We may have to eat our own words a bit on this one. Regardless, it’s eye-opening to see what makes some of the biggest blogs on the web work.
If you’re interested in choosing a niche (or in not choosing a niche), this conversation will be important for you.
I’ll leave it at that and let the podcast episode do the talking. Enjoy! (Subscribe if you haven’t yet!)
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“You don’t have to choose a niche! (The largest blogs online never did)”
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Logan’s Question
Hey Fizzle Crew,
I have a problem I’ve been trying to figure out for a while and thought if anyone would know the answer it would be you guys: there’s a lot said around the blogging world and on your guys’ site, also, about defining your audience and finding your niche.
I’ve just recently found out about Fizzle so I’m a bit behind on the backlog of podcasts, but you guys have mentioned a few times brainpickings.org and farnamstreetblog.com, and I’m wondering this: how is it that something so ‘cross-disciplinary’ (or kind of anti-niche) does so well, and how would they go about doing things like defining their audience and/or doing market research when their audience basically is people who enjoy random interesting things?
I’m not sure if you guys answer random emailed questions, but if you do, then thank you very much for helping me out with this and I hope to hear back.
Best regards, Logan Maro
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Show Notes
Farnam Street — “I have a fairly simple objective: I want to go to bed each night smarter than when I woke up. I also want to live a meaningful life and become a better person.”
Brain Pickings — “Founded in 2006 as a weekly email that went out to seven friends and eventually brought online, the site was included in the Library of Congress permanent web archive in 2012.”
Brain Pickings: 7 Things I Learned in 7 Years of Reading, Writing, and Living — “Reflections on how to keep the center solid as you continue to evolve.”
Kottke.org – home of fine hypertext products — “The editorial direction of the site is all over the place but clusters around a pair of hand-wavy ideas: the liberal arts 2.0 and people are awesome.”
Why Finding Your Niche Is Just Plain Bad Advice — “If you pay attention to those who succeed in online business, they aren’t following their own advice.”
Maria Popova on Writing, Workflow, and Workarounds — “In this in-depth conversation, we cover just about everything: how it happened, her workflow, how she writes, how her site generates revenue…”
Ira Glass on Storytelling & Taste:
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One topic that comes up over and over again with both groups is mistakes made in starting businesses. Newbies love to learn about mistakes so they can avoid them. Veterans love to talk about what they wish they had known when starting out.
These conversations have been fascinating, so we compiled a list of the 10 mistakes we hear most often into a nifty lil' guide. Get the 10 Most Common Mistakes in Starting an Online Business here »
Puttylike.com is a site basically all about people who want to combine lots of different interests into one business. She has a free “overarching theme” kit to help people sort of nail down what they want to do. Brainpickings, Rowdy Kittens, and other sites like that are not just creators of content, but curators of ideas and content. Austin Kleon’s blog is like that, and it’s wonderful! I learn about so many cool things from blog posts, even though I think he kind of slants his work toward artists, “art” is a broad, overarching theme, so there’s lots of stuff out there he can share with other “art” people. One of my profs in library school sends out a weekly email to everyone on the department’s mailing list, with links containing articles on different topics, but all of interest to fellow librarians (in any area of librarianship, which is way broader than you would think). So, it can be as simple as just a text email with links to cool articles online, or you can write up summaries of each link as a blog post, or an article containing a synthesis of several information sources and your point of view on it. Lots of ways to do curation.
I also love Austin Kleon’s blog. Thanks, @ruis2002:disqus!
Somebody had to say it.
I am a believer in what you suggested about worldview being a common bond, Jeff. That was a great article you wrote a while back. One of the most compelling arguments ever for authenticity online–esp. in a service or coaching biz. Thanks for that by the way. :-)
Too true. I’m thinking a lot about what you said in that article, Jeff… wondering if it’s a really important delimiter and how it would lend itself to a different process entirely. So, i guess, you’re, like, smart and stuff.
I think the main reason I really enjoy the Fizzle Show is your authenticity and self-awareness. It’s great to hear you guys thoughtfully discuss something even if it may at first appear to be contrary to things you have said in the past. Good show. Love the Podcast guys.
Thanks, Levi!
This was an awesome episode and it really hit home. I’m always torn between niche building and following my curiosity. I’ve decided to relaunch my current blog as a niche based site later this year, and to create a separate blog to randomly explore my interests. It may be time consuming, but it’s good for creative people to have both outlets—a space to build and a space to explore.
Some great advice in the show. I agree with Chase that the defining factor for Popova, Kottke, etc. isn’t necessarily IQ (though they are smart), but it’s their insatiable curiosity. That gives us mere mortals who want to start similar blogs some hope.
This was the first episode of this show I’ve ever listened to. I had other plans for this hour. But it was quite interesting and struck a couple of nerves.
Love this post. Yes. Niching can be so over-rated. #nichesgetstiches
I really enjoyed this awesome episode of Fizzle Show.A very nice discussion providing food for thought ,lets us ponder on the issues mentioned in it .
Keep up the good work!
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