Why blogging without a niche feels like freedom
I can't remember the last time I blogged without a specific niche in mind. And it feels like complete freedom. Any time you paint yourself into a corner with a niche you eventually run out of things to write about. Niche blogs are typically written with longtail keywords as the driver for the topic. You aren't really writing for you. You're writing for search engines.
That's why niche bloggers turned to AI writers, coupled with keyword tools and SEO optimization tools. A typical tech stack for the affiliate blogger or niche blogger was something like Ahrefs or Semrush for keywords, Neuronwriter for SEO optimization and Agilitywriter or Koalawriter or SEOWriting to write the blog post.
People were blogging for organic traffic, keyword stuffing posts and using any number of black hat techniques to rank in the top ten of Google. The ultimate goal was to get people to click on a product in a blog post and (hopefully) buy it. They didn't really care that much about the article quality. Success wasn't measured by reader satisfaction, it was measured in page views and affiliate link sales conversions.
I'll be the first to admit I was guilty of this. Remember bestexpandablehose.com? That was me. I sold a bunch of those things with articles like "How to care for your expandable hose" and riveting blog posts like "How to store an expandable hose in the winter." Real page turners. And yes, all AI written, heavily SEO optimized slop. That site is gone but for any enterprising individuals out there the domain was available when I checked GoDaddy :-).
It doesn't mean blogs with a focus are necessarily bad. For example, there are some incredible bloggers in the photography space (one of my hobbies). But writing unique content from personal experience is what drives these niche blogs first. Money (if they have a commercial side) is driven more by the trust they've accumulated from loyal readers vs. getting found in Google. Organic traffic is the by-product of great writing.
While I write this blog in the hopes of finding some people who get something out of it I won't die if I never get tons of traffic. I think the goal of the personal blogger is to build an audience of readers that they somehow click with. When I blog now I hope I can maybe educate or entertain or help someone, not try to extricate them from a few nickels through an affiliate sale.
That's what makes no-niche blogging so much fun. There is no content calendar, no list of longtail keywords to be beholden to. You just think of something you want to write about and that's it. It's that simple. If somebody reads a post and gets something out of it, great. If not, that's perfectly OK too. Each day is a new topic. And I like that.
Until next time, take care...