by Skellie
Photo by Indy Charlie
While I’ve already discussed the benefits of trying to grow a blog in a competitive, crowded niche, I want to devote some attention to how you can best grow a blog in an empty or under-served niche.
The best aspects of this method are an undivided market. If you’re the first quality blog on a topic a lot of people have been searching for, you’ll generally become the biggest blog in that niche because you were the first — as long as you stay consistent. ProBlogger.net, arguably the first blog about blogging, is still the biggest. Freelance Switch, arguably the first blog dedicated to freelancers only, continues to remain the biggest in its niche.
Unless you’re focusing on ultra-obscure topics I think it would be difficult to be the first blog in any niche, but if a niche is under-served (there aren’t enough blogs to meet demand), it’s easier to be the best. Tapping into an under-served niche is what many bloggers dream about when brainstorming blog topics.
While the potential gains are great (quality blogs in under-served niches tend to grow rapidly), surviving in an under-served niche can present a host of difficulties.
If we’re to think of things metaphorically, imagine an Oak seedling in a rocky clearing. If the seedling can thrive where others couldn’t, there’s plenty of space for it to grow into something grand. Before that can happen, though, the seedling has to contend with a lack of soil to grow from. It probably sounds cutesy, but I think it’s a useful encapsulation of what you’ll be trying to do if you blog in an under-served niche.
No soil!
That old (but good) advice: comment, guest-post and pitch links on other blogs in your niche. Throw it out. If your niche is under-served, there’ll be nowhere to do these things, or if there are, the other blogs will probably be so quiet that it isn’t worth your time.
Rather than looking for other blogs which slot neatly into your niche (of which there are likely to be few), source-out blogs which non-exclusively write on your topic. If you run the only blog about a small college basketball team, try to get links or guest-posting gigs at big blogs about college basketball, for example. If the blog’s audience is big enough, you’re bound to find a pocket of people interested in your niche.
Some niches are also friendlier than others. For every niche that’s open to guest-posting and sharing links, there’s another niche where trying to do these things is almost impossible. One unfortunate result of a wide and varied blogosphere is that some niches have a much stronger community than others.
Let’s assume that nobody will let you guest-post, nobody wants to link to you and your comments elsewhere don’t bring in any traffic. What do you do?
The good thing about SEO is that it doesn’t care much what the rest of your niche is doing. If there’s less competition and your blog is cleverly optimized, you stand to net a lot of traffic. I’m not in a position to teach on SEO (even at a beginner’s level), so I’ll let Ciaran McKeever do so with his excellent article.
The self-sustaining nature of social media is also perfect for growing a blog in an under-served niche. If your niche is under-served, you’re probably blogging on a topic without widespread appeal. For that reason, I’d suggest putting most, if not all of your efforts, into StumbleUpon. Its highly refined category system makes it a lot easier for niche content to succeed.
You can use StumbleUpon to build your niche site by voting up articles you see as high quality for your target audience. Stumblers with consistent taste in content tend to attract like-minded followers and ‘fans’. If your blog is about money-box collecting and you consistently vote up articles on money-boxes or similar collectibles, you’re going to attract the interest of other Stumblers who’re also interested in those things.
Another useful StumbleUpon tip is to erase all your previously selected interests until you have no interests selected, then pick just one: the category which most narrowly suits your niche. As you stumble, many of the sites you come across will appeal to your target audience. If you view the reviews page for the site, you can click through and ‘Fan’ the person who discovered it — a person who’s very likely to be interested in your blog’s niche. I’d suggest doing this with as many people as possible. Not only does having a wide network enrich your StumbleUpon experience, but it also allows you to send your best content to mutual friends. Once you have a steady stream of targeted SU traffic arriving at your blog it’s possible to grow and thrive on that alone.
Under-served vs. Not wanted
That there are few blogs on a particular topic doesn’t necessarily mean that there is some kind of seething, unmet demand, bubbling away in the nether regions of the web. Some shopping strips are empty and delapadated because nobody wants to shop there, and some niches are empty or lackluster because very few people are interested in reading blogs on the topic.
Notice the difference: very few people are interested in the topic, vs. very few people are interested in reading blogs on the topic.
Just because hundreds of people are searching for ‘wheelbarrows’ each day doesn’t that people want to read a blog about wheelbarrows. Sure, people might want to buy them — and a blog on such a topic might well make a handsome profit from AdSense — but how many people honestly want to read about wheelbarrows every day?
If you’ve ever done research on niches with the AdWords keyword tool, next time, compare the search volume between your niche idea with the search volume for your niche idea + blog. The difference can be quite remarkable.
Concluding words
Under-served niches are potentially the most risky and most lucrative situations in which you can start a blog. The space can allow your blog to grow at a remarkable level, but you’ll need to overcome a lack of foundation first. You’ll need to make your own soil to grow from.
- Guest post, get links from and comment on blogs which touch on your topic, rather than being solely devoted to it.
- Learn the basics of SEO and apply them to your blog. Focus on keywords your target audience are likely to be searching for.
- Use StumbleUpon to meet and greet your target audience.
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31 Comments, Comment or Ping
Craig McGinty
Don’t underestimate signatures in forum posts.
If there are few blogs in your niche then there is a good chance there will be a relevant forum or two knocking about just because they have been around longer.
Take part in the forum and just place a simple link in your signature, worked wonders for me.
Also, wild assumption time, but I think many under-served niches are likely to be looking to appeal to less tech savy readers - let’s face it gadgets, cars and fashion are pretty saturated now.
So offering a simple newsletter service to highlight what you’ve written is more accessible than RSS (although I don’t know where I’d be without it) and is very easy for people to forward to friends.
Add a simple .pdf downloadable ebook as a thank you and you are off and away.
All the best
Craig
Feb 27th, 2008
Pat
I agree with Craig, in that an under-served niche is likely to be one that targets a less tech savvy crowd.
This seems to be particularly true for my niche. Doing SEO and heavy keyword titles seems to be the best way to grow my blog at this point. Other popular blog-building techniques have been coming up short for me.
I might try your suggestion, Skellie, of targeting slightly off-topic blogs to pitch comments to, though. I might also try the eBook as a reward for an RSS subscriber. Thanks for the ideas!
Feb 27th, 2008
Lani
The “no soil” is a big issue, not only for finding ways to get links, or get your blog noticed, but also for finding relevant, quality content to link to. It can be a large burden for one person to carry all on their own.
Feb 27th, 2008
Lilja
Simply very good, Skellie!
Feb 27th, 2008
Lana
Skellie,
Thanks for the article. You confirmed all my guesses: no soil.
I agree with Pat and Craig, that less tech savy audience is somewhere there, but not surfing actively. They are difficult to find and they are not ready to sign up for anything. They may know their one place (if they have it) and don’t deviate. Leaving comments and tips on the relevant blogs, SEO and networking are the best tactics.
What I like about present blogging community, is that people refer to each other’s articles, they share experience, strategies and codes, they direct to new, interesting sites, even if those ites are in the same niche! I, personally, learned so much, I would never find all this info by myself.
I hope, these sharing times will come to those with under-served niches, too.
Feb 27th, 2008
Lane
Another excellent post. I enjoy reading your posts.
My wife and I write a blog on a small, but growing niche, veganism. Thank you for the article. Some of the information was new (to me) and very informative.
Lane of VeganBits.com
Feb 27th, 2008
Mrs S | A pocketful of pixie dust
Thanks for this Skellie - I like the idea of limiting my interests in stumble and will give that a try.
Feb 27th, 2008
Pascale
Very good article. right to the point as usuaL
I am just wondering if Stumbleupon work as much for a website in another language than English, which narrow a little bit more the possibilities.
The last part of the article is really great, adwords keyword tool is something I have underused till now.
Thanks for reminding me.
Feb 27th, 2008
Char Reed
Thanks for this article Skellie! I’ve been waiting for something like this for suggestions. Although I think your advice seems targeted toward making people think twice about their blog niche, making sure it’s not too obscure.
Whereas, I believe my blog is actually a truly niche blog that I think no one has either the time or energy or insight to think up before. I had researched and read many freelance, inspirational, ‘how to make a blog’ blogs before coming across my idea. As an artist, I decided I wanted to make a resource that was ZenHabits meets CGTalk. There are plenty of popular art forums, but scrolling through hundreds of pages to find that one sliver of advice can get annoying. I thought the blog format would be very user friendly for artists, and I wanted to pull my community into the blog by making it range from beginner all the way to advanced artist.
I think this is a great article, but I was hoping it could be more targeted toward helping a blog that’s found a truly unique niche get off the ground.
Feb 27th, 2008
Ani
Hello Skellie, thanks again for another great article. I love the image. My blog is a niche blog, but I can not change the topic just to make it more popular. I prefer passion over popularity any time. If I am not true to the purpose/mission, I don’t think I can find the motivation and knowledge to write daily posts for it. The blog is 1 week old, so I am not worried about the stats yet. I rejoice if people find it valuable and spread the words about it. But it is also my personal journal and journey, so I will write daily (except not weekends), so that I can perfect my writing and my knowledge about the topic. Hopefully somebody will find it sooner or later and spread the word. Thank you for recommending an easy and fun way to promote the blog.
Feb 28th, 2008
johan
Hi This is great. The ideas on Stumble will ensure I do a better job at it. Johan
Feb 28th, 2008
Chris Laskey
Great point Craig McGinty, utilizing community boards is a great way to expand in a market, particularly when there aren’t other blogs in that area to look to for link support.
As for the article itself, another great write up Skellie. Currently I’m blogging in a relatively dense niche, but its nice to have a practical guide for the other side - when it comes to new passions, we don’t develop them because of their popularity. A great guide for when those new passions guide us to less familiar (blogging) pastures.
Cheers
Feb 28th, 2008
GinnyBerry
I’ve been blogging since October, and I know that I’ve made mistakes, but since I’m just learning I’ll forgive myself.
I’m not sure what my “niche” is,,, it is not cooking (although I have at least one recipe a week,) it is not school, health, or frugal living. I started it out as therapy as I am a stroke survivor, but I am blogging less and less about that as my recovery has progressed.
I think I may need a blog makeover. But, I have to finish my thesis first. But I’d rather be blogging.
Feb 28th, 2008
Kelly Rigby@ SHE-POWER
Wow, you’re just a mine of information Skellie. Fantastic post!
Kelly
Feb 28th, 2008
Kelly Rigby@ SHE-POWER
I forgot to say I think this might be me. I’m not a “Mommy” blog or a “Lifehacks” blog per se, so maybe I don’t have a set niche. Maybe “Inspiration and Fiction for Women” is too narrow, even though it is what I want to write about.
I’m going to set a to-do list with some of the above actions now. Thanks. This has been the best thing I’ve read all day.
Kelly
Feb 28th, 2008
Mary Jaksch I GoodlifeZen
This was an important post for me. It made me realise that my blog is suffering from an identity crisis.
I had difficulty choosing just one stumble category.
GoodlifeZen sits somewhere between spirituality and self development. To find out which single category it belongs to. I started to look at websites of each of these categories to see where I feel more at home. I found that a lot of the ’spirituality’ websites were quite cringe-making with twee little angels and rainbows–all VERY elevated. Whereas my blog is quite down-to-earth. I feel more comfortable in the company of self-development blogs.
So, this post has taken me on a journey of reflection about where my blog is actually about. Maybe I need to be a bit clearer about that
Feb 28th, 2008
PlanningQueen
Cheers Skellie. I am very new to his whole blogging thing and have been trying to get my head around how I should use social media like Stumble Upon and this has helped me a lot.
Feb 29th, 2008
Mary Jaksch I GoodlifeZen
@Kelly Rigby@ SHE-POWER
In an email to me, you came up with a perfect tagline for my blog which really hits the sweet-spot:
“Personal development with a spiritual twist”
It’s obvious that you’re a writer!
Thanks, Kelly!
Mar 2nd, 2008
Kelly Rigby@ SHE-POWER
Mary Jaksch
I’m thrilled I could help. Obviously, my copy writing and marketing experience is still good for something! Maybe I should combine it with my blogging to earn some extra cash…
Cheers
Kelly
Mar 2nd, 2008
Mary Jaksch I GoodlifeZen
I’ve come up against a problem. I’ve set my Stumbleupon interests to just one, self improvement. I’ve tried to stumble this in order to find others in my niche and contact them.
Doesn’t work.
StumbleUpon responds after a few stumbles with:
“StumbleUpon has temporarily run out of sites relevant to you. Please sign up for more topics.”
Anyone else got this problem? Is there a solution?
Mar 2nd, 2008
Gori Girl
Hey Skellie - long time reader, first time poster. I just want to tell you that this post was extremely helpful to me while setting up my blog and settling on content. I’m posting in a relatively underserved niched - intercultural relationships with a bit of a South Asian twist - and it’s been difficult to figure out where I should be looking for readers. Using StumbleUpon has been a big help!
One thing that helped me out a lot was figuring out what the core demographic I’m shooting for is, and where I could bring in readers from different groups. For me, readers in intercultural relationships with Indians is the “core,” and then I try to snag both people interested in Indian culture & people interested in other sorts of intercultural relationships with my writing style. The other two groups are a lot bigger than the core, but it’s the core that keeps the community going.
Apr 3rd, 2008
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