Facibus On Blogging

Jeri is thinking of going pro - problogger that is. Taking the advice of Wendy Piersall, she’s looking for a niche - an area that she is passionate about and can contribute to with authority.

To summarise Wendy’s advice - she recommends that you ask yourself the following questions:

1 :: Are you certain you know enough about this subject to write about it on a consistent basis?
2 :: Will this subject offer you enough variety and opportunities to go off on a tangent or two?
3 :: Does this subject offer you a way to connect with other people, with yourself, or with the outside world?
4 :: Can you write with some authority on this subject?
5 :: Do you really love this subject?
6 :: Is there room for growth in this subject area?
7 :: Is this blog topic one that gives back and contributes to others?

This is very sound advice - a big mistake that I’ve made in the past was to go with my gut instinct, and answer question 5 alone without considering the bigger picture. I’d like to take you through a couple of ways that you can use Wendy’s list to find your blog niche. I’ve done it both ways, and found both useful to form an opinion of what I can sustain in the way of blogging.

The disqualifier method
Jeri started by writing a list of things that she was knowledgeable about (question 1), and then looked at her love for the topic (question 5) and potential for growth (question 6). This is one way to do it - start with the question that generates the biggest list of answers and then use the others as disqualifiers - factors that remove things from your list. What’s left is the logical place to blog.

Pros: This way is easy - if you are honest with your abilities and your loves, you could get through this exercise using a text editor or pen and paper in less than 10 minutes.

Cons: there are two big cons -

• you may pick the wrong question to begin with, and thus exclude some important factor.
• It doesn’t allow for serendipitous discovery - by building an element of brainstorming into the process, you could cover a lot more ground.

The Paper Topic Map method
This way is a bit more complex, but has the advantage of being thorough.

We use topic maps in Information Architecture as a means of making connections between seemingly disconnected information. In their simplest form, a topic map is a list of, well, topics! The map part comes when you overlay some factors over the top of the list of topics. This could be a list of Australian native plants with growth and care factors, but the topic today is blogs and blogging.

There are three steps in this process:

1. Write a list of topics that interest you: look at the list of blogs you subscribe to via RSS or email, your mybloglog communities, things that catch your eye from the technorati top 100, books that you have in your library, magazines and newspapers that you read. Be exhaustive - keep adding things to your list, and don’t be afraid to sleep on it and add more over a couple of days.
2. Map them to positive answers to Lisa’s list of questions: This is the not-so-fun part - look at question 1 (”Are you certain you know enough about this subject to write about it on a consistent basis?”), and run down your list of topics. Add a number 1 against all that you can honestly say that you know enough about. When you’ve done this, look at question 2 (”Will this subject offer you enough variety and opportunities to go off on a tangent or two?”), and go through the list of topics, marking all positives with a 2. You probably get the picture by now, and I hope that you are not cursing me for wasting your time at this stage Trust me, it will be worth the effort.
3. Analyse the result: this is the fun part - go through your list and look for the entries that have the most numbers against them. Ideally, you will have a handful that have all numbers 1-7 against them - but there are alternatives. If a majority of your topic list has all the numbers against them, then you have a lot of potential as a blogger and I wish you every success - all you need now is strong and sustained motivation. If you have few or no topics with all 7 numbers against them, then you need to think seriously about whether you should be committing time to a niche blog project - write for your own pleasure alone (which, to me, is as good a reason as any to blog, and the world would be a better place for everyone doing this). Regardless - look at the topics with the highest number of positives - these are the niches that you should consider.

Pros: this method allows for serendipitous discovery through brainstorming - and anything that you come across will have potential. You can periodically review your list, and use it as a tool to choose a second or subsequent niche blogs.

Cons: It takes a while. If you don’t have the time to put into it, this can be a real problem - at least try the disqualifier method above.

Summary
My friend Maria is going through this same process at the moment - apart from this being an interesting topic that I have something to contribute towards, I wrote this article for her and for all in a similar position.

Finding a niche is a first important step in becoming a successful blogger - but it is just that, the first step. Finding and sustaining the motivation is the second - guess which is the most important in the long run?

Finding your blogging niche is almost as difficult as trying to find people that you’ve lost touch with over the years. Both require a lot of research and dedication. And, when the goal is reached, there is an immense feeling of
satisfaction and accomplishment.