To start a successful blog, you don’t have to be an expert in your niche.
But the idea is that you need to become one as you go.
This is because Google doesn’t rank sites high that don’t show expertise and experience in the niche.
Their algorithm is becoming increasingly good at detecting if a piece of content “adds to the internet” or if it’s just based on what others have already said.
Example
Let’s say you want to write a blog post about pickleball. But the problem is that you’ve never played it before.
No worries, the internet is full of information that you can do research on, right?
Well, not so fast!
While this is true and many people still blog like this, it’s actually not going to help your blog posts rank high on search results in the long run.
The issue is that you cannot bring anything unique to the table this way. All you can do is basically repeat what’s already been told.
And Google doesn’t like this.
They’re becoming increasingly better at detecting if a post “adds to the internet”.
By just rephrasing text and re-using images, you won’t get far!
You need to show first-hand experience in your niche.
But don’t worry. You can become an expert in your niche while building your blog.
So the idea is not to spend years studying/doing something and then building a blog. That would be silly too!
But How and Why?
I know, it might be a bit shocking that you’d need to establish yourself as a credible expert in your niche.
That will take a long time, won’t it?
But this goes hand in hand with blogging because growing it also takes usually years of hard work.
So here’s what to do: Start immersing yourself in your niche today. And write your first post today!
Example
Let’s go back to the pickleball example.
If you want to start a pickleball blog, it’s hard to connect with your audience if you have no experience in pickleball.
But even if you went and played for 60 minutes, you’d already be more experienced than 99% of the people that have heard of the sport.
After your very first day, you could already write blog posts such as:
- Pickleball experiences: Is it worth the hype?
- Pickleball rules for beginners
- Pickleball gear: What do you need to have?
- Pickleball for the first time: Do’s and don’ts
And the best part is that you could use images that you’ve taken as a first-time player and show those in your post to help deliver your message.
Don’t Pretend to Be an Expert!
Just remember one thing.
Write your blog posts more like messages to a friend rather than a formal piece of documentation.
And also, if you’re not an expert, don’t pretend to be one.
For example, in the pickleball example, you could casually start your post with “I played pickleball for the first time today. Here are some things you should know before you try it!”
That gives a more authentic and relatable vibe and builds trust.
Why Become an Expert, Though?
Imagine a world with an infinite number of bloggers. Imagine that Google had judges that would assess every single blogger and blog post.
The blog posts that would rank #1 would only be written by authors who know exactly what they’re talking about and know how to write the best post about that topic.
Someone who’s not an expert in their space would never ever be able to make their posts rank high and get visitors.
While we’re not living in an ideal world, the direction is there.
Google’s AI understands blogs more and more like a qualified team of judges.
Entry to bogging is also becoming easier and easier. Thus, there’s an increasing number of experts in every niche.
So it’s definitely important to become an expert in the niche you write blog posts about. That’s the only long-term blogging strategy.
But it’s not all about algorithms and audience. Becoming an expert helps you tremendously too.
Instead of having to spend days doing research, double-checking facts, and acquiring relevant images for your posts, you can just write off the top of your head and use images you’ve taken along the journey.
This can easily be a 5-10X time-saver.
For example, the other day I wrote a 4,300-word post about keyword research—off the top of my head. It just took 5 hours or so.
That’s because I’ve been blogging for 3 years almost and I know every part of the process so I don’t need to do research of check facts.
And also, the content is actually unique and original, instead of just repeating what others have told.
So the content quality (and the chances for ranking high) increase too.
How to Become a Successful Blogger?
Live and breathe in your niche.
Check out news, watch tutorials, and research papers, join communities, and attend webinars. And last but not least, if possible, try hands-on activities in your niche!
This is why it’s important to choose a blogging niche you actually care about.
It’s not just about writing a handful of blog posts. That would never work!
Instead, you need to write hundreds of niche-specific, unique pieces of content. Each post should help make the internet a better place and offer something no one has offered before.
This is how blogging works and will work in the future.
Wrap Up
To start a successful blog, you don’t need to be an expert. But you need to become one as you write.
Thanks for reading. Happy writing!