A few days ago, Daniel Scocco shared a few lessons he's learned growing a blog to a million monthly pageviews. Here are the first two:

1. Choose Your Niche Wisely

Most people who read this blog [meaning Daily Blog Tips] probably think it is my largest and most profitable website. Well, it's not... Niches like blogging, make money online, SEO or Internet marketing are pretty small when compared with mainstream stuff like gadgets, movies and television, cars, health and so on...

2. Find A Unique Angle

While picking the right, relatively large niche is important, I wouldn't recommend you to start yet another tech or cars blog, where you would get most of your content from other, larger blogs and sites...if you just write about what everyone else is writing, after them, people will have no reason to visit your site. The solution? You need to find a unique angle.

If you can own a small niche that's full of buyers, you're in good shape. But if the niche you love most is too small, you can't own a big enough piece of it, or if nobody spends much money there, you're better off writing to a larger audience.

Just to be sure you didn't misread Daniel's second tip -- he didn't say "don't get into one of the big niches I recommended in tip #1". He said "find a unique angle."

Even if you're writing about all the same stuff as everyone else, you've got to write about it differently...in a way that makes you worth reading.

  • If everybody else is just reporting the news, be the guy who predicts where it's leading (and how to avoid the problems that are arising).
  • If everybody else is a fanboy, be the guy who surfaces the problems and suggests solutions.
  • If everybody else in the niche is a man, give the woman's perspective.
  • If everybody else is writing from USA, give the world view.
  • If everybody else is writing to the rich, show the middle class how they can get their share.
  • If everybody else is just-the-facts, be the guy who adds personality.

Just remember, your angle needs to be both unique and in some way valuable. That can be because it's more useful, more entertaining, more focused on a segment of the market...whatever. There's no point being different in a way that nobody cares about.

Reader Comment:
Nikole Fairview said:
This is great advice. It's also interesting and sobering to realize how the rest of the world has no interest in this whole SEO and marketing game we find ourselves in, lol. I would have thought this was your biggest blog, but it makes sense that o...
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For more ideas, check out this post I wrote back in March about how to find your own personal goldmine of unique selling angles.