Fill the Gap
Dear readers of MaxBlogPress,
I have been in the blogging game for some time now. I started out with a personal blog, hoping to make money from Google adsense and affiliate offers. Back then, I had no real focus with the blog, and I pretty much wrote about anything that hit me. I started to get decent traffic, but I never got any income, at all! Maybe a single click on my adsense, once a month or so. As you can imagine, this is not exactly what I had in mind when I started out. Although I knew that focus on a specific topic was essential, I never took it that serious. However, about 7 month ago, I changed my mind, and decided to start a niche blog, www.tradeprofits.net. The topic was short-term trading, with specific focus on forex trading. Now when starting out I was under the impression that this “industry” was already saturated, but as this was one of my great interest, I chose to go for it anyway. In these 7 month I have seen far more traffic and conversions than I ever did with my previous blog. Now I know what you think. You have heard this a thousand times before. But here is the “twist”.
There is a lot of blogs about forex trading. However, due to the nature of the industry, I knew that the majority of these bloggers were more interested in profit, than bringing value to their readers. The forex industry is booming with scammers. New shitty products are lunched every single day and this can obviously be a confusing element, if you are new to forex. Hence, there was a clear gap! Honesty. So I decided to keep this as the locus, for everything I write. It takes time to build a trustworthy reputation, but it seems to be working out. My readers know they can trust me, as I don’t promote every single new product out there. I write reviews of products, and often I don’t recommend them. Not only are my readers enjoying this, but I there are several advantages for me as well. When I find a product which I actually find to have some value, people tend to be more open in their buying decision. Furthermore, I have started to get free trials and offers, in return of an honest review.
The point here is, that if you would like to blog about something but find that it might be too difficult due to a saturated market, then look at it from another perspective; twist it somehow. Most people mainly think of design as the only dimension which they can change. But this is never the case. As an example, look at all the “make money online” blogs. I think that most of them tell you nothing about how to make money, but more about how to spend money. Rarely do I see any useful tips on how to actually make a decent income.
So how can you go about this? Well, first of all, figure out what you want to write about. Then find all the blogs in the same industry. Put them into an excel sheet, and add all the important dimensions you can think of; that is, from the perspective of the reader. What do the readers actually want if they come to your blog? Put in values from 1 to 10 for all the blogs, in all the dimensions. My guess is that you will find a gap somewhere. Take the money blog example again: probably most of them would get 10 in promoting products without knowing what it is, but most of them would get 1 in valuable content (that is ofcourse if 10 = high level and 1 =low level). Now I know that it might be difficult to come up with other dimensions than the typical; content, design, seo, etc. But this is the essential part. Do some research, and all the time think in terms of what will bring value to your readers. When the steps above are done, the rest is easy. Find the low level dimensions and reconsider the importance. It is not enough that you find it important. You readers should too. When this is done, you start the blog and fill the gap.
Related Posts:
- How I improved my website performance by 200% with one simple workaround.
- Why you need a blogging business plan
- How One Guest Post Made a Difference
- Successful Tips From The Honest Business Report
- Surviving in the Southamerican Jungle
Hallo at all,
this things are one per hand to find in the web.
All Chance to bring an new Service like an new Social Community http://bloghostr.de are gone. No new blogger like it and no one take the chance to have no money spent and money to earn.
What you do is the best of all. Write about things they need and don’t Think about it do it now or you are an looser.
This is something I want to concentrate on this year — bringing more value to my readers.
Hello,
Your thought is same as mine. Alhtough my blog is under marketing category, I never promote them with any product or program make money online. What I write is more to my simple thought of mine. I don’t desperate to make money like others make money blog owner. “Feel the Gap” is a really good qoute to learn.
“figure out what you want to write about”, I like the fact that you mentioned that because when I first started to blog, I had no clue what to say. But, as times go by, I finally realize what my visitors want, then I deliver to them. Great post, keep it coming!
Sure adding value is a very important point, it’s one that’s lacking in most blogs set up for money, however you ignored a big problem…
In a very competitive market like forex, how do you attract traffic? Sure your blog may be better than the rest, but people have to know about it to find that out.
It’s very easy to say “give value” without explaining how to get the blog seen.
Not a criticism, just an observation.
Jim
I agree with everything your saying especially about how much crappy selling is out there. Great Post, keep them coming
I wonder the reason why so many blog posts – ‘Fill The Gap’ included have links that take one away from the site rather than opening in a new window, so as to keep the reader ‘connected’ to the original site. I find it a bit irritating when trying to get back to the original blog/site to read more or another post.
Why is this done?
Thanks for your postings,
Bob
Can anybody tell me please, how long does it take for google to index a blog?
As for the original “Fill the Gap”, In what nichie is gap need filling? Is like all the nichie has already been filled long time. What nichie is new in the market, any clue?
Thanks.
I agree with you but what matters I guess is to have an interest for the subject. Otherwise, you will stopp writing after a few weeks.
I think honesty is sadly lacking in todays society and certainly in many businesses. To read an article where someone is successful for being honest is refreshing. We personally take our customer service very seriously and never treat our customers with anything less than respect or the honesty they deserve. Wouldn’t it be great if everyone in business could have these qualities.
TradeProvits too true your suggestions. Even i started on one such keyword which is highly competitive. I have put my passion into work and did all the garbage work also. To my surprise my blog ranks third in no time (with in 12 hours), but again the passion that drives the wheels and not just the lame ungainly driver alone. I can have a tag to your story with the name PassionBlogger as you got it very right, that passion alone can drive you. All the very best brother.
Fill the Gap, very interesting, and very valuable! I’ll do some research and make some improve. Thank you, great post!
I totally agree with you. I start to bloging just 4 months ago about casinos. This is only job in my life that I know. I work for casinos 16 years and now I am sharing my experience with my readers and getting huge traffic. There is too much things to write. Emre
very usefull information.
my blog have some problem with trafic. can you give me some idea to increase my trafic ? i hope if my blog have more trafic, i can get more income to from adsense.
Thanks foer your attention ang sory if my english is bad
Very inspired me. This things i never been seen before and “fill the gap” is a niche market that very good for monitize. Because many of “major” niche are “full” and as a newbie very difficult to get into that market. Great post.
useful information.
interesting is important.
Thanks for all the comments guys. I’m glad you like it. I agree, there is more to it, than just this “gap”, but taking this aspect into consideration it definately a step in the right direction. If anyone of you have any questions for me, feel free to contact my : http://www.tradeprofits.net/contact
Thanks again guys, and happy new year
Great post.
You make the point of how important focus needs to be, and you also provide simple and useful method to measure the gap.