Martin Neumann makes a very good point today at The Blog Columnist in relation to a discussion pertaining to how many blogs about blogs is too many:
I say, respectfully: let the market decide.
Although I was a little negative in my post the other day about the difficulty in becoming a professional blogger, none of that was to say that reaching that level was impossible, indeed it can be done, it just takes a lot of tenacity and drive to get there, and likewise blogs about blogs face the same hurdles, it is after all a fairly small niche for which there are only a finite number of readers.
It took me a very long time to build my previous blog about blogging, indeed it took a couple of years until traffic and revenue got to a reasonably good level. But during that time competitors were launched…and shuttered, where as I took my queue from the Energizer Bunny, regular, dependable and just kept going. Today it still is a small niche, but where as the potential audience has continued to grow, the competition really hasn’t. Compare and contrast personal blogs about tech and servers to blogs about blogs, there’s thousands of tech blogs in that niche, but there are no more dedicated blogs about blogs (in general) than I can count on my fingers. 901am isn’t one of these sites, although it may have some blogging stuff, it’s more of a hybrid Web 2.0/ Blogging/ interesting techy stuff blog. If I wasn’t writing here and making good money elsewhere would I enter the blog on blogs market again! hell yes! it’s an under catered niche. But I digress, because at the end of the day, the market is big enough for multiple blogs on blogs, as it is for multiple blogs on Lindsay Lohan or Search Engines. Some of course will always do better than others, that’s the nature of the best that is a free and open market, but most importantly of all: the market will decide.
Please visit 901am again, shortly :-)
Originally posted on February 21, 2007 @ 7:46 pm
Well said, Duncan – I guess it comes down to how much of an audience do you need to be viable.
If I can spend 4 hours a week on my blog, have around 500-750 uniques a day and earn US$600 a month (which quite a few of my sites do) then that is a viable niche and business for me.
If I sense a market (in any niche, including blogging) is dwindling and trending down then I’m out of there.
500 uniques a day @ $600 a month….you must share your secrets!
On the last point, absolutely, but there is no way told that there are too many blogs about blogs, less than fingers on my hand. There’s still room there as well.
Like your post over at The Blogging Times – I’m not into selling the secrets to my success – I’ll leave that to others ;-). Actually, I’ve said too much already. You do notice I very rarely talk about numbers. I don’t know if it’s an Aussie thing but I don’t seek the ego boost of screaming out aloud “look at me, look at me ..This month I made $xx,xxxx”.
I’ll share a little though: Lets just say: A tight niche (and I mean tight) with TLA + Private Sponsors + an ebook. Get them there via AdWords (80%) and organic search (20%). Do at least 5 of them and you’re sitting pretty.
I agree on the blogs about blogs and that there is room for more – I’m still trying to figure out a revenue model that takes into account the time it takes to build it up and run. If you ever see me do a massive blog about blogs launch you know I’ve found the right mix. :-)