Finding your blog niche…or like me…not.

Apparently, to be a successful parent blogger you need a niche. ‘Need’ like my son needs a ham sandwich at 2am. Examples of niches being; delia’esk cooking, sofa’s…..I mean home-style, looking genuinely awesome all the time with outfits that I would love to pull off and blogs that focus solely on discussing the different faces of Ryan Gosling…I hope that site exists. Everyone has things that they love, or areas of expertise. Even if it is simply being able to make your tongue touch your nose.

Niche ‘a specialized segment of the market for a particular kind of product or service’, from the Old English word for, ‘I do not have one’.

My bottoms large enough, if I could find my niche I could, I think, fill it…

This blog is a haphazard mix of things I need, like a mother’s handbag. It is for tips and for tales, for when I want to greedily unleash onto a page all of my feelings; it is my deep breath, it’s where I want to share my happy moments. Sometimes it’s for crap with glaring grammatical errors.

It is imperfect but it is mine. It is clumsy and kind and a little scruffy, just like its creator. She is a trier.

Blogs are like characters; actually I think they are the screen characters of the bloggers who write them, bordered with bold fonts and framed photos. There are so many amazing blogs out there and almost three months into exploring the wilds of the blogverse I have only begun to scratch the surface. I am like man discovering fire…or a woman discovering blogging, whilst rediscovering wine.

I read pages from pro-blogger mums who bust their lady balls to have gotten where they are; blogging is a hard won business and who are the epitome of empowerment. I peruse blogs that make me howl with laughter and sketches that light up my face when the rest of the world is dark and hard…I ponder heartfelt posts that make my chest ache with all the things I could never say. There are those that parody and those that are wonderfully, enviably silly, creativity glimmering with each click of my mouse. There are the honest parents who offer you a post that reflects your reality; that make you feel that you are worth it, that you are doing great even though you are wearing yesterday’s pants. There are the daddy bloggers that give me an insight into a world of love I never knew. There are the styles, bakers and the makers, blogs that offer you a slice of knowledge and opinion, encourage you to think of things wider than yourself and your family. The fighters, campaigners, awareness raisers. There are new bloggers testing the waters and reaching out…

If you read that description and thought hey she’s writing about me, I am.

There are many parents in the world, and many blogs to partner them, a sea of sleep deprived voices. I refer to my favourite saying, diversity is good look at how successful skittles are. I may not have a niche but I have a voice, it is sometimes hesitant, sometimes confused but always as honest as it can be. Parenting itself is not unique, parenthood is not niche, it is a common occurrence but each parent is unique.

Blogging gave me a voice when I thought I had lost it.

So that is my flowery way of saying bugger the niche. I will ask Santa for one at Christmas, thank you for reading although I am niche less. At least I am not trouser less.

Tonight I am going to Google what a ‘successful’ blogger is. Then I will probably have a glass of wine and write my own definition.

Disclaimer: If you were expecting a peppy ‘how to find your niche bullet pointed how to’, sorry I failed you with my wittering’s, good luck and god speed on your quest. Blogs are about content. It’s good to try lots of stuff (except cartwheels at 28…don’t ask)…write what fits with you. Your blog is built by what you want and expect it to be, not others.

A triangle can’t fit into a square.

If you have a niche good on you. Tip of the hat. If you want a niche for popularity for a profitable blog you could do a keyword search for the topic and compare how popular things are, read read read and see what you like.

 

Write well and enjoy it, passion always sneaks through the lines.

Keep Calm and Carry On Linking Sunday