As we know, the travel blogging sector is both a ‘community’ and a rapidly evolving ‘industry’ so even in the crowded centre-ground, subject areas like budget, solo travel or trekking bloggers tend to be collaborative rather than competitive. However, as the need for monetization (at least for some bloggers) develops, pro bloggers might want to consider either moving to niche subjects, or, much more likely, setting up additional niche blogs, in order to ‘stand out’.
Why? Well, at most travel blogging seminars, conferences and panel discussions these days, ‘niche’ blogging gets mentioned as one way forward for bloggers who want to blog professionally. The reason is that a niche bog exploits the ‘long tail’ by closely targeting a small but receptive, engaged and enthusiastic audience. For example, Darren Cronian’s My Life in Leeds blog may have only a fraction of the visitor numbers for his Travel Rants blog, but almost every one of them is interested in visiting or doing things in Leeds, where the thousands of visitors who come to Travel Rants are not by and large in a ‘buying’ frame of mind!
Like Darren, there’s no reason why you should need to switch from a mainstream topic blog to a niche blog. If you are a pro blogger, then dedicating the necessary time to running multiple blogs should be viewed as a necessary investment. Just ask mommy bloggers about time management! In the video I posted recently some mommy bloggers talk about running as many as 30 different blogs. And don’t forget, you can use guest bloggers to help build your blog content.
So what might be a good niche for you?
Well, you probably already know. The best kind of niche subject is something or somewhere you are really interested in and passionate about. So the chances are, you are already writing about it – maybe you already have a tab for it on your main blog – but you haven’t separated it out as a stand-alone blog.
Is it a big enough subject for you?
Well, on the TBU Innsbruck Niche Blogging Panel in the summer Jools Stone (@jools_octavius) mentioned the ’100 headlines’ yardstick – if you can think up 100 headlines/ideas for posts, then you’ll be able to find enough material to make it work. My feeling is, that’s a little high. I reckon if you can come up with 50+, then it’s a runner.
Any other criteria for judging a good niche blog subject?
Destinations are endlessly scalable. Many ex-pat bloggers will blog about a destination at national level but it might be that, like Darren, you can build a more focussed audience around just one city or region. In Europe for example, as every Online Travel Agent (OTA) selling ‘city pair’ fares + hotels will tell you, there is huge traffic and revenue in classic short break cities like Barcelona, New York, Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, Istanbul. Maybe your ‘My Life in Minsk’ blog isn’t going to be the great money-spinner you hoped for, but that’s the great thing about the long tail, it could be that every one of your 250 subscribed readers hangs on your every word and travels to Minsk regularly.
Of course, it doesn’t have to be a destination niche blog, it can be a subject niche, or a combination of both as Janice Waugh’s (@solotraveler) oft-quoted example, ‘Alaska Fly-fishing’, illustrates.
There are loads of ‘subject’ niches but here are a few off the top of my head. Some of them may have a blog presence from ‘interested parties’, eg ‘commercial blogs’ run by agents, tour operators and other travel providers who work in that niche (eg Safari), but few independent voices.
15 niche subjects ripe for blogger exploitation
Adventure Parks
There is one longstanding and dominant adventure and theme park news site, Theme Park Insider, but that doesn’t mean you can’t carve out your own little niche. Before blogging was invented Simon Veness did just that on Disneyworld Orlando alone. A blog about unknown theme parks, theme parks for toddlers, or the world’s best water rides, might hit the spot.
Battlefield
A bit geeky. This would suit a history enthusiast. There are battleground sites all over the world, from all over the centuries. I’m not aware of any independent travel bloggers in this space at the moment (fatal words!) and that might be because it doesn’t have an obviously large pool of directly interested marketers, but you could build a large audience with this niche, and one that other lifestyle marketers might want to reach. Think of the advertising budgets driving all those geek channels on cable/sat TV.
Arts & Culture
This is another attractive audience if you can build it. Museums & art galleries get covered in lots of travel blogs, but not so much performance arts. There aren’t that many travel bloggers writing up performances in Verona’s Arena and the Gewandhaus in Leipzig one week, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer programme in Tanglewood the next.
Which brings us on to…
Festivals
I once met a photographer on a one-year assignment for National Geographic just photographing festivals around the world. Many of these – Burning Man, Nevada; La Tomatina, Bunol; Ocktoberfest, Munich – are covered by travel bloggers. It wouldn’t take much to create a busy blog with your own copy and extra material from guests.
For another cultural niche, how about…
Literary Locations
…around the world. Advertisers would love it. Build a sizeable audience of book fans (middle class, educated, etc) “and they will come!”
Speaking of which…
Film Locations
Another rich seam. Movie talk is good SEO fodder
Golf
I’m amazed by this one. Given just how popular the sport is, you’d think there would be dozens of golfing travel bloggers roaming the world posting beautiful photos of misty morning golf courses in Mississippi, Munich & Macau, writing about the characters they play with, and the experiences they have, but no. There are a small number of golf blogs supplementing the large number of golf publications and talking about the latest PGA Open, Tiger Woods’ new swing, and whether the latest carbon fibre clubs give more control or less, but no travelling golfers that I can find. So, I think this one is ripe for exploitation by a golfing enthusiast. The audience – affluent professional – is an attractive one for advertisers, the subject is aspirational for readers and the world is stuffed full of resorts with courses who would love to host you.
Horse Riding
Perfect for a horse lover. There are really exciting and glamorous horse riding experiences all over the world from the Mongolian steppes to the Argentinian pampas and the Okavango delta. Maybe horsey folk are more centered in the real world than online, but there don’t seem to be that many blogging about rodeos & dude ranches, Lippizaners in Vienna or Dartmoor ponies in Devon.
Cycle Touring
There are plenty of serious cyclists blogging about serious cycling (like my friend @carltonreid), but I don’t see that many people blogging about casual cycling, tourist city-bike schemes and lazy bike tours around the world. It’s a growing market.
Pet Travel
There are already a number of ‘travelling with pets’ blogs out there, and they are growing. In the last three years I’ve noticed a distinct increase of press releases I get from transport companies, and in particular hotels and other accommodation providers, about their pet-friendly products/services. In the USA the Barkworld Social Media conference is in its third year and proving there is a whole pet product industry out there keen to work with bloggers, but I think Europe is under-represented. Time to take your pet with you on your travels, and blog about it?
This is an interesting niche…
Sailing
There are plenty of sailing blogs by nomadic boat owners crisscrossing the oceans. Some of them are excellent with great narrative. There are even bloggers (@saltyseadog) who cover the secretive & stellar world of superyachts, but I’ve not seen any by ordinary folk renting bareboat or flotilla yachts around the world, as opposed to owning them.
Safari
Loads of non-independent blogs here, from safari camps, safari operators and guidebooks. Few independent travel bloggers in what is very much the luxury end of the market.
Shopping
When I talk about the potential of some niches, this is the one I most often refer to. I’m not aware of any dedicated blogs in this niche and yet it straddles two of the most popular blog sectors: fashion and travel. Shopping breaks to NYC, Dubai or any major capitals for that matter. Factory outlet tours, shopping mall visits, Christmas markets. It is a small and tightly defined niche subject area with tons of potential for sponsorship and advertising.
Swimming Pools
You could focus, as @nikibayley did in the feature she recently wrote for me, on municipal pools, but I was thinking of a ‘photo porn’ blog featuring some of the world’s most glamorous pools, like this. Resorts and hotel chains would pay big bucks to advertise.
Spa
I suspect this niche is under-represented. Ok the fabulous Spa Gals are here, but no matter how hard they go at it, they can’t cover the global spa industry just by themselves! You could claim a few crumbs from the sponsorship, ads & fams table.
Now it follows that by merely suggesting that some of these areas are under-represented, you are even now thinking (in your own words!) “Oh dearie me. What a silly duffer! He’s failed to mention all these splendid blogs, including mine!”
So please, if you know of any obvious independent bloggers in these niches, or you can think of other obvious niches I’ve missed… you know what to do! Let me know!
Image: Isawnyu
You left out gay & lesbian travel as a travel niche, which coincidentally I just started blogging about: http://mygaytravelguide.com
Sorry Adam, for the delay. (You got parked in the spam folder)
Absolutely right! (Smacks forehead) Another strong niche with a big audience and revenue potential.
Cheers for the plug Al. As I think I said at the conf, I nicked that 100 posts thing from problogger, copyblogger or some similar blogging advice site, so it’s ‘received wisdom’ best left open to interpretation. ;)
The real challenge comes with sustaining your niche focus over time, something I struggle with myself If I’m honest. I’m sure I would post more often if I had a broader, personality-centred blog. I’m sure there are tonnes of travel niches to be plundered, but I wonder if they will be tackled as ‘blogs’ or more static, information sites? Be int to see how it pans out and see if more bloggers gradually shift towards niche areas.
Great post and useful information. It has inspired me and I am thinking about creating a few additional websites! Thanks,
Sherry Jackson
Thanks for the mention Alastair.
To add: I think there’s too much talk on ‘my blog is getting x thousands of visitors’ from within the blogging community. Sure, it is great to see 100,000 visitors, but, what percentage those visitors are going to buy a product or service depends on the type of content you write. I remember on Travel Rants wishing that StumbleUpon would bring my blog down (it did once) but realistically, how many of these people are going to subscribe to your newsletter (an opportunity to sell) or buy a product or service from your blog – probably 0.00001%.
I think the same goes with the amount of content you publish. If you have ads per impression then you might want to be publishing as much content as TechCrunch does, but if it is affiliate or per click advertising then it is important that your ads match your content, and you work at who your targeted readers are. So, the type of content you publish is more important than the amount of content you are publishing each day.
Hope that helps.
Yep, that’s true. Thanks Darren.
What about the multiple blog thing. Is that running ok for you? Or is it overwhelming?
Because you now have ‘My Life in York’ too. Will there be more cities? If there were, you’d have to make more use of guest posts, or franchise the brand, or something to keep up with it all.
Hi Alastair,
My Life in York project never really got off the ground. I have learnt so much in the last 18 months about publishing and monetising content. I want to challenge myself so in 2012 you’ll see the launch of My Life in Yorkshire. This (+Leeds) will be my main focus for the foreseeable future. There are various reasons why I opted for Yorkshire over keeping to specific cities in the county, but this feels much more manageable.
The franchise model is an interesting one.
While down in London for World Travel Market I had a chat with a few travel writers about this model and it is something I intend to explore more next year and into 2013. When you look at what Google, Tripbod, and others are doing in the local space, it is going to get very interesting over the next year.
Sorry, I forgot to reply to your initial question. I’m enjoying working on My Life in Leeds, it has been an interesting learning experience. Like I mention to a lot of people, making money from publishing content is not easy, there’s a lot of long hours, but it is rewarding. Yes, I’d be lying if I said that i haven’t been overwhelmed, but thankfully, I have found a small team of good local writers, who have made my job much easier. Finding the right people to collaborate and work with is very difficult.
The “niche site” model has worked well for us over the years. Putting our blogs aside for the moment, our main travel site has an overarching topic of “Europe,” but the bulk of our traffic comes from major subtopics such as Venice, Paris, Germany, and European cruising. (And the most popular of our three associated travel blogs is our Venice Travel Blog, which focuses entirely on that city.)
Of course, if you’re going to focus on a niche, it has to be a niche that fascinates you and that you can keep writing about for years on end. To put it another way:
Ideally, you don’t pick the niche; the niche picks you.
Yeah, nice one Durant. I think you put slightly better than I did! (only ‘slighty’ :P) .
The niche picks you. You probably already know what your niche might be – you just hadn’t thought of developing it separately as a niche blog
From what I can tell, I’ve accidentally started my own niche! Travel Bloggers who work on cruise ships and draw their adventures (poorly) rather than take photos. Now, if I can just find a way to monetize :)
Some great suggestions for niche blogs, Alastair. I also love the idea that the niche picks you. But I was wondering- are there any niche subjects which you feel have been done to death or are there too many blogs dealing with a particular subject/aspect of travel? I’d be interested to hear what you think.
Great breakdown of the niches. I think adventure travel is the one to watch which thePlanetD have nailed pretty well. We are trying our hand at it and hopefully it works out. It is by far one of the fastest growing tourism opportunities so definitely is scope there (shhh don’t tell anyone)!
Let’s not forget niches within niches. For example, “Walking Vacations” could have:
- Destination sub-niches like “Walking in France,” “Walking in Switzerland,” or “Walking in the British Isles.”
- Activity sub-niches like “Escorted Walking Tours” or “Walking for Seniors” or “Walking & Wheelchair Itineraries.”
Hi Alastair, Great article!
QGuide is a growing community of people discovering travel destinations, activities and people based on interests they love.
We are focused on the gay travel market, we offer the wider tourism experience beyond the bars and clubs or city gay scene and events. For example, we currently have over 800 members who have told us they are interested in “wine” related travel experiences http://qguide.com/xfem5 or 194 members who are interested in salsa. http://qguide.com/x2x3s
Visiting a winery is more so than just to buy wine, it’s about what can I do when I get there? Who can I meet? Which restaurants, who else is interested in hot air balloon? Horse-riding?
Providing value to both members and business interested in addressing traveller needs.
Best
Jack Gonzalez
Founder – QGuide.com
You might also want to consider the search traffic in comparison to the number of websites on that topic. You want to hit the sweet spot with high traffic and low competition.
Funny that this topic should come up! I’m actually working on developing a niche blog of my own right now! (Though it’s not ready to launch yet.) I’ll be interested to see how difficult it is to get off the ground, though…
I think I’ve niched myself into a corner! With “Go BIG or Go Home,” I’ve filtered family travel down to just our visits to quirky roadside attractions and any attraction or event claiming a “world’s largest” title.
It’s challenging to find a large audience, but I have a found a small, dedicated following, and even a couple of advertisers! What I’m really waiting for is when the producers from the TLC Network here in the U.S. knock on my door. They’ve created entire television programs on far more obscure themes!
Nice post! My travel blog falls into the Arts & Culture niche and you’re totally right – I definitely don’t touch on performance art as much as I should…really, I barely write about it at all. Sooo you’ve definitely given me some new post ideas ;-)
Our site, Green Global Travel, is pretty narrowly focused on the burgeoning travel sector of Ecotourism (a.k.a. sustainable travel). We’ll cover everything from outdoor adventure and wildlife preservation to cultural events and cuisine, but all of those topics ultimately feed into the notion of conserving the nature and indigenous culture of a place. As far as we know, we’re one of the few sites doing it.
I am currently working on a niche blog aimed at combining education and travel. In particular, I’ve been building teacher training relationships in two (and possibly more) communities in Indonesia. One of those two communities is hungry for volunteers and will host them like kings and queens. I think this is a great way to bring publicity to the region while also serving a community need; volunteers will also have a mind-blowing cultural experience. Win-win!
Thanks for giving me the courage to continue to develop this niche. While I once thought it might be too small, now I’m thinking it might be just right!
I think you’re right. There was something that really struck a chord with me at TBU. I’ve always been a fashion blogger, but was feeling a little disillusioned with only writing about the fashion industry. Falling in love with travel now means I am starting a multi-authored stylish travel website, which will cover international shopping, spas and designers. Hopefully this will fall into several niches!
Sarah
So, I actually write about traveling with pets in Europe: http://theroadunleashed.com
I will say that the pet travel niche is very small — there are a few people already in it but not very many. There aren’t a whole lot of people interested in this topic but the people who come to my site are WAY more into it than on our more general travel/food blog. They want to know all the details about traveling with pets and how we’re doing it because there aren’t a lot of folks out there doing what we’re doing.
Thanks Alastair for this post. Niche travel focus is certainly a good way forward. As mentioned when we met at the World Travel Market – my blog focus is Wildlife Travel and focuses on Conservation | Communities | Species and using Travel to be a good tool for wildlife conservation.
Good to read your updates regularly and carry on with the good work.