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If you have an existing website, it should be fairly clear that your blog content should be designed to promote and enhance the site. However, if you are starting a blog, among the features you will be considering will be the content that you wish to populate the blog with.
There are different schools of thought about niche blogs versus general blogs and it is not always easy to understand which will be more beneficial to you over time. Niche blogs can quickly run their course as well After all, how many times can you talk about money making opportunities before you start sounding like a broken record? There are pros and cons to both types of blogging and you will have to weigh them before you make your final decision. There are some questions that you will need to answer before you get to the step of determining your blog content such as:
1. What do you plan to do with the blog? - The first think to take into consideration when setting up a blog is what the end goal is. If it is to provide a steady stream of income, you will want to decide if the income stream is short or long term. That will make a difference in your overall strategy.
2. Who is your audience? - If you already have a targeted audience you may find that they will be the determining factor in your strategy. If your audience is primarily freelance writers for example, your blog content should focus primarily on freelance writing. While this is then a niche blog, the chance to share different kinds of topic is still present including career paths for freelance writers, tools for freelance writers, resources for freelance writers, etc. The possibilities are endless even in a niche.
3. Immediate results or over time? - If you are interested in immediate gratification, you may want to consider doing a general blog. This implies that you can share the newest news opinions for the day including information about "trending topics" and other "hot" issues. This type of blog has a major drawback in that it requires almost daily posting or your can quickly lose your target audience. A niche blog would be more fitting for you if you want long term opportunities.
4. How much time will you invest? - Simply put, the more time you have to devote to a blog the more successful it is likely to be. If you are really fascinated by research and interested in writing about a wide variety of topics, then chances are that you will do well with a general blog. However, if you have a broad range of knowledge about a single topic, chances are you'll be far better off with a niche blog. It also helps to have a wide knowledge on a certain subject because this will give you the chance to write relevant topics to your niche blog without doing a lot of research and rewriting.
Things to remember
There are some critical things to remember when you are beginning a blog whether it is a niche blog or a general blog. You want to protect yourself from potential problems. This means including privacy policies, terms of service and disclaimers that will help keep you out of trouble. A great example of this would be if you have decided on a niche blog on health issues (even if you lack a medical background) a disclaimer should be on the site stating that the information is accurate as of the date of posting but that anyone reading should understand that they should clear all of the suggestions with a physician. It's really good to have this type of disclaimer despite the type of blog that you have in mind. Protect yourself when you are blogging to ensure that you are not going to find yourself in trouble. Having terms of service, privacy policies and disclaimers are must have items when starting your blog.
Summary
Deciding on a general or a niche blog is a decision that you will have to make on your own. Much of this depends on a variety of factors including your own commitment to blogging.
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