Niche that you liked to know but no knowledge

I would take a different approach..

Instead of trying to come off as someone that has tons of knowledge, design the site around you learning about the niche. Think about some of the affiliate marketing blogs (such as affengineer.com), when their blogs started they were beginners, and the blogs/sites are pretty much around their growth.

This is the approach I'd take in your situation. The audience will likely connect better as well. IMO this would be much better than trying to come off as an expert and have your audience see holes through it.

This sounds like what I do with my husband's blogs; one is crafting and the other is about deer hunting. I am relatively CLUELESS on both subjects but I write the content for his blogs like I'm the hunter and crafty dude.

Here's what I do:

Hubby subscribes to a couple of hunting and wildlife magazines. So when they arrive, I browse through the magazine for interesting articles that I can shorten and knowledgeably rewrite in my own words, adding personal experience examples to the article.

So that's what I do for the hunting blog.

Another idea is if you know someone who has a passion for this hobby, you can interview them and create blog posts from the interview.

I've interviewed my husband for a lot of the blog posts I write. And I usually have him read the posts before I publish them to ensure they make sense and I've gotten any technical verbiage correct.

And lastly, go to craft shows and talk to some of the vendors who do similar things to what your blog is about.

My husband also does crafty things as a hobby, but he also sells his crafts and I maintain that blog for him too. I'm in the process of following my own advice here for building more content for his blog so we can get more traffic to it.

And other than the final pieces that he's ready to sell, I have no clue what else he does. ROFL

My answer: You don't!

Once you do, you end up going down that same road where thousands of marketers have gone in the last few years.

Especially those who set up a blog and play the game of "claiming authority in a niche".

Even if the marketer has no clue, they just pretend and mostly outsource their articles,
having their audience believe that the blog or person subscribed to, really knows his/her stuff.

I think it's a very sad business model.

Much of this still goes on today, why else would their be a need for article and eBook (ghostwriters) who do all the research etc?

This is just my opinion and I'm sure some will disagree...

But if you are going to enter a niche that you have little knowledge on, write first about the stuff that you do know about. From there you can share new material as you learn about it. If you are "just interested" in a niche, then tell your audience that!

If you do this, you will make the internet a better place for all.

Eventually in time as you grow in knowledge, etc, your audience will put you on the "authority" pedestal.

P.S. For those who live by the "fake it till you make it" quotes, I believe those words were merely intended to allow you to have more confidence in yourself. I don't think those words were ever intended to give you permission to deceive your audience by telling them that you are an authority and have knowledge in something, when you really don't.

You don't. But, you could let them know you are learning and that you will be sharing what you learn so you can all learn together. Some very successful blogs have been those that are ongoing case studies

al

AGMcall is right on the money.

LEARN WITH ME BLOGS are quite successful.

Why?

They don't BS their audience members.

You get to look over the blogger's shoulders as YOU BOTH LEARN TOGETHER.

Since there's that INSTANT BOND, it might be easier to sell to audience members.