Narrowing Down a Blog That's Too Broad

by aleong
23 replies
I have a blog that I love writing, but it's been two years and I've gained little traction with the search engines. I made the mistake of picking a very broad topic area - health, fitness, nutrition - all in one blog. Admittedly, I haven't done a lot to market it. I have a Facebook fan page with 156 fans but have only recently started to do daily updates. It's helped a little, but I think the future is bleak unless I niche it down.

The question is this. To niche it down, should I start over with a new, more focused website or is it possible to convert this blog into a more focused one without starting over. The blog has more than 200 articles on it. Any thoughts?

Kristie
#blog #broad #narrowing
  • Profile picture of the author writeaway
    You don't have to start from scratch.

    Just create subcategories focused on your target category

    This creates context

    Use longtail keywords for your subcategories.

    When linking to your blog through guest posts or social media mentions always use your subcategories' keywords
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  • Profile picture of the author Gambino
    What is the goal of the blog (i.e., how are you monetizing it and/or how do you plan to monetize it?)
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    • Profile picture of the author aleong
      Thanks for your reply. I have some Amazon affiliate links on the site and Adsense. I've also written a few health-related ebooks and plan on writing more. The earnings have pretty weak. :-)
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    • Profile picture of the author aleong
      James and writeaway, you mention keeping the site and narrowing down the focus. Should I keep all the articles on the site under a single category like "other," and add category topics that are focused on a more narrow niche? Thanks to all of you!

      Kristie
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  • Profile picture of the author James McAllister
    I wouldn't get rid of the site, but I would start focusing in on one smaller sub-niche and focus solely on that from here on out until you feel you are able to expand back out (if you wish to do so.)

    You didn't mention an email list so definitely start building one if you're not already. Make sure your lead magnet is clearly for people interested in whatever sub-niche you're going to enter into..
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  • Profile picture of the author Anglo Shinobi
    Peace Aleong (Kristie?)-

    Health and fitness blogs can be "narrowed-down" quite easily, there are a tonne of sub-niches within your main category that people go nuts for.

    A good tactic perhaps would be to make your site a "specialist" in whatever sub-niche, yet still provide broad content - you know like a health and fitness blog which focused on kettlebell training for example, or 15 minute workouts, or laughing yoga (it exists).

    It's nearly 2016 and as an insider, I predict, the promotions to push in the health and fitness game at the moment are:

    1) Calisthenics - AKA Street Workout, AKA Military fitness training, AKA Home Gymnastics, AKA Be your own gym.

    2) Legs, Bums and Tums - AKA Girl Squats - (offline has a tonne of profit to be made in classes - online too - you should be marketing these offline AND online, think: parenting classes, mother baby groups, contact centres, etc - all good places to advertise if you can pull it off)

    3) Kettlebells - (and generally anything that DragonDoor is pushing, they do a good job)

    4) Beachbody products - You know, P90X, Insanity etc - they are already popular so a good way to attack this market is to include the community type sharing and supporting each others progress - also, another way to target this market is to re-fix the workouts to make them better (or different).


    As far as narrowing for what you are talking about, which I think is your SEO, search engine ranking, bringing in organic traffic from search engines....

    Use keywords from 1) 2) 3) above but then make them longer... for example:

    "10 minute legs bums and tums workout for new mothers"
    "best rated street workouts uk 2015"
    etc.

    However, if you are doing ZERO advertising and promotion other than SEO - then I recommend you begin some form of FREE marketing - the health and fitness market goes really easy with Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter - Memes, etc.

    Also - forum marketing (which I always promote) is a must - choose a few popular, targeted forums and establish yourself there.

    Furthermore - building an email list should be easy within this game - there is TONNES of high quality content you can give away in ebooks in exchange for an email - you know: six pack abs secrets and the likes - you could even deliver a daily/weekly workout to your clients inbox - BOOM!

    (I don't know why I said BOOM!) lol.

    I hope I answered your question,
    Peace.


    Edit: To expand on what another Warrior is advising (which I agree with, thanks: writeaway)... Use Long-tail keywords in your blog category - I agree, however it is important to keep your sitemap clean.

    Make sure the structure of your blog is sound - this will help with SEO.

    Make your pages look like:

    yourblogdotcom/example-legs-bums-tums/free-workouts/workout-of-the-month.php

    USE THE ABOVE, do NOT:
    yourblogdotcom/workoutsandstuff/workout1Ba/workout1B.php

    (Sorry if my example is pants - the point I'm making is everything needs to make sense, be clear as daylight, and be logically sound, don't put a free workout in the "interview" section, make a "free workouts" section)
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    • Profile picture of the author aleong
      Anglo, what great information! You've given me a different perspective and tons to think about. By adopting a very narrow niche, hopefully, I can get better search engine rankings and focus more precisely on the needs to the reader. Thank you for your help. :-)
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      • Profile picture of the author Anglo Shinobi
        Originally Posted by aleong View Post

        Anglo, what great information! You've given me a different perspective and tons to think about. By adopting a very narrow niche, hopefully, I can get better search engine rankings and focus more precisely on the needs to the reader. Thank you for your help. :-)
        Thanks for your kind words. Please be sure to take my advice and implement some form of free or low cost advertising.

        Consider: it costs pennies to print off some bold advert using text and clipart (assuming you have zero design skills) - you can print A4 size posters on a home PC with printer - and you could put these posters:

        1) Uni housing hallways (most have notice board sections, this is PERFECT - uni students are always good targets)

        2) On the boards in or outside or near buildings that host parenting services or classes.

        3) Free-Ads (online and offline) - local newspapers, Gumtree, Graigslist, LOCAL FACEBOOK groups. etc.


        Also consider - your blog readers, they may also be magazine readers, or followers of other blogs and services - poach them from there and don't thank your competition for doing all the hard work


        Anyway - I wish you all the best in your venture,
        Peace.
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  • Profile picture of the author ExcelExpert
    Interesting topic, I'm facing a similar issue with my new blog. I say new because it is about the 5th time I have abandoned what I was doing and started again.

    The subject of my blog is Excel spreadsheets, which is equally broad. In theory it covers everything from formulas to bespoke applications, reporting to error prevention and so on. Like health, fitness and nutrition there a load of established Excel blogs to compete with.

    The main purpose of my blog is a way to sell my Excel programming services. I have clients that come to me for specific areas of excel (formulas, programming, reporting etc) but not the other areas. So if I focused on reporting (for example) I face alienating those looking for formulas and programming help. I have no doubt that if I picked reporting to focus my clients in that area would increase.

    I just need to bite the bullet and pick one to focus on.
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    • Profile picture of the author aleong
      ExcelExpert, I did the same thing - abandoned the blog and came back. It's so hard to stand out among a sea of blogs, especially if you're not highly targeted. You're a lot more targeted than I am. I cover health, fitness, and nutrition - way too much to cover. I agree with you. It IS hard to pick one topic to focus on. Guess I'm going to bite the bullet too. Best of luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    See if you can re-engineer it into an "organic lifestyle" blog. Strictly for those who are looking to pursue the organic eating and living route.
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    • Profile picture of the author aleong
      Randall, I like that idea. Do you think it's targeted enough?
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  • Profile picture of the author Brent Stangel
    Why not promote something that people actually need? I don't understand why people pick a "niche" based on any reason other than profitability.

    "I think I'll build a "health" site. Cool, got my site up. Oh, wow! There ares thousands and thousands of others just like mine. Now what?"

    Well, if you were promoting something people actually need, you could carve out a piece of the market for yourself no matter the quantity or quality of competition.

    Just food for thought.
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    All The Real Marketers Are Gone. There's Nothing Left But Weak, Sniveling Wanna-Bees!
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    • Profile picture of the author aleong
      Brent, yes I think I, along with a lot of other people, are guilty of that. We enter a niche because it's something we enjoy or are passionate about and then get frustrated when it's not monetizable. I think it's time for a mindset adjustment on my part. You can love a niche, but if you can't monetize it, it'll eventually lead to frustration. Thanks for your input.
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      • Profile picture of the author Steve B
        Originally Posted by aleong View Post

        You can love a niche, but if you can't monetize it, it'll eventually lead to frustration.

        Kristie,

        Exactly!

        The place to begin is in the marketplace to see what possibilities exist, specifically investigating what problems, needs, and desires you might be able to help prospects with in the way of a paid product or service.

        All of the blog topics that you mentioned (health, fitness, and nutrition) are huge markets in themselves. Start with just one and then begin to dig down deep to find a specific and focused topic that you can attack. If it's something that you have experience in and/or a passion for . . . all the better.

        You are trying to identify a way to position your business in a niche where all the audience has the same problem/want/desires. In other words, everyone is like-minded, interested in and looking for help/information on the same thing. When you are focused on that one topic your marketing becomes so much easier because everyone in your audience is your targeted prospect and a potential customer. Every time you put out a piece of content and every time you promote an offer, everyone in your audience will have that same interest.

        Sometimes people worry to being so specific will narrow the pool of prospects too much. Wrong! The reach of the Internet is global and there will be plenty of people in your audience.

        Build a list of subscribers, become the expert in that one narrow topic and you will stand out. Large established businesses can't compete with you because they are after the masses - they will leave you alone and you can thrive! After awhile, if you need to expand into a closely related topic you will be able to do that easily as your current business topic will be a "lead in" to that related subject.

        Researching the marketplace for "demand" (in other words, people who are looking for solutions who are ready to buy) is always the place to begin when trying to decide how to monetize your effort.

        The very best to you,

        Steve
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    • Profile picture of the author Gambino
      Originally Posted by Brent Stangel View Post

      Why not promote something that people actually need? I don't understand why people pick a "niche" based on any reason other than profitability.

      "I think I'll build a "health" site. Cool, got my site up. Oh, wow! There ares thousands and thousands of others just like mine. Now what?"

      Well, if you were promoting something people actually need, you could carve out a piece of the market for yourself no matter the quantity or quality of competition.

      Just food for thought.
      Bingo. You nailed it my friend. I asked earlier in this thread what the monetization plan was/is/will be but it went unanswered. Thus, I assume there was/is/will be no monetization plan. Which means, the OPs efforts have been for nothing, in my opinion.

      Now as far a restarting or continuing with what you have. I would say you can still use the content - but that site in your signiture needs a complete overhaul.

      Start with a purpose of how you want to profit. Then build your site, content, and funnel around that.. because at the end of the day, that will be what inables you to continue.

      Edit: just saw that you use affiliate links (didn't look for them) and have some type of shop set up, with adsense. Personally, I would drop the adsense. I would then figure out the primary method whether it be affiliate products, your own products, or HINT HINT HINT your own physical products.
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  • Profile picture of the author aleong
    The input each of you has given is helpful. I need to be more focused and think about monetization first unless I want a dead blog. Thanks for giving me the insight and the "kick in the butt" I need to revamp things. :-)
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  • Profile picture of the author RahulNag
    Some other thoughts.

    I would look at a redesign. It could be made much easier to read and maybe rebrand the domain name. Call it Dr. Kristie.com something like that so you are the brand. It is really hard to find out your name on the site. It is also a bit clinical - i.e. it would be nice to have more personality and fun in it.

    The articles pages have a bit of a disconnect to the front page - the articles appear a bit more playful with the images whereas the front page is not as engaging in my view.

    You could then have categories as the other people here have said.

    Do some analysis using Google Analytics or other software to find out which are the most popular pages and categories and focus on those. Especially based on your reader comments.
    Maybe also looking at the end result for people. E.g. weight loss for mothers. Or six pack abs for men. At the moment the categories are again a bit clinical or from your point of view.

    Why are people interested in these categories? What do they want them for? Why do they want to eat healthily?

    You can also look at split testing. Try two or three different versions of the main page and see which ones attract the most visitors.
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  • Profile picture of the author AdamAdspruce
    Personally I would do the following:

    1. Firstly I would restructure the website into a more organised site. Have you ever heard of how a silo structure works? Basically the main aim is to funnel link juice from the individual articles back to the main page.

    The structure would look a little something like this:

    Main Page

    - Health

    - Male health
    - Men's Supplements
    - Men's Vitamins
    - Men's protein powders

    - Men's health products
    - Men's health clothing
    - Men's running shoes

    - Female Health
    - Female Supplements
    - Men's Vitamins
    - Men's protein powders

    - Female health products
    - Men's health clothing
    - Men's running shoes

    If in Wordpress you would have your main page, then a bunch of Categories. Each Category would have a sub or child category and if needed these can be broken down further again.

    To help you decided on what you should write about you can do one of 2 things. If you have google analytics installed, and have enough traffic to make an informed decision - then I would look to see what my most popular articles have been and concentrate on topics around those areas. If this is not the case then you are going to have to do some pretty decent keyword research. I personally use Long Tail Pro as it helps me find low competition keywords. I never look for keywords that have over 1,000 searches a month - I prefer to have say 10-15 keywords each receiving 500 searches a month as it gives me 10-15 topics to write about, and they are usually much easier to rank for.

    Hope this has helped
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  • Profile picture of the author agmccall
    I would first start with some re-design. The first thing that should go is that annoying popup that makes me accept the cookies, it will not go away even if I click accept. I would have a new logo designed that is smaller so you can get more information above the fold.

    Instead of having a "Shop" category that goes to a amazon store, I would change that to Reviews and then review the product you are recommending. You could use a plugin like prosociate to keep a store on your site or easyazon for better converting amazon links.

    A better theme would be a boost as well. Get some type of "Magazine/News" theme. I use Theme-junkie themes.

    In your posts, I would make the post images a bit smaller and learn how to wrap the text around the image, it is simple. just google it and you will find tutorials and videos on how to do this.

    Like others have said, get the categories and sub categories more focused.

    al
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    • Profile picture of the author discrat
      As well as narrowing down to more specific topics related to health and fitness, a good place to start would be the optin box.

      Not really a magnet (at least me) to want to sign up.

      You need to build a List that is more specifically targeted towards a group.

      Something like "Join the Organic revolution and sign up to get my top 10 most delicious, organic entrees for healthier eating "

      or

      "Ladies tired of dealing with those Post pregnancy Pounds?Well sign up here and I will give you 3 sure Ways to rid them today"

      Something like that. Or similar to it


      Building a more targeted group will produce a List that is more engaged and for the most part "hungry" for what you have to offer to fix their problems


      - Robert Andrew
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  • Profile picture of the author williamstout
    You can easily divide the website navigation into categories and focus on posting SEO friendly content while taking care of the long-tail keywords.

    I also visited your website and noticed that it's not nicely designed and wouldn't appeal to the visitors. If you can check my signature, you can find a highly qualified developer to build a professional website for just $1.
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