One of the most important things when starting a blog is to decide what type of blog you want – niche blog or general. It is crucial for your blogs’ success.
Like everything in life, both of them have some pros & cons. Both types can be successful but there are some key differences between them.
When I started my blogging career years ago, I didn’t know anything about this and it was one of the reasons I was failing.
And I learned from my mistakes and now I’m sharing my experience and knowledge with you.
But before we dive in, first let’s find out what are these two types of blogs.
Table of Contents
What Are General Blogs
A general blog is a kind of blog where it is not focused on a specific topic. Instead, it talks about different topics. Have different categories and blog posts.
For example, it can have posted about culture, music, politics, movies, etc. It is divided into categories and authors create posts in that categories.
We can say that all the news websites are general blogs because all the news websites have different categories.
What Are Niche Blogs
A niche blog is the opposite of that. A niche blog concentrates on a specific topic and only has posts for that topic. That is very different from a general blog.
For example, you can start a blog about web development and you create posts only about web dev. But there are different kinds of niche blogs.
You can start a web dev blog but you can get more specific and your blog can be only about the front end or back end. The topic is narrower and more specific.
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So, you can have a general blog, blog about one big topic, or about the specific topic from that big topic.
All these types of blogs will work. All of these need work and you can be successful.
Now let me explain what are advantages and disadvantages for each of them.
Why Niche Is Better Than General
As I said, both types of blogs are great and work. But I think niche blogs are better than general and there are many reasons why it is so.
As you know today there are over 500 million blogs and over 30 million bloggers. You can find great facts about blogs here.
This chart shows bloggers’ increase in the US from 2014 to 2020.
Because there are so many blogs, there are blogs about all topics already. So, it is very hard to create a unique blog. And it is even harder to compete with already established websites.
And when you create a general blog, it is very, very hard to succeed today. Because you can’t do it alone. It is impossible to manage a general blog alone.
You need writers for different categories and you have to publish many posts. You have to publish every day and it is very hard.
Because you rely on quantity over quality and it is always bad. It should be the opposite. Google and people love quality content.
Also Read: How To Write Good Blog Post
It is better to have 10 great blog posts than 30 bad posts. But it doesn’t mean that general blogs are dead.
The thing is that it needs more resources and constant publishing. And also it is not very interesting for search engines or readers.
People tend to follow niche blogs more than general blogs. And the reason is very simple.
If a person is interested in some topic and this person finds a blog about that topic, it is almost inevitable that he or she will follow your blog.
But if he finds just a post about a topic in a general blog, he or she may even not read it.
General blogs are best for news websites which also have a separate section for blogs on general topics.
Now let’s see why a niche blog is better and why. There are different reasons.
Reason 1: Easy To Start
It is much easier to start a niche blog than a general. And you can do it alone. You only write about one topic and you don’t have to publish every day.
When you have a niche blog, you can create a schedule and publish it accordingly. For example, there post per week or something like that.
This way you can create more creative, informative, and quality content. Also, you can publish in-depth posts and not just 500-600 words of text.
You can create a blog with WordPress in one day and start writing and publishing content immediately. It is so fast and easy.
So, it is easier to start and is great for solo bloggers. Also, you don’t have to publish new posts every day and have time to create quality content.
Reason 2: Narrow Audience
One of the main advantages of niche blogs is that it aims to a specific, narrow audience. You may think it is bad but it is the opposite.
Let’s say you are a front-end developer. You can start a blog about the front-end and publish posts about HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
So, you narrow your audience and aim to specific people – who are interested in front-end development.
Of course, you can create some related topic posts here and there like about back-end or development in general. But 90% of your content will be only about the front-end.
This way people know that if they want to read or learn about the front-end, your blog is the place.
Also, it is great for advertisement. For example, creating a Facebook ad is easier because you can create specific audiences who are interested in front-end development.
Reason 3: Credibility
The third reason why niche blogs are better than general blogs is credibility and perhaps it is the most important one.
And it applies to any industry. Not only blogs and the web. Let’s imagine a scenario in a different industry – music.
Let’s say you are in a rock band, have songs, and want to record and mix them. You find two good mixing engineers. Both are great and know their work.
One is mixing different genres and has a good reputation. The second one also has a good name but is famous for mixing only rock songs.
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Which one do you choose? The more likely second one, right?
Why? Because he does only rock and is known for that. He has experience in that specific genre.
Same works with blogging and every other industry.
When a person searches for something in Google and finds the website dedicated to that topic, he will definitely follow that blog.
It works now and will work in the future.
Reason 4: You Can Go More Niche
And the last but not least reason is that you can go even deeper and pick a more specific niche. That can be even better.
For example, a blog about pets is a niche blog. But you can go further and create a blog only about cats.
There are a million cat owners and lovers. So you aim for those people and a certain audience. You create different posts about cats.
And guess what. If it is good and you have great content, who want to know more about cats, when they find a blog about cats, they will definitely follow.
And it is more likely that Google will rank and suggest your website to cat owners. Of course, if the content will be good.
Of course, you can always write some posts about pets in general. But 80%-90% of your blogs should be about your niche topic.
Conclusion
There are many other reasons why a niche blog can be more successful than a general one. A general blog has its own place but it becomes more difficult to succeed with a general blog.
Also, niche blogs are great if you want to start your own. Don’t rush, create great content and you will succeed. And never forget- quality over quantity.
