How to compete with the new super blogs?
April 18, 2010 – There’s an interesting article in today’s Financial Post about the morphing of blogs from amateur and “personalized” to commercial and professional. The three blogs featured in this article are crushable.com, thegloss.com and blisstree.com – all aimed at young women “fixated on sassy information about celebrities, fashion, health and well-being.”
Together they pull in more than 3 million viewers a month. They have discoverd that the old off-the-cuff, amateur, personalized model of blogging was not translatable into commercial success – mainly because the quality of the writing in amateur blogs is generally poor and it is impossible to build reader loyalty with that type of content.
If that is the case, how can a part time blogging real estate agent, or local business person compete for viewers? The answer is pretty obvious once you get past the experimentation stage…
1. Don’t try to compete with the big boys. Unless you want to go into the publishing business you don’t need 3 million viewers from all across the continent. Learn from them, but don’t try to compete with them.
2. Focus on specialization. Don’t try to be all things to all people. Concentrate on providing quality content for one (or maybe two or three) narrow niches.
3. Focus on hyperlocal content. This is something a large publication or blog can never adequately cover. Publish local features about local events, places of interest, people, schools, libraries, churches, sports teams, companies, and so on.
4. Make your writing as interesting, competent, professional as you can without making it tedious. Give your content character – your own character.
