Should you follow the leaders in your niche or is it acceptable to ignore them if you don’t particularly like the content they produce? There are two positions.
You should follow the leaders in your niche, even if you don’t like their writing style, content or topic.
There are several big blogs related to the Almost Frugal niche,some of which I follow, some of which I don’t. I follow them in order to be aware of what they are writing about, mostly so that I can NOT write about the same thing at the same time. It’s not a bad thing to write about the same topics, but, it’s better not to do so at the same time as somebody else. For example, I was contacted by somebody selling a product who wanted to offer it in a giveaway on one of my blogs. I agreed but then saw that there were multiple copies of it being offered on another, bigger blog. It would have overshadowed my giveaway completely to have it run at the same time as the other one, so I cancelled mine.
You should not follow the leaders in your niche, especially if you don’t like their writing style, content or topic.
Here’s where the ‘life is too short’ argument comes in. There are some blogs which, even though they are leaders in the niche, I don’t find interesting, compelling or relevant. So I don’t follow them- life’s too short!
What’s your position?
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
See I feel like I try to reach out to some of the bigger blogs but because of their sheer size, I don’t get much response. I do like you and follow the ones I like. My goal is to spend this year reaching out to some of the big blogs in my niche I really admire… you know, like Almost Frugal. :^)
I agree wholeheartedly.
Anna O’Reillys last blog post..Interior Decorating at Work
I’m with ya – I subscribe to a few biggies just to see what’s up, but every time I try to read an entire one and/or leave a comment over there, it’s like woahhhh too boring.
I guess it’s really just a matter of what your style is as you mention. I tend to be more edgy and try and entertain as much as possible, where others have a goal of pure education and teaching. Either way it’s all good, but def. not going to spend a lot of time reading it if it’s not fun to ME.