Niche Blogging Tips
Niche blogging is a type of search engine oriented marketing that uses a blogging platform such as WordPress or Blogger to create a site that is tightly focused on a set of well paying primary keywords and related long tail search terms. In this lens we'll take a look at some of the basics of building this kind of blog and how it's different from the typical social blog.
Niche blogging is something I write about often on my blog OpTempo.
What is a Niche Blog
What is the difference between a niche blog and a social blog?
Niche blogs are entirely focused on steering the visitor toward either Adsense ads or an affiliate offer. Visitors to this kind of blog a generally from one of the search engines, like Google, and not from social networking sites like StumbleUpon or Digg.
Unlike a social blog, where the concern is capturing RSS Feed subscribers and other returning readers, a niche blog is looking for unique, one time, visitors who have a need and find an answer to that need in the advertisements and/or affiliate links shown on the niche blog.
This topic is explored in more depth on OpTempo in this article: Niche Blog vs. Social Blog
Know Your Niche
It isn't about having a passion
For a marketing oriented niche blog, knowing your niche means understanding the type of traffic a particular topic gets, what the advertising options are for it and what the competition is like for search placement.
For more details, see this OpTempo article: Niche Blog Beginner Tips
Content Sources for Niche Blogs
Where to get your content
The "bad guys" often resort to stealing content from other blogs, either in whole or in part. A cut above that are those who use autogenerated nonsense such as a Markov chain post.
A more white hat approach is to use PLR or Private Label Rights articles. However, these articles will need to be rewritten in order to avoid Google's dreaded duplicate content filter.
Another option is to use a tool like Instant Article Wizard to help you research and write articles for a niche. Some people pay others to write content for them. You might also consult government websites for information as well.
Find out more on this post on OpTempo: Finding Niche Blog Content
Niche Blog Hosting
Should you use WordPress or Blogger?
Blogger is free and rarely has traffic issues. Blogger blogs usually rank well in search results. However, you don't have a lot of control over a number of things and the platform, as a content management system, leaves a lot to be desired.
Self-hosted WordPress blogs offer a lot of flexibility and a wide variety of plugins. However, they are dependent upon whatever hosting plan/provider you use. Search engine optimization can also be a challenge as well.
For a more in-depth discussion on this topic, see this article on OpTempo: Niche Blog Hosting: WordPress vs. Blogger
Blogger vs. WordPress
Which is your favorite blogging platform?
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