My Way of Living + Story

Naked niche bloggers — why we don’t fit the mould

In the blogging world it seems there are as almost as many types of bloggers as there are tutorials on how to blog out there. DIY’s, photography, coupon counting, household hints, childcare, homeschooling, the list goes on.

Purple lilac

It’s endless I’m sure, no matter what the niche might be there will be a blogger that has captured the very essence of it, and is flourishing there.
There are also expert bloggers who are willing to share their advice on how to become as successful as they are.
Then you have the rest of us, the Naked Niche bloggers, those who go from topic to topic, changing our subjects like our socks, touching on various ideas, expressing our thoughts, our feelings, learning and trying different things as we go.
We’re all at different stages in our blogging journeys, some might just be starting out, other’s further along. Our villages are starting to be populated, we’re adding readers, our audience is growing follower by follower.
Things are good, but hey, maybe they could be better might be lurking in the back of our minds.
Some of us might get a little restless, want to change things up, or do something different, and we start to explore. That’s when we come across the “Blogging must do” posts written by the experts. They’re interesting, full of good ideas, and lots of promises, you start to wonder if this would work for you.
It sounds alluring, and you make the changes, maybe it’s setting up a email list, writing longer posts, writing shorter posts, adding more personal information, adding less.

Heliopsis

Maybe they suggest that you find 5 social media platforms that you are active on every day on them, posting tweets and asking your audience to retweet them for you.
It’s great advice, maybe a little time consuming, but you think, I just need to persevere, it will come. Things will start to happen soon, they have to.
You follow their suggestions for a short while, maybe it’s posting everyday, or only once a week… but slowly you come to the realization that it’s not really working like they said it would.
You give something else a try, and that doesn’t really work either. There are no hoards of readers demanding your next post, hanging onto your every word. No one is banging down your blogging door to ask you to guest post for their company.
Most of it’s good advice, and sure your blog looks better, cleaner, loads faster, but where are the new followers that you are supposed to get?
You search out some other ideas, giving some of them a try, what have you got to lose?
Nothing really seems to work, after awhile you realize that much of the “expert advice” out there doesn’t apply to your blog, or your readers.

Purple lilacs cluster

And you know why?
Because if you are a Naked Niche blogger, your so called “audience” is made up of real people, bloggers that you follow, and who follow you. They care about what you write, and they come to read your blog because they like you, and you like them.
They are not just anonymous commenters who stop by occasionally to learn how to makeover a piece of furniture, find a good chicken recipe, or the best way to hang a curtain rod.
Your Naked Niche readers are not the audience that the experts are writing for.
They are writing for bloggers who have chosen to stay within a tight little niche, no matter how small the box might be crammed into a tiny space, and working at becoming a expert in that particular subject.
The advice is wonderful, but it’s for bloggers who want to give their “audience” what they want, on a certain subject. The advice is great for bloggers with editorial calendars, who pre-plan each post ahead of time. That’s not who we are, we don’t follow a set and ridged schedule.

Large cluster of purple lilacs

They probably will find success with that method, it’s a lot of hard work, but it’s not the kind of blogging that we do. Not that our type of blogging isn’t made up of hard work, and enthusiasm, it’s just a different type of reader.
It’s simply doesn’t work for us Naked Niche bloggers because some of us don’t even know what we are going to write about when we sit down at the computer!
Why don’t they suggest tweeting that?
So yes, by all means give new ideas a try, learn something interesting, or not, continue on in your regular fashion, or make a few changes. That’s the joy of Naked Niche blogging you never know what the next post is going to be about.
And that’s why the expert advice doesn’t always fit. My Dad is going through a rough time in the hospital, [he fell and fractured his hip in the middle of the night, despite a 24 hour attendant] and this has worsened his dementia. I would so appreciate your kind thoughts, and prayers for him, and my family. I’ve been spending time with my family and we are trying to sort this out as it happens, things seem to change, day by day. If I am slow to return your comments and visit your blog please understand that I will be there as soon as I can. T hanks so much.
Mention Mondays: So we’re shaking it up a bit. I really like the idea of spreading some bloggy love around, and bringing our attention to other bloggers. It would be even better if we were to have a bigger selection of bloggers to introduce the Mention Monday bloggers to. That’s where you come in, I’m mentioning a blogger each Monday, and letting you know what their blog is about, and maybe you can think of a few bloggers who might have similar interests. Be sure to nominate any bloggers that might like to take part and have their blog highlighted, you can email me, it’s on my sidebar. Today’s Mention Monday blogger is Joy from Canadian Garden Joy . She’s a Canadian blogger, and has a garden to swoon over. My only wish is that Joy, and I lived closer to each other, say… less then 10 minutes away. Just close enough to take my wheelbarrow over and visit. If there is a must have plant in your life, Joy probably already has it, and it’s flourishing in her garden. Stop on by Joy’s blog, say hello, and if you know of some like minded bloggers please mention Joy’s blog to them. Jane

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Naked niche bloggers — why we don’t fit the mould + Story