070 How To Select A Single Focus For Your Blog To Have A Greater ...

I?ve been struggling with something over the last few weeks. It has been a struggle with identity. The question I kept asking myself is this:

I know what you?re thinking. Leslie, you teach people how to find their niches. Leslie, you know what your niche is? You run the podcast where I learn, you learn, we all learn about?those things like Internet marketing, online business blogging, traffic generation, social media, all that www stuff.

Yeah, I know ? but really? If you read that line again, you will notice that it?s one of the most vague statements in internet marketing, lol.

So off I went, on a quest to rediscover what I?m about, and what my podcast is about.

I can now say that I?ve narrowed down my niche. I teach people?how to build an online business with an authority blog. That?s EXACTLY what I do!

How did I narrow it down? That?s what I share in this episode with you.

And of course, I go into MUCH more detail in the podcast, so make sure to listen in!

Some people like to be able to read a transcript while listening to the podcast, or just read the transcript without even listening. If you are one of those people, not to worry ? We?ve made the transcript available for you below.

[Intro by Guy Kawasaki, Gideon Shalwick, and Farnoosh Brock]

Introductions

Hello, hello, hello and welcome to another episode of Learning with Leslie, the podcast where you learn, I learn, we all learn about how to build an online business with an authority blog. No, I?m not talking about one of those blogs that will fall by the wayside when Google has a mood swing. I?m talking about one that will thrive no matter what gets thrown at it. I?m your host, Leslie Samuel, the authority blogger from LearningWithLeslie.com. And, I have another exciting episode for you today.

Today, I?m going to be explaining what in the world just happened. If you?ve been listening to me before why, you probably noticed that my introduction has changed significantly. And, what I?m going to be talking about is how to select a single focus for your blog to have a greater impact. This is something that I?m going through right now, and I want to share it with you as it?s happening because there?s a lot that I?m learning. There?s a lot that I am going through, and I want to help you out with those same type of things that I?m dealing with. So, that?s what I?m going to talk about today.

All right, I have a lot to talk about, well, it?s not really that much than normal. But, I have a very interesting topic to talk about because something that I have been dealing for the last few weeks. I have been trying to think through things, think though what I?m doing online, and what I?m trying to accomplish, what really is my main focus.

I want to talk a little bit about that process, and how I?m going through it, how I?m dealing with it, and hopefully, I can do it in a way that it helps you because you?re probably out there trying to build a blog, trying to build an audience and trying to grow an online business, and I want you to learn from my experiences. I want to learn from your experiences. I learn, you learn, we all learn. You know where I got that from? It was a commercial about ice cream. It was, ?I scream, we all scream for ice cream.? So, I?d figure, I learn, you learn, we all learn about how to build an online business with an authority blog.

First, Your Call

Anyhow, before I go into the contents for today, I have a call that came in from Christi White. It?s a special call to me because it really kind of explains? to me, it shares light on why I do what I do, and it?s very significant to me. I?m going to share that call with you right now.

?Hi Leslie! This is Christi White. I?m calling from central Massachusetts, and I?m a new listener of your podcast. And, also I am very, very new to Internet marketing. And, I wanted to just take a moment to thank you so much for the wisdom, and experience that you share on your website, and in your podcast. I really want you to know how much I appreciate, the information you give.

One thing that I think makes you unique is that you are very close to the action with the recent success of your Interactive Biology website, and I think you bring that into your Internet marketing efforts, and I really appreciate that especially as someone who is just beginning that journey, and just entering the Internet marketing space. But, from a content perspective, from a non-Internet marketing content perspective, so I really, really appreciate all you do, and all you have to offer, and I just wanted to say, thanks.?

Well, Christi thank you so very much for calling that in. It?s kind of why I do what I do because as you go out there, and learn, there are two things that you can do with that information. You can keep that information for yourself, or you can share that information with someone else. So, that, they can benefit from the knowledge that you?re getting, so that they can learn along with you, and maybe, they can avoid some of the mistakes that you made. So, to hear a comment like that really makes me feel as if I am accomplishing my goal. That is really why I do what I do. So, thank you for calling that in.

Yes, you know, it?s just a great feeling to hear those types of comments. As you?re blogging, you don?t always know what kind of impact you?re having, so when you?re able to hear those things in the middle of everything that you?re doing, sometimes in the midst of some of the negative stuff because if you?re blogging the right way, you will hear negative, I get negative with what I do here. I get negative with that I do over at my Interactive Biology site. But, the great thing is that the positive far outweighs the negative. And, that gives you inspiration, and motivation to continue working at it, to continue putting in your sweat and tears, hopefully not as many tears, but more sweat that build some of the substantial that can help people all over the world. So, thank you once again for calling that in.

I just want to remind everyone else, if you have a question that you like to hear on the show, if you have a comment that you would like for me to talk about, or something of that sort, please feel free to call the hotline. Just in case you don?t know the number, I?m going to have my wife sing it for you? 888-835-2414. There you go. You can call that hotline anytime of the day, anytime of the night. Leave that message, and I will play it on the show. If it?s a question, I?ll answer it. If it?s a suggestion, I?ll take the suggestion. I might not do it exactly what it says, but I?m definitely going to play it, and talk about it. So, yes, feel free to do that any time.

Making Changes to Get Focused

Now, I want to talk about this process that I?ve been going through over the last few weeks. The main thing that I?ve been trying to ask myself is, what really is the focus of what I do online? Why do I do this podcast?

If you listen to my podcast, any episode before this, you?ll hear me say that, ?This is the podcast where you learn, I learn, we all learn about those things like Internet marketing, online business blogging, traffic generation, social media, you know, all that www stuff.? And then, I say, ?I started this podcast to share what I?ve learned about Internet marketing, what I?m still learning today, and to interview other experts who can help us all along in our blogging journeys.?

Now, that?s a mouthful. Not only is it a mouthful, but really, what I?m trying to do in that statement, or what it seems as if I?m trying to do in that statement is cover everything, cover every aspect of Internet Marketing. There?s a problem with that. And, I have been realizing this problem. I have been recognizing that there is a problem, and I realize that I need to make a change.

What is my focus?

So, that?s what I?ve been going through. This process of trying to figure out, okay, really, what is my podcast really about? What do I really blog about? What is the purpose of Learning with Leslie? And then, I realized that it was not just about Internet marketing for everyone. It was not just about all these different things, traffic generation, social media, and all those things. But, my focus has to do with building an online business by using an authority blog, by building an authority blog, building your business around your blog, and not just some blog that you throw up there just for fun, or just to make a few dollars here and there. It?s a blog that you build to become an authority in your niche, in your industry, for your topic to become an authority.

That?s something that takes a lot of work. But, that is really what I?m passionate about. That is what I did with my Biology site. My Biology site is now an authority. People search for all kinds of information on the Internet, and they come to my blog because it?s very relevant to what their search is if they are searching for something in their field of Biology, if they are searching for something in the field of Physiology and Neurobiology, and all those types of things.

If I were to look at my Google Analytics account, I?m actually pulling it up right now, I can see that in the last 30 days, there have been 7, 231 keyword searches that have brought traffic to my site, that has brought about 21,106 visits to my site. Now, that is SIGNIFICANT! That is significant. And, it is significant because I have taken the time and effort to build an authority blog, and that is what I am passionate about? helping other people to do the exact same thing. Not necessarily for Biology, although if that?s what you want to do, hey, have at it, but for whatever topic you are passionate about, setting up an authority blog, building an authority blog, and that is my focus.

Benefits of Having a Single Focus

Your Blog Makes a Greater Impact

Now, I want to talk a little bit about the benefits of having a single focus. One of the main benefits that I see in doing this is that it allows you to have a greater impact. We?re going to switch gears, and take a really quick Physics class, a Physics lesson, because I used to be a Physics teacher, and this is an example I?ve said in the past, but I want to re-emphasize it because it?s very significant.

There?s a formula in Physics. The formula for calculating pressure. The formula is this:

P = F/A

P stands for Pressure, F stands for Force, and A stands for Area. It allows you to calculate the pressure if you know the force and the area. Let?s try to make this really practical. If I take my hand, my fist right now, and I take my fist, and I just hit it down on your leg. I just hit you on your leg. It might hurt. It might hurt a little bit. If I apply a certain amount of force to that area on your leg, it might hurt.

But, what would happen if instead of applying that force to that general area of your leg, I take a needle, and I put that needle on your leg, and then, I applied the same amount of force. Now, in the first situation with me hitting your leg, you may say, ?Ouch!? You may not say, ?Ouch!? Who knows? It depends on how much that force is. But, if I take that same amount of force, and I apply it to your leg, but on top of a needle! Ah! You are going to feel that pain, and the reason for that is you have a much smaller area that you?re applying that same amount of force to.

Pressure is force over area. If you have the same amount of force, and the area is much smaller, the pressure is going to be much greater to the extent that you are going to scream. If you don?t scream in that situation, I don?t know what in the world is up with you. But, that?s what it allows us to do. When you?re focused in a certain amount of force, a certain amount of effort, a certain amount of energy on a smaller area, you are able to have a greater impact.

Does that make sense? I hope it make sense. Because to me, it make sense. You focus on something, focus on a narrow area, as a narrow niche within your niche, or a sub-niche, I like to call it, that will allow you to have a greater impact. You narrow your focus. You get much more done. That?s the first benefit of having a single focus. It allows you to have a greater impact, and you can think about that pressure example, hopefully, it?s not painful to you. But, you can think about that to illustrate the point.

People Know What to Expect from your Blog

The next benefit is that people know exactly what to expect when they come to your blog. People know exactly what to expect. WHen you listen to my podcast, and you hear that it?s about Internet marketing, online business, traffic generation, blogging, social media, and all that www stuff, maybe you might be only interested in social media. And, if you?re only interested in social media, and you come and listen, and I?m not talking about social media, but I?m talking about blogging, well, this is not what you?re interested in, so what?s going to happen, you end up leaving.

That?s the same way it works with our blogs. When you set up a blog, you need to have a single focus, so that people know exactly what to expect when they are coming to your blog for new content. That is a huge benefit. Now, that doesn?t mean that you can?t talk about anything. As I talk about building an authority blog, well, social media is involved in that process, and I can bring social media in there. Traffic generation definitely is involved, and I can bring traffic generation in there. But, you know that the are reason for bringing all of these different things in, is because we are trying to grow authority blogs.

A Single Focus Brings the Right Audience to Your Blog

Okay, so, benefit number one, it allows you to have greater impact. Number two, people know exactly what to expect, and number three, it brings you the right audience. When someone searches in Google, they are searching for a specific topic. And, if they come to your site, and it is catering to that specific topic in a particular blogpost, but then, they look around, and they see all these other blog posts that you have, all these other content that you have, that is directly related to what they?re looking for, that is a very targeted visitor to your site. That is exactly what you want.

You want people to come to your blog and say, ?This is exactly what I was looking for. I am going to be here everyday. I am going to check it out as much as possible. I?m going to share this thing with all mu friends because I am the right audience for this blog.?

A Single Focus Gives You Clarity

Benefit number one, greater impact. Number two, people know what to expect. Number three, it brings you the right audience. And, number four, this is very significant. They are all very significant. And, I feel like I keep saying that. But, number four is that it gives you as the authority blogger, as the cotent creator, it gives you clarity. It gives you clarity because you know exactly what you don?t have to worry about. You know exactly what you have to focus on because you know what your single focus is.

A Single Focus Allows your to Thrive

And, the last benefit of doing this, not the last benefit, there are many other benefits, but the last one I?m going to mention today on this podcast is it allows you to get into a sub-niche, of a very popular niche, and still thrive. It allows you to get into a sub-niche, of a very popular niche, and still thrive. There are certain niches that are very popular, and they are very popular because people spend money in those niches.

A lot of time, we look at the competition and we think to ourselves, man, I could never get into that. I?m passionate about that topic, but I can?t get into that. There?s too much competition. But, if you were to narrow it down and find a single focus, a sub-niche within that niche, you can still benefit from the fact that you?re in this very popular category, but focusing on one single focus, allowing you to distinguish yourself from all the others out there, and to have a greater impact.

Number one, it allows you to have a greater impact. If you have a single focus, people know exactly what to expect when they come to your blog, it brings you the right kind of audience, that targeted audience that you want to visit your website. Number four, it gives you clarity, and number five, it allows you to get into a sub-niche of a very popular niche, and still thrive.

Coming Up with a Single Focus

So, we know the benefits. Now, how do you go about doing this? What am I going through right now to help me, what did I go through to help me come to this single focus of catering to authority bloggers, or people that want to become authority bloggers, building online businesses around the authority blogs.

But, I?m going to talk about a number of things that you can do, a number of questions that you can keep in mind to help you to decide what your single focus should be, so that, you can have that greater impact.

Keyword Search

Number one, I?m going to address this first because this is my least favorite one. This one makes sense, and there?s kind of like an art and a science of doing it. I just finished doing a webinar about this for the Become a Blogger?members, and I really enjoyed it. Got some great questions, and great feedback. But, it?s a thing that I enjoy the least, and that is this? you can always do the keyword research.

This is something, like I said, it makes sense, and it can be very powerful, very effective, and in no way am I discouraging you from doing keyword research. But, this is not something that gets me excited. I don?t get excited from looking at numbers. I don?t get excited from knowing exactly how many people are searching for certain keywords. I do it once in a while because I understand how effective it can be to help you narrow down on a topic, to help you choose the right words, the right keywords to use in a post, to help you to decide on what kind of content to make, and so on.

This is something that you can always do to help you to narrow down on a sub-niche because you can figure out how many people are searching. You can check out how much competition there is, and then, you can narrow it down, and not narrow it down, especially if you?re using a tool like Market Samurai, which is the only one I use because it makes it much easier. But, you can do the keyword research, and that?s one way to give you an idea.

Narrow Things Down and Get Specific by Asking Yourself a Question

The next one is to ask yourself a question. This is the part that I really love. Ask yourself what you are really passionate about, and really narrow it down to one specific thing. So, it?s not just Internet Marketing. It?s Internet Marketing for people who want to build their businesses around authority blog. It?s not just health and fitness. It?s about fitness for pregnant females in their 20?s. That?s very specific. It?s not just about social media. It?s, for example, how Universities can use social media to get more students. Those are specific and the more specific, the better. Why? For those reasons, why I spoke about earlier. So, you can listen to that again if you forgot. Hopefully, you?ve been taking notes. If not, it?s all good. You can check out my notes, or whatever.

Determine Who ARE and ARE NOT Your Target Audience

All right, so, number one, you can keyword researching. You can ask yourself what you?re really passionate about, and try to narrow it down to one specific thing. The more specific, the better. Then, the next question you can ask yourself, and this is a question that I ask myself. Who exactly is your target audience? Seriously, describe that person in as much detail as possible. Who is that person, that one person that you are trying to appeal to, you are trying to attract to your blog. Who is your target audience?

For me, it?s a person who someone who wants to invest their time, a significant amount of time building an authority blog. When I say authority blog, I?m talking about one that people will go to as a source of ongoing high-quality information. One that?s written by someone who is either an expert, or becoming an expert in their field. One that is written by someone who is willing to work their behinds off, work their behind off to get their blogs out there, and to dominate their sub-niche, to dominate that topic that they are so passionate about.

That is my target audience. That is the person, not the people, that is the individual that I am trying to reach. And, if you?re listening to this podcast, and you are that person, then, you know that you?re in the right place. Another thing that you can do, another question that you have to ask yourself, this is a very important question to ask yourself is, who should never be reading your blog? Who are you not targeting? That?s a very important question.

Almost, I?m almost tempted to say it?s more important than the previous question in terms of who is the target audience, but not quite. But, it is a pretty important question. And, for me, I know who that is. I?ve defined that. I went through this process, I told you who my target audience is.

Now, who my target audience is not are people that are looking for those ?get rich quick? schemes. People who are looking for some uick and dirty tactics that it can use to make a quick buck. Someone that just want to buy a bunch of products just to find some magic bullet that all of a sudden is going to put billions of dollars in their pockets.

If you?re listening to this right now, and you?re thinking to yourself, well man, I am that person, and you?re listening to the wrong podcast! You can press stop now, and you can find one of those other scammy podcast. You can find one of those that do focus on those kind of types of things. But, that is not my focus. My focus are people that want to build solid online businesses around having a blog.

So, the first question in terms of how to narrow down in your niche, doing the keyword research. Number two, ask yourself the question, what are you passionate about, and don?t just ask that question in general. Narrow it down to one specific thing. The next one was, ask yourself a question, who exactly is your target audience? Who is that person, that individual that you are trying to reach, that person that cannot live without your blog because the content is so awesome that they just want to keep coming back and keep coming back.

And then, the next question that you ask yourself is who should never ever read my blog. Who am I not catering to? Because by knowing who you?re not catering to, that tells you a lot about what you can eliminate, what you don?t have to focus on. I don?t have to talk about getting rich quick schemes. I don?t have to talk about ways for you to make $50M in 60 days just by doing this or one thing. I don?t have to talk about that. I know what I can talk about, and what I?m supposed to talk about because I know what my target is, what my niche is, what my single focus is.

Be Clear ?from the Layout to the Way Out?

Now, once you?ve decided on all of that, what you need to do is make that absolutely clear on your blog. Make it very, very clear on your blog. I?m talking about from the design of your blog to the content. I?m talking about from the layout to the way out. Yes, I came up with that all of myself, ?from the layout to the way out.?

What do I mean by that? I?m talking about how things are laid out in your blog, but also, all the things that you link to from your blog. So, if you are linking to another blog, that has to be relevant to your single focus. If you are linking to a podcast, that has to be relevant to your single focus. If you are promoting a product as an affiliate, that has to be relevant to your single focus. So, from the layout to the way out. I really like the sound of that.

I wonder if anyone has said that before. Maybe, that?s something that I just coined. That would be exciting. I?m sorry, I?m distracted right now, I?m searching in Google form the layout to the way out to see if? Yo! Nobody said that. Wow, I am corny.

Okay, I?m sorry. I got a little distracted there. Let?s get back to the content. But, really, you get the point right. Once you have that single focus, it is absolutely essential for you to make that focus known for you to live that out in a clear way on your blog. I am actually in the process of doing this right now, and I have been toying around with doing a bunch of designs on my own, and trying to come up with all kinds of creative ideas, and I came to the conclusion and the realization that I suck when it comes to designing. Yes, I can do a little bit here and there, but when it comes to that stuff when it comes to really putting together that vision in a design, I need to hire a professional. I?m doing just that right now. But, my ultimate goal is that when someone comes to my blog, they know exactly what it?s about. They know what my focus is. They know it?s not about trying to get rich quick. They know it?s not about this scheme or that scheme or anything of that sort. They know that it is about building an online business using an authority blog.

And, they can see that no matter where they go on my site. They know that I have the podcast, and they can see that. They know what they are opting in for, and they can see that clearly when they come to my site because that?s what it?s really about. When you know what it?s about, when you have that clear picture in your mind, that will free you up to just soar, to do amazing things. This is what I have been doing with my Biology blog, and let me tell you, there are so much happening there right now. I have so much to update you on that has been happening, that I am so excited to share with you. But, that?s going to be on a different episode because that?s not just the topic. Maybe, I should do that for the next one. I?m not going to make any promises because I have some interviews coming up also. But, I want to share some of these things with you, because, really, it?s all about authority blogging.

So, from now on, don?t call me the Internet marketing teacher. That is not who I am. I am the authority blogger. It took me a while to come up with that. And, you know what, the URL was available. I was very surprised to see that. I have the URL now. It?s no longer available. It redirects you to my blog.

But, that?s really all I want to talk about for today. This is a shorter episode. Wow, we?re at about 30 minutes. But, I hope you got a lot of value from it.

Hey, if you don?t have a single focus for your blog, go through this episode again, take some notes, and find that single focus. You?re going to get so much more out of it if you do it that way, so much more out of your blogging efforts, and bringing yourself on the way to becoming an authority blogger.

So, that?s it for this episode. I want to let you know that this program is brought to you by BecomeABlogger.com. Hey, you see how congruent that is. It makes a lot of sense for me to talk about Become a Blogger, doesn?t it? You can go over there, and learn how to set up a blog. Ten free videos that will show you from beginning to end, how to set up a blog, so that, you can have a blog up and running, and get that going so that you can build that authority blog.

Head on over there, BecomeaBlogger.com. It?s free to join for the ten free videos. Of course, there?s a premium program that you can also check out. but the ten free videos will get you on your way.

So, that?s really all I have to say for this episode. This is Leslie Samuel, the authority blogger from LearningwithLeslie.com. Head on over to iTunes, leave me a review, connect with me wherever you want to connect with me. Come back to the blog. Leave a comment.

That?s all for this episode, see you in the next one.

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