarching idea has.
For me, figuring out what I wanted to write about was the hardest step of all. For ages, I couldn't bring myself to consider the 'Lifestyle' niche. I feared it was way too broad. Yet even when I did manage to hone in on a slightly smaller topic, I was still left unsatisfied. I couldn't imagine myself writing about it for years and years to come.
Which is another thing I want to talk about.
Can you change your niche part way into your blogging journey? If you've spent so many years establishing yourself as a certain type of blogger and you suddenly decide you want to do something different, is that erasing all the hard work and effort you've spent getting your blog to where it is? That's a conundrum I'm sure many bloggers have found themselves in. Writing about something they love, gaining a good readership then suddenly falling out of love with it and only writing for their readers. In fact, I've seen this happen in YouTubers too. They post videos that they know their loyal viewers will love. Even if this means sacrificing their own happiness in the process.
So how important is a blogging niche? I still think having a niche is a fundamental part of creating a blog however I don't think there's anything wrong with drifting outside of that niche or after a while, deciding you don't actually want a niche at all. This turned out to be quite the essay, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.
Q: How did you decide on your blogging niche?
Thanks for reading!
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