Is a Niche Vital to the Success of Your Squarespace Blog?
Is a Niche Vital to the Success of a Squarespace Blog?
Before we dive into this topic, I want to start by saying that this post won’t “niche-shame” you.
I say this because probably 90% of the articles on this topic lecture you on how you absolutely need to “niche down” or else your business will fail.
This “niche-shaming” often leaves you feeling paralyzed and unable to move forward in your business because what’s the point of moving forward if you haven’t niched down?
Chances are you haven’t niched down and you’re not ready to. Maybe your business is newish and you still have to get your feet wet. You may not be ready to make the niche-commitment.
So this post is NOT going to make you feel paralyzed, like a failure, or dead-in-the-water before you even begin.
This post is going to talk about what a niche is and what your niching options are to the extent that it will help you successfully blog for your business.
What is a Niche?
By definition, a niche is a smaller segment of a larger market for a particular kind of product or service. It’s targeted to appeal to a specific group of psychographics and demographics with distinct preferences, needs, or characteristics that differentiate them from the broader market.
The more you can “niche down,” the easier it is to tailor your brand message to these individuals and subsequently create content that speaks directly to them and ONLY to them.
So do you need to have a niche in order to blog? Yes! After all, you need to know who you are talking to.
Your blogging niche is going to be the same as your business niche. Getting as specific as you can, or what I like to call “nichey,” means you are more likely to reach your audience because everything you do in your business or put in your blog is specifically for them. This is how you get known as the go-to person for what you do.
You will know exactly who you’re talking to and as a result, your target audience will HEAR you. You can’t talk to everybody, and if you try to talk to everybody, no one will hear you.
So yes, you do need to have a niche. And my guess is that, to some extent, you DO have a niche.
The real question is, how nichey is your niche?
How Nichey is Your Niche?
A niche is a niche, and by definition, it is a SEGMENT of a larger market, not the whole market.
In order to create any content for your business, you need to know who you’re talking to, so you do need to have a niche. But do you need to obsess over getting really, really nichey when you’re just starting out? No, and you certainly don’t want to let it stop you from getting started blogging.
The simple act of regular blogging can actually help you niche down. You’ll find yourself blogging about the topics you enjoy and therefore you’ll become a magnet for attracting the right audience, so it’s important you stick to the topics you know and LIKE.
What often ends up happening is your niche finds you :-).
Before you get really nichey, you may start out a bit broad, and that’s okay. It’s better to get started and get content out there and refine it later.
Here’s an example of a web designer niching down:
Website design (not really a niche—this is very broad)
Squarespace website design (now you’re starting to niche)
Squarespace website design for small business
Squarespace website design for small service-based businesses
Squarespace website design for consultants (this is a type of small service-based business)
Squarespace website design for midlife consultants (a demographic that contains a lot of consultants)
This is just an example, but it could totally happen.
So if you’re in step #2 and have only niched down to Squarespace web design, that’s fine. You could blog all day long about Squarespace and you’ll find yourself blogging about your favorite Squarespace topics.
You may find that the more you build Squarespace websites, there are some that you don’t enjoy building, like e-commerce, for example, and so you just wouldn’t blog about Squarespace e-commerce because you don’t want to be the magnet attracting business you’d rather not be doing.
Does this make sense?
If you make it all the way to step #6, that audience is going to hear you loud and clear because all the content you create in your blog and in your business is going to speak directly to them.
You’ll also be able to easily find where they are hanging out online (Facebook Groups) and share your blog content with them there.
Don’t Wait Until You’ve Niched Down to Start Blogging
You’re going to hear me say this a lot: You can’t refine what hasn’t been started.
Did you know that 90% of ideas fail? (I don’t like the word “fail.”) Let’s say, 90% of your ideas will not be a success in and of themselves.
However, when you put your ideas into practice, you learn what works and what doesn’t. So while the original idea may not have made it to fruition, it led to idea #2, which led to idea #3, which led to idea #4, and so on, until you get to idea #10 which is a slam dunk!
Seriously, this is what the statistics show. The good news is that as long as you don’t give up, you’ll get to idea #10 and be a total hero!
But in the meantime, you need to practice, so this means getting outside your comfort zone and putting yourself out there.
You don’t have to have all the answers, and as a matter of fact, you never will. It will never be perfect and there will always be someone who knows more than you.
There will also always be lots of people who are looking for YOUR answers.
As Sally Miller said in Make Money from Blogging, “To a 3rd grader, a 5th grader is an expert.”
Start blogging, and you’ll be amazed at how it transforms your business.
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Do you feel liked you’ve niched down in your business? Have you been paralyzed in your business for fear that you haven’t niched down enough? Has it stopped you from blogging? Share your thoughts in the comments. 👇
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