This is a guest post written by Laurence Mitchel
Let’s face it; we’re all either trying to be the next Perez Hilton or the founders of a tech-focused version of The Huffington Post. Even if our pursuits aren’t exactly to relay the latest rumors or break the most recent news story, when we blog we tend to focus on subjects that we know to be exciting and culturally relevant. The only problem with that is it produces an echo chamber blistered from the amount of repetitious information that trickles its away down through Internet popularity. You might have a wholly unique perspective on the Arab Spring but that won’t do much but add on to the millions of emitted opinions on the issue that make their way online, many of which come from people directly involved. It’s hard to compete with that no matter what you have to say.
Sometimes all it takes is re-looking at the relevancy of certain things in our own lives to realize there’s actually a lot more we could be talking about that we actually can provide some authority on. Successful blogs derive their success from the writer’s authority on a particular issue. Even if you’re just a Californian gossip queen, if you can talk about celebrities in a way most others can’t, that’s how you net a massive following. Since the seemingly exciting topics have already been taken, new bloggers should consider less dynamic and more practical topics to write about.
Topics like how to choose the right sealing wax for your car might seem boring, but not when you consider the fact that there are surely a few thousand people at least who would read what you had to say on the subject if you knew what you were talking about. You might even be the only person online who projects any level of expertise on the subject and collect all the potential readership. A storage blog, as completely uninteresting as that may sound, is above al practical. People commit personal property to long term storage all the time and are probably dying to get some layperson’s opinion on the best way going about it. You’d really be surprised how some of these off-center topics catch on with the right readers.
Everybody is an expert at something. I happen to be pretty good at doing everything I can to work the least amount. That’s a blog topic that could last me months right there. Maybe you’re a former dry cleaner or medical coder, and being laid off has actually given you the opportunity to turn that talent around and use it as a means to sound off free worthwhile advice. Who knows you could be initiating a movement. Just think: “how to store dry cleaning long term – part one”.
Sounds really practical isn’t it? What do you think?
It’s probably the reason why your blog / site should be more concerned with your own passion and interests – you’ll always find something to write about and have help as well as opinions on.
It just makes the ‘doing’ so much easier – and you’re able to speak as an authority too which is equally important
Offcourse Melvin I agree with you as simple it is real story real thing and get popularity.
Hi Laurence and Melvin
What you said about an author’s success really depends upon how authoritative he is.
However, there is another way to be really credible. He should make sure that he always tells the truth.
Over time, he would have built-up his integrity.
Yep and I think that’s actually the point or part of the point in the article. What’s emphasized here though is that sometimes there are topics that rarely have writers and articles about yet those topics are searched a lot. We might always never know that writing on some certain random stuff can actually yield huge traffic in return
I agree. Although the problem that stems from ‘blogging about things that you love’ is that it can’t always guarantee you financial benefits. But if money is not a concern, its a definitely a big go for those looking just to start their blog