Help Me Improve: Overall Concept on Art of Money
This is the last in my asking for feedback series…so be glad.
I’ve saved the biggest topic for last and that is the overall concept of the site.
It’s my belief that this may be the foundation of the problem, or why I don’t really have great numbers of readers and may have a tough time becoming an A-List blogger.
You see if you check out the top 100 blogs what they [mostly] all have in common is a tightly focused theme.
I’m all over the place…if you look at my list of categories you’ll see that I have enough variation for 10 blogs.
What’s A Generalist To Do?
I’ve always been the “jack of all trades” type. And I knew when I started this blog that the best way to get me feeling stifled and disinterested would be to make the topic too narrow.
The crux of the problem is that I can’t possibly cover: Internet business, business in general, Rich Dad concepts and technical tips for bloggers, among others, well enough to attract a huge following for any of them, but I’ll lose interest if you make me write about only one of them.
Solutions. Should I…
1.) Have 4 [or more] blogs?
2.) Carry on with the status quo and just accept that I’ll never be an A-Lister…which is probably okay?
3.) Grow up and stop over thinking things so much?
4.) Triple my output so that I cover the topics properly?
Blogging is a boutique industry, there is no doubt about that. If you want to make money at it you’d better specialize and dominate a tiny slice of the world. Shopping malls and and Walmarts don’t work in the blogosphere.
Is there a place for generalists in the for-profit blogoshpere?
Search engines and micro focused visitors seem to suggest not, and I don’t see an easy way to bust that trend.
Some Closing Questions
- Does it bug you that this site has no clear focus?
- When you first came here were you confused about what the site was about?
- What do you think Art of Money should be about?
- What would you like to see more of? Less of?
Thanks a lot for you participation and comments,
Jon Symons
Carving out a niche for generalists…so you don’t have to.
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Comments ( 13 )
[...] A month or so ago, based on your feedback, I spent some time and dreamt up what I considered to be the ultimate WordPress template and some new design ideas for the look and feel of the site. It is being coded now as we speak and I’m looking forward to rolling it out in January or February of 2007. [...]
A Look ahead to 2007 for Art of Money | Art Of Money added these pithy words on Dec 29 06 at 1:01 pmmarkinjapan added these pithy words on Oct 13 06 at 8:02 amJon,
Your most interesting posts for me so far are the “out of the rat race” ones.
Why?
Because I can relate to what you’re doing and see myself in the mirror you have created with those posts.Solutions – if being a generalist grabs you more than burrowing down into the innards of RD/PD for example, then honour that (sorry, UK spelling!
However, I relate very strongly when you explain how your knowledge, experience and opinions of these multiple topic areas has helped or hindered you in your escape from a job adventure.
Re Some Closing Questions
* Does it bug you that this site has no clear focus?
Yes.* When you first came here were you confused about what the site was about?
Yes. Still am…* What do you think Art of Money should be about?
Jon Symons Art of choosing to create money on his terms – and the freedom and time it is buying him (and the perils and pitfalls along the way)* What would you like to see more of? Less of?
More teaching on HOW you are creating this lifestyle and how others can do similar.There are a lot of great blogs out there which entertain in the sense of providing intellectual food for thought, like at a good dinner party or friendly debate amongst friends.
I often learn something from these sites and impressed by the author’s knowledge and use of the written word, but they almost never earn anything from me – I don’t perceive them as selling anything I might want, so never in buy mode…In your case, I ask myself will the real Jon Symons please stand up! That is where your truly unique content is going to come from and perhaps the point of the blog will become clearer to you as well.
OK. Thanks for posting “Help Me Improve”. It has certainly helped!
regards
Ty added these pithy words on Oct 13 06 at 8:35 amI too would like to see more focus on “How Jon Symons is making his living on his own terms”. I totally agree that your unique content will be derived from here. I personally know that you have value to offer to us “rat-racers”. Helping us get to where you are/or want to be would be an amazing focus. Skip the generalities and stick with what you are doing, how you are doing it, and why it is important to you.
I have a feeling your readership will blossom!
Great insight Mark!
Jon added these pithy words on Oct 13 06 at 8:47 amMark…thanks a lot for the honest and thoughful answers.
BTW, UK spelling is welcome here. I’m Canadian, so I have to intentionally convert to or [US - sanitize] my spellings to not offend the primarily non-Canuck/UK readership.
Ty…good points too, definitely some things for me to reflect on in your ideas.
andron frolov added these pithy words on Oct 13 06 at 10:58 amJust FYI this is the first post i have ever made on ANY site, which goes to show the esteem i hold of your website. Basically it boils down to this:
when i found your blog i liked it. after reading through about 5 months of posts i liked it even more, since it perfectly epitomizes the exact situation that i find myself in right now. the links to great content were damn near priceless. since i found your site when i want to find information on online marketing, or reviews on “infoprodcreation” i go to your site first and quite often it’s the only site i need.
quit yer’ winin’ and keep doing what you’re doing!andron frolov
-aF
Kimber added these pithy words on Oct 13 06 at 5:39 pmWell, I read because I like to see what you’re up to.
I think you need to examine why you’re blogging.
And what you bring to the blogosphere that is unique.Personally I agree with the other posters in saying that getting out of the rat race is a rare place to be. Similar to NoLimitsLadies. That topic allows us to post on just about anything that contributed to our place of freedom. We divide the week up into topics to add structure.
But we ensure that everything we post brings us and the reader one step closer to financial freedom.
Jon added these pithy words on Oct 13 06 at 7:18 pm“quit yer’ winin’ and keep doing what you’re doing!”
I love it. Message received loud and clear!“…getting out of the rat race is a rare place to be.”
Agreed, it’s still feeling like a bit of a tentative escape for me, but I think even then I have been undervaluing it. I know that many, many would love to get there and I realize that focusing on giving tips or advice to help people accomplish that as well would be a pretty good place to start as the “mission” of this site. Thanks Kimber.
David added these pithy words on Oct 14 06 at 1:21 amJon,
Rich Schefren goes on and on about how its absolutely crucial to have a laser sharp target market, and a focused offering that appeals to that market. You need to position yourself as an expert in a niche you can dominate.
However, I like the broad nature of topics you are covering, all around the topic of personal finance. I think your niche should be bringing these topics to a specific audience profile; in a way they can understand.
For example, you could bring the message of personal finance to techies; written with witty programing references etc. You could then try to partner up with one of the big techie lists, or perhaps buy some space on a site like Slashdot.
HTH,
David
Jon added these pithy words on Oct 14 06 at 8:51 amDavid,
I like the concept of bringing personal finance to techies…there is a viable niche there. It is interesting and it shows that I do have a pretty broad audience, because a lot of my readers are completely not technical [that's what inspired me to put the Real Blog Videos together] and then there are others who come from a technical background like me and are interested in the Rich Dad and personal finance topics.
I’m learning a lot with this series
Jon
John added these pithy words on Nov 10 06 at 9:33 pmHey, I think this site is great. Yea it’s really general, but for me personally it is exactly the type of thing I’m looking for right now. I just started blog this week…in its very preliminary stages. I made the decision to start it after reading Steve Pavlina (spelling?) then to problogger where I bought your video on wordpress and how to registger a domain name etc…and since I found it to be quite helpfull (not all the way through it yet) I decided to look at your site that you mentioned in the video…and then it all came full circle when I saw that you wrote bout personal development for smart people (even though you mentioned a grude you had against him) I suppose its a top 100 site so its not that crazy a coincidence, but I wasnt expecting it. Anyway I like what your doing so keep it up, I’m in the spong stage right now with this blogging stuff, trying so soak up as much as I can. Cheers.
Jon added these pithy words on Nov 10 06 at 9:38 pmThanks a lot John…it’s only a very tiny grudge with Steve Pavlina, I read his site too and like it a lot.
Good luck with the site and thanks for purchasing the videos.
Jon
Yaro added these pithy words on Dec 29 06 at 7:33 pmHi Jon,
You know one of the major problems, or at least symptoms of not having a clear focus on a blog, is not attracting the right audience. Hence everyone says “pick a niche and really focus on it”. It makes sense.
You of course realize that not just picking a niche is important – you need to pick one that other people actually care about. No point having a niche without an audience.
The key to traffic is providing value. Without value you won’t build much traffic.
So what do you do? You ask your audience what they want, considering that you want to provide value in a very specific niche that has enough people in it to make it worth your while.
Easy right?
Now that’s all sound advice which you are following exactly by making this post asking for feedback.
However in my experience there is one thing missing that is often not given enough thought – the reason you want to blog in the first place.
As much as the focus needs to be on your readers, it’s actually more important to outline your purpose for blogging first, and then extrapolate all the above from YOUR motivations.
The reason this is important is because without leveraging your own strengths, unless you plan to outsource the writing of your blog, it will be very difficult to meet the needs of the niche audience you eventually decide to go with.
So the very first question I would ask you is what do you want this blog to do for you?
Jon added these pithy words on Dec 29 06 at 10:42 pmGood question Yaro. In the couple months since I wrote this post and did the whole review, I realized that getting feedback from my readers was a little bit like a tour bus driver asking the passengers where they wanted to go…he’ll get 50 different answers.
I know that it is best for me to just take them on a tour and I guess I was hoping, since I know it’s an easier sell…especially at first, to find a unifiying theme for the tourbus.
I think now I’ve come to accept that I just like to write and have a home online. So, to answer you question, I just want this blog to provide me an online playground where I can meet some friends, speak my mind and have fun. That’s the best answer I have at the moment and I think that attitude gives me a chance to find a focus, but it will likely evolve from my play, rather than by design [I'm alway jealous of blogs like yours that seem so well designed].