Chris Holdheide asked a very interesting question in a comment to my latest blog post:
My question to you is what do you do when you work in a niche that has a lot of other bloggers in it. How do I differ myself from them? If I do everything the other bloggers are doing how am I going to gain a competitive edge?
Video blogging vs text writing
Everything has been written already. It is very difficult to write something completely groundbreaking at the moment. But the thing is that not much of this material has been converted to video.
So even if your blog is in a very saturated niche, you can still make it unique by basically making videos of all the information that everyone else is competing for with text articles only.
What you have that no other blogger has
There is one thing that every blogger has that is very unique. You have yourself!
You are unique, you write your own blog, and no other blog can copy that. So you must use yourself when trying to make your blog stand out from the crowd.
You can make your blog unique by bringing yourself to the front. Find your voice in the way you present your blog, in the way you write your articles, in the way you comment to your readers.
Just see bloggers like ProBlogger, John Chow and Chris Brogan. They all put their face out there and make their blogs unique in that way.
What I do to make my blog unique
- Content
- Being as transparent as possible
- Giving away my design / promotional secrets
- Sharing my blogging results
- Going deeper in details than competitors do
- Making my advice more practical / easier to implement than competitors do
From the start I tried to include as many real life examples and information as possible. For example the exact email I wrote to ProBlogger to get my guest post, the exact comment I wrote on a blog to get many visitors, exact blog visitor stats from my Google Analytics, or the exact codes to how I customized my blog. Not many bloggers in my niche reveal as many real-life examples about their blogs and strategies.
- Design
- Unique customization to my Thesis WordPress theme
- Unique blog header image
What steps do you take to make your blog stand out?
What do you think? What steps are you taking to make your blog stand out and to build a larger readership?
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{ 27 comments }
Great post Marko,
I think video blogging is a sure way to go. I’ve also been looking into blogtalkradio.com as a way to add audio to my blog. I also have to agree my niche in helping others to get out of debt is been well, a bit overdone.
Thanks again,
Chris
http://www.stumbleforward.com
Thanks for all the comments!
@Christopher Holdheide – I would recommend going with video. Having visual touch and being able to show some tips via screen recordings will impress much more than a “boring” audio file.
@Gerald Weber – Very cool that you have a completely unique Theme! My design skills are not that good and my budget is a bit too low to have a pro do it at this point in time.
@Scott: The Passive Dad – This one was recorded in one take, my first video ever. I had some keywords on what I want to say in a text file and was reading it of the screen while recording. Then added music, pictures and text afterwards.
Great article! Looking forward to your video blogging.
Interesting post; thanks, Marko. My blog is definitely in a niche that has many other bloggers (English language) and I sometimes feel that everything that can be said has been said already; but I guess you’re right when you say that I have myself and that’s what potentially makes my blog different to others. I do try to use my voice when I write posts and reply to comments. My blog is fairly new so time will tell whether being myself will work
Hi Marko, Wow finally got to see your face. God Bless on your video blogging. We’re looking forward to that.
Regards,
JeD Chan
I haven’t gotten into the videos as much as some people. But I am enjoying all of the many tips on your site! I am signing up for your feed.
Marko,
I’ve been chewing on the video concept for a bit and I think that it will be the next addition to Tumblemoose.
Once again, good stuff here.
George
One of the thing about my blog that makes it stand out is that it’s a custom Wordpress design is completely unique. Meaning that not another one like it exist anywhere. Aside from that I have actually be utilizing many of the tips from your blog Marko. Video is something that I have been thinking of starting soon as well.
I’d like to think my blog stands out because I have a variety of content.. poetry, photography, blogging tips, social media information. It enables me to gain a wider readership because there’s a little something that almost everyone (hopefully) can appreciate.
~ Kristi
Great advice here. I own several fitness and nutrition centers in Santa Monica, CA, and I know all too well how saturated the blogisphere is with health and wellness blogs. It can be hard to stand out, but you’ve given me some great ideas…thanks!
I tried putting a video together once, but the editing took forever. I’m sure it gets easier as you create more video. Do you outline before creating a video and what tips do you have to stay focused?
Twitter? What’s Twitter? lol
yeah, I’ve been shy to expose my face, but recently did it with a video when I came back from vacation feeling refreshed and all new. I think I might continue with some more videos in the future.
I like that you share so transparently. I know that actually attracts visitors because they see you, and I think there is a certain level of trust garnered from showing your face. Not everyone will do that, and the one’s that do come across as more trustworthy because they are willing to put their face in front of the words.
Nice article, stumbled!
Great post Marko! I think in my niche the best way to stand out is simply to be yourself, as long as yourself is a very entertaining person. Heh.
Marko you said,
@Christopher Holdheide – I would recommend going with video. Having visual touch and being able to show some tips via screen recordings will impress much more than a “boring” audio file
I would have to agree this is a median not yet hit by many bloggers infact I looking into a webcam right now.
Thanks,
Chris Holdheide
Good article.
I agree that video can be a terrific new medium to introduce on your blog. However, I also think that if you can not do it with a level of professionalisim, then don’t bother. I’ve seen some terrible videos and they only turn me off the site. And then I’ve seen some people do it well… like you have here.
I think we all need to be aware of our strengths and weaknesses when we are deciding what to do with our blogs.
As for me, I’m part of a creative team, and co-author my blog. Each of us have regular posts that are themed to our strengths – which I think is working well for us. We haven’t done any video posting, but video content and linking to our youtube channel is something we look to do where ever possible.
Stumbled…
@Manz – Definitely! Good thing about technology and software these days is that it basically allows everyone to make a professional-looking video fairly quickly, with small investment and without much knowledge of video editing.
I figure it’s perfectly fine to “rinse and repeat” what’s been written elsewhere. What makes it unique is your style of presentation from your own perspective. Nothing is more unique than “being yourself”.
The visual touch of video blogging hasn’t lost its novelty yet so jumping into “vblog” bandwagon might be a good idea.
Yan
Great post, and I think the video is new way to go, but not so cheap and more time consuming …
Thanks for all comments!
@3kolone – Yeah, it did take me an hour or so to edit this video plus also it takes some time to upload it etc. But I believe when I get more experienced with creating videos it will not be much more time consuming than writing a post.
@Heather – I would recommend writing a script, rehearsing it and then recording it while reading it from screen. And yes, everyone does hate the sound of their own voice… I put some music in the background to make it a bit easier to stand…
Great post.
I really want to try video blogging (or, “vlogging”), but haven’t gotten up the nerve (or set aside the time) just yet. I think definitely think it adds to the blog and is something worth checking out.
Thanks again for your great tips. I actually just wrote a blog post the other day about the fact that I’m the new kid in a saturated niche (homeschooling and natural parenting), a few of the things I’d been doing to get noticed, and how things were going. I was spurred to write that post because a recent post had been generating a lot of interest, my viewership was higher than ever and another blog blogged about me.
I wondered if being that “transparent” was breaking some rule about Blog Club — You Don’t Blog About Blogging. But you say it’s okay so…
I’m keen to try out video blogging, but my concern is my inability to SPEAK very well. One of the reasons I enjoy blogging is that I’ve always been a MUCH better, clearer, and more coherent writer, than speaker. I stutter a bit, my brain gets stuck, I can’t think and talk at the same time, it’s very frustrating. But I can flow from my fingers easily and actually get my thoughts out. Still, if I work from a prepared script it might not be TOO bad, I just hate my “phone voice” lol…
Great post, and great blog! There are some really great tips in here.
I definately can relate to this.. being in the twitter world- there are thousands of really great blogs all relating to Twitter and social media, definately the concepts, articles, posts are almost all similar to some degree- finding a way to really stand out can be challenging. Will take the advice here and see how it goes.
Thanks so much.
Yeah man …. video appeals more than text ….
Video is something I want to add to my new blog. Thinking of ways to present them that might different.
Great post! Video is definately a move forward and now looks like the right time for it given the improved bandwidth availble to all.
It’s a medium I have recently started to look into more closely and am pleasently surprised how simple it is editing a professional looking video. (Mac users – start playing around with iMovie today)
I’m sure your readers would love to see a post or two on how you can best upload a movie clip onto their blogs.
I noticed Matt Cutts referred to video being a great source of linkage to a blog so I assume the videos are hosted direct rather than linked in from YouTube, etc?
Needless to say, whole new skills are needed with this new method – I haven’t done a video post yet because the ones I’ve trialed so far have resulted in me looking like a stuttering muppet! However, I know that this is something I NEED to get past in order to progress.
I’m sure I’m not the only one in this boat so will the net soon be filled with blogs devoted to providing information and advice on how to look good on camera?
Time will tell but I’d put some pretty big money down that they will!
With the blog community now becoming crowded with regurgitated content this could be a really fresh and up and coming niche. A bull waiting for his horn to be grabbed? (just realised what I wrote, have left unedited for comedy value! ;-D)
Anyhoo, thanks again,
Rich.
Some great thoughts Richard! About links… you can still upload your video to YouTube but embed it into a blog post with some other information, people would still link to your blog post and not just directly to YouTube. And you are definitely spot on with some other comments about video and “how to video” becoming a big field soon.
Thanks for the good read!