I was talking to Andrew B Clark (the Brand Chef and new owner of Create Wow Media) at the monthly meeting of Central Iowa Bloggers on Friday about how I am almost the “Anti Social-Media Expert.” We laughed about it and his response was simply “write a post about it!” After my series of volatile social media posts the last couple of years, I think I will pass on anything controversial, but it did get me thinking.
I get frustrated by the success others have within their niches, but truth be told I don’t really HAVE a niche. Not so much anyway. Let’s face it, unless you are Wil Wheaton (hi, Wil!) having a “personal blog” is never going to reap the monetary or statistical rewards of one focused within a personal niche. The entire category of “personal blogs” is not filled with many success stories.
I have struggled over the years to find my “niche.” So much so I sat in a room with Joel Comm, Dan Nickerson and Joel Ownby in the offices of InfoMedia in Colorado asking them “am I just boring?” Their response was swift and decisive: “You have a book. You’ve sold over 2,000 copies. Leverage that – there’s your niche!” Yes, I could do that. But I am so far removed from the niche living here in Iowa, that I don’t feel what I say would actually matter.
So I have struggled in finding that niche. Maybe it is “filmmaking in Iowa” and I can blog about the state of the film’s film industry, etc. since the incentives dried up. But there is already a blog on that. Besides that, there is really only one other niche I am willing to devote the amount of time to:
Making money on the Internet
And try to break into THAT. It is one of the “no no’s” of trying to start a blog. Everybody tries to get into that and everybody fails. Besides, I don’t have a product, list or network built up that would support that.
Attending Blogworld was inspiring, but it still did not yield many ideas for my “perfect niche.” I am still looking for that one “thing” that will hold my interest (and readers). I admit I was very jaded about blogging a few months ago and was resigned to the fact that the only people making money on the internet were people selling products on making money on the internet. While I know there is room for “real people” to be successful blogging… I still wonder at times whether I am “interesting” enough to do so. It isn’t a lack of knowledge on the fundamentals – perhaps it is a lack of understanding and knowledge of MYSELF.
Definitely something worth investigating and cause for more introspection.
Dartboard photo by Loutsu
