If you are planning to start a blog about various technology – iPhone tutorials, rumors, technology news, etc, then I would suggest rethinking the idea. The majority of people that create a blog are technologically inclined, which would make their default choice of blog topic to be something related to technology. There’s nothing wrong with this, it’s just that the technology niche is overflowing.
When I started blogging back in 2010, I created a technology blog about iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, technology news, rumors, editorials, etc. My blog did okay in search rankings after two years, but there was no way it could compete with blogs such as 9 to 5 Mac, TechnoBuffalo, and Droid-Life. The bloggers behind large technology blogs like that have been working there for years, are able to go to events like WWDC and cover them live, and run their blog like a full time job. Many people (like myself) tend to run their blogs on the side, secondary to our day job, school, and other activities.
In addition to not being able to compete with high-ranking websites, the technology niche is too easy to write about. Anybody can hop on WordPress and start writing about the latest iPhone rumors. You want a niche that you can truly be considered an expert in. So instead of writing about technology rumors, you can write about how you monetized your blog to make you over $100 a week.
After I realized that there was no hope for my technology blog, I sold it on Flippa and started Omega Web, which is based around blogging, Internet marketing, SEO, and other online tools. This niche has more professionals that know what they are doing, are experts on the topic, and offer things such as comments and guest posts. It’s harder to write about Internet marketing than it is about iPhone cases, thus making you even more of an expert if you know what you are talking about.
So… If you want to start a blog, I would suggest staying away from the “General Technology” niche. Competition is high, it’s too easy to write about, and AdSense revenue is low. If you choose a less competitive niche that doesn’t have as many bloggers (such as aquarium keeping, farming, hunting, or education), you will have much better results.
This is useful article for those who wants to work on Niche Blog. After this post surely, I will start work on niche blogs and try to earn few bugs from it.
if you talked to SEO expert he would say write on whatever you like real charm is how you gonna make it stand out on search engine. If by following SEO guidelines and at some point your site got ranked would surely be worthwhile. Btw good post !
Yes, but that’s an SEO expert. In reality, there are just too many blogs to compete for the first 10 results or so on Google.
so dont you think its all about SEO not the niche
No, I think the niche is definitely more important then SEO.
bad news for me because I use this niche
It’s not bad news if you do everything right in promoting your site, but it’s a lot harder to get into the game with all the competition. I checked out your blog – I would suggest getting web hosting and switching to WordPress before you become too established on Blogger’s platform. Your site will go a lot further with WordPress. You can get a HostGator web hosting plan for pretty cheap and if you use the coupon OMEGAWEB25, you get 25% off. Then you can install WordPress for free and you’re good to go!
Very interesting post. I think it’s a right observation because today almost everyone has its blog and being different is tough. Either you find your niche or no hope to succeed.
The problem with everyone having a blog is that new blogs have no chance. Websites like TechnoBuffalo and Droid-Life have been around for years to gain readers, Page Rank, and authority. Even if you worked as hard as possible, it would still be hard to outrank these big blogs.
Hi Ian,
You’ve got the point. I totally agree with you that a few number of people could achieve successful result with technology blog! It’s quite difficult to get huge number of visitor for technology related blog. The reason is there’s a lot of competitor competing with this tech keyword! I also suggest people that chose low competitive keyword that Ian mentioned end of the article. Anyway, very helpful article Ian! Thanks.
Low competition is key, especially in 2012 with all of these high ranking blogs.