The same goes for any blogger. We need to assimilate their ideas into our own then move on, hopefully creating our own view of all our wisdom – Sharing it with all our friends.

This is a great way to look at something that may be perceived as negative and turn it into a positive.

How losing readers can make you smile…

Thanks!

Being a fairly new reader here, I’d like to say that I’m quite surprised to see this post about losing all the readers. Well, I’m still gonna be here.

Daniel

The best weblog niche to write to is the one you have the most ideas about. Honestly, I feel there are two major directions to take when setting up a blog:

1) Choose a business, business plan/model and center a weblog topic around this theme.
2) Write from your passions.

One of the hardest steps in blogging is to keep up the posting rate with fresh ideas. You can only do that if you’re passionately interested in what you’re writing about.

If you want to apply the market focus lessons I mentioned earlier, I think you should look around for what aspect of your niche is being underdeveloped. (i.e., get an opinion and get committed to it). Steve Pavlina’s site is a response to the endless “For dummies” writing, by making his blog “for smart people”. Get Rich Slowly is a response to the get rich quick hype. Zen Habits is a response to the frantic, obsessive personal development model. Figure out what you stand for and see how you can differentiate yourself from the crowd.

If you’re going from the money-making angle, I’d forget starting a blog and focus on how the business is going to work. What are you going to sell/refer that will generate income? How will you make money? Once you answer these questions, a blog can be useful as a marketing device. Just don’t expect to earn big bucks from AdSense just because you picked the right niche.

As to reading self-help, I don’t read much self-help anymore. However, it depends on how narrowly you define the genre. Every once in awhile, someone releases a perspective that completely turns my thinking on its head, so those books are still worth reading. But, there are only so many books you can read on goal-setting or positive thinking before it becomes dull.

As to why self-help authors continually republish, it’s a powerful business model, even if it is a less powerful intellectual model from the reader’s point of view.

Hopefully I can provide a fresh enough perspective to keep people here for awhile, but I don’t intend for people to remain forever. I just hope I gave enough useful advice that people pass my name along after they stop reading the website.

-Scott

Yes, I’ve been wondering about this myself lately. I agree with what you say. Also, sometimes just another author’s different style may enable you to realise something that has been staring you in the face for some time.

One thing though that keeps me going back for more, is humour and writing style. If I enjoy the way someone writes, or their sense of humour, I will read the same ideas if it means that I am almost guaranteed a laugh or interesting expressions.

Juliet