Whether you’re a business looking to attract more leads with relevant and valuable content – or just someone who wants to start blogging for personal branding. Deciding what you’re going to focus on can be one of the most important (and trickiest) decisions that can make or break your blog.
In how to protect your blog from becoming a lame duck, I explained what it takes for people to blog successfully. And for the most part, the key to that success is pushing out content consistently. But, in order to do so, you need to choose a niche that you’re passionate about and can write about with ease.
Although that’s not say you have to stick to what you already know. On the contrary, there’s nothing stopping you from picking a focus that you want to learn more about. But another factor to consider is that you should pick a focus that’s limited in scope and not too broad.
So why pick a focus? With the mountains of information out there, there’s just no way you can keep up with everything. At least when you limit and narrow your focus, you can become quite an expert on it. Here are 5 questions to help you decide on your focus.
How To Decide The Focus Of Your Blog
What is your passion?
When you write about something that’s your passion, the blog posts just keep on rolling out. Because you need to keep the stream of content flowing non-stop, you’ll always think of something to write about when it’s your passion. Plus it will also show in your writing that it’s a topic that you really care about.
What do you want to learn more about?
Of course there’s no need to limit yourself to what you already know! And if there’s motivation on your part to go for something new then by all means go for it. Gather as much information as you can about the topic and check out our blog post on how to stay updated on everything in your industry.
What are you good at?
Is there something you are really good at doing? Make a list of all the things that have made you stand out. Naturally, when you’ve got a real knack for something it’s always a good place to start.
What do you already know?
What did you study at university? What experiences do you have? Tap into what you already know and try combining it with an industry you want to cover. For instance you may have studied international business and got a fondness for software startups. In which case your focus could be how they can scale their business internationally.
Will you have enough content?
Finally, and this is an important one, is whether your niche is sustainable long-term. Having a niche that is one of your passions helps here, as well as checking out: What To Publish When You’re Short On Ideas
But depending how often you plan to be pushing out content, you should make an editorial calendar and make sure you have at least 10 posts planned out in advance.
Even though I took a more personal angle on this week’s blog post, the same questions above can also be applied for businesses that want to get into blogging. Just look at your core competencies and the areas you want to be known for.
For example, a biotechnology company would obviously blog about biotech. However it might be strong in marketing, and could then focus their blog on marketing biotechnology.
Even so, focusing on a certain topic and carving out a niche for yourself is an efficient way to get the most out of your blogging. You’ll have an easier time becoming a thought leader with a limited focus, as it will be extremely difficult and time consuming to cover everything. For more tips on thought leadership check out How To Become A Thought Leader In Your Field
Photo by vonSchnauzer via Flickr
