My question is pretty much what the title says... "Is it stupid to make your niche on something you hardly know anything about?" I just did some keyword research on wordtracker for my article directory and what I'm finding is that people were right when they said "if you do an article directory do it on one particular niche!" For myself, I'm not one to do what people say, but I'm finding truth to that statement. I'm really unsure how to market my article directory when the market is... so general. That's what it seems to me anyways. So I found some particular areas in which people are looking for specific content (good keywords). I thought about starting a side article directory that offers that content.. but I know not enough in that particular area to really offer quality content *myself*. I suppose since it is an article directory it might work? I'm just asking for thoughts regarding "niche" and anything else...
not stupid if you can be persistent in creating content for it. Otherwise you'll get bored and the site will be neglected.
I wouldnt say it would be stupid but it would be more difficult and challenging. If you write about something you know about then it sounds better than writing about something you have no clue about.
In many ways it doesn't matter. Doing something is better than doing nothing. The first one will be a pilot study and you will learn so much doing it the time will have been well spent in any case.
It really depends if it is something that interests you. If you are willing to learn more about it, then it's not a bad idea. As roadies said, you need to be able to add interesting and informative content on a regular basis. You really need to take time to think about whether people will actually be interested in your content. Too many people create sites centered around a boring topic, and only provide a few articles from Wikipedia, etc.
With an article directory, you need not know too much about the topic as you are not writing the content yourself. The review is basic know how where you check for adult content , sales pitch etc. And slowly you will learn... Although if you are not writing the content yourself, it will be difficult to get it off the ground and get some initial articles. Marketing will be tough in early stages. Be prepared to fight hard...
yes its stupid... you wont get too far and wont be able to take the site to the next level when that time comes make a site about something your interested in.. write all the content yourself everyone loves talking about and sharing their hobbies with people.. do it on your site
Yes. If you don't know anything about the subject, it's impossible for you to be truly passionate about it, and you'll hate your work as soon as you hit a rough spot. You could always find other people who are more involved with the topic area to run the site for you, or at least help out, but still... if you don't know anything about it, how would you know how well they're really doing for you anyway? No matter who you are, there's something that you know about, and something you enjoy. Focus on that, instead of making yet another useless site to toss on the Web. If you don't know what you're talking about, your readers will figure it out soon enough. Find something you have a passion for instead.
Taking no action is stupid. Even the word 'stupid' is a good niche as there are 213,000,000 times the word has been used.
You have nothing to lose dude, just make sure not to get bored so fast, because I did just like you want to do 5 or 6 times and the Idea is useless .....
not stupid at all ... the problem is ... how are you gonna build the content if you do not know anything about it ? answer: read ... read ... read ...
I dont think its stupid, difficuly maybe, but not stupid. If you are motivated enough to research and learn the area and can get it off the ground then its an opportunity to learn, the learning can be put to good use if you have another idea for a project that interests you. If you do a good job initially and get it up and running, get good articles, good traffic etc you can sell it on if it becomes boring. (found some particular areas in which people are looking for specific content (good keywords). )
Maybe it's just me, but don't you find it frustrating when you go to a website and it's obvious the owner doesn't know what they're talking about? If you don't know the niche well, you can't possibly write high quality content. I don't care how much research and "learning" you do. You'd still just be recycling the same information you looked up on your own. Either that, or you'd likely buy a bunch of cheap, sub-par articles from someone else with no experience in the niche, and you'd have the same problem. Personally, I think the Web is already filled with enough garbage, and you're better off creating a site on a topic where you can actually teach your readers something, rather than just essentially repeating what other sites are saying. If you're still "learning" a topic, you're in no place to be teaching people anything about it. That's just how I feel, and obviously some people disagree. But let's face it. The biggest sites, that tend to stick around, experience phenominal growth, and become a reader's choice destination are the ones where the admins know what they're doing.There may be some success stories from people who didn't, but chances are you're not likely to be an exception to the rule. So decide what you want. If you just want to make a little bit of money and then sell a garbage site off to someone else when you get bored, go for it. It's annoying, but you'll serve your own purpose. If you really care about providing information people want (and not just because you think the keywords are going to bring you a few bucks), then keep the reader's best interest in mind, and choose a topic where you know what you're talking about. Just my $.02 on this kind of issue. Jenn
I agree with Jen The only time it would be worthwhile to start a site on a niche that you're not knowledgable about is if you are planning on learning a lot about the subject, and you want to share the knowledge with your readers as you learn Other than that, please spare us from having to stumble onto another crappy MFA web site or blog
Despite the fact that I'm so against people making sites when they're clueless on the topic, there are a few exceptions I can think of that might make sense: 1. If you've created a completely new product or technology, and there's nothing like it yet ... obviously you wouldn't know terribly much starting out. 2. Keeping a log, diary, or blog related to some kind of "experiment". Dieters do this kind of thing a lot, and some of the sites get popular, and they're probably good for content ads. If there's a topic you want to write about and don't know much about, why not try an experiment in the area (depending on the topic obviously) and chronicle your results as you go? 3. If you're simply making a directory (whether links, articles, or whatever) you really don't need to know a huge amount - especially if it's general and not niche-specific. I'd be careful about something like a niche article directory though. If you don't know the topic well you won't know if the articles are completely inaccurate, and you could end up in a legal bind for providing content that's false, misleading, or infringing on someone's rights. I'm sure a few other ideas exist that would make sense. That's just what popped into my mind. Jenn