Niche blogging (, /ˈniːʃ/ or /ˈnɪtʃ/) is the act of creating a blog with the intent of using it to market to a particular niche market. Niche blogs may appeal to "geographic areas, a specialty industry, ethnic or age groups, or any other particular group of people." While it could be argued that every blog is, in some form, a niche blog, the term as it applies to marketing refers to a particular kind of blog.
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Neither blogging nor niche marketing is a new concept. However, only in recent years has the concept of a niche blog come into being.
Usually, niche blogs will contain affiliate links or advertisements of some sort (pay-per-click or products or both). In some cases, the purpose of the niche blog is to incite the reader into visiting another website which may then attempt to sell the reader a product or service.
Niche blogging and splogging are often hard to distinguish. However, niche blogging's reliance on pay-per-click advertising and other revenue streams usually requires such blogs to have valuable content related to their chosen niche, unlike a splog.
Popularity
The popularity of niche blogging among new marketers can be attributed to several factors, including cost, adaptability and generating traffic.
Cost
Blogging can be a low-cost operation using free hosting platforms, including WordPress, Blogger and Tumblr. Bloggers who choose to invest can purchase domain names or self-host their blogs for a cost. Self-hosted blogs are popular, as Google also takes a website's speed as a ranking factor therefore SEOs recommend webmasters to host their blogs on high quality servers.
Effectiveness
As far as company-run websites go, niche blogs are an effective marketing tool due to their more organic, less sale-oriented nature. By providing useful content for users, like guides and user experiences, rather than just pitching sales, niche blogs encourage product and brand awareness, and are therefore popular in a range of industries as an addition to company websites.
Audience targeting
Niche bloggers generate revenue by targeting readers in their niche, whether that be a group of fellow professionals in a business, or potential clients. The choice of target audience influences which topics bloggers choose to cover, as well as how they present and promote their writings.