Every content creator wants to have a large audience. But how to collect it? Content publishing is not necessarily the solution…
Let's say you have a blog:
- You blog about pancake recipes and how to bake them;
- After a while, you get bored with the topic, so you write about cakes;
- Later you add the buns;
- Recipe book reviews;
- Maybe even kitchen equipment;
- And washing machines, because, well, equipment too.
What is your audience?
The more diverse the content => the easier it is to find new niches… But is it useful?
If you had blogged only about pancakes on that imaginary blog, you would have built up a die-hard audience of pancake fans in N years. Yes, it would be small in Lithuania, because there are simply fewer users, but when writing in English for the wide Internet...
Meanwhile, by writing about everything from A to Z, you turned your portal into another "something about food" project.
There are several problems with such hybrid portals:
- The users themselves do not understand the purpose of your portal - it is not immediately clear what is written here;
- Because it is not clear - it is not so brave to subscribe to this content, it is not so brave to share;
- And most importantly: your oldest readers are angry.
Why?
The first users started following your project because of the pancakes, and now what?
Your target audience should not change:
Of course you can. But there should be no radical changes. If you want a large audience, you need to create content that:
- Constant;
- Clear;
- Solving problems.
When I want to know if today is a public holiday, I go to this old page day.lt. This is an extremely old page that has not been updated. But I still use it because it hasn't changed in the last 20 years:
- I used to have the problem of not knowing what day it is today;
- I would turn on the page and clearly see the answer;
- The page has never changed its purpose or even its design!
I believe that there is no shortage of people like me.
Over the past 20 years, the day.lt page has attracted an audience of users who keep coming back, even without advertising or subscriptions, without newsletters and apps.
Users want to solve problems, not follow changes in your business or creativity!
There is a problem at the beginning. Then there is the search for solutions. Then the solution is reading, watching, buying, other consumption.
If the problem has been solved - let's say the pancakes are baked - the user Tom will remember that "there were many solutions for baking pancakes". Congratulations, you just earned it +1 target audience unit.
Six months later, another user, Evelina, came and saw the same recipes. Maybe there will be new recipes about pancakes, but not washing machines. Another user is also happy, which means you've earned more +1 the user.
At this moment, let's say you have released a newsletter to all users, both old and new. Evelina is still interested in pancakes, Tom is still interested in pancakes, both users remain, you have lost nothing, no one has refused the letters.
The more consistent your work is, the clearer your target audience is.
There is no need for any audience targeting games, methods, or other gimmicks. You just know, these are people who like pancakes.
What's the point?
- You could create less content but get the same large audience - because fewer old users fled after a change of theme!
- It is very clear to you which people it is for.
- People remember and advertise your project as "that pancake project", not "some portal about something". Free advertising.
Want samples?
- Beata Nicholson has been talking about the kitchen and its affairs for at least 15+ years - people see her as a chef, buy her kitchen paraphernalia (I have her towels myself), and trust her for it.
- Andrius Tapinas, although not everyone's favorite, has also been working as a journalist for 20+ years. Yes, he also has outside activities (like writing fiction books), but users know Andrii as a journalist who follows, analyzes and reports on Lithuanian events.
- This is also the case with niche developers. For example "Lady of books” Nora Žaliūkė also talks about books for so long that publishers know - if Nora promotes the book, readers will buy it.
- Let's also take brands: both "Senukai" and "Topo Centras" have not changed their business direction in 25+ years and have even kept the same brand colors. In the case of "Senukų", for some people it has even become not only the name of a shopping center, but a general name for all those who sell building materials.
I believe I don't need to name any more for you to notice the connection. If you were to take international companies or even brewers, you would see that stability wins.
Yes! Important to notice! None of these examples took ONLY ONE content direction! But "Senukai" does not provide its logistics services under the name of "Senukai", but a separate branch of "Kesko logistika". Tapin did not combine journalism and poker either.
And here's my confession: I made this same mistake 🙂
When I started Debesyla.lt - I wrote about minimalism. After that I turned to productivity, challenges, some obscure cloud community, reviews and finally here I am…
...where I myself am not very clear what the purpose of Debesyla.lt is.
With the project "How to publish a book"Well, it's much easier for me. I know what I am writing about, for whom I am writing and why the project exists at all. Currently, this project receives more comments and new readers than Debesyla, although it was started only three years ago, and Debesyla - eight.
At the moment I've backed myself into a corner because deleting content would be weird and I have nowhere to put it. You have to create a "target audience", which is not a target audience at all - just an audience that is interested in what a certain Daniel is thinking.
In new projects, I try not to repeat the mistake of Debesyla.lt.
My experience shows that consistency and a clear solution to consumer problems wins over short-term exploitation of "niches".
If you don't agree - let's argue in the comments below 😉
