Wow. I have written 300 obscure rants from many different directions. As I look back on the last two years I have been at this (I know two years), I can say it’s been worthwhile experience for me. I usually don’t stick with things long enough to find out whether are worth it or not, and to be honest it’s a bloody miracle I managed to get a PhD!
That said, this has been fun. There are some amazing things I have learned about writing for different audiences, not using big obscure words, dealing with dickhead flamers and so on. Yet, the biggest lesson I learned was how to be me. Just do it. Is that sense I think:
The internet is more like a flea market than a niche market
I have posted on just about everything over the last two years. I have to take issue with the idea of posting content for a niche. I know, this blog hardly breaks any records. But I am proud to say that I have 79 people who read my feed (okay so I know a few of those people) and 170 odd unique visits a day. When you think about it, that’s a real lot of people. 1126 this month so far as a matter of fact. Now, when I started I was talking about business mainly, but I found I also wanted to talk about personal development. So I switched to that. Then I switched back, then I switched back again! After about the 150th post I realised what I should have known all along. I am very different. I need to be me, or just bugger off. If I am 170 people interesting, then so be it! I will be me, and to hell with the Bob’s of this world who don’t like what I write.
So as for the niche? I don’t have one. You could frame this blog in such a way that it had a niche market and I could write enough about something to warrant 30 posts or so. But you know what? My niche is that I want to think about everything. So here is a list of things that I have talked about so far:
- Real Estate
- Problem Solving
- Creativity
- Relationships
- Personal Development
- Learning
- Thinking
- Education
- Work
- And a whole lot more
And you will be pleased to know that Google likes these posts the most:
- It’s OK to Fail (oh the irony)
- 7 signs of a failing relationship
- Developing a sense of self-worth
- 4 Ways to come with cool ideas
- Living from the heart
Now there is a theme there… living from the heart, knowing your worth and such and such. But I didn’t set out to write that. It emerged through my voice as I blogged and blogged and BLOGGED! Sometimes if you set out to achieve something such as writing a ‘finance’ blog, you may find after the 40th post that you don’t really want to go in that direction anymore. For God’s sake… CHANGE! There is so much ‘sameness’ in life. So many things that are normal. Be the odd one out. Do something differnet. Hey, why not THAT’S SUPER!
The future
Should I build a niche? I don’t think so. If I did I would feel a cold restriction. I (and I alone probably!) think that writing should not be bounded. I am not against genre fiction for example, but it’s sad that so much fiction is ‘horror’ or ‘comedy’ or ‘action’. Isn’t life a mixture of these things? I think our writing should earnestly reflect what we do in a meaningful way, it should capture drama, horror and science fiction (ok maybe not this – I am a fan). In the future I will keep going and writing about things that interest me. It will be rambling, but I am sure in there somewhere will be some coherence! At least I hope so. To my small amount of readers. Thank you. I am very humbled by the fact that you glance at my feeds occassionaly and I am impressed by your discipline and support. 
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I find myself doing the same. If people didn’t like your post they wouldn’t come back to read more. Keep Writing!!!
Patrick
Thanks for the comment Patrick.
Hi Luke,
Thanks for the good read. I too believe in individuality. Writing is a very personal thing. I feel it is a way for your audience to get to know you, not just another form of advertising. There are enough robots in the world and I am not interested in being one.It is nice to see there is someone else who feels the same way as I do.
Keep up the good work.
Theresa
It took me a long time to realise that I could just be myself… I was trying very hard to fit in. Then it hit me, I am unique as we all are. I have to be me… there is no choice!
Thanks for encouragement Theresa… all the best.
Congrats on reaching 300.
You might not have a niche, but I enjoy reading.
Thanks John… same here… your blog is excellent by the way.
Hi, Luke. Congratulations!
You may recall my first comment acknowledged your originality, and then I claimed bragging rights on my blog for having discovered you
You may be one of the few people on this planet who might truly grasp what my latest piece is about (hope the link above works). Not for me the eschewal of grandiloquence, of course. But I have always taken the view that relishing language is as valid as talking sense.
Anyway… thank you for always having been you and for showing us all the way to embrace our individuality, heart to heart.
Hi Alan,
It did but I lacked confidence enough to see it. I failed to recognise my own ability to be original, probably due to the fact that I have been in a phase of ‘redefining’ myself. A psychologist I know talks of an inability to comprehend ourselves and that we have to rely on others to know what we are like. Without putting to fine a point on it, I think to a certain extent I find this to be so. At least today. Tomorrow, I probably will have another opinion, such is the whim of the moment it seems!
RE: the poem. I am not sure I understand it but it’s wonderfully written. The feeling I got from it was one of expression. “a time before the web of syntax and connotation ensnared our growing minds and confined them in a shrinking world.” as a case in point. The amount of times I have felt this way… are numerous. I have ideas that I express yet when I do that, I fail to adequately explain what I mean and they are often not what I intended or any good. I remember once explaining the idea of William James’ passive concepts and thought it was the most powerful thing ever. A very astute student showed me the higher concepts in two mintues and made me realise some very important things such as I can spend a long time in the clouds at the end of day and still come out cloudy. By the way I loved the idea of your novel (that isn’t a novel), I was reading it. I had no idea you could do those kinds of things on deviant art.
hi luke,
congrats, ever thought about compiling everything into a book?
Sameer
Hi Sameer,
I have thought about it. I was working on something but it fell through! Nevermind…
Another excellent post that I can only agree with. Keep blogging so I can keep enjoying
Better late than never, eh, Luke? I’m bound to agree with your psychologist friend, who observes a logical consequence of perception based on mismatched expectation.
Anyway, thank you for your kind words about my writing. It seems my expectations of you were entirely realistic
I would just beg you to extend your notion of “expression” to include “conception”. The ideas you have that you are (for what reasons?) enthusiastic enough about to express are not what the whole you desires to share. An idea is not interesting in isolation, only as a note in the chord it completes (which, ok, may well be dissonant).
The interesting thing right now about the novel that shall never be is how it finally got round to expressing the previously unconceived idea that was driving it: “‘It is because the reader’s responses and whole state of mind are incorporated directly into the act of reading it, without qualification, that there is a kernel of truth within even the most fictitious elements of the novel.’” In other words, it’s not about the expression or sharing of ideas, it’s about being the reader in the moment of reading. As you are. Now.