Blogging For Dollars: Niche Versus General Content

There are an incredible number of topics that an individual might write about on a blog. It might very well take an entire lifetime to actually list them all since new topics appear all of the time. This poses a problem during the creation of a new blog or updating an existing blog. Do you, the blog owner, focus on a small niche category or do you try to cram as much content onto your blog as possible? Either way the hope is that you may capture the attention of a visitor.

Despite the current belief that ultra-niche sites are the best way to go, the truth is that any site can become popular if enough people are able to find it on the web. Ultimately, the real key to a successful blog will be a combination of many factors, most of which are centered on acquiring and maintaining traffic. Both a niche site and a general content site may attract a readership, but they require a different angle of approach.

Niche Sites

Sites that focus on one to three related topics, generally no more than three, are known as niche sites. These sites are designed to cater to specific clientele or to attract a specific type of reader. A few examples of sites in this category include a cooking site, an anime tube site, or a site focused on a particular political party's stance. People looking for information of this type will focus their internet searches specifically on these types of sites utilizing related keywords. This provides excellent organic traffic potential. However, there is a downside. Niche sites are only capable of covering a specific set of topics. These sites will need to maintain an exhaustive list of articles and massive amounts of "killer" content in order to rise to the top and become noticed on primary keyword search pages. The general rule of thumb for blogging with niche sites is that the blogger will need to create a new blog for each niche they wish to work with. This may lead to the eventual creation of dozens of blogs and a great deal of stress to maintain updates while making certain that the right update ends up on the appropriate blog.

Pros

• Highly targeted organic traffic 

• Dedicated content types with a set concept 

• Site can be small and effectively monetized 

Cons

• Generally does not have much traffic outside the niche 

• May require the blog owner to create several different blogs to make real money 

• Will need to fight with other sites over niche specific keywords on a dedicated basis 

• Must have unique content that draws in visitors in order to compete with similar niche sites 

General Content Sites

Current trends indicate that general content sites do not perform as well as utilizing several niche content sites. This is normally true. However, there are many sites that show this to be incorrect. Sites that are truly massive in nature such as the article content farms of Triond and Knoji are constantly updating with new material due to their large writer base. These articles are written on many different subjects and these massive sites perform quite well. While a blogger will not be in the same category as a content farm there is no reason that a general content site cannot become incredibly popular.

The key to creating an incredibly popular general content site is to include the readership and site visitors as much as possible. While the site may technically belong to the blog owner many people who visit frequently may begin to see it as a community site. Community sites that are popular have dedicated visitors who may visit every single day if not more often. The best method for creating a general content site will be to choose an extremely wide category such as humor or drama. Make certain every post or article placed on the blog follows the concept category chosen and the content itself can be about almost anything.

Pros

• General content sites do not need to adhere to a strict niche content basis 

• These sites can be departmentalized into specific categories which make them seem like a mass of niche sites. 

• If the blog owner creates a community setting, such as a forum, they may find that their site visitors grow steadily. 

• The site can work on a general concept such as humor or action, and focus on making every post humorous or action oriented. 

Cons

• General content sites may be general in concept but they still require unique content to rise above their competition. 

• Without a specific target niche the general content blog will need to work on building traffic more frequently to attract visitors. 

• There are massive general content farms on the web currently that will dwarf any attempt by a private individual who is not well-funded. 

The Best Method

The difference between a general site and a niche content site are vast. However, the best method of creating a blogging empire is to use elements of both. Begin blogging for dollars by choosing a general content them, such as humor. Humor sites that are actually humorous tend to maintain their readership when they are updated regularly. Create humorous niche sites around specific content. Once three to five of these sites are created, create another site that is generally humorous content oriented. This site will be the master site for all future blogging endeavors. Continue to update the niche sites but craft links to those sites from the main site.

Use small excerpts from the articles on the niche sites to entice readers to click on the "read more now" link. This link takes them to your niche site. This will allow you to craft a blog site made primarily out of excerpts from your other sites. Add in a new update at least once per day per niche blog attached to the main site. Create a main site blog post at least once every few days. Posts do not need to be long or in-depth unless you are creating a new article or article series. They can be general updates about previously written information, news related to the niche topic, or just forum posts. This creates several direct links and if each site has a forum, then you can craft a signature that links to each of those sites as well.