Image credit: sxc.hu
Lately I’ve been in a quandary about what to do about this blog. I’ve been filling in with guest posts and trying to buy time while I figure out how to proceed. I wasn’t sure what the problem was. I’m a writer. I love to write. I write for my clients all day long, but when it came to writing for this blog I faced a brick wall of resistance. Then one day while I was listening to the Internet Business Mastery podcast, a little light bulb came on over my head.
Sterling and Jay were talking about the, “The 5 Most Common Mistakes When Choosing a Niche,” and I think the first one was not selecting a specific audience when you select your niche. I realized that was my challenge with this blog. When I started this blog back in 2007, the purpose was to be able to provide examples of my writing to prospective clients for my writing services. As time has gone by, the content has evolved into a few main themes: online writing, online/content marketing, and personal development. Lately I’ve expanded the focus to include indie publishing and ebook publishing, but I have yet to clearly define an audience.
So, I’m using my little dilemma to show you what not to do when you are creating a blog. Selecting an audience is a vital, foundational step to creating a successful blog. When you are clear on who you are writing for, it makes content creation a breeze. The content that you do create will also naturally attract that perfect audience because you will be speaking to their needs.
When you are in the process of selecting a niche and doing keyword research, don’t leave out the vital step of getting to the root of the wants, needs, hopes and fears of your target audience. I will be going back and doing that work so that I can re-launch this blog and start reaching the right audience. I’m grateful to my current readers and subscribers who have hung in there while I sort all of this out.
