How Micro Is Your Ultra-nano Niche?

In researching blogging I have identified a frustrating quandary; a Blogger’s Dilemma. I can best frame it in this way.

For clarity I am going to discount blogging as a hobby here and just refer to ‘Business Blogging’. This is still a broadly-defined and imprecise term itself: one including both blogs owned by businesses and blogs written by individuals where their persistent topics are primarily concerned with their field of commercial expertise.

In my MA research the two relevant sets are the blogs of Irish graphic design companies and of individual Irish graphic designers.

While the aims and objectives of such blogs are as individual and unique as their creators, in achieving their aims they all have to address attention and reputation, which are the two currencies of the Internet.

To maximize attention and gain the best (reputational) return on their efforts, it is worth considering whether their best approach to go ultra-narrow in focus and become the recognised expert of a very unique and specific area. For example by become Ireland’s expert blogger on the design of corporate identity systems for Irish state agencies; or on designing literature systems for Irish third-level institutions; or on bilingual design conforming to Official Languages Act. The scope is endless.

If a substantial cohort of professional Irish graphic design bloggers adopted this approach, the end-state would be a deep reservoir of focused experts, all discoverable via the Internet. Given that most of the blogs reviewed in my research are generalist in their approach, being far more specialized may be a viable strategy for elevating Irish graphic design blogs out of obscurity.