Image by katiecarman via FlickrThe one noticeable key area where top blogs succeed, and even where failed blogs were successful was that they wrote in a niche. While niche writing is ok, there is one glaring problem with niche writing. Most people are more multifaceted than only liking one thing. Some might like movies and music, some might like writing, selling books on Amazon, or a host of other things that we enjoy.

The idea that people is multi-faceted means that sometimes the person changes over time and the blog will reflect those changes. As we change jobs, situations, we rise up the corporate ladder, have children, the blog is an extension of all those things. We grow, we learn, we develop new talents, and we might find that the older issues are no longer the issues that we want to write about, people change; sometimes the blog has to change with them. This is why blogging is so dynamic, personal changes that we go through, does not mean that you can only have one blog.

While the blogger changes, and finds new things to write about or care about, the issues that we discuss become more dynamic over time as well. Some will try to manage multiple issues by managing multiple blogs. This is a difficult road to follow, and not for the timid if, you are already struggling with one blog and getting it going, do not try to open up multiple blogs because you will abandon them later on. Alternatively, you will not write the number of blog entries you think you need to write to sustain a blog. You can see this in the blogosphere every day as people change and they abandon the blog. This is more pointed when new book authors or even novelists work on their book; tie their book blog into Amazon, only to never update their blog. They move onto other stories, or get out of writing, or find that the novel they are writing is more work than they expected and do not keep up their blog. Blogs need to be updated to show that someone is still there and busy doing things, keeping their audience informed as to what is happening.

When getting started in blogging though the best idea is to focus on an issue, an industry, a political viewpoint, or a concern. The ability to focus on a niche and build your skills there are important when starting out, and important for keeping readership later on down the road. While some blogs take on multiple issues because of the dynamics of the people that write for them, even those blogs fall into an identifiable pattern that their readers grow accustomed to reading on your site.

This predictability in what someone or a group blog is writing about is one of the biggest keys to success that you will see throughout the people who have been successful blogging. Even group blogs like BoingBoing or Toolbox work within a narrow niche or a series of niches that people can associate with on line. The issues that they write about are the reason that people keep on coming back to the blog, they know what to expect when they go there.

Issues are important, and if you believe in something, it comes through in your own voice. That authenticity is also something that people will expect when they visit your blog. There might be things you do not write about because you are aware of the risks of what you are talking about, but there are things you will write about on your blog. While it is important to understand the dynamics and issues within the niche you are writing in, as well as the potential audience you also have to accommodate change. The issue will also change over time, if you can write strongly over an issue, and follow the changes that the issues have, you will start to get readership that adapts with you because the issue is adapting to changing times.
While some writers are strong writers without a particular issue, like Chris Pirillo, they are writing for popularity, page views, or to keep in touch with their own roots. In addition, other bloggers routinely follow and write about only what is in Google Hot Trends, or writing for a collection site like Techmeme or Memorandum.

These people “game the system” trying to gain credibility and page views by following the “meme of the day,” and not worrying about the actual content they are writing. If you follow the blogosphere long enough, you will see that these are people with maybe 40 words of their own, and a huge blockquote from another site, usually the site that is on the top of a systematic leader board like techmeme or Google trends. This is blogging for page views and works best when advertising is heavy on the web site like in the Gawker model.
What makes the blogger authentic, but not necessarily the most popular blogger out there, is to follow internal passion, those things that the blogger strongly believes in.

The stronger your passion about an issue, the more that comes through in your voice, the more possibility you have of building a community around the issue. Some issues are easy to build a community around, for example, if you have cancer and wish to discuss it on line, some issues are harder, like soap operas. Either way, if you stay on top of the subject or niche in your blog and consistently deliver quality information about something, you will build out your audience.

The Huffington Post is one of the best examples of having an issue, politics, and diving in with passion and gusto with the principle writers, not just with guest bloggers. They hold onto the controversies that can rage on the internet when it comes down to personality and politics anywhere in the world. The voice is authentic, the advertising on the site is heavy, but you go back because you know they will be covering information in a manner that while funny, is also strongly believed in by the writers.

It is the niche that you write in that will help define how popular your blog becomes, it is also the marketability of that niche, the way you write, the ability to build a large audience around that niche, as well as working with community. Your passion around the issue will drive all those factors in helping you make a successful blog. Another good example is BoingBoing, by being consistent across a number of tightly held beliefs; BoingBoing has been able to build out their audience based on their passion around issues like DRM and Censorship. All of the top bloggers have made themselves a vital source of information within a particular subject, and this would be a good process to emulate.

tags: successful, blogging, blog, niche, market, success, popular