The Ultimate Blog Podcast - 8. Finding your avatar and niche

Episode Date: February 8, 2022

Hey there! It’s Amy here and I am solo on today’s episode. I want to focus on your avatar and niche today. I know a lot of people say they don’t want to niche down when they are first starting out but just listen to today’s episode to hear why it’s important to determine who you are talking to with your avatar and what topic they want to hear through your niche. I will explain to you the importance of this and tips on finding your niche. It is so very important to know you are talking to and how you can help your audience with your blog so tune in to hear more!Check out the show notes for links and resources mentioned in this episode!Let us know what you thought of today’s episode on Instagram: @sparkmediaconceptsInterested in starting a blog? Join our waitlist for the Ultimate Blog Bootcamp!SHOW NOTES: www.sparkmediaconcepts.com/episode8

Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Podcast with Amy Reinecke and Jennifer Draper. We're on a mission to empower women who want to start or grow their own blog. This podcast is for women who want to learn blogging basics and who crave inspiration and encouragement. Whether you're just getting started or have been a blogger for years, we're excited to welcome you into this space where we are passionate about creating community over competition. We are bloggers who want to encourage you to believe in your potential, step outside the norm and step into a life where you create your own schedule, your own success, and your own story. Join us for weekly episodes as we navigate blogging

and work from home life, all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. Hey, it's Amy today. I am going to do a solo episode and I'm super excited about this topic because I think it's one that is actually really important as you consider starting a blog, or maybe you've blogged for a while and you just are not clear on this. And that is your avatar and your niche. Now don't turn it off. I know that some of you heard me say niche and you're like not talking about it. I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to niche down. Just hear me out. Keep it rolling. Let's have some fun today. So before we get started though, I want to just remind you that if you're blogging, the purpose of a blogger is to offer value to other people. So it's using your unique

experiences to help someone else. That is what blogging is. When we really just strip everything away, if we strip away affiliate sales, the ad networks, the, you know, sharing on social media and all of it, what is your goal as a blogger? And that is to help people. Well, if you don't know who your avatar is and you don't know what your niche is, how do you know who you're helping? So what's an avatar? Essentially, in simplest terms that I can come up with, your avatar is the person you are talking to. And when you are thinking about your avatar, you want to get really specific. That's actually really important because you want to know when you sit down to create content or when you are going to work with a brand, you want to know is the person who is listening, reading, digesting my content,

are they actually going to align with this? If the answer is no, walk away. The answer is yes, with this? If the answer is no, walk away. The answer is yes, look into it more. So your avatar, you want to be very specific. And by specific, I mean, let's talk about their age. How old are they? Are they married? Do they have kids? What do they do for work? Or do they stay at home? Do they work outside the home? Do they own their own business or not? Are you speaking to a male or female? What kind of income do they create? So are we talking low, middle, upper class? Some of that can be important, especially with brands and what you're presenting their interests as well and what they're passionate about. So those are some of the things that I want you to consider when you are thinking about your avatar and who specifically you are talking to. In the bootcamp, we really do like our students

to dive into this long before they ever even get started designing their blog. That's how important this is. So if you haven't started your blog yet, I want you to really think about it. Like if you were to sit down and start a blog today, who are you talking to? Who do you want to help? Who are you trying to provide solutions to? Who are they? And then I want you to use that and then move forward and let's talk about niche. Now niche is something that gets a lot of attention because especially in the era of the lifestyle blogger, we have a lot of people out there who say, well, I want to write about it all. Let me write about it all. I was one of those people as well. But here's what I can tell you. Your niche is essentially the topic that you're sharing about,

that you're creating content about. It's your subject matter. This is something that a lot of people say, well, I don't want to niche down because there's so many things that I want to talk about. I totally understand that, but hear me out. Just listen up today. Why is niching down important? Well, unless you want them to just come because of you, like are you selling you or are you selling your solution? That's a question that I think needs asked. And I think what you'll find is that sustainability as a blogger, when you are offering them a solution, not necessarily just like selling your story or selling who you are or the idea of your family, or you get my point here. You want to give them solutions for the problems that they're having. Blogging is actually less about you and more about the person

who is reading your blog and the solutions that they need or the help that they need or the area of expertise that they know nothing about, but you do. And so you can provide them with some really excellent tips. So niching down is important because that means that when people come to your site, they're going to know what you're about. So let's take a blogger who blogs about organization coming from somebody who is not the most organized. I know that I am probably not going to teach many people about organization. That is not a strength, but I know that there are a lot of people out there who know a lot more about it than I do and could sure share some tips that I would love to learn about. Well, I'm not going to be able to find that content buried in a site that she's talking about 10, 15, 20 different things.

I'm likely going to be looking for an organization blog, most likely. Now, that doesn't mean that if you have organization on your blog, that doesn't mean that you can't throw in a recipe or whatever, but I think it needs to be in the same scope of how you're going to help someone who has organizational problems and how they can better utilize their space, how they can create more rhythms and systems in their life in order to achieve, honestly, just a little bit more peace. So that's one idea. When people come to your site, then they're going to know what you're about and what you're going to be able to help them with. Nitching down is also important because then your audience knows exactly what to expect, and they honestly know whether or not they want to be part of your community or not. If they never

really know what you're talking about or what you stand for, then they might not feel as invested in supporting you, not just in your blog posts, but if you decide to sell a product or create a course or anything like that. So you really want to be able to be very clear about what you're talking about to better serve your community. about to better serve your community. When you niche down and you provide people with content that they can learn to expect from you, you are also being considered an expert in their eyes because they know, hey, if I need to learn about organization, I'm going to go here because I love the way she teaches me how to organize and she can help me out. So, you know, insert your own

topic there, but that's just an example. So think about the thing that you can offer a solution about. What is something that you are passionate about? These are some of the things I want you to think about when you are deciding what your niche is, because I'm sure you're thinking to yourself, well, there's a lot of things actually that I would like to write about. How in the world could I ever narrow it down? I don't know how I would do that because there's so many different things that I would like to talk about. Well, I have a few tips for you on how you can find your niche. First of all, what do you enjoy talking about? Like truly when somebody brings it

up, what are you like? Oh my gosh, I can talk to you for like 14 hours about this. Like, what is that thing? Write these down too. It might help you. Also, have you had a life experience that's given you perspective on something that could help others? What life experiences have you had that you could use for good? I say a lot. For instance, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. I have a history with an eating disorder. Both of those things could be really painful experiences just on their own. Instead, I've decided to use that pain for purpose and used that perspective and help other people. And it honestly, yes, it's using my story, but it's using my story for good

because I know that there's other people out there who have gone through some of those things or are going through some of those things, and maybe they're at the beginning of their journey. And so the perspective that I can offer might be really helpful for them. And so I can share my experience with them, my unique perspective, what has helped me, maybe give them some tools and resources for how they can heal and get better. So what life experiences do you have that you could offer perspective on to help somebody else? Now, you do not need a college degree to be a blogger, but if you've gone to college or furthered your education at all, could your education be something that would support a blog? So I'm gonna give you a couple examples.

If you're a teacher, what could you utilize and teach and put on a blog that could help other teachers? Could you create lesson plans to share? Could you create worksheets that they could use, coloring sheets? What could you use that would help other teachers and build a business alongside your full-time job at being a teacher? That would also be something really awesome for you to do in the summertime. Another one that came to mind as I was brainstorming

was finance majors. So for instance, my husband is in finance. he could use a lot of his education to provide budgeting tips and tricks to other people who don't know as much about that stuff as somebody who might have gone to school about it. So that's just an example. And both of those things too, you like with finance, maybe you've just figured out a budget. Maybe you have no schooling, but maybe you have truly figured out like, this is how you budget. This is how you can go to the store for $100 a week for a family of four, you know? And if you have that to share,

you have that life experience to share, share it with others. That's just another example. Another way to find your niche is ask yourself, what are your friends asking you for advice about often? What do they come to and ask you about? Do they ask you, what are your friends asking you for advice about often? What do they come to and ask you about? Do they ask you where you get your clothes or how do you decorate your house? Or how did you make that? Did you really make that like with your own two hands? I'm

thinking about somebody that I went to high school with actually, who has created like a home decor blog and just blows my mind what she's done. And I look at her bringing out power tools and I'm like, yeah, that's amazing. I would have no idea how to do that, but she teaches other people how to do it. So that is an example about something that she knows how to do that other people might not know how to do. And she's using that to help other people and earn an income with her blog and her brand. So think outside the box, but blogging should be fun. Blogging and the topic matter

that you decide to talk about and share should be something that you are passionate about, that you enjoy creating content about. It should be something that you get excited to do. I truly wake up every morning and I am excited about my work. I've been a bank teller. I've worked in retail sales. I've worked as an office manager. I can tell you nothing has made me more excited than blogging. I truly love what I do. And maybe think outside the box, could blogging offer that for you?

And I know that when we start thinking about these more technical things in regards to blogging, some of you are feeling scared about that. Like, I don't know, I don't know who I would be talking to and I don't know what I wanna write about. But I think that these are really, really important things for you to consider at the beginning of your blogging journey. Or if you're at a place that your blog is not growing, maybe you need to go back to the drawing board and do that. I've just recently done that again. I've thought about who I'm

talking to, what content I'm going to be sharing and who that's going to serve. And here is what I'll tell you. I have found a lot more joy sharing content that is relevant to the experiences that I'm having in my life currently and sharing that because I'm passionate about it and I love it. And that's what I think blogging could offer for so many of you. You take something that you truly enjoy and then you get to share about it. Have you ever wanted to start a blog but had no idea where to begin? Or maybe you have a blog that you'd like to update and want some help to make it the best it can be. We know that there are many people out there who have big dreams for their own blog that never happen because they

simply feel stuck. The Ultimate Blog bootcamp is an eight week course designed to help you create a solid blogging foundation by teaching you how to treat your blog as a business, find your audience, design a website that is optimized for SEO, all while providing support via online coaching calls each week of the course. There's a private Slack channel for students as well. So questions will never go unanswered. The Ultimate Blog Bootcamp will give you the tools and support to create a blog that has the potential to turn into a profitable business. We are committed to helping each and every student feel empowered and confident with the foundational principles of blogging and the behind-the-scenes work that goes into it. If you don't want to blog alone, we can help.

We keep each round small in order to provide each student the attention and support we believe you deserve during this process. Since space is limited, get on the waitlist today so we can help you with your blog. The link to join the waitlist is in our show notes or go to sparkmediaconcepts.com and click on the ultimate blog bootcamp. Now, I do want to talk a little bit about lifestyle blogs because I think that this is important. When you decide to niche down, that doesn't mean that you only ever have to talk about one topic. I promise you it doesn't. But especially in the beginning, you just want to be very, very clear about who you're talking to and what your content is going to be about. When you lay that

foundation, people will understand who you are and whether or not they want to, and what your content is going to be about. When you lay that foundation, people will understand who you are and whether or not they want to be part of your community. And then you can kind of start to sprinkle in some other things that you enjoy talking about. I don't want you to think, well, if I can't niche down, I can't start a blog. That's not true. You could pick two to three topics. If you're like, no way, I just cannot pick one. But I think what you have to understand with that too is you might not grow as quickly as someone who is niched down to a very specific area of content. Reason being is Google likes it when you niche down. Google likes when they know exactly what your website and your blog is about.

And so they're more likely to rank your content when people are searching for a topic and then your website would come up with a blog post or a resource for them that would serve what they are Googling about. So when the search intent meets what the website is about. So that's just something to consider. And that goes back to asking yourself, what are your goals with blogging? Is your goal to replace your current income or is it to have a hobby or maybe just a part-time job? If you want to grow a blogging business, you need to niche down from the beginning. You need to be very clear who you're talking to, know your avatar, know your niche, and then move forward confidently in that area, knowing that you are going to serve and help and provide solutions for so many people. I truly believe that the experiences

and the perspective that we have in our lives are meant to help others. Don't let that go to waste. If there is something that you are so passionate about that you just know, if I could just get to more people, if I could just help them, if I could help give people freedom, if I could offer solutions, if I could make someone laugh, if I can lighten the load. I mean, you have so much joy awaiting you when you get to touch people's lives in that way. Blogging is truly a gift and I can't stress that enough. It is a gift to be able to serve your readers and your community and touch the lives of others and help them in their life, literally from all over the world. What an awesome time to be alive to be able to help people in that way. I hope this episode helps you determine who your reader avatar is, or at least get you

thinking about it, and also helps you understand that niching down does have its benefits. It's not just a way to take out the fun of blogging, but it does serve an important part of your blogging success from the start. Thanks so much for tuning in today. If you'd like to continue the conversation about blogging with us, please find us on Instagram at spark media concepts. You can also sign up for our weekly newsletter where we share blogging tips and inspiration. You can sign up by finding the link in the show notes.

For those of you who are ready for the next step and want to start your own blog, join the waitlist for the ultimate blog bootcamp. The link to join the waitlist is also in the show notes. Go out and make today a great day.