by Skellie
Photo by a4gpa
Unless you’re blogging about Mexican Walking Fish (who’ve been trained to fight in the Greco-Roman Wrestling style) you can bet that your niche is pretty crowded. If you’re blogging about personal finance, technology, blogging or making money online, the sheer number of peers and competitors can make standing out seem impossible.
While many have argued that blogging in a crowded niche makes things unnecessarily difficult, I disagree. Sure, being the first blog to cater to the needs of an under-served audience is very useful, but few under-served niches remain. Let’s deal with reality. Most niches are crowded. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
In this post, I’ll explain how you can leverage a crowded niche for maximum benefit.
Your peers provide a platform
Being alone (or almost alone) in a niche can be hard. Without peers blogging on the same topics, you have to search harder for places to guest-post and think outside the box when sourcing out your target audience. If there are few other blogs on your topic — or no good ones — where do you comment? Who do you pitch links to?
While the success of your on-blog efforts will be magnified (because you’re the only one doing them), your off-blog promotional activities will be tougher than usual. When you’re trying to establish an audience and subscriber base, off-blog promotion is perhaps more important than your on-blog efforts. An under-served niche can actually be pretty tough to exist in.
When blogging in a crowded niche, your peers provide a platform to launch from. Your target audience is reading other blogs in your niche, so that’s where you can try to attract them: by commenting, guest-posting, pitching links or becoming a contributing writer.
A crowded niche indicates a strong demand
If no-one is doing quality blogging on a particular topic, it might be because the target audience for such a topic is incredibly small. An empty niche does not automatically indicate an under-served niche.
A crowded niche indicates that it’s serving an audience hungry for information. If you think about your own behavior, you might find that you’re subscribed to a number of blogs in the same niche. A crowded niche is a death-trap if readers are only ever going to subscribe to one blog in that niche, but that’s simply not the case. Some do, but a lot don’t.
Now with more links!
Ever noticed that most of the blogs in the Technorati Top 100 exist in crowded niches? Technorati is about links, and crowded niches are ideal for getting links. Intelligent bloggers will make sure to link out only to things that are relevant to their target audience. If you’re the only person catering to your target audience, there’s nobody around to link to you. If you share a target audience with a lot of blogs, it means that a lot of blogs have the potential to send a link your way.
Tips for success in a crowded niche
1. Make connections — a crowded niche is full of peers with skills you might not have. Starting an email dialogue with another blogger can lead to co-operation and mutual benefit in future. Bloggers in empty niches don’t have this luxury.
2. Crowded niche = crowded audience — with so many voices trying to be heard it can be a little overwhelming. You can stand out in a crowded niche by providing something radically different to everyone else or by filling gaps that other peers aren’t covering. Shouting louder won’t work. Developing a unique voice is essential.
3. Find your audience — other blogs in your niche are places where potential readers hang out. There’s no neuroscience involved — you don’t need to puzzle out where they’re hiding. They’re right in front of you. Not having to search out your target audience is a luxury many bloggers in a crowded niche don’t appreciate. Every time you guest-post, comment or get a link, you’re building doorways for potential readers to move through.
4. Learn from your peers — other successful blogs in your niche give you a blueprint to follow. By studying them, you can see what your target audience likes, and what it doesn’t like. If you’re blogging in an empty niche you’ll need to learn everything from scratch.
5. Benchmark yourself against your peers — there’s nothing like other runners in a race to make you run faster. When trying to become popular in a crowded niche, you need to edge ahead of already established blogs. To do that, you need to match the level of usefulness they provide (and then some). Competition breeds excellence.
How do you try to succeed in a crowded niche?
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33 Comments, Comment or Ping
Mrs. Micah
Personal finance is definitely a big crowd. One step some people have taken that seems to work is forming networks. It apparently really helps traffic because people who like one blog start visiting the other network blogs. It also allows for group writing projects and gives people a chance to share with each other.
Or start your own network.
Another thing I’d recommend is helping “younger” bloggers just like you’ve been helped by “older” ones. Being a nice person is good for building relationships and for running a blog–as well as for good karma.
Jan 22nd, 2008
Michael Martine
Provided you have some kind of audience, longevity is its own kind of success, and helps to breed other kinds of success. If you’re doing well, simply sticking with it is one of the best things you can do. Many others will fall by the wayside in the meantime.
Jan 22nd, 2008
Four Pillars
Make connections
I laughed when I saw that because I got in contact with another blogger who started when I started and we emailed a lot - helped each other out and eventually merged our blogs.
Very inspirational post - Anthony Robbins could have written it!
Mrs. Micah - fancy meeting u here! - your comment got me thinking that the whole network idea is really a way to capitalize on the group SE as well as the group’s relationships with other bloggers. Looking at it that way, I’ll have to rethink my opposition to joining a network.
Michael - Forget it! That thought might have been true up to a year ago but there is too much competition now and just hanging in there isn’t going to cut it.
Mike
Jan 22nd, 2008
Zac Davis
Thanks for the great tips as usual, Skellie. My niche isn’t too crowded, but there are a couple of people who tend to blog about the same things as me, which makes it good develop the relationships as you stated.
Jan 22nd, 2008
debra mastaler
I’ve found crowded markets welcome new content provided it comes in through positive channels. Meaning flaming or contentious remarks won’t get you far or linked to. When I was new in my niche I asked established professionals to review my blog; not only did I get experienced input on how to improve, I also gained credibility from established sources.
Jan 22nd, 2008
Mohsin
Good to see you pointing out the benefits of blogging in a crowded niche, because all other bloggers try to scare us away from crowded niches saying that there is not enough room for yet another blogger.
Maybe they are serving their own ulterior motives.
However, if a blogger is not competent enough to stand out from the crowd, he really shouldn’t bother trying his luck in such a niche.
There are also advantages of blogging in an under-served niche. Look at Darren. He didn’t have to work half as hard to build authority as we have to do many years later. He is rightly reaping the benefits of starting a blog in a niche that didn’t exist before his blog.
Jan 22nd, 2008
Scott Sweeney
I think this post brings to light a lot of interesting points.
I have a blog in probably the most crowded niche, how to ‘make money blogging’
It is not that I am a supreme expert at the topic by any means, but I feel the passion I have for blogging (I have a few from a personal blog to a blog about help desks ha) will help me, over time, become someone with at the least a unique voice in the topic.
I was scared away at first, but honestly, I welcome the challenge
Great article!
Cheers!
Jan 22nd, 2008
Oddsocks
*closes eyes and hopes like heck that a post with five tips for those of us with tumbleweeds blowing down the middle of our niche is just around the corner* ?
Jan 22nd, 2008
James Mann
I enjoyed your post Skellie
I don’t think I would even bother with a niche that had no competition. I learn so much from others in the niches I have blogs in.
I love learning new or different ways of doing things and having others to learn from makes for new friends.
Jan 22nd, 2008
mariobox
Skellie:
You make very good points. I think that at the beginning it is a good idea to spend a lot of time reading and commenting on blogs in the same niche (peers). As you say, that will make it easy to get links and get your blog off the ground.
The next step, though, is to change focus a little bit and concentrate on your end users, and that’s where many bloggers stumble. They never seem to be able to make the switch from their niche (peers) to their target market (end users).
For example, if you cover topics like SEO or Social Media, it’s OK to hang around SEO and Social Media sites a lot at the beginning, but later on you have to target other sites, like freelance and small business sites in a multitude of different industries.
The people who run these sites not necessarily know about SEO or Social Media, and they are the ones who will mostly benefit from your expertise.
Jan 23rd, 2008
Caroline Middlebrook
Yeah I really have to agree with this. The growth of my blog has come almost entirely from social media, links and attention from other existing blogs in the niche and only a tiny amount from search engines. Without those other people in the niche that are talking about me, I would be blogging to myself.
Jan 23rd, 2008
Catherine Lawson
Hi Skellie - I blog on business, which is certainly a crowded niche. But, while encouraging people to start their own business, I also try to show that it isn’t easy and that even the billionaires of this world have made mistakes.
I just got so tired of reading about how easy it is to be successful in business, and that any body can do it; when the truth is far different.
It definitely helps that I’ve had many business mistakes and disasters myself, so I never run out of ideas to blog about.
Jan 23rd, 2008
Grant D. Griiffiths
Great post. I have often talked to bloggers or would be bloggers who were reluctant to blog in an already established. You points are some that I have used before.
Great work!!!
Jan 23rd, 2008
Hunter Nuttall
I think simply developing a unique voice is the most important thing you can do. It’s like creating a brand new, completely unoccupied subniche specifically for people who like what you have to say.
Jan 23rd, 2008
Raza Imam
I blog in an empty niche but I’ve been able to gain a little bit of traction both online and off.
I own an offshore software development firm based in Chicago and decided to start a blog about the pitfalls of outsourcing. Most clients we talk to are disgruntled with their offshore vendors so I decided to make fun of my entire industry. Being funny and making fun of myself has been incredibly helpful.
Although there aren’t that many other blogs in my industry that I want to link with, I am starting to reach out to other marketers. Although my core business is software development, I’m going to talk about my business blogging experience (and how it’s been incredibly successful) as an indirect way to draw attention to my business. I’m a bootstrapped entrepreneur, so I have to be creative to get the word out.
Three more rules that have helped me:
1). Make Jokes - Show people that you’re witty AND insightful. It’ll make you more relevant and credible. Don’t be afraid to make fun of yourself. Your audience will know that you don’t take yourself seriously, but you’re dead serious about what you do.
2). Make Enemies - It’s good to stir up a little controversy. It will attract strong responses from anyone with an opinion. This not only brings you more traffic, but it enriches the dialog in the blogosphere.
3). Make Lemonade - Just lose a big client or an all-star employee? Not enough people coming to your blog or buying from you? Write about it! The key to your success is how well you can turn negatives into positives. Share your experiences with your readers; you’ll be surprised how engaging it can be.
Raza Imam
http://BoycottSoftwareSweatshops.com
Jan 23rd, 2008
Lid
With so many others telling us to avoid a crowded niche, it’s nice to hear someone telling us the benefits. And what is blogging about if it is not sharing and getting to know others? Thanks!
Jan 23rd, 2008
Michael
My blog, about basic computer/internet / software thoughts is quite crowded, but lately I have picked up content ideas from similar blogs (i.e. from peers) mainly at forums (e.g. mybloglog, blogengage, etc). I attempt to expand on their content, and add my own experiences as well…
Jan 23rd, 2008
Wayne Liew
I would agree that most niches are saturated today unless you are not wanting high amount of traffic and prefer targeted traffic.
I have written 5 Reasons To Tap Saturated Niche a while ago since me myself is blogging on a saturated niche - blogging tips.
I totally agree with you that networking among bloggers who are covering the same niche as a good way to survive in a crowded niche. They do not only help you by providing inspiration on what to blog about, they sometimes also contribute traffic to your blog by linking to you.
Great write up, Skellie.
Jan 23rd, 2008
Ruchir
I’m also blogging in a pretty saturated niche - meta blogging and make money online. It’s hard work to become famous in a saturated niche but it all pays off in the end. As you said, there are very few, if at all “obvious” lucrative empty niches left. Nowadays, a niche is empty pretty much because there is no pay off.
It’s like affiliate marketing, the ringtones niche is so competitive and saturated, but the payoffs are huge if you make it to the top. Similarly with the blogging and make money niche, it’s THE second most (first being tech ofcourse) competitive niche in the blogging world. But the payoffs are huge…
The one thing about saturated niches is that you don’t have to worry about failure (as in your audience being too small). You just have to have the determination and you’ll crack the code one day…
Jan 24th, 2008
Hendry Lee
Hi Skelle,
Good tips. Connecting with others are certainly very important. I struggled for too long when I didn’t do that and began to see results as I start opening myself and network.
I don’t consider myself success yet, but I try to find a sub-niche within the crowded niche and create something that really good so I can establish myself from bottom up.
-Hendry
Jan 24th, 2008
Anthony
It is often said your network is your net worth. It’s the same with blogging.
As a newer blog, I am trying to learn and network as much as I can.
Thanks Skellie for another great post.
Jan 24th, 2008
Johnny Mestizo
Thanks Skellie for an excellent post. I started blogging in Nov 07 about My Random Thoughts Organised as a creative outlet. Avidly reading ProBlogger I discovered the need to niche! I am still to decide. Based on your post I think I will create another blog monetization, or fitness WODs, or …. aaayyy
Jan 25th, 2008
INKODE
Great stuff - just earned your self another subscriber via this quality post. Looking forward to reading more!
Jan 27th, 2008
rara
your tips are nice; i’ll subscribe to your blog. hope you visit mine too. have a good day.
Feb 1st, 2008
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