What’s Your Difference?
If you do the same things as everyone else, why would someone visit you?
How can someone remember you if you are just the same as all the rest?
What are you giving people to talk about?
- Lots of people write about productivity, life skills, etc, but none are as unique and memorable as Monk at Work
- Popcrunch could have been just another celebrity blog but instead they created a weekly video show
- David Hobby could have created a generic photography blog but instead he focused on a niche and dominated it. Now the word Strobist is synonymous with photographic lighting.
- Brian put his advice into practice and created Teaching Sells, an online course with the phrase “forget everything you know about making money online and start making some”
- Liz is memorable for calling people SOB’s as a compliment
Have you gone above and beyond the routine to provide something special?
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Posted on February 18th, 2008 by Chris Garrett in Marketing
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I find it hard to come out with new stuff for my viewers that hasn’t been talked about. I can see how this is important though because I will need to include something special about my blog in order for people to want to return. Maybe you could share some ways with us in which we could try and gain that authority status or just a way to stand out.
-Scott
I try to make friends with experts i.e. architects so that they email me when they have a new project - then I get something that no one else has yet to share with readers. But obviously I can’t do that all the time. I do post stuff that others do, but I have my personal outlook on it.
I also take a few risks; like contacting famous architects (scary because I’m so impressed with them) or HGTV which was such a money a thing to do and not a normal thing for me. But I did it and landed an interview with someone from a show there. I still get hits on that post. I also talk like me all the time. I don’t lie to butter up experts in the biz - if I like or hate something, I say so.
Oh, and I don’t withhold info. I see some architect bloggers who post a house and then don’t say where it’s from or who built it. That’s obnoxious, and not a cool thing to do to readers (what if they want to explore it more?).
Actually this is crucial to getting noticed, thus reaching readers you would never normally do.
In my case, my blog is about a very niche market, EVE Online players (and MMORPG enthusiasts also) - a limited audience.
As such, I teamed up with another EVE blogger and we will be launching our very own podcast show. This way, we can reach our audience through different means.
We should launch our show in the next few weeks!
cheers
Hey Scott,
You said,
Don’t forget, it’s not so much the news that people need and want from you, as much as it’s the news + your opinion on the news.
The ’specialness’ you’re looking for is you, bro - and that can never be duplicated. You just have to let your light shine, y’know?
Good luck.
Hi Chris, those are awesome examples of standing out from the crowd.
The web, the blogosphere and social networks in general are very crowded and growing exponentially. Getting attention and keeping someone’s attention really requires doing things from a fresh point of view.
As the examples you gave in this post show, it’s definitely possible with some out of the box thinking. Later…
With my niche, there may be people that write about some of the same type topics, but they don’t tell it like I tell it.
Sometimes I come across blog posts that aren’t even in my niche, and I can manage to put my own spin on the topic and do a post with my own viewpoint on the topic, and that often gets quite a bit of traffic.
Controversy, disagreeing with someone’s post, etc. I see this happen often with bloggers writing how they disagree in some way with “A Listers” like Darren Rowse. It works well most of the time.
Hi Chris,
I like Monk at Work. Maybe we will all be meditating soon and can shut out this crazy Internet thing. HA! But, as the Monk at Work (I’m sure) mentions, your mind never shuts up so I’m sure it doesn’t matter anyway.
Take Care.
My mom always said I was special just for being born.
Thanks for the vote, Ellen!
And true, the mind always likes to put in its two cents, but that doesn’t mean you have to listen.
One of the things I like about your blog is that you write interesting post AND encourage people to leave comments just by the nature of the posts, given a lot is about answering and raising questions - I don’t know how you define your blog, but it could be an interesting point.
I go above and beyond the usual routine as much as I can, “What goes around, comes around” is pretty much the motto I live by.