As the Yakezie Network is a network of personal finance bloggers, it’s easy to get lost in our bubble, especially when we first go on our journey. The first people we reach out to are bloggers in our genre who hopefully reciprocate. Other bloggers are going to be the ones who help get your name out. However, if you get stuck catering only to your blogging buddies, you’ll have a very hard time rocket launching your site to the next level if you want to create a business.
Unless you are a blogger who makes money about blogging or host a blogging network site like this one, make sure to focus the content based on your expertise that’s relevant to your audience. Groupthink is a very dangerous phenomenon that not only stunts your blog’s growth, but also your mind and your potential income.
There is hardly ever any content about blogging on Financial Samurai. Everything is straight up real estate, stocks, bonds, investing, saving, refinancing, developing multiple income streams, and early retirement. Even though my readers see the Yakezie badge and hear about my occasional blogging related endeavors, nobody ever e-mails or comments about blogging. This is exactly how I want things to be.
TIME TO NARROW DOWN THE FOCUS
Yakezie.com is obviously a different animal. About half the readers are bloggers and the rest come from search and referrals. We’ve currently got three main verticals and too many categories that spread the site thin. As a result, there will be a narrowing of focus here in 2013 with an emphasis on blogging, online marketing, and entrepreneurship.
Everyone needs to look at their archives to see which are some of their most popular posts according to the number of comments and the number of visits by search. Once you assemble a quick list of Top 10 posts according to Google Analytics or a plug-in, you can then come to a conclusion of what your core audience wants.
Now you’ve got to ask yourself what is your expertise? Hopefully your expertise converges with results of your top 10 posts. Figure out what the one main thing you are good at, and then consider two or three other topics which have synergistic effects.
Most of us come here to figure out ways to optimize our sites, get to know other bloggers, and increase our income. The holy grail of blogging is to generate passive income while having a thriving audience to keep us stimulated. I’ve made a first attempt with the Yakezie Network Partnership post, and will continue to work on business opportunities. I think it will be wise for us to steer content towards such goals.
MINGLE, MIX, FOCUS
If we can compartmentalize our audiences between personal finance, lifestyle, and blogging, I strongly believe we will become more authoritative voices with larger audiences. Being too scattered is dangerous. Sure, it’s fine to weave in our online income endeavors on our respective sites if we encourage our readers to build alternative income streams. Keep things separate, but also keep an open mind.
Go to financial blogging conferences to build great relationships and trade strategies. Hit up the Yakezie Forums to talk about your latest website issues as well. But when you return to your site, focus on your core audience who dominates your traffic and actually pays you.
Metrics such as Alexa, mozRank, Pagerank are really fun to keep track of. Just remember they are just numbers. What really matters is traffic, relationships, and the products you produce. Focus on creating the most unique, targeted content you can that’s relevant to your core audience. Leave all the blogging commentary here on Yakezie.com or your other favorite blogging related websites!
START A MONEY MAKING BLOG
It’s been six years since I started Financial Samurai and I’m actually earning a good passive income stream online now. The top 1% of all posts on Financial Samurai generates 31% of all traffic. The average age of the top 1% posts is 2.3 years old. In other words, after putting in the hours to write some very meaty content over two years ago, 10 posts consistently generate a monthly recurring income stream that’s completely passive.
I never thought I’d be able to quit my job in 2012 just three years after starting Financial Samurai. But by starting one financial crisis day in 2009, Financial Samurai actually makes more than my entire passive income total that took 15 years to build. If you enjoy writing, connecting with people online, and enjoying more freedom, see how you can set up a WordPress blog in 15 minutes with Bluehost. Who knows where your new adventure will take you in 2015 and beyond!
Regards,
Sam
I don’t think I’ve ever blogged about blogging on Untemplater or if I did it was long enough ago that I can’t remember. Untemplater is lifestyle focused with some personal finance in there as well as it impacts lifestyle. You make good points about focusing on the topics that are relevant to out site’s audiences as they are the people we want to keep coming back.
I think my main expertise is technology and personal growth, with an up and coming goal to understand and be successful with finances. Most of my SEO traffic is from old posts written a while back. I think the main thing for me is figuring out if what I’m writing is really resonating with people. If I get comments, is that the right indicator? Or perhaps I need to go out and mingle with even more people than I am now. I do find that visitors come when I personally reach out to them first.
I know part of it is just hustling and working hard, but I would definitely like to be more precise and hit home with people as it seems sometimes I am doing what you said above – just sharing my own thoughts and ideas from my own experiences, which not many will understand.
Comments from anybody definitely puts you on the right track to connecting with readers. It does take more giving than receiving in the very beginning especially, and that is what the Yakezie Network is all about.
Once we grow sizable, we should also always never forget our roots either!
My main expertise is photography. After switching gears, narrowing down and going with Portrait Inspiration as my main theme most of my traffic comes from the photographers who I feature. Last month alone I had almost 12K viewers. In any case I have used the techniques I have learned here and on other forums to stay focused on the direction that I know best.
Jai, that is very impressive that you had so many viewers last month. I wonder about being too broad with what I share on my site and that I’m not niche focused enough, which it appears you are. Did you start off broad and discover that is where you needed to go – that is, what caused you to switch gears and narrow down to portrait inspiration photography as your main theme?
I like it, Sam. Groupthink is definitely something to watch out for and can steer us away from our respective target audiences. I like the exercise of looking at your top 10 posts and seeing how it aligns with your expertise. I think a great step after that is to create a mission statement (whether public or provate) that clarifies your goals for the blog so that you don’t get too sidetracked with things that are more off-topic for your audience. I just posted my first “blogging” related post today, and only because I hit a milestone.
Yes indeed. I’ve created “Value Propositions” instead.
Here is the Financial Samurai Value Proposition and the Yakezie Value Proposition.
You should definitely do one of your own!
Thanks Sam, I will look at doing something like this. I think doing it publicly will help keep me accountable to staying on mission.
My most organically trafficked post is one on playdate ideas. Although I liked writing the post, I sort of did so on a whim. I definitely don’t plan on making WhatMommyDoes entirely about playdates!
I think it might be a bit premature for me to paint my blog into a corner based on less than a year’s worth of statistics. I’ll probably keep experimenting with a good variety of topics for another year before focusing. I think it’s too early to tell, and I like the excitement of knowing I can write about anything mommy-related right now.
I’m about to bust out a huge section on ways to save on household expenses…I’m hoping that does well.
Definitely give yourself a year’s worth of posts and see what fits, sticks, works. Always good to experiment! Good luck!
Thanks! I need it.
When I named my blog, I unknowingly narrowed my audience to houses – house designs, small house plans, floor plans, etc. Lucky for me I like writing about those topics! However, I still like throwing in personal finance topics as well. It’s hodge podge, I know, but it works for now.
Makes sense. Just figure out how to own the small house genre, which you probably are! There must be some relevant affiliate products and such as well. Green, small, healthy living is in!
When I first started EdwardAntrobus I was all over the place. I wrote about money, I wrote about blogging, I wrote about hydrology! One of the things that helped me focus a lot was Yakezie. Seeing what other people were writing about helped me realize that I needed to be more focused. It’s been months since I had a non-financial topic and more and more I’ve been focusing on frugality in specific.
Hi Edward, I’m glad you finally changed to a .com! Figure out how to get all your old links to redirect to your new links if possible? Andrea could probably help.
I was so upset when I first saw my Alexa ranking go up (wrong direction) that I hardly noticed my readership doubled. Less bloggers are finding my site (as I’m spending less time on there’s) but I think I’m headed in the right direction.
Yep, Alexa is an interesting animal isn’t it? After a certain level, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is the community and readership. I’ve been spread too thin on Yakezie.com, so now it’s time to focus.
Agreed Funancials. Our Alexa was as low as 50k at one point and just last month was up to about 250k. Nature of the beast / tool bar. Our visitor demographic doesn’t appear to be one that uses Alexa much.
Sam, Best advice; “look at top 10 posts” to narrow your focus. For some folks (myself included) it’s tough to focus, yet the evidence is clear that more focus on one’s areas specific expertise is best with branding and growing readership. Very well synthesized.
It’s really to get carried away with everything isn’t it? But if we look at our top 10 posts according to analytics, we must come to reality that these posts are what we are particularly good at writing about, and what other people particularly like to hear from us. From there we can evolve, and I think our sites will become that much more powerful because of it.
Great insights, Sam! I had a monthly post about my “blogging stats and income” but I stopped doing it last month so I could be more focused. I think I’m going to continue my weekly recipe in an attempt to mix it up a bit, I will keep all of my other posts focused on the financial realm of things. It’s easy to get spread thing, but if you’re really going to develop a strong following I do think you have to focus on a few particular things.
I totally agree it’s fun to look up and write about blogging stats and perhaps income in the beginning because the progress is exhilarating. Just make sure that your such a post doesn’t displace your other post topics your readers care most about e.g. if you post 12X a month, make that blogging stats post the 13th, not the 12th. Good luck!
Thank you for your advice. After a month and a half of blogging I’m still trying to figure out what my focus should be about. Your ideas are pointing me into the right direction. Thank you.
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This is really interesting, Sam. Sometimes I want to talk about blogging on my blog but I don’t — people are more interested in my fascinating opinions, it turns out, about things like overspending and breakups.
Who doesn’t love a little opinion on romance? You should write more about it! I used to write a lot about it, but kinda felt it was appropriate for FS as time went on. Besides, I didn’t want all women to hate me more than they already do! :)
With an intro like that, how could I resist letting you know that you’re more than welcome to guest post over in my neck of the woods!
Informative post. I am searching on how to increase website traffic and found your post. It is interesting and I might apply what you’ve said. Thanks for posting. :)
This is the key takeaway from your post — “Focus on creating the most unique, targeted content you can that’s relevant to your core audience.” No one can articulate it better!
Hi Sam,
I think it’s always a good idea to experiment with your posts, then tracking then through Analytics as you mentioned or I prefer to use a site called bit.ly where you can track the amount of clicks (views) as well as saves and social shares!
Might be something worth giving a try if you’ve not yet heard of it or had the chance to use it.
[…] How to Increase Traffic To Your Site – If I’m looking at good Yakezie member posts over the past month, I might as well start with a Yakezie post, this one on increasing traffic to your website. As I definitely want to do so myself, particularly as I find myself between jobs and with a little baby on the way, I’ll have to keep these suggestions from Sam of Financial Samurai in mind. […]