I’ve been blogging since 2010 and a common piece of advice is to pick your niche and stay in it. For beginning bloggers, this is a great place to start. Having one or two topics you can stick to gives you focus and motivation. It also makes it easier to create a habit out of something that is new and unfamiliar.
But as someone who has been blogging for a long time, sticking to the niche can start to feel confining. In fact, sticking to a few repetitive topics for a long time can put a damper on how inspired I feel and even how helpful I can be. My writing is more powerful when it comes from what is meaningful to me in the moment, even if it is off niche.
I’ve been doing some deeper research into blogging without a niche, and I’ve realized that the structure of the modern internet does allow my work to be found, regardless of the topic, even if it’s off niche. I know that sounds a bit obvious, but those giving blogging advice tend to be so adamant about staying on topic, that it’s easy to forget the reality of how things work. What really matters is that I use keywords to signal which audience my post is designed for. So if someone needs a specific article I write, they will find it, even if it doesn’t fit into the themes I try to weave into my blog.
Currently this blog is built around the topics of being organized and making things happen for INFPs, highly sensitive people, and multipotentialites. I really enjoy these topics, and I’ll have articles to write about them for a long time. But at my current stage as a blogger, I also want to share more about my process. I want to share what is involved in how I create things and the aspects of my business as a self-published indie author. I also want to share more about the intentions behind what I write and the directions that my creative life is taking me in.
Since I’m naturally chaotic, highly sensitive, a multipotentialite, and an INFP myself, what I write will naturally reflect those ways of being. But as a result, my blog is going to be a little less focused than it has been. I hope that in relaxing my focus, I can bring more insight into what it’s like being a creative wanderer, and how that enriches my life all the time.
Right now, I’m working on the draft of a new book that looks into how creative explorers approach life and how they find direction. And like the saying goes about how when you’re working on a draft, your draft works on you, this blog post is a result of working on that book.
So enough of stubbornly sticking to the niche! For now I will be sharing what’s helpful, regardless of who it’s for or what form it comes in.
(P.S. If you resonate with the idea of being a creative explorer or wanderer, you may like my book I Want to Do All the Things: Finding Balance as a Polymath, Multipotentialite & Renaissance Soul)