by Edie Melson

There are literally hundreds of thousands of blogs in cyber-space. That being the case, how do you help your blog stand out in the crowd? The foundational answer is at once simple and hard—you must define your blog’s audience.

I know I said simple…but simple isn’t easy. But it is worth it.

Here are some things you DON’T need to do:

• Don’t target other writers. Your audience is the people you write for, so unless you write about how to write, look elsewhere for your audience.
• If you write fiction, don’t go looking for a general profile of the people who read the genre you write. By that I mean you can’t profile the likes and dislikes of those who read…say science fiction. It’s too diverse an audience. (Don’t worry, I’ll address non-fiction down below.)

That being the case, how do you reach those readers?

• First, be yourself and highlight your own passion(s). Do you love to knit? Ride horses? Cook with only organic food? All of these are ways to find a core audience. More than that, blogging is enough like work without having to write about something you’re NOT passionate about!
• Second, look for ways to target readers. Book reviews are pretty overdone on the internet, but if you can find an original slant, it’s still a good way to connect. I don’t recommend you making it the basis for your site though. After all, you want to be a writer, not a book reviewer, right?
• Third, be prepared to tweak as you go. When you find a post that garners interest—meaning more comments than usual—look for ways to incorporate that subject or spin in your blog posts.
• Fourth, brainstorm with some friends. A good way to refine the focus/audience of your blog is to toss around ideas with other writers. No reason to reinvent the wheel.

Now for non-fiction writers.

It’s easier to build a blog around non-fiction because that type of writing is generally more topic driven. Most non-fiction writers also tend to write about things that line up with their passions.

If your non-fiction book is about marriage, then a blog about some aspect of marriage makes sense.

So here’s your chance to brainstorm with a whole lot of digitally savvy folks. What topics for blogging would you like to explore? Or, list one of two passions and we’ll chime in on ways to turn that into a blog topic.