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Despite the evidence that having a niche is the best way for a blogger to grow their audience and their revenue, there are many writers out there who want to cover multiple niches. So, what happens if you have a multi-niche blog?

That’s something we’ll look at today.

It’s something I’ve done in the past. Whether it’s through residual income sites that cover multiple niches or it’s on my own blog, I’ve tried jumping between different niches that I viewed as being profitable.

And you know what happened? I failed!

Well, I didn’t “fail” as a writer because I’m still here. I failed to build my income in the way I wanted. But I didn’t choose to break away from the multi-niche focus by choice. It was all an accident, which is why I realized that niche blogs are the way to go.

There are some multi-niche blogs that work

Of course, there are websites out there that have grown covering multiple niches. You just have to look at news websites that cover various topics.

However, these are very different to your own blog. The “news” is their niche, and they cover the news across a variety of topics that people are interested in. These topics are divided up into easy-to-find categories, but they all still remain newsworthy or buzzworthy.

Then there are the residual income sites. Some of them are relatively big in the writing world. They’re not that big in the reader world.

People don’t tend to keep the blog or website in mind when they find your content. They’re not likely to come back for the site. It’s only if they find your content in their Google search.

That’s simply how a multi-niche blog can work. It’s all about particular topics happening to come up in a search or because there is a niche within the multi-niche.

So, why doesn’t a multi-niche blog work the way people want it to? Why is it time to start narrowing down your options?

Let’s take a look.

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Readers get confused with your blog

The biggest issue is keeping readers coming back. You can’t build an audience if you’re not consistent, and not just in terms of getting content out there on a regular basis.

You need to be consistent on the topic of your content.

If you write about photography one day and then cover dog walking the next, it’s going to be difficult for your readers to keep track. Well, unless you’re talking about taking photos while dog walking, but is that really your plan?

How about you’re covering weight loss one day and then jumping into talking about a piece of computer software the next?

Your blog doesn’t know what it wants to be. And your readers don’t either.

Those who came for the photography post will look through your past content. What else have you covered? If it’s been about anything other than something that links to photography, your reader will start to get confused. If there’s absolutely nothing that connects to photography, you’ve lost that reader.

I know plenty of writers who say they love to read multi-niche blogs because they love a variety of content. This is often because they’re looking at sites as a writer more than as a general person. The general public tends to want the same topic across the blog.

There is a way to make the multi-niche blog work, though. Overall, all your content works for the same audience but covers a few different things.

So, you have a photography blog where you offer tips on taking a great landscape photo. The post after that is a review for a camera. The one after that is software review for editing your photos. After that, you show off the photos you’ve taken while walking your dog.

All those posts cover a few different niches: photography, product reviews, dog walking. At the same time, they are all geared toward the same audience.

MORE: Can you be too niche for your blog?

It’s hard to follow a multi-niche blog

Let’s be honest, though, unless you find a way to make the multiple niches roll into one, it’s going to be hard to create a following.

You want people to sign up to your email list. This is the best way to keep your audience. You’re not at the mercy of the ever-changing social media and search engine rules.

How are people going to sign up to your email newsletter if you don’t have one particular niche? How do they know that your next email is going to cover the topic they’ve come to your blog for? You send three emails that are all over the place, covering different topics, and the subscribers will unsubscribe.

The same happens on social media.

You set up accounts for your blog under the blog name. Great, now people can follow you when they find a post they love. But then your next 10 blog posts have nothing to do with the first one you wrote about.

Now what?

They’re going to stop following you. Your blog doesn’t offer them any value.

You’re not going to create the following of your dreams, which directly affects your revenue.

It’s harder to sell products

You may think that covering multiple niches will help you sell products. That’s certainly not the case.

In the end, you’ll find it harder to sell products.

So, there are plenty that you can offer, but it’s harder to encourage people to buy. People buy as they become loyal to you, as they come to trust you. If you’ve not created that following, you won’t create the loyalty and trust.

This leads to them not knowing if that review you’ve just published is an honest one. How do they know you really own that camera you’re promoting? You could have had a friend snap a few pictures or wrongly got them off Google.

You’ll also jump from product to product. The best way to make affiliate marketing work is to only promote specific products—the ones that you use regularly. You can’t do that if you’re always jumping between topics.

You don’t get the sales you want, so you don’t get the revenue you want.

Your multi-niche blog isn’t working.

MORE: 5 reasons revenue share sites are good for developing your blogging niche

What are you struggling with when it comes to blogging? How can you adapt your multi-niche blog to work for you? Share your thoughts in the comments below.