The Problem with Average Blogging

Lately, I’ve seen a lot of posts across the web that say having an opinion when blogging is bad.

Maybe not so much having an opinion, as having a very forceful opinion, and then blogging about it. This is where bloggers are making a big mistake (according to some of the posts I’ve been reading).

The thinking is, by being opinionated, you’re potentially driving away readers, subscribers and – worse still – advertisers for your blog.

But I don’t agree with that – and here’s why.

You Don’t Want to be Invisible

Depending on who you listen to, there are around 200 million blogs online, with more being added daily. Now, I’m no mathematician whiz, but that’s a shitload of blogs to compete with!

Let’s say of these 200 million, 10% are in the niche you want to blog in. That’s 20 million blogs. Now, let’s say out of these 20 million, 50% are generic and write safe content.

You know – top lists this and that, fifty ways to do such and such, yadda yadda yadda. There’s nothing wrong with this approach, and it can drive traffic – but it usually yields little more than this afterward.

No sign ups, no leads, no new readers, etc – or at least, not the ones that stick around.

If you stand apart from the generic blogging approach, you’ve immediately stood apart from 50% of the other blogs in your niche. However, you’ve still got another 10 million blogs to worry about.

This is where your strong opinion comes into play.

Forcing Your Way Past Invisibility

Now that you’re into the part of the audience you really want to reach, it’s time to stand out from the other bloggers around you too. This isn’t going to be easy, especially if they have a dedicated audience and a longer lead time on their blog than you do.

But here’s the thing – you don’t need to “steal” an audience – just encourage it to read more than one or two blogs.

To do this, you need to be strong in your viewpoint and really believe in what you’re saying – and don’t waver from that intensity and belief.

Take a look at social media blogs. There are literally millions of blogs about social media, many saying the exact same thing as each other. So how would you break into that niche?

Simple – you stand up to the popular view and offer alternative and more questioning takes on social media.

When you’re sharing these views (and you can be contrarian professionally), make sure to link back to the original posts you’re debating. Or, if you have established a rapport with the blogger in question, email them your link and ask for their take.

Oftentimes, good bloggers will be happy to share your take with their audience, and you can enjoy new eyeballs from their.

The trick is, if you’re going this route, you really need to be sure about the topic you’re countering and come backed with facts to complement your opinion.

But get that right, and start to build a reputation as a blogger who cares enough to question? That’s an audience builder right there.

Get the audience and the advertisers will come too – and they’ll be the ones that agree with your take, which will make them an even better fit for your audience. It’s a win-win all round.

How about you – how are you making yourself stand out from the blogging crowd? We’re all ears!

image: Perry French