Is My Niche Too Broad?

21 replies
I'm about to launch a new authority niche blog... I want to cover a variety of subjects in investing. Like stocks, real estate, buying business's. Is this too broad?

My other idea was to narrow it down to only "stocks". But my dilemma with that is only being able to write about stocks and no other types of investing... I'm a little confused as to what to do. Any ideas?
#broad #niche
  • Profile picture of the author dvduval
    What is most important is your ability to interest real people in your site. SEO is becoming less important, especially for new sites. If you start too narrow, you may find it is harder to grow in the future due to narrow scope. But again, most important is how you can attract real people to like your site enough to revisit.
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    • Profile picture of the author savidge4
      Originally Posted by dvduval View Post

      What is most important is your ability to interest real people in your site. SEO is becoming less important, especially for new sites. If you start too narrow, you may find it is harder to grow in the future due to narrow scope. But again, most important is how you can attract real people to like your site enough to revisit.
      Really? SEO is less important? and then throw in "for new sites"?

      Even the basic of SEO Title tag, Description tag, Keyword tag, alt tags image names and all that good stuff is EASIEST to implement when you are actually building the site. to go back in later and have to do this stuff sucks!

      Yeah yeah yeah you are going to get ALL your traffic from the social aspect. whatever! Why not do the base work now, and have that in your favor? Especially when someone is saying "I am going to start a blog" Your advice is down right detrimental to any long term success what so ever!

      What is a blog? well its pages and pages of content... Pages and pages of KEYWORDS. Search engines love what? CONTENT! how do you get your content to work for you in search engines? SEO! so don't even for 2 seconds think you are helping anyone here.

      Is the process instant? well no it isn't. Is it worth it in the long run? F yeah it is! And don't even start in on Panda and Penguin and they change all the time. if you are doing basic SEO, then those things wont affect you, its the goofs that are always looking for the added juice that get slammed!

      So back to the OP. If you can draw all of your topics back to a main keyword, then I would say that you can easily put all the subjects together. In your case "Investing" would be your primary keyword. you can break that into:
      • Stock Investing
      • Real Estate Investing
      • Passive Investing
      • Small business Investing
      • Collateralized bond obligation Investing
      • Business investing
      • Investing in Gold
      You get the idea. As broad as the ideas are, the fundamental foundation of the topics are very much unified in content and purpose. Basically someone interested in one topic might find interest in another. So if your product across the board is solid, in theory you should see sales across more than one topic from a single user. hence the term Authority.

      Hope that Helps!
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      • Profile picture of the author webmonopoly
        Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

        Really? SEO is less important? and then throw in "for new sites"?

        Even the basic of SEO Title tag, Description tag, Keyword tag, alt tags image names and all that good stuff is EASIEST to implement when you are actually building the site. to go back in later and have to do this stuff sucks!

        Yeah yeah yeah you are going to get ALL your traffic from the social aspect. whatever! Why not do the base work now, and have that in your favor? Especially when someone is saying "I am going to start a blog" Your advice is down right detrimental to any long term success what so ever!

        What is a blog? well its pages and pages of content... Pages and pages of KEYWORDS. Search engines love what? CONTENT! how do you get your content to work for you in search engines? SEO! so don't even for 2 seconds think you are helping anyone here.

        Is the process instant? well no it isn't. Is it worth it in the long run? F yeah it is! And don't even start in on Panda and Penguin and they change all the time. if you are doing basic SEO, then those things wont affect you, its the goofs that are always looking for the added juice that get slammed!

        So back to the OP. If you can draw all of your topics back to a main keyword, then I would say that you can easily put all the subjects together. In your case "Investing" would be your primary keyword. you can break that into:
        • Stock Investing
        • Real Estate Investing
        • Passive Investing
        • Small business Investing
        • Collateralized bond obligation Investing
        • Business investing
        • Investing in Gold
        You get the idea. As broad as the ideas are, the fundamental foundation of the topics are very much unified in content and purpose. Basically someone interested in one topic might find interest in another. So if your product across the board is solid, in theory you should see sales across more than one topic from a single user. hence the term Authority.

        Hope that Helps!
        Thats a fantastic break down of categories. I will probably be going with the authority approach and have the broad topic of "investing".
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  • Profile picture of the author Rod Cortez
    Originally Posted by webmonopoly View Post

    I'm about to launch a new authority niche blog... I want to cover a variety of subjects in investing. Like stocks, real estate, buying business's. Is this too broad?

    My other idea was to narrow it down to only "stocks". But my dilemma with that is only being able to write about stocks and no other types of investing... I'm a little confused as to what to do. Any ideas?
    Some questions:

    1. Who is your target audience?
    2. How are you going to monetize that audience?
    3. What kind of marketing / promotion plan do you have in place?

    RoD
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  • Profile picture of the author webmonopoly
    I've got a marketing plan in place. How narrow does my target audience need to be? Can it be people interested in investing and accumulating passive wealth. Or should it be people interested in stock trading (much more narrow). That's the main issue I'm having

    I will most likely monetize with list building and affiliate promoting, and also AdSense.
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    • Profile picture of the author wtatlas
      Originally Posted by webmonopoly View Post

      I've got a marketing plan in place. How narrow does my target audience need to be? Can it be people interested in investing and accumulating passive wealth. Or should it be people interested in stock trading (much more narrow). That's the main issue I'm having

      I will most likely monetize with list building and affiliate promoting, and also AdSense.
      Is there any reason why you can't start two separate blogs? It won't take any more time than if you lumped the two target groups onto one blog.
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      • Profile picture of the author savidge4
        Originally Posted by wtatlas View Post

        Is there any reason why you can't start two separate blogs? It won't take any more time than if you lumped the two target groups onto one blog.
        This is my theory why having 2 or even 4 is not always better than one. If the subject matter as it is in this case closely related there is without question far more work as you add a site. You have added e-mail lists to keep happy. you have the multiplier of content that you need to add on a regular basis.

        In this case you are singling out you target audience, when more than likely its all the same. One site will INCREASE your potential for cross niche sales, One site means one e-mail list. Seriously how much can you write week in and week out about buying gold, or real estate investing. But, if you bring this together, you are talking "investing" here is whats' hot with this and this and this... Im working on this and this for next week. I think it becomes dang easy to keep people involved in what you are writing, and not so much a labor!

        Hope that Helps!
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        • Profile picture of the author savidge4
          Another angle on all of this. What is the number one rule of investing?

          Diversity.

          Grab it, embrace it, pass it on!
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Originally Posted by webmonopoly View Post

      I've got a marketing plan in place. How narrow does my target audience need to be? Can it be people interested in investing and accumulating passive wealth. Or should it be people interested in stock trading (much more narrow). That's the main issue I'm having

      I will most likely monetize with list building and affiliate promoting, and also AdSense.
      Warning: Pure opinion ahead...

      Investing is hardly a niche. Even stock trading can be broken down into more than one approach.

      Now "people using investing to accumulate passive wealth"? That's a fairly well defined target market. You could aim for different demographics within the market while still keeping things related. Consider "accumulating commercial real estate" vs. "investing for dividend income" as an example. Or passive growth vs. passive income. Or parking money vs. investing within a retirement account. Lots of ways to go here.

      If you have the chops and can produce or accumulate the quality content, you'd have the makings of a monster authority site.

      Which is half the battle these days. The other half is marketing. Look beyond Adsense and Clickbank junk. Build the right relationships and you could find yourself with some very lucrative JV opportunities (investing seems to be one of the areas where real newsletters still thrive, with prices that can accommodate juicy commissions), promoting seminars and events for those running big-buck advisories and courses.
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      • Profile picture of the author webmonopoly
        Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post

        Warning: Pure opinion ahead...

        Investing is hardly a niche. Even stock trading can be broken down into more than one approach.

        Now "people using investing to accumulate passive wealth"? That's a fairly well defined target market. You could aim for different demographics within the market while still keeping things related. Consider "accumulating commercial real estate" vs. "investing for dividend income" as an example. Or passive growth vs. passive income. Or parking money vs. investing within a retirement account. Lots of ways to go here.

        If you have the chops and can produce or accumulate the quality content, you'd have the makings of a monster authority site.

        Which is half the battle these days. The other half is marketing. Look beyond Adsense and Clickbank junk. Build the right relationships and you could find yourself with some very lucrative JV opportunities (investing seems to be one of the areas where real newsletters still thrive, with prices that can accommodate juicy commissions), promoting seminars and events for those running big-buck advisories and courses.
        Amazing stuff here. I bought my aged domain yesterday from godaddy closeout sales. Cant wait to get it up and going!
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  • Profile picture of the author Mark Tandan
    Sure 'investing' is a broad topic in and of itself. But that's what authority sites seem to do well- cover a wide range of topics within a niche.
    I'd recommend simply dividing the site up by pages or tabs into the various sub-topics you want to write about. When you choose to drive traffic (by whatever method) you can drive targeted audiences to the relevant sections of your site.

    Rod asked some great questions which you need to be considering. Once you start to monetize the various areas of the site, you'll soon see which sections are earning for you. Then you can
    a.) focus more energy on those areas
    b.) look to tweak the non-earning areas with different types of monetization, traffic or content
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  • Profile picture of the author webmonopoly
    Great responses! Thanks! Will be going with the broad authority site.
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  • Profile picture of the author dmarseller
    More than Broad try to provide High Quality and you will get thousand of visitors per day without much effort.

    As JohnMcCabe told you:

    Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe
    Warning: Pure opinion ahead...

    Investing is hardly a niche. Even stock trading can be broken down into more than one approach.


    How is your knowledge of social media?

    A good way to find good ideas and HOT niches, topics etc... is with yahoo answers and google trends (personally I'm only using google alerts and yahoo answers).

    As I told you before, provide HQ, stay focused and the success will come alone!

    Don't forget to build a list if you want to establish a relationship and after sell your own products for example.

    Take care!
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  • Profile picture of the author Chad Eljisr
    If you want to build an authority blog, then be as specific as you can, as unique as you can. Being specific can be you focus on a particular sub niche, or a particular demographic - you don't look the same way at investments when you are 25 or when you are 65, if you have small children, or you are single, etc. The other way of being specific is related to you - let your personality and your experience stand out, but not everybody can do that...

    I can't see why "somebody" interested in investment info would go to a general investment site unless it has behind it a whole team of experts, not just one person. That's why I insist, be as specific and unique as you can...
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  • Profile picture of the author figuringmoneyout
    As a person that reads personal finance and investing blogs, I prefer blogs with a broader niche that have a perspective. There is already a TON of content out there on investing so you have to compete to gain readers and eyeballs. Having a unique perspective really helps.
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  • Profile picture of the author Samuel Adams
    So basically, your general niche would be investments (assuming you cover real estate, stocks, buying businesses, etc). And, this could be popular, but considering how many other generic investment blogs are already out there, being penned by very successful investors, there might not be much chance of competing. If you can find a really good subniche to specialize in and only occasionally write about other sub niches within the larger investment category, then you could carve out a successful place for yourself in the investment blog niche.
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    • Profile picture of the author LimitlessTraffic
      Originally Posted by Samuel Adams View Post

      So basically, your general niche would be investments (assuming you cover real estate, stocks, buying businesses, etc). And, this could be popular, but considering how many other generic investment blogs are already out there, being penned by very successful investors, there might not be much chance of competing. If you can find a really good subniche to specialize in and only occasionally write about other sub niches within the larger investment category, then you could carve out a successful place for yourself in the investment blog niche.
      I agree with Samuel. Especially if you're planning to build a list from your blog. It will be a lot easier to build a relationship if the content you are offering is specific and congruent. You may have a list of a mixture of interests, such as, Real estate and Stocks. Will one be interested in knowing about the other?

      Unless you're planning to segment your list to particular sub-niches, it will be quite difficult to sell specific products to a broad range of interests.
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      • Profile picture of the author savidge4
        Originally Posted by LimitlessTraffic View Post

        I agree with Samuel. Especially if you're planning to build a list from your blog. It will be a lot easier to build a relationship if the content you are offering is specific and congruent. You may have a list of a mixture of interests, such as, Real estate and Stocks. Will one be interested in knowing about the other?

        Unless you're planning to segment your list to particular sub-niches, it will be quite difficult to sell specific products to a broad range of interests.
        When you bring these elements out into "Investment" then yes they cross very well. So what does that mean? Any time you are investing in your retirement, you are making long term stable investments. you are going to put some here some there maybe buy a second house or some rental property.

        Then there are the I guess you would say younger types ( I say this and my dad at 74 invests like this - and is dang good at it ) looking not only for the quick deal, but the deal that is a diamond in the rough. Business investing would be one of these. Bank short loan auctions would be another. Investments with further investment needed I guess you would say. These type of people are always looking across the spectrum for something even better. Its in their blood. They will generally stay with what they know, but if they see an opportunity they are liquid enough to make a jump!

        That group of investor is hard enough to quantify let alone qualify. A narrow scope of investment strategy may bring that type in, but opening multi streams of information gets these kinds of people going. These are the people running around buying the $1000 all in investment reports on what ever subject. ( And yes there are plenty of those out there )

        In the financial niche I think you can go wrong either way, as much as you can hit it big either way. It all depends on the content, and the product. The bottom line is investing is investing, and with the right copy in front of anyone can make them think the route they were going to go might not be as attractive!
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        • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
          This discussion is turning into a perfect illustration of why I aim to serve markets, not "niches".

          First off, most marketers can't seem to agree on exactly what a "niche" is. Many talk about the "investing niche" or the "health niche", and wonder why they can't get traction. Others pick a "niche" based on one or two keywords that satisfy some statistical alchemy, and most don't even agree on the formula.

          Next, serving a market segment requires some solid research, or even better, intimate knowledge of what makes the people in that segment tick. It's so much easier the fire up your Magic Niche Ninja-on-crack-and-steroids keyword software, put in a generic keyword and sort on the criteria in the manual. The problem with this approach is that if everyone follows the same process, they all end up chasing the same keyword, and end up complaining that the market is saturated.

          In this instance, I think it's better to define the niche in terms of a specific type of investor, one with certain objectives and preferences. Once you know what these people want and how they prefer to get it, you could silo your content around different investment opportunities that all satisfy the market segment's objectives and preferences. You would still be on target.

          Further, I'd either segment one list by investment type or keep multiple lists with one investment option per list. Let people who match your ideal reader self-select what topics they want to hear about. Same with the site content - silo it so people wanting specific information can find it grouped together, but other info is easily accessible.

          I'm basing this on the OP's assertion that he has broad experience and expertise.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tommy Turner
    Forex always seems to be a hot topic... Try looking on ezineartilces.com and see what the hottest topics in the investment niche are...

    There is a saying it is better to be at the top in 1 than the bottom of 5. so, try to narrow down your niche to one investing practice, and saturate the market.
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  • Profile picture of the author Murphysmurfy
    Originally Posted by webmonopoly View Post

    I'm about to launch a new authority niche blog... I want to cover a variety of subjects in investing. Like stocks, real estate, buying business's. Is this too broad?
    Your topic is pretty broad, and unless you have a lot of time and resources, it will be very challenging.

    Having an authority niche website means that you have genuine immense knowledge of the subject, and in terms with the investing niche; mild-great success.

    So, if you truely know a lot about investing and have had decent success, why don't you just go into real estate/ stock investments?
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