Niche blogging

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Niche blogging is the act of creating a blog with the intent of using it to market to a particular niche market. Niche blogs (also commonly referred to as "niche websites") may appeal to "geographic areas, a speciality industry, ethnic or age groups, or any other particular group of people." [1] While there is also debate that every blog is, in some form, a niche blog, the term as it applies to marketing refers to a particular kind of blog.

Contents

Neither blogging nor niche marketing is a new concept. However, only in recent years[ when? ] has the concept of a niche blog come into being.

Niche blogs typically contain affiliate links or advertisements (e.g., pay-per-click or products or both). In some cases, the purpose of the niche blog is to invite the reader into visiting another website that might attempt to sell the reader a product or service.

Niche blogging and spam blogging (i.e., a splog) are often hard to distinguish. However, the reliance of niche blogging on pay-per-click advertising and other revenue streams usually requires blogs to have valuable content related to their chosen niche, unlike a splog.

Popularity

The popularity of niche blogging among new marketers can be attributed to several factors, including cost, adaptability, and generating traffic.

Cost

Blogging can be a low-cost operation using free hosting platforms, including WordPress, Blogger, and Tumblr. Bloggers who choose to invest may purchase domain names or self-host their blogs for a cost. Self-hosted blogs are popular, as Google also takes a website's speed as a ranking factor; therefore, SEOs recommend web admins to host their blogs on high-quality servers.[ citation needed ]

Effectiveness

As far as company-run websites go, niche blogs are an effective marketing tool due to their less sale-oriented nature. By providing useful content for users, rather than just pitching sales, niche blogs encourage product and brand awareness, and are therefore popular in a range of industries as an addition to company websites. [2]

Audience targeting

Niche bloggers generate revenue by targeting readers in their niche, whether that be a group of fellow professionals in a business or potential clients. The choice of target audience influences which topics bloggers choose to cover and how they present and promote their writings. [3]

Profitability

If built correctly, niche blogs can provide their bloggers with a pleasant revenue. From just some extra income to help pay monthly bills to generous amounts that can replace their full-time job salary or overtake it entirely. The reason is that this kind of blog targets a specific type of audience that is closer to the final stage of the purchase funnel.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blog</span> Discussion or informational site published on the internet

A blog is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order so that the most recent post appears first, at the top of the web page. In the 2000s, blogs were often the work of a single individual, occasionally of a small group, and often covered a single subject or topic. In the 2010s, "multi-author blogs" (MABs) emerged, featuring the writing of multiple authors and sometimes professionally edited. MABs from newspapers, other media outlets, universities, think tanks, advocacy groups, and similar institutions account for an increasing quantity of blog traffic. The rise of Twitter and other "microblogging" systems helps integrate MABs and single-author blogs into the news media. Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Affiliate marketing is a marketing arrangement in which affiliates receive a commission for each visit, signup or sale they generate for a merchant. This arrangement allows businesses to outsource part of the sales process. It is a form of performance-based marketing where the commission acts as an incentive for the affiliate; this commission is usually a percentage of the price of the product being sold, but can also be a flat rate per referral.

Google AdSense is a program run by Google through which website publishers in the Google Network of content sites serve text, images, video, or interactive media advertisements that are targeted to the site content and audience. These advertisements are administered, sorted, and maintained by Google. They can generate revenue on either a per-click or per-impression basis. Google beta-tested a cost-per-action service, but discontinued it in October 2008 in favor of a DoubleClick offering. In Q1 2014, Google earned US$3.4 billion, or 22% of total revenue, through Google AdSense. AdSense is a participant in the AdChoices program, so AdSense ads typically include the triangle-shaped AdChoices icon. This program also operates on HTTP cookies. In 2021, over 38.3 million websites use AdSense.

Pay-per-click (PPC) is an internet advertising model used to drive traffic to websites, in which an advertiser pays a publisher when the ad is clicked.

This is a list of blogging terms. Blogging, like any hobby, has developed something of a specialized vocabulary. The following is an attempt to explain a few of the more common phrases and words, including etymologies when not obvious.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">User-generated content</span> Online content created by users

User-generated content (UGC), alternatively known as user-created content (UCC), is generally any form of content, such as images, videos, text, testimonials, and audio, that has been posted by users on online content aggregation platforms such as social media, discussion forums and wikis. It is a product consumers create to disseminate information about online products or the firms that market them.

The target audience is the intended audience or readership of a publication, advertisement, or other message catered specifically to the previously intended audience. In marketing and advertising, the target audience is a particular group of consumer within the predetermined target market, identified as the targets or recipients for a particular advertisement or message.

Share of Voice in advertising is a measurement model within advertising. Share of voice measures the percentage of media spending by a company compared to the total media expenditure for the product, service, or category in the market. For example, if an electronics brand were to invest $5,000,000 advertising their latest e-reader, but $100,000,000 worth of advertising was spent advertising e-readers across the entire market for this shared category, then the 5 million dollar investment would equal a 5% share of voice.

Social media optimization (SMO) is the use of a number of outlets and communities to generate publicity to increase the awareness of a product, service brand or event. Types of social media involved include RSS feeds, social news, bookmarking sites, and social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, video sharing websites, and blogging sites. SMO is similar to search engine optimization (SEO) in that the goal is to generate web traffic and increase awareness for a website. SMO's focal point is on gaining organic links to social media content. In contrast, SEO's core is about reaching the top of the search engine hierarchy. In general, social media optimization refers to optimizing a website and its content to encourage more users to use and share links to the website across social media and networking sites.

A Website content writer or web content writer is a person who specializes in providing content for websites. Every website has a specific target audience and requires the most relevant content to attract business. Content should contain keywords aimed towards improving a website's SEO. A website content writer who also has knowledge of the SEO process is referred to as an SEO Content Writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital marketing</span> Marketing of products or services using digital technologies or digital tools

Digital marketing is the component of marketing that uses the Internet and online-based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones, and other digital media and platforms to promote products and services. Its development during the 1990s and 2000s changed the way brands and businesses use technology for marketing. As digital platforms became increasingly incorporated into marketing plans and everyday life, and as people increasingly used digital devices instead of visiting physical shops, digital marketing campaigns have become prevalent, employing combinations of search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), content marketing, influencer marketing, content automation, campaign marketing, data-driven marketing, e-commerce marketing, social media marketing, social media optimization, e-mail direct marketing, display advertising, e-books, and optical disks and games have become commonplace. Digital marketing extends to non-Internet channels that provide digital media, such as television, mobile phones, callbacks, and on-hold mobile ringtones. The extension to non-Internet channels differentiates digital marketing from online marketing.

Customer engagement is an interaction between an external consumer/customer and an organization through various online or offline channels. According to Hollebeek, Srivastava and Chen S-D logic-Definition of customer engagement is "a customer’s motivationally driven, volitional investment of operant resources, and operand resources into brand interactions," which applies to online and offline engagement.

Website monetization is the process of converting existing traffic being sent to a particular website into revenue. The most popular ways of monetizing a website are by implementing pay per click (PPC) and cost per impression (CPI/CPM) advertising. Various ad networks facilitate a webmaster in placing advertisements on pages of the website to benefit from the traffic the site is experiencing.

Social network advertising, also known as social media targeting, is a group of terms used to describe forms of online advertising and digital marketing focusing on social networking services. A significant aspect of this type of advertising is that advertisers can take advantage of users' demographic information, psychographics, and other data points to target their ads.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet celebrity</span> Someone famous because of the Internet

An internet celebrity is an individual who has acquired or developed their fame and notability on the Internet. The growing popularity of social media provides a means for people to reach a large, global audience. Internet celebrities are often found on large online platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, which primarily rely on user-generated content.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social media marketing</span> Promotion of products or services on social media

Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms and websites to promote a product or service. Although the terms e-marketing and digital marketing are still dominant in academia, social media marketing is becoming more popular for both practitioners and researchers.

Online presence management is the process of creating and promoting traffic to a personal or professional brand online. This process combines web design, and development, blogging, search engine optimization, pay-per-click marketing, reputation management, directory listings, social media, link sharing, and other avenues to create a long-term positive presence for a person, organization, or product in search engines and on the web in general.

Health blogs are niche blogs that cover health topics, events and/or related content of the health industry and the general community.

Content writing services is a category of work that first surfaced in the early 1990s, due to an exponential rise in online activities. Content writing services are firms, companies or group of writers that provide services such as blog writing for websites, web content writing, marketing material content, white papers, research articles, proof reading services, infographic content, social media content, press releases, product descriptions, copywriting services, proofreading and editing and many more.

Food blogging is a feature of food journalism interlinking a gourmet interest in food, blog writing, and food photography. Food blogs are generally written by food enthusiasts often referred to as a "foodies" and can be used commercially by the blogger to earn a profit. The first food blog launched in July, 1997 as a running feature on the Chowhound web site. Titled "What Jim Had for Dinner", Chowhound founder Jim Leff cataloged his daily eating.

References

  1. "What is Niche Marketing? (Farm and Food Business)". Farm and Food Business (Penn State Extension). Retrieved 2016-02-24.
  2. Singh, Tanuja; Veron-Jackson, Liza; Cullinane, Joe (2008-07-01). "Blogging: A new play in your marketing game plan". Business Horizons. 51 (4): 281–292. doi:10.1016/j.bushor.2008.02.002.
  3. Briggs, Wendy (Summer 2012). "BOOSTING BUSINESS THROUGH BLOGGING". Annals of Psychotherapy & Integrative Health.