This post was most recently updated on March 26th, 2014
I am going to get a bit radical in this article and pose a question to you. Should you always blog and build relationships strictly within your niche?
We are trained to stay in our niche right? Yes, I know that’s a very good thing for backlinks, branding, authority blogging and building targeted relationships with both your peers and prospects.
Whatever your niche is, as a blogger, there are many aspects to your business. The social and technical parts of your blog are at the top of the list.
The social and technical aspects of blogging, in fact, are the two most important things you need to be in touch with. If you are like me, and you have that passion for social networking, you may not want to have anything to do with the technical part of blogging.
What would happen to me, though, if I stuck only to a very tight niche of people who were doing strictly social media marketing, and never talked to people about technical things related to blogging and networking?
Let’s just suppose that I never conversed much with any of the techies visiting my blog because they weren’t in my niche, and I wasn’t comfortable with technology? Of course, I’d be courteous, but let’s say I never socialized with them. Now, when something goes wrong with my blog….What do I do?
I have no one to turn to because I haven’t built relationships with people in the more techie niches. I am alone and have no one to turn to that I really know and trust! I’ve never hung out on technology blogs or forums, so I don’t even know the lingo to even ask for help.
The result is that I would be at the mercy of someone I don’t know, and would probably have to pay through the nose to fix even simple things. And that, my friends, is just one example.
Imagine confining yourself to your niche so narrowly that whenever you try to promote something, everyone you talk to already knows about it, or already bought into it. On the other hand, if you extended yourself beyond your immediate core group of blogging friends, you’re far more likely to bump into folks who have a sincere need for the product, system or training you have to offer.
To me, it all comes down to a balancing act!
I believe that we have to broaden ourselves to people in other niches, invite them to come to our blogs, interact with us on our social sites and start building relationships with them. It just comes down to a win-win from my perspective.
If I need help with something, I post it on Facebook and tons of my blogging buddies come to help. Same goes for me. If I see a blogging buddy pose a question that I can answer, I’m there in a heart beat.
Ultimately, though, when it comes time for you to sell a product or promote a service, who are the people that are going to need it the most?
The ones that are in your niche who already know the same stuff as you? Or could it be ones that are in a different, but related niches that are not quite as familiar with your offers?
What do you think? I really would like to know!
Blessings,
Donna
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