Niches are Hard to Find (My Blogging Manifesto)

“You don’t put yourself online only because you have something to say—you can put yourself online to find something to say.”

— Austin Kleon

I started blogging in 2004.

View fullsize

From 2006-2014 I spuradically blogged while we lived in central Asia.
In 2014 the blog came under a new URL.
The spuradic blogging started again.
I made up my mind to get consistent with this thing and blogged every day for nearly two years.
Then I blogged when I felt like it.
Then stopped altogether because I needed to think this through.

Here was my problem. I wasn't sure what I had to say.
All the experts tell us to pick a niche and stay there. Google apparetnly loves you more when you do that. I certainly do not consider myself a deeply original thinker with new, daily, earth-shattering ideas. My idea-creation style comes from wide reading and disperate connections. I rarlely have an original idea. But I do often create some pretty decent iterations of other people's ideas.
For this reason -

I'm not great at niches.

For a time this space was about leadership and creativity (with a smattering of spirituality, coffee, productivity, and culture. Told you. A niche is a hard thing to find in my life.)

I stopped the daily blogging and missed it. But my brain went into deep overthink mode, asking lots of questions. What will this accomplish? How will this benefit my career trajectory? Am I in the right niche?
I mean - leadership and leadership development is my vocation. Criminiy. I'm writing a book about it. Should I stick with this? Will I ever get the SEO right, so this website appears on page 1 of a Google search for leadership? Can I ever expect to share Internet real estate with Brene' Brown, Simon Sinek, and John Maxwell?

I was walking the other morning and realized I am asking the wrong questions.

Austin Kleon's quote from his wonderful little book called "Show Your Work" came across my desk that day.

Kleon blogs daily. He talks about everything from his kids to his pandemic artwork to his current writing projects. He uses his blog to practice what he preaches. Show your work. Practice in public. Become a documentarian of what you do. Publish to discover your own kind.

That mnakes sense to me.
I don't need (or necessarily even want) to share Google's page 1 with John Maxwell. I'm not even a fan of his leadership style anyway.

I do want to share this space with other people who might be interested in exploring some of the same things I am. You are my niche, as I am also yours.

Here is my blogging manifesto moving forward:

1. I will make every attempt to post something here every day.
2. I can post about whatever I want. No niche necessary.
3. I will create regular posts that show readers what I'm working on right now. The process, the procrastination, the product, and everything in between. Process is as important as product.
4. Audience building will happen. Long tail. Slow and steady. It will not be my focus.
5. I will be generous.
6. I will create monthly long-form posts to explore topics of interest with greater depth.
7. Photography is important. It will therefore be a regular and prominent part of this blog.
8. Doing something is better than doing nothing.
9. This site is about iteration and continual improvement.
10. While I will always try to appropriately monetize, that will not be my primary focus. Process and product.
11. If I miss a day or two. I'm not going to sweat it. Three day's silence, there should be a really good reason. I will sweat it after a week.

I don't know if my blogging manifesto finished or not. But it's where we're going. It might be fun to formalize this a little.
I'll think about it.

Now may be a great time to re-read "Show Your Work."