Is it better to go all in on one niche or spread your bets across multiple topics?

I've been writing a blog for about 8 months now and I kept hearing different advice. Some people say pick one thing like "dog training" and only write about that. Others say write about whatever you want and see what sticks. So I tried the niche approach for 3 months writing only about fixing old motorcycles. My traffic was slow like maybe 200 visitors a month. Then I switched to writing about motorcycle repair, camping gear reviews, and road trip stories all mixed together. That got me to about 800 visitors a month in just 2 months. But now I'm wondering if I'm building an audience that actually cares about any one thing. What's your experience been with focusing down versus staying broad? Does the niche strategy just take longer to pay off or is it always better?

2 comments

2 Comments

thead441mo ago

Wait, is this me writing this post? I had the exact same thing happen with my gardening blog (trying to be a "rose expert" was brutal, 50 visitors a month) versus just posting whatever I felt like about plants, bugs, and random yard projects. That got me to 600 visitors in like a month and a half, but now I'm also scared nobody actually subscribes because they don't know what I'm about, you know?

amygonzalez1mo ago

Had a buddy go through this exact thing with his fishing blog. He tried to be the "expert" on catching bass in murky water, got like 30 readers a month. Then he just started posting his messy tackle box finds and funny stories about his dog jumping in the lake. Traffic shot up to 400 visitors but nobody subscribed because they thought it was just random updates. He finally added one simple line at the end of each post like "if you want more messy fishing stories, hit subscribe." That did the trick, subscriptions went up slow but steady.