Why You Should Write to the Edges of Your Niche


A guest post by Srinivas Rao of The Skool of Life

If you are a new blogger, one of the most common pieces of advice you’ll get about how to increase you traffic is “find top blogs in your niche and write guest posts for them.” I want to give you some counter-intuitive advice that I have heard from several A-list bloggers after conducting over 60 interviews: Find top blogs on the edge or outside your niche and write guest posts for them.

The Niches within Your Niche

While there are probably thousands of blogs in whatever niche you write about, there might only be 25-30 that are considered A-list blogs with thousand of subscribers. At some point even if you manage to score several guest posts on some of these blogs, diminishing returns will kick in and you won’t get as many subscribers as you did from previous posts. Talk to people who have written multiple guests posts on Problogger, and you’ll realize this is not the answer to all your blog traffic problems. Sure, it helps, but it’s a small piece of a much bigger picture.

6 Sub-Niches in the Personal Development Niche

For the purposes of exploring this concept I want to use not only a very popular blogging niche, but one that is a perfect example, Personal development blogs. Within the personal development niche there are an endless amount of sub niches that you can write guest posts for.

  • Health/Fitness: As anybody who reads my blog knows, I’m an avid surfer. It’s something I write about quite regularly on my blog. A few weeks ago it occurred to me that I hadn’t ever written about surfing for a health and fitness blog. I did a google search for top health and fitness blogs and I found one that Leo had actually written about. So, I knew it was quite popular and submitted a post on the health and mental benefits of surfing, which got accepted.
  • Personal Finance: I’m not a personal finance genius, but the top personal finance blogs are some of the most popular blogs on the web. Blogs like Get Rich Slowly and I Will teach You to Be Rich have several hundred thousand daily visitors, and guests posts on these blogs can send your traffic through the roof.
  • Dating/Relationships: Another area you might not have thought about writing guests post for is the dating/relationship niche. Personal development is largely connected to this niche and the amount of people searching for dating advice online is probably in the millions every single day. Yaro Starak even said that dating/relationships is one of the 3 meganiches of making money online.
  • Your Hobbies: Be sure to explore your own interests in a bit more detail. You never know how many popular blogs there are out there that you could guest post for. If you are a musician, find a popular music blog and submit a guest post for it. If you are an artist, find a popular blog about art and write a guest post for it. At this point, I’m convinced there are popular blogs on just about every subject imaginable.
  • Productivity/GTD: Productivity is another one of those areas that gets explored quite a bit by personal development bloggers, yet it’s not often that somebody tells you to find a top GTD blog and submit a guest post. Some of these blogs are also the most popular ones on the internet.


How to find the Edges of Your Niche

You might be wondering how you go about finding the edges of your niche. While it might be a bit harder if your niche is extremely narrow, don’t limit yourself. If you write good content and can tie your own experience to the subject of the blog you want to guest post for, then your guest post will be accepted. Let’s say you play guitar and you have a blog about playing guitar. You could actually write a post for a personal development blog about life lessons from playing a guitar, what it takes to learn a musical, instrument, etc, etc. If you want to find the edges of your niche, sit down with a mindmap and start brainstorming all the things that are connected to your subject. Once you figure out what all those are find blogs that tie to those and you’ll have discovered the edges of your niche.

Benefits of Writing Outside Your Niche

New Readers: The most obvious benefit of guest posting in general is the influx of new readers. When you start getting outside of your niche, you’ll reach an even wider audience than you would when posting within your niche. If for example you look at some of the top personal development blogs, it’s often the same people who read, guest post, and comment on all of them. It’s somewhat incestuous. Writing outside the niche allows you to truly attract new readers.

New Relationships: Another thing that writing outside your niche will enable you to do is form new relationships. When I have clients who ask me about how to grow fan pages, audiences, etc, I tell them to consider forming relationships with people who compliment your niche. I have a client who makes Ionic hair straighteners and they give one away for free every single week (search for Bio Ionic on Facebook and you can win). I told them to consider partnering up with mom bloggers, and other bloggers who write about cosmetics. This is just one example. Writing outside your niche will result in some great relationships.

Have you found other ways to reach new readers and audiences outside your niche? Let us know in the comments below.

Srinivas Rao is an avid surfer/personal development blogger at The Skool of Life and editor in chief of Flightster. He’s also the host/co-founder of BlogcastFM, a podcast to help you take your blog to the next level.

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What Are YOU Writing?


By Mary Jaksch

What are you working on right now?

A blog post? A novel? Your best article ever? A poem? A film script? An Ebook?

Maybe you’ve just finished something you’re really proud of? Or you just can’t tell whether it should get a Pulitzer or be thrown into the trash?

Or maybe you’re noticing some barriers that are getting in the way of your creativity?

Here’s your chance to share and discuss with each other what you are writing about. And how it’s going.

Whet our appetite with the opening paragraph of your future bestseller, give us a link to your best article, or tell us what you are writing at the moment.

Who knows, your piece might even attract the notice of a major publishing house!

Here are some guidelines:

A. Writers:

  • State what aspect you’re working on. For example, you might want to say, “Here’s a link to my article “The Role of Rabbits in Nuclear Science”. I’m currently working on eliminating superfluous words.”

B. Commenters:

  • When commenting, first list everything you really like about a piece.
  • Only then offer careful suggestions.
  • Treat each other with respect, friendliness, care, and honesty.
  • Remember that we are all still learning.

Now it’s over to you. Take a deep breath. Then jump into the comment section and bring out your treasures!

Mary Jaksch is the Editor in Chief of Write to Done and writes the blog Goodlife ZEN. Together with Leo Babauta, Mary runs a spectacular training environment for bloggers: the A-List Blogger Club.

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How to Win Friends and Influence Readers


A guest post by Katie Tallo of Momentum Gathering.

The royal road to a man’s heart is to talk to him about the things he treasures most. ~ Dale Carnegie

Every blogger searches for that royal road. We want to touch the real lives of our readers – that’s why we talk about their children, their food, their homes, their hobbies, their businesses, and their beliefs. That royal road shines brightly when we infuse our blogs with our real lives, but it shines brightest when our blogs reflect, ignite and enhance the lives of our readers.

You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you. ~ Dale Carnegie

But how do we win friends and influence readers if a lot of readers love apples and we write about oranges? We can’t be everything to all readers.

Or can we?

We can if we join forces, pool our resources, help each other and engage in communities.

1. Join an aggregate blog.

By pooling a bunch of unique, engaging and diverse blogs, an aggregate blog gives readers everything they need in one roadside oasis. The Daily Brainstorm is a new aggregate blog that launched this week. It is a blogazine featuring some of the best bloggers on the planet, along with promising up-and-comers. It reaches into the hearts of readers and talks to them about their health, food, writing, exercise, diet, news, homes, gardens, travel, hobbies, money, blogs, careers, science, technology, politics, entertainment, simplicity, productivity and relationships. All the apples and oranges of life and more. By joining an aggregate blog, you’ll stand side-by-side with other bloggers, you’ll engage with more readers, and you’ll extend your influence by association.

2. Find a community of bloggers.

There are forums, clubs and communities of like-minded bloggers across the web. The support, guidance, expertise, camaraderie, laughs, resources, opportunities, lessons, networking, and friendship is priceless. I joined Leo Babauta and Mary Jaksch’s A-List Blogger Club three months ago. Since that time, I have picked up bucket loads of friends, readers, experience and momentum that I could not have gathered alone.

3. Guest post and mention your friends everywhere.

By guest posting, you step outside your blogging comfort zone, blend your blog with another and push yourself beyond the boundaries of your niche. You’ll end up creating orangapples that might appeal to a whole new reader. Tweet about your friends and mention their blogs in your posts. Their success will become yours.

And on that note, here are some of the friends I am now collaborating with at The Daily Brainstorm and first met in the A-List Blogger Club. They are definitely worth checking out:

Those are some of my friends and some of my favourite places to hang out with them. I hope you’ll visit, get involved, join aggregates, find clubs and, in the process, win friends and influence readers. When we enrich our virtual lives with collaboration, connection and friendship, we enrich the real lives of our readers. We become the royal road, a pathway to their hearts.

Your turn: Do you have some friends, clubs, communities, or aggregates that you’d like to mention? Join in the conversation and tell us about them.

Katie Tallo is a Contributing Writer for Write to Done, a Managing Editor for The Daily Brainstorm as well as a director, motivator, runner, vegetarian and mother who writes a blog called Momentum Gathering where she encourages simple, positive actions for joyful and vibrant life change.

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Shortcuts to Fame: 5 Tips for Writers


By Mary Jaksch of Goodlife ZEN

Do you dream of being discovered? Imagine if someone spotted your novel, dragged you into the limelight – and  publishers came crawling. Or what if  your blog post went viral, admirers crashed Twitter, and readers scrambled to subscribe – wouldn’t that be great?

It happens. New writers are discovered every day. It may look accidental, but there are ways to become ‘accident-prone’. Here are five shortcuts to fame that work:

Tip #1: Throw yourself up the learning curve.

Every worthwhile endeavor has a steep learning curve. If you want to have success as a fiction writer, you need to learn how to create a compelling novel or short story. If you are a blogger, you need to learn how to write a blog post that can go viral. Make sure that you learn what has made others successful. Money spent on education and training is always a good investment. And if you can snag a mentor on your learning journey – you’re allready half-way to fame.

Tip #2: Hang out where you can be spotted.

One of the sure-fire ways to fame is to be endorsed by an expert in your field. You can see how that works when you read the blurb on the back of books. Be discovered and endorsed by a leading exponent, and you are on the fast track to fame.

But how to get discovered?

It’s simple. You need to figure out where the experts hang out and join them there. Let’s say for example that your dream as a blogger is to have a guest post on Zen Habits which was recently listed by Time Magazine as no. 1 of the 25 best blogs of 2010. Zen Habits now has about 200,000 subscribers, so a guest post there catapults you automatically into fame.

How do guest posters snag a primo gig like this one? Well, the last two posts on Zen Habits were from Jeffrey Tang of The Art of Great Things and Barrie Davenport of Live Bold and Bloom – both of whom are members of the A-List Blogger Club. That’s where their talent was spotted by Leo Babauta. They both hung out where they could be discovered.

Tip #3: Be insanely useful.

I was recently writing up my blogging experience as a case study. I noticed a weird pattern, over and over. I’ve always tried to help others, whether they were newbies or experts. Being helpful is the main reason behind my success. It’s the same with people I’ve pushed into the limelight: their relationship with me usually started with consistent offers of help. So, be insanely helpful to others in your field.

Tip #4: Grab opportunities as they flit past

The Internet is a place of fast change. Opportunities only come around once. If you’ve built a connection with an expert and they ask for help, say “yes” – even if you are over-committed and unpaid.

Here’s an example: a joint-venture project that emerged from the A-List Blogger Club is just about to launch.  The Daily Brainstorm – a blogazine to rock your mind – has turned into an amazing opportunity for three Club members destined for the A-List:  Barrie Davenport is the Editor in Chief, and Katie Tallo with Jean Sarauer are Managing Editors. They embraced this opportunity without hesitation. The combined count of monthly unique visitors of all the blogs contributing to The Daily Brainstorm is already in the millions – and that’s even before today’s formal launch. This thing’s running hot and is going to be BIG!

Tip #5 Use ‘vitamin’ C in high doses.

Vitamin C is something that aids vitality. But I don’t mean pills here. C stands for Connection. Because connection is what makes opportunities happen on the Internet.

How can you connect? Start with your end of the conversation. If the expert you want to connect with is on Twitter, send him or her regular Tweets with relevant comments. If it’s a blogger you want to connect with, comment on her or his blog. In time the expert will notice you, and a connection will form. Once you’ve forged a connection, make sure that you’re insanely helpful.

Meet good fortune half way – and don’t sit around, waiting for it to find you.

But what about those who are disadvantaged? What about those who are eager to become top blogger  – but they can’t afford the cost of training? I’m thinking in particular of writers in the Third World.

In my experience, blogging is the quickest way to create a career with fast fame and a solid income.

The A-list Blogger Club has grown to more than 500 members,  and as a celebration, Leo Babauta and I want to offer five scholarships, each worth $20 a month. We’re looking for talented writers who can’t afford the  A-List Blogger Club membership fee (although it’s less than the price of a cup of coffee per week). If you would like to put someone forward, or nominate yourself, please write a comment below and tell us why we should consider them or you.

If you have some more tips to add about shortcuts to fame, please share that in the comments as well, ok?

Mary Jaksch is the Editor in Chief of Write to Done. You can enjoy more of her stuff on Goodlife Zen. Remember to check out the A-List Blogger Club.

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How to Write When You’re Scared Spitless


A guest post by Jean Sarauer of Virgin Blogger Notes.

It’s 7 a.m., and I’m in trouble.

I’ve got a guest post due for a popular blog in a few hours . . .  A new writing client expects an outline of a marketing piece first thing tomorrow . . . The pitch I submitted to a local magazine was a hit, and now the editor wants the article for the next issue.

You’d think such a sizzling stack of opportunities would have me salivating all over myself.

Instead, I’m scared spitless. My heart pounds, my stomach lurches, and fear has me pinned to the mat.

If you’ve been writing for more than 7.5 seconds, chances are you’ve spent some face-time with fear too.

Maybe you’ve experienced:

  • Fear of failure.
  • Fear of writer’s block.
  • Fear of rejection.
  • Fear of success.
  • Fear of criticism.
  • Fear of financial ruin.

Whew!

With a list like that cheering us on, it’s a wonder we ever string more than two sentences together.

Still, the show must go on, and just as actors learn to work with stage fright, we writers must carry on with page fright.

For me, carrying on means experimenting with self-coaching techniques to find the ones that let my creativity flow despite an ever-present fear-factor. Through testing, tweaking, and combining these methods, I’ve created a simple process to help myself and other writers move from paralyzed to productive.

Here’s how it works:

  1. Recognize fear. Fear is a shape shifter. Although it’s easy to spot when it’s smacking us around in a full-frontal assault, sometimes it’s masked in behaviors like mindless eating or dawdling in the face of deadlines. These forms of fear may seem harmless, but they undermine our work and health and need to be seen for what they are.
  2. Return to reality. When I’m in the midst of a major fear-fest, my body is present, but my mind drifts to faraway lands where rejection lurks under every lamp post. To shrink fear and get back to reality where I can get some work done, I breathe deeply and slowly, touch objects in my physical environment, and stretch to release tension from my body.
  3. Stop struggling. Just like a snare tightens around a frightened, struggling rabbit, fear’s claws sink in deeper when we resist it. Fear is an instinctive, as well as a conditioned, response to the risk that’s part of living a creative life. When I remember that, I save my energy for writing instead of squandering it in an eternal wrestling match.
  4. Listen. Even though I don’t applaud its arrival, fear often delivers important messages. I’ve learned to sit quietly for a moment and ask myself what I’m really afraid of. This helps bring insecurities, triggers, and potential dangers to the surface where they can be addressed as needed.
  5. Recommit. Writing is a choice. We have the option to let our blogs sit dormant, turn down writing jobs, and break contracts. When we’re scared, we forget there’s a whole world of ways to be creative and make a living, and that we chose this one. Consciously recommitting to our work, if that’s truly what we wish to do, restores our sense of power.
  6. Get in the flow. Practicing the previous steps puts fear into perspective; moving into the creative process helps keep it there. The key is to work quickly, staying immersed in the writing process, without judging the work. For me, this means writing ‘fat and fast’ rough drafts without thought to sentence structure or punctuation. As my fingers move across the keys, words appear on the screen, and momentum builds. If my project is in later stages, I’ll work in quick sweeps, making easy changes without getting bogged down in the pursuit of perfection. My work will need fine tuning soon, but right now, it’s all about building up that momentum.
  7. Take a breather. I’ve learned the hard way that fear sneaks up on me when I let my batteries run low. Even though taking breaks is the last thing my creative spirit wants to do when it’s on a roll, I step away for a few minutes here and there to refresh and recharge.
  8. Sculpt and polish. Words like ‘revise’ and ‘edit’ make me twitchy, so I use softer language like ’sculpt’ or ‘whittle’ to describe the home stretch activities. At this stage doubts can pop up fast, and doubts are to fear what gasoline is to a flame . . . . Whooosh! If you feel that big fiery rush of fear come over you as you polish your work, acknowledge it, take some deep breaths, and keep working if you’re able. If not, repeat the above steps as needed to complete your project.

I’d love to tell you that practicing this process will eliminate your writing fears forever, but that’s not true. Odds are, fear will be waiting at your desk in some form the next time you start a new project, work with a new editor, or shift writing gears. Perhaps, it’s already there.

That’s okay though. We’re all fraidy-cat writers sometimes, and there’s no shame in that. No, the only real shame would be if we let our fears hold us back from experiencing the wild adventure of this writing life.

Your turn: How do you deal with your writing fears?

Jean Berg-Sarauer is a writer and blogger living in beautiful northwestern Wisconsin. She provides information and inspiration to beginning bloggers at Virgin Blogger Notes.



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