Create content for that single admirer

Mar 05, 2008

You should always generate content for a single person because it is simply not possible to create content that is liked by everybody who comes to your website or blog. It is better to have a single admirer than being read by a thousand indifferent readers to whom it doesn’t matter whether you write again or not.

That single admirer eagerly awaits your next blog post or your next article. He or she not only goes through your suggestions, he or she also implements them on his or her daily life and sees his or her life improving. So he or she comes back for more, and as you consistently provide value to that single admirer he or she keeps coming back and recommends you wherever possible.

This concept of gaining admirers or fans is comprehensibly discussed at this link.

That is why a niche subject is more preferable over a generic subject. When you try to publish on every topic under the sun on your blog or website in order to please a broad section of people it is very hard to succeed unless you are creating great amount of content in very little time. There are blogs that post just one post per week and they enjoy a great fan following and there are some blogs that produce tons of content and still very few people go and read those blogs. What do successful blogs and websites have in common?

They produce and publish highly focused content
They produce and publish highly focused content, consistently

These are the two ingredients that earn you hardcore fans and admirers. Strive to cater to selected few and excel in that; earn an authority in that vertical subject matter and give your readers a reason to trust you and have faith in your wisdom.

Quantity doesn’t matter if it doesn’t bring results. Recently I came across a blog that boasted of around 15,000 RSS subscribers and earned about $300 per month as advertising revenue and that was the sole earning of the blog.

I’m not saying that the quality and success of a blog or a website should be gauged by the amount of money it earns, but the thing is, if you’re making a big change in the lives of your readers and there is no tangible return for you aside from a moral satisfaction, then you are doing a social service and not a business. Then content publishing is not your business. Content publishing becomes a business when it earns money for you, directly or indirectly.

The example that I have used above could be a wrong one. Regular readers don’t pay any heed to the ads appearing on a blog or website. It isn’t necessary that every blog and website publishing content should depend on advertising revenue. There can be many other ways a highly-read blog or website can be exploited to make monetary gains. For instance you can sell products and your own services through your successful blog or website.

But I digress here. The main point is that instead of publishing content for a broad range of audience you should create and publish content for a selected few. The reach of the Internet is so amazing that even "a selected few" can turn out to be a few thousand or a few hundred thousand dedicated readers who would like to buy what you recommend, or who would buy your products and services.